Aaron & Jade’s Wedding

20th February at Mitton Hall Hotel in Whalley. a beautiful hotel in a beautiful part of the Lancashire countryside.I always like going to Mitton Hall as the grounds are fantastic with the river Ribble running along the back, and the inside is pretty good for photographs as well. Dave, the wedding coordinator was brilliant and really helped with the timings and keeping everyone informed, and it was never too much trouble to get you a cup of coffee. He came into see Jade and myself early on and made everyone feel really at ease. Jade was busily getting ready although she seemed very relaxed, its always a bit chaotic at this time. I tried to get as many shots as I could without setting anything up. I love the shots of the bridesmaid ruffling her hair and mum looking totally amazing.

I had to check the time as I knew that Aaron was arriving with the Best Man in the Aston Martin, great, but I didnt expect him to start doing trips up and down the road! What a brilliant car.

Everybody was now ready and the service was about to start. I adore the shot of Dad gazing into his daughters eyes just before he gives her away. “a penny for your thoughts”.

After the service we went for a walk in the grounds and got some really nice shots along the paths even though the grass was very wet.

Lads being lads like to have fun. Its not just the girls and when I asked the couples to “give each other a kiss” I knew what was going to happen, but it made everyone laugh.

I managed to get some beautiful shots of Jade later on, she insisted on the Aston Martin!,

but I didnt mind. The best pictures for me were near the end when Jade decided to do her 'special dance’ which evidently has earned her a few drinks in the past! I can see why.

Finally a couple of relaxed images to finish the day.

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Thanks to you both, I am honored to be a part of it, and love my job when I can have days like this. David Barry

Joe Buissink Seminar

I have seen Joe before when he passed this way with his close friend Yervant a couple of seasons ago.

He was excellent then and so it was no surprise to me when I got my plastic out out and booked a place at the new seminar in a very nice Manchester Hotel. I got there a bit early as it only took me 20 minutes when the Sat Nav. said 30.

No problem plenty of coffee needed to wake myself up, and a chance to have a chat with other like minded fellows.

The first person I met was Ryan sat to my right from Sheffield, nice guy, seemed to be doing really well which is unusual in itself in this profession at the moment. To my left was Mark from Morpeth, again a really nice guy and I enjoyed his conversation throughout the day.

We had a brief 20-30 minute talk from the Graphistudio, which kept us up to date on new ideas and innovations, I must say I liked the new Pearl paper and the small hard back books. We also had a very brief talk from the MPA Rep. about planned activities.

Then it was Joe’s turn- an interesting shot greeted us of his wife and child, one which really showed the moment and the emotion, beautiful image.

Joe’s overriding message appeared to be that I was to sell MYSELF to the customers not the images, they had already seen these on your website and therefore it was you that they were interested in. Would you be suitable to take their images?

Joe told us of how he tells the story of the images, How he builds up the emotion in the story of each of the images that he shows only allowing the customer to hold them after he has told them the story behind the emotion, He creates the atmosphere with each image he shows.

This was clearly shown when he told us the story of a little page boy and 6 images which defined the emotion of that wedding. This story lasted 5-10 minutes THEN he showed us the slideshow. Somewhere in the middle of this slideshow appeared the first of the 6 images and all of the those watching gave a smile and an approving nod as to the story unfolded.

Afterwards Joe told us “That we had been played” It was a set-up and we all fell for the 6 fantastic shots in the middle of this slideshow. `He proved to us that, we could create the atmosphere for our shots, we could tell OUR story of OUR images to OUR New customers.

Yes he talked about the mechanics of photography - the difference between ‘P’ for professional or ‘M’ for Master. Yes he told us about AE Lock and recomposing. Yes he told us to try f4.5 -1/4 second with flash and underexpose by half a stop as the bride and groom come down the aisle. All really useful points, but when he asked us at the end to “do just ONE of the things that he had talked about” Well - I know which one I am going to do!!

Thanks Joe
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CARPE DIEM

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

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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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.

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