The Olde Bell wedding photography – Garry and Natalie
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Ah, a new venue. For me. The Olde Bell in Hurley has been actually around a fair while in all it’s various guises. When an inn takes roots from foundations first laid in the 1100s, you’d expect there to be a colourful past. Benedictine monks provided room service which comprised of song, food and a personal wench. It was the drinking hole from which a plot to overthrow the monarchy was hatched, Churchill and Eisenhower met to discuss war tactics, Elizabeth Taylor escaped the press here. Oh, and Garry and Natalie, celebrated their wedding here.
Wasing Park wedding photography
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010Forgive the indulgence of a monochrome set bar a couple. A handful of images from one of my more recent Wasing Park weddings from Catherine and Liam’s fabulous big day. I’m a huge fan of black and whites and ‘large’ real moments, as is reasonably transparent from many of my blog entries. Filling the frame with emotion is an important facet of my work. So whilst uploading these images, I am reminded of a client meeting I had tail end of last week, where discovering I was in the ‘pitching pot’ against a number of photographers, I was asked if I did ‘enhancements?’ I assumed at first this to be blemish removal, but no. Ostensibly the meaning proffered by my oppo was somewhat different. “The other company can make an overcast rainy day, bright and sunny,” it was proudly exclaimed. I appreciated what they were trying to achieve, but for me, I declined the opportunity. Yes I tint pictures, and I’m appreciative of other photographers’ highly stylised imagery, but to a point. It’s subjective, of course it is, and for me, the day is as the day is. Embrace the weather. Embrace the emotions. Embrace reality. We work in a digital age and I think it’s true that the romance of pulling a print from the fix under a red light will never be replaced by slotting a card into a downloader, but by-the-by, I still receive a thrill when a larger LCD reveals the emotion I believed I captured at the time of depressing the shutter on the day, minus requirement for an Arora Borealis.
The prewed shoot
Friday, January 29th, 2010
I’ve never been keen on the term, wedding package. It makes me feel like I’m flogging a cheap holiday. It may be pure and simple semantics, but I prefer to use the word, service. Quite a few ingredients make up this service. The initial meeting, the wedding day itself with it’s mixture of documentary, food, landscape and portrait photography, the post wedding retouch and client consultation during album construct. There is one other constituent worth more than a fleeting mention; the prewedding shoot. For many adults of good hearty Brit descent, the idea of having a portrait taken is, well, uncomfortable. Yet superb wedding imagery is placed near the top of the ‘must have’ list for the very same people. For me, the opportunity to meet one final time before the big day itself is paramount. It accomplishes a myriad of organisational and creative facets. We get to know each other a little more. For sure maybe not to the ‘it’s your round next’ level, but well enough that on the day the reaction to me as I fulfill my professional task is more a case of; “Oh, it’s just Neale,” than a horrified; “Here comes the photographer.” We get to discuss the day in a lot more detail, timings, names of important wedding party members, group portrait planning, maybe even some politics to be aware of. Oh yes, and we actually take some pictures.
Portrait trends come and go. Our clients are content to forgo the spartan white background studio shoot. I do use the white backdrop very occasionally at weddings for the evening studio and as that kind of installation it works well. But to relax a couple into the concept that a portrait shoot will not make them feel like they’re floundering in a pool of maple syrup, a simple walk in the park is far more comfortable.
Wasing Park wedding photography
Monday, January 18th, 2010Jamie, Beth, inspired idea to feature your late Grandparents within photo frames as the table names and decorations for your Wasing Park wedding.
