The (not quite) daily Post

The previous post (above) would have been too large if we had included all the candid reception photography in the same post, so we’ve split the highlights from Jenny & Caspar’s wedding into these 2 posts.

The first post, was the story of their wedding day from start to finish in highlight form, ie, the 150 pictures shown are less than 25% of what they have received themselves.

This post though is dedicated purely to a single part of their day, – the drinks reception and limited to people and the B&W versions of those images.

There used to be…and maybe still is, a misconception that wedding photographers took/take endless staged group shots.

Well this one does not and never has done as out of a typical 1 hour 45 minute drinks reception, we spend maybe 10 minutes capturing 1/2 a dozen or so ‘staged’ family pictures followed by a short session with the B&G alone. The rest of the time, candid capture of the B&G, family, guests completely fly on the wall other than the occasional request we are always happy to oblige.

So below, we have featured around 1/3rd of the results from this side of the wedding day. These were all shot in colour and presented to the client in both colour and as a second set of B&W images. The use of B&W in this situation strips out all non-essential ‘clutter’ focusing instead on who and the moment.

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I love Brimham Rocks near Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

The National Trust managed property is just 4 miles from the village I grew up in and returned to in August 2014.

Memories of Summer picnics, scrambling about the rocks and in season, getting purple lips and tongue from eating wild bilberries, something our daughter has now made her own!

So since moving from the North Yorkshire Moors back to Nidderdale, Brimham Rocks has become a new favourite for pre-wedding and engagement photo-shoots with Jessica & Paul’s recent session the first.

Jess & Paul are due to get married at Middleton Lodge next month and this was a great opportunity to get to know them both a little better.

Below, 3 that caught my eye…

“Hi Simon. We had an amazing day on Saturday and loved every minute. We are so pleased how everything went and the weather held out for us, apart from the strong winds! I hope our photos will be amazing too!” Emma & Danny

Well the wait is over (3 whole days!) and finally, Spring has arrived! It started a little on the wet side for Emma & Danny’s Middleton Lodge Spring wedding, the first of five booked at the venue for 2015, but cleared up nicely (if still a tad blowy) by lunchtime.

Emma wore Pronovias from The Bridal Rogue Gallery in York and Danny, a Cameron Ross suit with the 4 bridesmaids in two shades of ‘Vintage Rose’.

The flowers were by Twisted Willow and cake by Poppy Pickering with guitar and vocals during the ceremony, drinks reception and dinner by the fabulous Catherine Taylor Dawson.

The dancing in the evening was to Yorkshire ceiligh band, Shin Jig and the couple are honeymooning in The Maldives.

Catering was of course by Middleton Lodge themselves with self-carved beef the centrepiece highlight of the meal (though the afternoon tea style cakes were more than pretty good!).

The marquee was decorated in a ‘vintage’ style with a huge LOVE sign courtesy of Coco Luminaire.

The full set of over 500 images available to view here including print ordering facility (highlights below).

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I t’s February and Spring is (hopefully) just around the corner, but it’s that time of year when a wedding photographer is twiddling his thumbs…

The website and blog are up to date. Weddings at this time of year are few and far between (though I do have a small job next week yay) and this year’s development & marketing has been put into place.

So what to do…

Write a series of informative articles relating to all things wedding photography and from the perspective of this particular Yorkshire Wedding Photographer titled ‘A Yorkshire Wedding Photographers’ advice/opinion on…!

My first article for this year then is in regard to pricing. What should good wedding photography cost?

The first question is not “how big is your budget?”, but “how important is the capture, presentation and preservation of your wedding day?”

A fella called John Ruskin wrote this over-used quotation, but pertinent words nonetheless:

“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much you lose a little money, that is all.
But when you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing that you bought was incapable of doing the thing that you bought it to do!
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.
It cannot be done….
And if you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk that you run.
And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.
There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper.
And the people, who consider price alone, are this man’s lawful prey”.

In regard to wedding photography, at what point does ‘cheaper’ change from being a lifetime investment (and good wedding photography should be) to a wedding day expense?

If it’s ‘cheaper’ but you have complete faith in it AND utterly love it compared to something else ‘more expensive’, then the risk is either minimal or non-existent.

But if you don’t have both have that complete faith and that love for the photographers work, – see Mr Ruskin’s wise words!

And then there is comparing apples with pears, – no two wedding photographers seem to be offering the same thing in regard to what they are offering.

It can be difficult to make direct comparisons so it is important to make sure any prices being compared are for ‘the same thing’ and ensuring it is everything you actually need so whilst on paper something can appear cheaper than something else, check that the prices you are comparing are for an identical package in terms of coverage, service & product.

Simon

Updating this post… Here’s a link to a great post on a bridal blog: Cautionary Tale

W ell 2014 was a great year, but 2015 is going to be something special! But before I get ahead of myself, a summary of the highlights (and there were many) from the 2014 wedding season.

The year started in January with the somewhat wet and windy day wedding day of Chantelle & Chris at St Mary’s in Masham followed by reception at Swinton Park.

February was as it so often is, a zero wedding month, but a good opportunity to get the garden cleared up in preparation for the Spring!

March is when things tend to kick off for us…except it was more gardening plus a few engagement and save-the-date photo-shoots.

April saw the church & marquee wedding at Jervaulx Abbey of Ali & George followed by Amy & Adam’s wedding at Middleton Lodge.

May was a busy month with 2 Rudding park weddings; Alida & Jonathan and Danielle & Jonathan plus 2 Swinton Park weddings (both using Ripon Cathedral for the ceremony) with; Alexandra & Eliot followed by Clementine & Alex.

June was a very busy month including 2 destination weddings to France and featured the weddings of; Gemma & Jack at Chateau de la Cazine near Limoges, Charlotte & Ed’s marquee wedding in Hampshire and Kaylie & Tom’s at Chateau de Massillan near Orange in Provence.

July was another busy month with the weddings of Lucy & Ricky at Hazlewood Castle, Hannah & Grant at Crockwell Farm in Northamptonshire and Wenisa & Simon at The Devonshire Arms plus Helen & Will’s marquee wedding.

August was pretty hectic with numerous weddings including; Sophia & Christopher’s Papakata wedding, Annabel & Lewis at Rudding Park, Nadia & Eric at Swinton Park, Sophie & Ollie’s marquee wedding and Laura & Philip’s at Swinton Park. Plus we moved house back to my home town of Harrogate!

September didn’t slacken off with Rachael & Tom’s marquee wedding followed by 2 more destination weddings in France with Joanne & Ivan’s wedding and then Carolyn & Dustin at Chateau de Lisse in SW France.

October was fortunately a fairly quiet month allowing us to finally unpack and featured the wedding of Kimberley & Rashpal at Rudding Park.

November & December finished the year off nicely with the Winter Weddings of; Kate & Stuart at The Devonshire Fell, Kim & Andy’s Stubton Hall wedding and that of Emma & Richard…which isn’t quite on-line yet due to the pesky Christmas period getting in the way!

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