The reason how and why we were to do these pics was combining it with a fashion shoot I had for a mag. The subject was photographing faires and it meant we had a stylist getting us some bits, a makeup artist, a great location and a smoke source to create the look of the shoot but as well it was great to shoot some pics of the kids as well.

These pics were shot a couple of years ago now but remind me with the right oppurtunites and a bit of thought it is so possible to get something a bit different to most peoples portrait work , if any photographers are interested in seeing some really good portrait work, in my opinion someone at the forefront of creating really different portrait work is alex at http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com/ – here is her work, attitude and quality are great.

Anyway hope you like this post

Normally my photography work takes me around the South West including, Devon , Cornwall and Somerset. When leaving the country there is a few things to take into consideration.

1) Security of pictures. There will be a greater time to keep the pictures safe including a couple of airports, lots more travel and often in tourist environments where in my mind normally comes with a greater threat of robbery. I always back up the cards on a harddrive, laptop, and mobile hardrive and keep the disks on my body as I travel. Normally external hardrive will travel in my case and laptop in hand luggage with portable hardrive. If using film remember film backs to stop xray machines burning exposed films- this has happened to me (actually turned out quite nice but not recommended)

2) Travel is hard and will take a toll, be prepared or used to working what will seem 24 hours or 36 including jet lag etc.

3) Be self sufficent- plan with the couple how the best way for staying self sufficient is. Ie hire your own car, dont rely on guests giving you lifts to get flights home – guests are sketchy and missing flights is normally a world of inconvenience potentially letting down other clients.

4) Don’t eat ” local food ” evening before the wedding. Stay safe, local caught snapper fish is great but pasta is probably a safer option before the big day.

Anyway, I may write a bigger blog on this at a later date…….

Pictures below are from an early wedding I did in Geneva. It was a Russian Orthodox Ceremony and a great party, hope you like the pics, I have just included a few of my favs.

Hope you like- AG

For one Adiele the bride is perfect for me. She has such an un posed beautiful look at the camera. I try to instill the confidence in the brides in the morning “just to be” I think that is so important. To really engage in whats going to be happening for the rest of the day. To have a genuine reflection in the pictures of feelings of the subject I think is really important. I shoot a load of fashion and its a very different pose and sometimes looking through wedding collections I think there should be an honesty to some portraits in the morning of the bride and Adiele has it perfectly here. She is actually touching her engagment ring in the picture which afterwards having mentioned to her she didnt notice. My job in all of this is to in the relatively short amount of time I ever spend with brides and grooms is to instill this confidence and mind set which lets the couples make their own pictures as opposed to having me pose them up.

The other aspect of this is the post production. I have really enjoyed working with more colour recently and adding grain so as to produce a product that looks like film. So may people shoot weddings in digital (especially the guests at the wedding) my job has always been to shoot a collection of pics that no one else is going to do and I really hope these changes add the subtle improvements we are going for

-AG

I had been looking forward to doing their wedding at Botleys Mansion for one because they were so nice and secondly it would be my first Jewish wedding. I have photographed plenty of christian ceremony’s but never a Jewish one. I have seen plenty on other photographers blogs and had been looking forward to all the extra bits of the wedding that I had never seen before. It certainly didn’t disappoint. I love the amount of extra dancing and music that there was as part of the day. When the couple went up on the chairs we had a wide lens set up (20mm 2.8) and a flash on a pocket wizard. As normal my second photographer Barney was on the speedlite and monopod and we normaly work together with Barney looking where I am working and lighting it from the off camera light source.

Well is was a great day and I loved being a part of Adiele and Jeremys day. They had a great honeymoon and I wish them all the luck in the world together in the future and I hope we stay friends. They actually recieved over 1000+ pictures from us, below I have picked a few of my favorites. Its probably a bit over run with black and white but I love the look and feel like the images are better if the colour is not adding to the pic then black and white it is, hope you like

-AG

The hotel says:

“On the most important day of your life, you can be sure that your wedding day will be tailor-made to suit all your needs at The Carlyon Bay Hotel in Cornwall. As part of our complete function package our experienced staff are available for menu suggestions, seating arrangements, hiring costs for special requirements, themes and drink selections to suit your individual Cornish wedding requirements.”

You can view some wedding pictures at the Carlyon Bay Hotel here.

For More info visit their website.

