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 incase 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 priveleged 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.
Low light wedding photography
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008[photopress:wasing_park.jpg,full,alignleft]What I sometimes struggle to understand when talking to fellow pros in the wedding photography industry, is why photogs run inside and strap a speedlight (flash) to their camera body the moment the sun makes an exit from the skies above. I’m a relative newbie to the habit of chasing any light that makes itself available to shoot in and I’ll admit to being inspired by some of the Aussie and World market leading wedding shooters like Ghionis and Schembri in that particular field. But I have definately found that the age old cliche of ‘looking for the light,’ has, if you’ll forgive a hideously contrived company pun, ‘breathed’ life into my passion for capturing wedding images. Alongside those more candid moments that fashionably have become labelled as wedding photojournalism, there’s always time to go look for a shot that hopefully won’t appear in nine out of ten albums. The weekend just passed I photographed at a brand new venue called Wasing Park. A fabulous couple, a fabulous venue… and possibly the biggest bridal suite bed I have ever seen. Anyway, by the by, above – a couple of pics from when the sun went down. I know I know, you’re expecting scenes from the venue, perhaps the obligatory stuff, but nestled in hundreds of acres of prime farming countryside, I couldn’t resist an old Fordson tractor that resided down an overgrown lane, and as Wasing has invested in some of the most incredible lighting features – a shot that reflects the attention to detail that’s gone into downlighting parts of the venue. And then finally, below, I kid you not, a completely unarranged moment, when passing by the best man at the end of the wedding banquet, I spied the chap altering his notes.
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