Photographically, there is a documentary moment at most weddings when a father’s eyes will meet those of his daughter’s for the first time as she stands before him in her wedding gown. The intensity differs from father to father of course and even those dads with the most obdurate courage find this to be one moment more than any other during the day, where a myriad of emotions flatten any wall of masculine parental steely resolve they thought they possessed. It’s fabulous. Professional platitudes abound on the web, so I’ll cautiously express a somewhat overused term; privilege. As a documentary maker, albeit in stills, that’s what makes this job so important, he says, hearing the opening bars of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ fading up behind this blog entry. Listen, I can swill beer, crack beer nuts and talk sport with the best of ‘em at any bar in this land where spit and sawdust define the landlord’s choice of decor. But I’ll also experience and hopefully always will, a lump in the throat when I witness the sincere pride liberated by a father with momentary tunnel vision, who can see no further than his ‘little girl’ on the morning of her wedding. Phew, that’s said. Okay, big hearty Haka lads and let’s get back to talking rugby.
Lillibrooke Manor wedding photography
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009New venue, new challenges. Historically not so new (it’s been a fixture of Cox Green for many centuries) the manor boasts a barn with seating for up to 170 champers fuelled nuptials guests. As we release the wedding to our client area, a few of my favourites from the day.
Why I shoot weddings…
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
This one’s for the photographers; those thinking of lifting a lens towards a bride and groom! When I started shooting weddings, like most ‘togs’ who shoot them, my reasoning was part challenge (a close friend had insisted I shoot his brother’s nuptials) and part financial; there are wolves to keep from one’s doors. Actually, those elements stay true to this day, but a third ingredient has become the ultimate reason; professional, even emotional purpose – knowledge that I’m doing something important in the World, that I make a difference for the split second my finger hovers over that shutter button. The most important side of my photographic work in wedding terms is to document moments. It’s easy to romance and wax lyrical about forms of capture like photojournalism and so on, but for me it’s really very simple. Wedding photography offers an opportunity to make a difference to someone’s life. I whole-heartedly believe that. But in case I stand accused of presuming that I’m solving World issues through a lens, as a colleague from my previous existence in the heady world of broadcasting said; “It’s only radio love, not brain surgery.” Ultimately I still subscribe to that philosophy. I’m not saving lives – I’m only taking pictures, hopefully very important pictures none the less. As a stranger, you’ll rarely if ever get invited to be a part of someone’s most hallowed private moments. When I shoot a wedding, I am witnessing the very essence of a couple’s intimacy. I’m sharing instants that are unfeigned once only, catch it now, you’ll not see this again moments. Pity the hardened heart belonging to a snapper that only sees pound notes and awkward relations to deal with. When I call for the witnesses during a register set up, I sometimes wonder whether it would be deemed a little comedically insensitive and over enthusiastic to pop the camera on a tripod, set the timer and run round to spread eagle myself with all the panache of David Brent upon the signing table. But witnessing a wedding is surely one of the most privileged parts of this job. It’s moments like the one above from Adam and Donna Robert’s recent Newbury Shaw House wedding where I freeze just momentarily before the capture. The ceremony had concluded. The guests in the room were quietly chatting amongst themselves and Adam, sat at the head of the room with his wife, removed his ring. He sat studying it, taking in what had just happened and for that one moment, the room may as well have been empty, bar him, his wife and the circle of gold. Away from all that Hollywood jazz, that, is what I call a real ‘complete moment.’ And that, is why I shoot weddings.
Donnington Grove wedding photography – Andrew and Katy
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
It’s candid moments that make my industry so exciting. It’s hard to tell reviewed on a two inch screen how you’ve captured a scenario until the day’s work is downloaded later on the same evening. Purists may argue that a download doesn’t carry quite the same excitement as seeing an image chemically appear before your eyes under red lights in a darkroom, but for me, that download lays bare as many truths about the day’s photography as a good few hours swathed in toxic fumes. Congrats to Katy Locke and Andrew Williams, wed at St. Mary’s in Aldermaston – a venue that holds dear for the simple reason it was my own wedding venue. It’s a dark church, smallish windows, lots of tree shade and the normal rules apply; no flash during the ceremony; low key, discreet. But the rewards are high when a bride and groom exchange time with no attention paid to the lens poking out from a pew three or four metres away. The reception venue was Donnington Grove Hotel.
