Another Stunning Wedding

Here's a few pages of the album that went out to Elaine and Jason recently. The ceremony, wedding breakfast and evening party were held at the Ashbourne Hotel, North Killingholme.  An absolutely stunning venue for a wedding and wedding photos!

Congratulations, guys.  I hope you like your album...!

Weddings - A Guide for Guests

That might seem like a strange title for a post, but the guests at a wedding play a massive part in the day. No one guest can really make or break a wedding, but there are things you can do to help make the day run smoothly. Naturally my advice is mostly based around the photos, but anyone who has been to a wedding will know that the photos can take up the vast majority of the time between the ceremony and the food. This isn't an exhaustive list, but addresses some of the gripes I (and other photographers) have at weddings that could be greatly helped by reading this!

Pay Attention
I know you're not at a wedding to be photographed, but the bride and groom have probably written me a list with your name on it. Please listen to me while I'm trying to arrange the groups! No-one likes the group photos, but the bride and groom have asked for them so the quicker we can get through them the better!

Don't Wander Off
This is an extension of the above... It's difficult for a lone photographer to corral more than 100 guests into one place when I don't know anyone's name. It's even more difficult if Aunty Mabel has nipped to the loo or Uncle George has gone to the bar! I know you're bored watching me take my shots, but there's every chance you'll be asked to be in one!

Don't Be A Comedian
I keep saying it, but no-one likes the group photos so I will try and get through them as quickly as possible. If you're one of the people who we've had to spend 5 minutes trying to find, please please please just come over, get into position and smile. Don't make jokes about being late, don't do a deliberately slow silly walk and don't make yourself the centre of attention. Apart from it annoying me (not that I would ever show it!) it annoys the happy couple. Weddings are fun, but can be stressful for the bride and groom so the less fuss the better. Don't be remembered for the wrong reasons...

Don't Assume I'm Not Talking To You
With 100 people all in the same photo together, sometimes I'll need to ask someone to move. That might be you. If I look at you it probably is you. Please don't look over your shoulder or to either side. It'll get everything moving a lot quicker!

Don't Get In My Way
When I'm posing the couple or setting up a group shot, please at least let me finish what I'm doing before you wade in and take your own shots. I need everyone in the shot to be looking at me and smiling. If you're there with your camera the chances are at least one person will be looking at you or talking to you spoiling the shot. Which means I have to take it again which makes the whole process last a lot longer than it needs to...


Don't Hide
If you take one thing away from this post, make it this. Don't hide from me!!! A lot of people don't like having their photo taken. I get that. But the bride and groom have chosen me to photograph their wedding because I take a lot of photos of their guests. They have paid me a lot of money to do so. If you are constantly hiding from my lens it make that part of my job a lot more difficult. It makes no difference to me personally whether I snap you or not, but it does matter to your hosts! Think about them... I will get you eventually, so you can either just let me do it early doors or spend 4 hours looking over your shoulder!

And Finally... Smile!
You're at a wedding! It's a happy occasion! Tell your face... I'm going to get a shot of you anyway and it might make it to the album so you might as well make it a nice one!

Hopefully you'll take something from this and maybe you'll even apply some of it next time you're at a wedding. Either way, have a lovely day!

Another Fab Wedding!

Here's a few album pages from another beautiful wedding from earlier this year. A little reminder of how nice the British summer can be.

Congratulations to Claire and David!

A Fantastic Wedding!

It occurred to me that I've never put up any photos from a wedding. Every once in a while a wedding really sticks out in my mind as being really good. From the bride's preparations in the morning, the group shots, the weather to the speeches and all the bits in between everything goes smoothly and it's a really happy occasion.

I won't write much more as I think the photos speak for themselves. Congratulations to Sami and Martin!

Coping with Competition

Every industry has competition and every industry has its competitors. It seems (to me at least) that photographers have more competition than most! I've mentioned in a previous post that photography is an easy business to get started in and it seems that anyone with a posh camera can call themselves a photographer! The local newspaper keeps printing stories about new photography businesses in the area...

But just because someone is in the same industry it doesn't necessarily mean they're competition. Yes, we're all looking for people to sell photos to, but are we all looking for the same people? I don't think so.

