Happy Valentines Day to one and all.
Its been a very unusual day.
It started with Birthday greetings to my two nieces, Mel 16 and her little sis. Hannah 11 today Happy birthday to you both. Hope you have a really fantastic day and get all the prezzies you wish for.
Secondly my wife was up early as per usual and off to work - when I surfaced to get the little one ready for school, I found a nice Valentine ’s card and a couple of bottles of lovely red wine. Thank you, thank you I love you more each day. Unfortunately my card and my present for my wife were in two separate places so she will have to wait till tonight to collect them from me.! (Honestly!!!!)
Thirdly I received an email to say that my Uncle Colin had died. Not unexpected - but still very sad. I have been to see Auntie Jeanne and helped out this morning. I hope I reach anywhere near his age.
All this before 9.30am !!!!
Summing up today means CARPE DIEM - Seize the day - you never really know when it will be you last, make the most of the ones you love and the ones that love you.
R.I.P. Colin
A selection of Amusing - Informative - and Anecdotal stories from David Barry Wedding Photography
Monday 14 February 2011
Thursday 10 February 2011
What Kind of Photographs Should go into the Wedding Album
I get asked quite a lot about what kind of wedding photographer I am? The answer is that I am Not Sure.
I know that most Bride and Grooms have a good idea of the kind of photography or photographer that they want. Most say that they want nothing posed, but then show you a selection of favourite pictures of posed images. Others, I find want you to run the show, after all they have never been married before and are not always sure what to do next. I have noticed that I tend to do most of the styles and then weight one way or the other depending on the clients preference.
Does this make me a ‘Jack of all trades and Master of none’ possibly!! but at least I am providing what the client wants and not just what I want. Too many ’Top’ photographers or people who would like to think that they are ’top’ photographers will say that this is my style - take it or leave it.
The reality is that very few ’top’ photographers can get away this. Their work is of such a high magnitude that certain Bride and Grooms will ‘hunt’ them down and pay the premium for them and their style. Perhaps the rest of us would like to think that we could reach those heights, or even have reached those heights, but the reality is that we take what work we can get and we try and do the absolute best that we can do, for that Bride and Groom within the given situation.
As such I find that at my weddings I tend to cover most styles. I will take the family poses, but I will also get shots of the family getting ready for that pose, possibly showing Mum adjusting her sons hair or tie. That way I will get some relaxed informal shots showing the family more at ease, but I will also get the family portrait as well. The couple can select which they would use for their album later. (Incidently 90%of Brides will choose the formal one and 99% of reprints will also be the formal one!!!)
Based on this I decided to ‘Look-Back' on some OLD weddings and see what kind of photographs I had taken but probably never used in the album. I was surprised to find quite a lot of images that, looking at current trends, would definitely have been used in todays albums, but not necessarily in the original ones. It also gave me the opportunity to have a new look at what I could do with the image given todays knowledge.
The wedding photograph here was taken probably 5-10 years ago at Lytham Hall in Lancashire. The Hall is beautiful and I remember that I had to get plenty of pics of the couple showing Lytham Hall in the background. However for this shot I went inside shot through the window using the frame naturally, I told the couple to ‘mill around' outside the window whilst I went inside. (Does this make it ‘posed’ ?) I dont think the couple used it it in their album but I now find it very pleasing to the eye. In particular I find that I am looking at the other people in the shot and seeing what they are doing at that particular moment at this wedding.
It is something that I am trying to emulate this season, perhaps I can persuade more couples to include them them in their wedding albums and perhaps one day I will be in a position where I can charge a ‘premium’ for my style.
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I know that most Bride and Grooms have a good idea of the kind of photography or photographer that they want. Most say that they want nothing posed, but then show you a selection of favourite pictures of posed images. Others, I find want you to run the show, after all they have never been married before and are not always sure what to do next. I have noticed that I tend to do most of the styles and then weight one way or the other depending on the clients preference.
Does this make me a ‘Jack of all trades and Master of none’ possibly!! but at least I am providing what the client wants and not just what I want. Too many ’Top’ photographers or people who would like to think that they are ’top’ photographers will say that this is my style - take it or leave it.