As far as the pictures go I always feel a bit more pressure when photographing people I know. Normally at a wedding with “clients” I am much more confident. I dont think its a worry of messing it up, it just feels a bit more weird I suppose. The morning was good fun, I was with Helen and Barney as normal was with Nathan. Everything happened at the hotel and we had plenty of time which was great. As far as the post production goes. This has been one of the first weddings we have implemented the slight twang ( for the better I hope ) for improving post production. I have always swayed to the low lit black and white if I had a choice but this year we are looking at ways to improve our colour look. As well as shooting more film at weddings we are changing the look to peppering parts with a film aesthetic which I love. At a wedding I always believe that my job is to get a set of pics that no one else is going to get, everyone at a wedding has a camera so basically its fair game. Hours after the wedding facebook is flooded with a load of jpegs shot on canon rebels and suchlike and to be fair the quality is superb, mainly sharp and well lit. My job is to create a set which is totally different with my mark. I like now almost detracting from the quality mainly by adding grain and dodging and burning.

Its certainly a step in the right direction and I love this new way of doing things. I think I need to make a few changes in part of my shooting style now that I have a slightly different outlook on potential for the post production. Looking forward to it though

hope you like these pics and lots of love to Nathan and Helen and to their new addition that we are looking forward to meeting XX

Shooting anything with people in is a challenge to find those slight moments of genuineness, combined with the right light at the right time and deciding on elements like space, composition and correct angles taking advantage of the above. Consequently it is great opportunity to do something different that I know the clients will love and importantly me not just entertaining myself with vague weird ideas. Getting the balance is the challenge something different that is still something my clients like.

I really enjoyed the couple of hours spent with Sophie, Brad and little Rafferty. He was tiny. a few weeks old Sophie and Brad were a couple whose wedding i photographed and it was lovely to see them again and meet Rafferty, really glad they asked me. I hope you like the pics below, I produced well over 100+ for them but have included 20 ish of my favs. I hope you like, as normal with babies I love to include elements of the home they were born into as i think the value of this will be amazing for their family to have in say 20 years when they can look back and see the house they first arrived at. Hope you all like, as always comments really appreciated

-AG

Haldon Belvedere, also known as Lawrence Castle, is a Grade II* listed triangular tower, originally built in 1788 by Sir Robert Palk as the centre piece to his vast estates and dedicated to the memory of Major-General Stringer Lawrence the founder of the Indian army.

Haldon Belvedere (Lawrence Castle) is an approved premises for Civil Wedding/Partnership Ceremonies and is probably the most popular venue for a civil ceremony in Devon and maybe even in the South West of England. Its uniqueness has made the building a regular feature on TV and in national wedding magazines having hosted a civil ceremony for the popular television programme Celebrity Four Weddings and the TV show Don’t Tell The Bride! Its magical, fairy-tale presence makes it the number one choice for the smaller, more intimate ceremony and the location gives you that exclusivity that few other outside venues can match. Baby naming ceremonies, Silver and Golden Wedding celebrations and renewal of Vow ceremonies can also be hosted at the Haldon Belvedere. The rural setting offers stunning views across the lovely Devonshire countryside and beyond.

To see a wedding shot at Haldon Belvedre please click here. 

For more info visit http://www.haldonbelvedere.co.uk/

Starting this year there has been a concerted effort to improve the color photography we produce. Generally in the UK a lot of the work I do lends itself towards the low lit and a majority of my work will be of this sway but it has been nice to work a little bit more with specific areas of the wedding which look better in colour. I still as a whole think color is distracting when looking at whats happening in an image but to have a burst of color punctuating the wedding makes for a really nice added bit of excitement I think, so have been trying to work a bit more with this, running these pics along side our normal gritty black and white pics.

Anyway back to Haldon Belvedre, they had a great day with the ceremony at the tower and the reception at Dainton Golf Club. An added surprise was a helicopter ride as a surprise for them which whisked them away from the venue in style. Eleanor and Angel are a great couple and they had a fab day, Angel is the captain on a cruise liner so no doubt they will be away on the ship to some far flung, exciting destination very soon, wish them the best of luck, they are great and was lovely spending the day with them and their families

Hope you like the pics, I have tried to include some of the color pics that I was talking about, there is about 30 here. The couple received about 700 post produced pictures here are a few of my favs and examples of some colour.

-AG

Putting perfume on is great example of this. It is one of the little stages of things that happen on the day, I am sure a lot of photographers would over look this as an opportunity to get a great pic. Or if not a great pic at least a pic of something a bit ambitious. I think that was is needed, especially in the UK wedding industry of photography is for more photographers to be ambitious with their pics and not seeing the day  job as a mere recording of the events happening but to strive to create strong, exciting and dynamic stylised pics.

A wedding is great to have these type of dynamic pictures in mind. As well as documenting the defining moments of the day, changing the reality into moments of artistic imagery for the couple to remember. A job of a wedding photographer in my mind has the job of shooting pictures that make it look more visually beautiful on the day than is remembered and leaving (or competing with) the guests and the amateurs to recording the events in there way.

Hope you like this pic -AG