Congratulations to Claire & Matt were recently married at Thurnhurst Manor in Doncaster. A really friendly venue where they went all out to ensure the Bride and Groom had a fantastic day. Claire looked stunning throughout and Matt was the perfect groom.

Here’s a quick blast through the day, have a click on the facebook like button if you like them, and take a minute to leave us a comment if you really like them.

Last Saturday was the wedding of Rachael and Gavin at Rogerthorpe Manor, across the border in West Yorkshire.

After overnight rain, the weather stayed fine all day, with the wedding at twelve it wasn’t too early a start, and the bridal preparation suite was a sea of calm when we arrived. The hairdresser was adding the finishing touches to Rachaels hair and makeup and the bridesmaids, Hayley and Jenny were making sure everything was just perfect for Rachael.

Whilst Nic stayed with the Bride and bridesmaids, I met up with Gavin and his best man, Adam and Tom (Rachael’s brother) with the fathers of the bride and groom.  It was clear that the boys were showing more signs of pre-wedding nerves than the girls, the banter was lively though and the guys soon relaxed into the photo’s.

Back to the Brides room and Rachael’s dad arrived to take her down to the ceremony, from here everything went as smooth as could be. A lovely ceremony with just a few tears, before we headed outside for some family photo’s and some catching up with relatives who’d travelled from all over the country.

On to the reception which started with some lovely and funny speeches before all relaxed into an enjoyable meal.

After a rest in the afternoon, lots more guests arrived for the evening party, which gave us the chance to capture lots more candid shots of friends and family having a great time.

I thought I’d start the year with an idea I had whilst training another photographer during an engagement photo session recently.

Everyone’s a photographer nowadays

Nowadays everyone has a camera on their phone, always photographing everything. And everywhere you look there’s someone with a big professional looking camera, and we’ve all got apps that can turn your boring snaps into groovy photo’s, so do we really need to pay professional photographers any more?

Well, that is the question you’ll ask yourself as you’re planning your wedding.

Maybe you have a friend who’s got one of those big professional cameras. Or you’ve seen some photo’s on Facebook from someone starting out who’s really cheap, so why pay someone with years of experience? They seem to charge a lot of money for one days work*

There are loads of practical reasons you’ll hear from professional photographers; qualifications, insurance, backup gear , etc. …… But none of those things actually make their photo’s better than just a guy or a girl with a camera (GWC).  So what separates a Photographer from a GWC?

It ought to be obvious, but often isn’t, it’s the quality of the photographs. You shouldn’t book a photographer just because they’re the cheapest or because they’re reassuringly expensive. You shouldn’t book them for their fancy gear list, their choice of frames, fancy photoshop effects or fab website music. What can they produce with a camera and how does it fit what you want – are the pictures great? Are they even ‘good enough’?

So how do we spot the professional photographer

Here’s a photograph from a recent pre wedding photo shoot, it’s perfectly OK , it’s not too dark or too light (correct exposure, in photographer language), the people look good and it’s in focus. In short; anyone with a good quality camera and the ability to use it could get this shot:

Standard couple photograph

So what’s wrong with it?

Well; the sky’s too bright (a bit blown in photographer language) and it could be sharper – Most people wouldn’t have noticed, but it wasn’t delivered to the couple, because it doesn’t meet my quality standards. I’m showing it here because it was shot at the right time.

What would a Professional Photographer do?

Lens flare and image contrast

You might have noticed the sun was beginning to colour the bottom left corner of the sky, but there’s no clue as to what could have been achieved by a photographer. So what happens if we point the camera into the setting sun? (hover your mouse over the photo to find out)

Not exactly the same pose, but they’re minutes apart. This is lots better, it’s the trendy ‘vintage’ look that’s produced by the light shining directly into the lens. An experienced photographer knows this would happen and can use it to their advantage. If your GWC ever produces shots like this, they’re done by accident, because the results are unpredictable for the novice and often the flare will spoil the subject.

Lens flare adding some detail back

So what if we want to add vibrance to the picture to balance the flare from the sun? Whilst that image is an improvement, some of the detail gets lost. We can add a little flash to the photo to help (again – you can hover your mouse over the photo):

You can see the rings of lens flare that can easily land in the wrong place and spoil an image.

Now the sky is beginning to look dramatic, but we didn’t make the most of it.

Romantic Sunset as a backdrop

What if we want to use the setting sun and the gorgeous sky to create a beautiful backdrop, well the sunset’s really bright compared to the couple, so again we need to balance the light using flash (again – you can hover your mouse over the photo):

We use some high tech** tricks for this shot but a lesser version could be produced with a flash on the camera.

Turn out the lights

What else could we achieve here? What happens if we switch off the flash?

With a slight change of camera position we can create a very dramatic silhouette.

So that’s it then..

Five uniquely different photographs, with the couple in almost the same position taken with the same gear. Just so you know why these are not identical;  they were taken as part of a pre wedding photoshoot, not set up for this post.

That’s how you choose your wedding Photographer

When a photographer is trying to impress you with his membership badges, qualifications or years of experience, or just by being cheap and ‘passionate’, take a step back and look at the quality of their photography:

Are they producing wedding photographs that you’d be happy to live with for the rest of your life?