Photography customers all have different criteria when choosing a photographer. Particularly regarding wedding photography. Some people are on a budget and will book the cheapest photographer they can find (not something I recommend!). Some people like the kudos of booking the area's most expensive photographer. Others will book the best photographer they can afford (a much more sensible approach...). No one photographer can appeal to all markets so we have to pick one to work in.

There are literally dozens of 'professional' photographers in Grimsby and Cleethorpes, but I really only count 5 or 6 of them as genuine competition. We're all full time and fully insured. We all put a lot of time and effort into marketing ourselves. We all offer good customer service and excellent attention to detail. And we all supply the best products from the best suppliers. We don't appeal the the 'cheap is best' market, but none of us is the most expensive in the area either.

But even that competition isn't really a problem. There are about 150,000 people living in and around Grimsby and Cleethorpes so there's plenty to go around! There are tons of weddings in North East Lincolnshire every single weekend, so again there's plenty to go around without us all stepping on each other's toes.

And don't forget, photography is very subjective. We all have our own particular and distinctive style which some people won't like. It took a while to get my head around it, but I genuinely don't mind any more if someone books a different photographer over me.

Having said that, I still like it when I win a customer ahead of my competition!

Photoshop - How Much is Too Much?

Photoshop (or any number of other editing packages) is an essential tool for all photographers. There are many film purists who believe it's cheating, but it's really just a different development process. In the olden days you had your film and paper and dunked it in a series of chemicals. It's a skilled process and takes time and practice to get it right. You could also add variation to the chemicals, time and light modifiers to give special effects.

Today, with digital, it's exactly the same. You just do it on a computer! But you can take it further than you could with film. Exposure and white balance adjustments are easy and done all the time to correct a poor original, or just to enhance an already good picture. There is an argument that says it makes photographers lazy. "It's OK. I'll fix it in Photoshop!"  Well, yes. But if you take a lot of photos that need fixing you quickly learn to spend 5 minutes getting it right in-camera to avoid hours of staring at a computer screen... And don't forget, every edit you do in Photoshop degrades the original slightly.

I use Photoshop (or more often Lightroom) on all of my pictures. I'll improve the crop and boost the contrast and colour vibrancy. Occasionally I may need to get rid of a bit of red eye or brighten up a flash photo indoors. For studio photos I'll generally add a bit of punch and remove the background or clean up a dirty floor. I can also remove spots if you want me to.

Which brings me to my point. How much is too much? There are some excellent examples here of celebrity photos that have had 'work' done. But where is the line? My personal view is that I will get rid of anything that isn't permanent or that the camera has exaggerated. By this I mean I will remove spots, bruises, rashes, cuts and scrapes. I'll also remove baby dribble where I can. I can clean up fluff from clothes and even swap faces from one picture to another so everyone is smiling at once. I'll also remove ugly fire exit signs from the background in wedding photos. And I can reduce wrinkles and lines that look worse under the studio light.

What I won't do is give you longer legs or bigger boobs. I won't take 2 stone off you either! There's plenty of discussion about the damaging effects of Photoshopped celebrities to young girls (and boys) which I won't go into. But to me the issue is more fundamental. A photo is a memory captured forever. If the photo doesn't reflect the way you actually looked at that time, it's not really a memory, it's a fantasy. There is a place for fantasy, but that's not really my business. My job is to make you look your best. But importantly you are still you!

What do You Look For?

This is really a plea for your comments. I'd be really interested to know your thoughts. What do you look for when choosing a photographer? Whether it's for family portraits or a wedding photographer what is the most important thing you consider when making your decision?

Is it simply the first one you find on Google? Is it the one with the fanciest looking website? Does a fancy website put you off if you think they'll be too expensive? Is it how easy it is to find the info you're looking for? Do you go mainly on price? Do you choose purely on the quality of the photos? Do you as for recommendations from friends? Would you prefer to go to a professional studio or have the photographer come to you? Is it down to the personality of the photographer? Or is it something else???

There's a lot of questions there, but which is most important to you? Please feel free to leave any comments below, get in touch on Facebook or just email me!

Thanks!