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Weddings are all about details, the flowers, the cake, the dress, the itinerary, and  quite often the most laid back of individuals transform into a military planner of the highest order when they start to plan their own wedding, and without wishing to generalize it is usually the bride calling the shots here! planning everything down to the minute detail with the groom/bridesmaids/parents basically doing as they are told!

Quite often I come across evidence of this during the wedding day and these moments usually make for some interesting images (to me anyway).  These are images that may not appeal to everybody and will probably never find their way onto a wall and maybe not even the wedding album however, the tie the story of the day together and also normally strike a chord with the couple bringing back some fond memories and ultimately providing a couple with memories of their day is at the top of my priorities at every wedding I photograph.

This is one of my favourite such images,  as a standalone picture it is pretty unremarkable,  I however like the composition and storytelling elements.  I especially like the level of detail in the list, the groom and best man certainly had their work cut out!  Mostly though it is an example of the kind of detail I am looking to capture at every wedding I shoot.

I often talk about blending in at a wedding and when a couple say that they  barely noticed me during the day I am delighted because that is my aim at every wedding.

I do not use long lenses when I photograph weddings I much prefer to be close to the action, it helps me read what is going on and better anticipate situations that make interesting images.  This means of course that despite my stealthy SAS ambitions I am often standing in the middle of things where people will be able to see me.  This means that over the years I have had to perfect hiding in plain sight and the key to this is having guests accept your presence to the point where they stop noticing you.

This image of the father of the Bride’s speech is a good example of this, space was tight and I was standing in plain sight mindful of not obstructing the view of the guests behind me but focused on capturing the speeches.  I was actually pretty close the groom in the foreground but never once did I feel that he or the other speakers noticed me (I’m sure they did from time to time) and I was able to capture a terrific moment like this one. It is not a particularly artistic image but it is the story telling element that I feel makes it strong and I hope in years to come it will be one that brings a smile to the couples face when they look back at their photos.  As an aside the lighting was also very tricky here and required manual mode and some careful metering.

It is tough out there right now, we have the press telling us the economic sky is going to fall at any minute and take us into a double dip recession (how about being positive for once guys?) and we also it seems have a plethora of people trying to supplement their incomes by jumping on the wedding photography bandwagon as a means of making some easy money. With slick looking websites available off the shelf and no regulation in the industry there is no barrier to entry and I hear all the time from couples who are suffering from buyers regret, I even had somebody earlier this year approach me and apologise for not booking me, she had been over-ruled by her fiance who was trying to save some money and they ended up being desperately disappointed with their photos which she described as a thousand snap-shots.  These people are seemingly happy to almost work for free, most don’t pay tax, carry insurance or have any backup equipment, some are good photographers, many have just been fuelled by ill placed  praise from Facebook friends and are ill equipped to handle an event as fluid and high-paced as a wedding, no other area of photography carries such responsibility and no other area of photography offers no second chances.  In short Wedding Photography is fun, I love it but the one thing it certainly is not is easy.

People would not risk an inexperienced or unqualified builder just to save a few pounds but it seems they are willing to take that risk with their Wedding Photography, many seem to think that if someone is offering themselves up as a professional then they must know wat they are doing and that digital makes it so easy for anybody, how bad can they be?  Well the last time I checked digital cameras were not able to compose a good image for you, how bad can they be? if you choose the wrong photographer, very bad!    A good experienced photographer may cost you a little more but the extra skills, experience and peace of mind that they bring to the table far outweighs this.  They will be experienced, they will be able to show a large number of complete weddings, their sample albums will be complete weddings rather than just a “greatest hits” , they will pay tax, they will have professional photography insurance, they will carry multiple backups in case one of their cameras, lenses or lighting goes wrong on the day (not uncommon), they will have contingencies to cover their own illness, they will be able to produce high-quality work irrespective of the weather and in the event of a total washout will be capable of setting up portable lighting to cover the group photos indoors, they will also probably provide you 200-300 high-quality  photos rather than a thousand snap-shots.

All of this makes it important to stand out from the crowd and this can at times be difficult as potential couples struggle to see the wood from the trees.  It always therefore nice when a couple go out of their way to send in positive feedback,  I have a collection of positive feedback over on the main site here and was delighted to receive a lovely email from a couple whose wedding I photographed earlier this year blog post here, the content of which is copied below.  In closing my biggest piece of advice to any couple (other than to just book me) is to be mindful of the points I have made above and most importantly choose the photographer that you want and work back from there, the make of album, number of hours worked or number of photos taken pale into insignificance compared to the person behind the camera capturing the images and telling the story of your day.

Anyway that is enough rambling from me, onto the feedback………

Hi Neil,

I’m so sorry, it occurred to me last night that I didn’t email you to say that we received our wedding album safe and sound a couple of

weeks ago. It looks absolutely fantastic – well worth the money, your advice about the album was spot on.

We’d like to thank you once again for an excellent service – you captured our day perfectly. Your photography style and the end result

was exactly what we were after and hoped for, and we’re delighted with the result, as are all our friends and family. Your work on the day

was exceptional (I hardly noticed you unless we were doing formal shots) and you were incredibly patient, especially during the formal

shots. We very much appreciated the fact that you were communicative before and after the event, as it helped put our minds at rest, and

meeting us face-to-face was an excellent plan as it helped solidify the event and the photography process in our minds.

Many, many thanks once again – we’ll be recommending you to others.

All the best,

Leon & Rachael