Is the quality of their photography what your special day deserves?

 The boring stuff…..

*Not really relevant to this discussion, but to produce a good set of wedding photo’s will usually take 3 to 5 days work including your wedding day depending on the choice of photographer.

** The flash in this shot is controlled with the use of radio triggers (costing more than many starter ‘proper cameras’). We also use a shoot through umbrella to control the intensity of the shadows.

It’s difficult to know where to start, or how to describe this wedding without it sounding exaggerated.

I’ve never met a happier Bride or a cooler Groom than this couple, I’m sure all who attended the wedding would agree. Sometimes I feel that a camera just can’t do justice to the emotion that’s apparent at some weddings, and this was one such occasion. Our day started when I met Lee-Ann at her Gran’s house and Nic met up with Adam and his party at the couples Doncaster home.  Lee-Ann appeared as calm as a millpond, but it’s obvious now it was all well controlled nerves.

Hearing ‘I could live in this dress’ is a first, but the gorgeous cocktail dress suited everything about Lee-Ann’s personality. The bridesmaids were utterly charming and played support to Lee-Ann perfectly.

Matthew, the best man and the groomsmen were total gentlemen all day, and Lee-Ann’s Uncle John was the perfect mix of proud, supportive and fun.

Here’s a quick blast through the day, have a click on the facebook like button if you like them, and leave us a comment if you really like them.

Before we settle into Christmas we decided it was a good time for a short wander round Cusworth Hall for some pre wedding photographs with Rachael & Gavin.   They’re a great young couple and I can’t wait to shoot their wedding at Rogerthorpe Manor in February.

Here’s the selection from the shoot, which we’d arranged around Sunset time (mid afternoon this time of year), we were a bit lucky with the sky and I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed photographing them.

Cusworth Hall pre wedding couple pre wedding portraits Yorkshire pre wedding portraits Doncaster Yorkshire couple pre wedding portraits Yorkshire couple portraits doncaster couple pre wedding portraits Doncaster portrait photography Romantic couple portraits Doncaster Romantic couple Cusworth Hall Yorkshire pre wedding portraits Doncaster couple portraits Doncaster fun couple portraits Cusworth Park pre wedding couple Cusworth Hall pre wedding portrait Engagement photography Doncaster doncaster engagement portraits engagement photography Yorkshire Yorkshire couple photography Doncaster couple photography Yorkshire pre wedding sunset vintage pre wedding photography Yorkshire Yorkshire couple sitting sunset Flare sunset Yorkshire couple Doncaster couple sunset Doncaster pre wedding sunset Doncaster couple photoshoot sunset Doncaster romantic portrait couple Doncaster couple silhouette

After lots of re-scheduling we finally got together with Lee-Ann and Adam for their pre wedding photo’s.

We love doing pre wedding photo’s, they’re great fun for both us and the couple, and we especially love photographing couples who have their own ideas and style to bring to the session. As you’ll see Lee-Ann and Adam had no shortage of either.

Bonfire night played an important part in their early relationship and who doesn’t love fireworks. That would have been enough for most couples. But Lee-Ann and Adam aren’t most couples, they needed to add a funfair and a huge dollop of Rock n Roll styling to the mix to make it perfect.

I went with some vintage processing, which isn’t usually my thing but I think it complements the set perfectly.

Candy floss couple photograph funfair Doncaster couple funfair photoshoot kiss funfair photoshoot vintage funfair photoshoot romance Rock n Roll couple Doncaster Rock n Roll Bride Yorkshire Rock n Roll bride Doncaster Doncaster vintage bridal portrait Pre wedding bridal portrait vintage Vintage Hook a Duck couple Hook a Duck Couple Hook a Duck winner Couple photoshoot Vintage romantic couple photography Yorkshire pre wedding photography smile Yorkshire pre wedding photography kiss Dodgems couple photoshoot Black & White vintage couple photography Vintage funfair photoshoot vintage funfair couple Doncaster Yorkshire couple with fireworks Doncaster couple with fireworks & funfair

The couple have recently returned from a dream holiday in Asia where they travelled north through Thailand, took a slow boat through Laos. North to South Vietnam and through Cambodia; finishing back at Bangkok

We had an enjoyable walk round the Lakeside area in Doncaster (nice but I’m sure it doesn’t compare to their holiday) took some great photo’s and had a great time.

Here’s the images from the evening… Enjoy

Congratulations to Doncaster couple Chloe Chambers and Sam Besford who are getting married at our local, The Stables in Sprotborough near Doncaster in August 2013. Chloe and Sam have asked us to photograph their wedding and we’ll be meeting up when Sam returns from overseas duties for a  pre-wedding shoot, they’re a lovely young couple and we can’t wait to meet up for the shoot.

After watching the weather forecast all week, we only suffered about 10 minutes of showers all day for Rachael and Ian’s big day.

Here’s a few photo’s that caught my eye during the processing.

It was an early start at Rogerthorpe with Nic and I turning up at 10.00. I had to nip out of the room at 11.00 to catch Neil’s arrival in a vintage Rolls that was ordered as a surprise by Emma. Here’s a few of my favourites from the day whilst I’m processing.