The reality is that very few ’top’ photographers can get away this. Their work is of such a high magnitude that certain Bride and Grooms will ‘hunt’ them down and pay the premium for them and their style. Perhaps the rest of us would like to think that we could reach those heights, or even have reached those heights, but the reality is that we take what work we can get and we try and do the absolute best that we can do, for that Bride and Groom within the given situation.
As such I find that at my weddings I tend to cover most styles. I will take the family poses, but I will also get shots of the family getting ready for that pose, possibly showing Mum adjusting her sons hair or tie. That way I will get some relaxed informal shots showing the family more at ease, but I will also get the family portrait as well. The couple can select which they would use for their album later. (Incidently 90%of Brides will choose the formal one and 99% of reprints will also be the formal one!!!)
Based on this I decided to ‘Look-Back' on some OLD weddings and see what kind of photographs I had taken but probably never used in the album. I was surprised to find quite a lot of images that, looking at current trends, would definitely have been used in todays albums, but not necessarily in the original ones. It also gave me the opportunity to have a new look at what I could do with the image given todays knowledge.
The wedding photograph here was taken probably 5-10 years ago at Lytham Hall in Lancashire. The Hall is beautiful and I remember that I had to get plenty of pics of the couple showing Lytham Hall in the background. However for this shot I went inside shot through the window using the frame naturally, I told the couple to ‘mill around' outside the window whilst I went inside. (Does this make it ‘posed’ ?) I dont think the couple used it it in their album but I now find it very pleasing to the eye. In particular I find that I am looking at the other people in the shot and seeing what they are doing at that particular moment at this wedding.
It is something that I am trying to emulate this season, perhaps I can persuade more couples to include them them in their wedding albums and perhaps one day I will be in a position where I can charge a ‘premium’ for my style.
Tweet
Thursday 3 February 2011
Take That Photos
Many moons ago, it what seemed like a different world, I was asked by my wife if I could take some pictures of a young group of boys in a band that were visiting the school. I asked who they were and she wasn’t too sure but said that they were just starting out and were doing a tour of local schools for promotional work.
I was quite busy at the time (doing what I will never know!!) so I decided to give Alison a spare camera with some film and told her to get whatever she wanted. Don’t forget that Alison is not, never was, or will be a photographer, but I thought a few snaps might suffice.
When Alison returned I asked what they were like, and she was less than complimentary, saying that they were a bit too loud and brash, especially the lead singer!! (what did she know?)
I developed the films and the quality was dreadful!! I mean really dreadful!! I rescued what I could recently with some actions in Photoshop. I can’t complain because I did pass it on.
In the last few days I was asked by another set of young boys (new local band - Sahara) for some promotional photographs. No problem - we arranged a studio shoot initially with a location shoot planned for the future. Now remember that I am not a ‘Band photographer’ and bearing in mind that I had about 20 years between the 2 band shoots- but I quite enjoyed it (although one of the band members did wreck half of the set!!)
The best bit was when I told them -that I hope they were going to be good as the last band we photographed, because the last band was TAKE THAT.
It just goes to show that you never really know what is going to happen or who you are going to photograph or just how well they are going to do in the future.
I was quite busy at the time (doing what I will never know!!) so I decided to give Alison a spare camera with some film and told her to get whatever she wanted. Don’t forget that Alison is not, never was, or will be a photographer, but I thought a few snaps might suffice.
When Alison returned I asked what they were like, and she was less than complimentary, saying that they were a bit too loud and brash, especially the lead singer!! (what did she know?)
I developed the films and the quality was dreadful!! I mean really dreadful!! I rescued what I could recently with some actions in Photoshop. I can’t complain because I did pass it on.
In the last few days I was asked by another set of young boys (new local band - Sahara) for some promotional photographs. No problem - we arranged a studio shoot initially with a location shoot planned for the future. Now remember that I am not a ‘Band photographer’ and bearing in mind that I had about 20 years between the 2 band shoots- but I quite enjoyed it (although one of the band members did wreck half of the set!!)
The best bit was when I told them -that I hope they were going to be good as the last band we photographed, because the last band was TAKE THAT.
It just goes to show that you never really know what is going to happen or who you are going to photograph or just how well they are going to do in the future.
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