Jill & George - First Wedding of the Year

I shot my first wedding of the year a couple of weeks ago and after a busy couple of weeks with commercial photography, I've just got round to finishing the edits. I was really excited to be back behind the lens to cover the year's first story and Jill and George's special day was a real treat.

I started my coverage with Jill and her family at the Green Dragon, Welton East Yorkshire where we had a lot of fun with the preparations - Jill's 2 sons were really great to photograph and could have easily have been mistaken for the front men out of the coolest indie band out there! Jill's dress was really unusual and once her sisters had helped her in, she looked just great.

The ceremony was held at St Mary's Church in Elloughton, a gorgeous little church that I hadn't shot in before but looked super in the group shots that we did inside (way too cold for outside!) My shot of the whole wedding party required some ninja skills as to access the upper balcony, I had to scale the bell tower's very narrow stair case and with 2 cameras in tow, this was no mean feat!

Jill and George held their reception at the Country Park Inn on the Hessle Foreshore, so we stopped underneath the bridge to photograph their 'Penny Drop' session before being greeted by their wedding party. George is from a large Greek family and it will be no surprise that lamb was on the menu! After a lovely meal, a Greek band struck up and it wasn't long before one of George's family members took to the floor to perform a traditional dance - so much pride and passion! After a 10 minute display, the dance floor was full and dinner plates were being smashed to the cries of 'Opa' (for those of you who are not familiar with this word, it is used in Greek culture to describe 'jubilant emotion during a ceremony' but is also used for no apparent reason at all!)

I left the party at around 9pm and glad to get out in the fresh air - the temperature was so hot on the dancefloor!

Jill and George set off the next morning for a month long cruise of the far east and I'm really looking forward to catching up with them when they get back to share their story with them.

Image of the Week - Weddings (Second Instalment!)

As a Yorkshire Wedding Photographer, you may remember me blogging about Sarahlee and Adam's wedding back in May last year and you can catch up with that entry by clicking here.

They were an amazing couple to work with, so passionate and were an absolute joy to photograph - in fact some of my favourite images from last year's bookings were shot on their special day. Sarahlee's grandma was too ill to make it to the church or the reception, so I took them to the nursing home where she lived to surprise her with her granddaughter in her wedding dress. It was a priceless moment to see grandma's face and I'll remember that for a long time to come - it also made for some very emotional photographs.

The image above was taken during the first dance and is definitely one of my favourite all time first dance images. Adam and Sarahlee were totally lost in each other's arms and I really think this photograph sums that up.

My wedding work really does give me the most amazing opportunitites to get close to people and to really share something very special through the eye of my lens.

Image of the Week - Weddings

As a Yorkshire Wedding Photographer I get to shoot a lot of images at a wedding. In fact during an average wedding I will generally shoot around 1500-1600 stills. That's a lot images, however once i've done my editing and selections, I tend to show between 300-400 to my client.

Of those 300-400, there are always going to be stand out images or images that for me really capture a moment - a real sliver in time.

The image above is the first in a series that I would like to share on a regular basis. Taken at Rob and Emma's wedding (which I blogged about here back in September) it really captures that last hour before a wedding as the bride gets ready and the 'madness' of excitement/nerves kicks in. Emma's receiving a phone call from one of her best friends and I think it makes a great shot as she prepares herself in the mirror.

I hope you'll enjoy the images that I will share over the coming weeks and look forward to hearing your comments!

Creativity - Extreme!

Following on from my last post, I'm really working on 'creativity' at the moment. Being a photographer, I suppose it's a given that creativity plays a big part of the daily work - but what happens when the pool drys up? Having the web to hand is definitely the place to start to rekindle the flow, to re-invent, to re-dream.

I've followed Chase Jarvis's blog for a long time and with him being not only an AMAZING creative genius, but an evangelist of Web 2.0, I often turn to his posts to find new ways of looking at what I do with my camera. The video above was posted on his site yesterday, and although it's not photography based per se, it reminded me that creativity requires youthful openess, belief in the path and a willingness to explore - often failing miserably to make some progress.

As a Yorkshire wedding photographer, I find insipration from so many sources. What will I take from this video and all the other 'stuff' I find on the web? I'm not quite sure just yet but I am sure I'll ask myself this question time and time again over the winter.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Beating the Winter 'Artistic Funk'

Now that the wedding season is over, what do I do with myself... Don't get me wrong, as aYorkshire wedding photographer I'm still really busy designing albums, seeing potential clients for next year and 2011 and also preparing for the Xmas Event season. But am I really busy doing what I love? As a small business, I do just about everything myself. When the mania of the shooting season calms down and I am left chained to my MacBook, I start to question...

How did I end up here?

Where am I going?

Will I be a better photographer next year?

How will i push myself forward?

Will I have time for personal projects?

I'm writing this now because I know that come January, the 'artistic funk' will rear its head, but this year i want to be ready for it and meet it head on. What is the 'artistic funk'? Well to me it's that sense of inadequacy that I'm sure all creative people experience after an intense period of activity, it's that feeling of isolation as you ponder your work and wonder if it's any good, it's that feeling of 'not knowing'. This year, I want to really challenge these feelings - to meet them head on and shoot through them in a furious spate of self directed personal projects.

The video below has really helped me to get my head around the 'funk' - Zack Arias is such a gifted photographer and teacher and I know he feels exactly the same way I do. When I first saw his movie 'Transform' I felt a massive sense of relief - wow - somebody else felt like this! It was this movie that helped me prepare for the next couple of months and I urge you to take a look, it kicks in around the 1.33 mark, but from thereon in - sit back, relax, be challenged and let Zack Arias help you through your 'funk'!

What's in my Camera Bag?

As a busy working Yorkshire Wedding Photographer, the kit I use has to be chosen really carefully. Ever since I started as an amateur photographer, I have always used Nikon cameras (although I must admit, I did try Minolta very briefly when I lived in the US, didn't do too much for me to be honest). My first Nikon camera was the gorgeous Nikon FG, totally manual, old school - any of you remember film? I then went onto a Nikon F80 and then an F90x which I totally loved. When I came home to the UK about 5 years ago, I bought my first digital camera which was the Nikon D70, I then progressed through the D200 finally to the kit which I use now.

My gear has to be reliable and I need to have at least 2 of all 'mission critical' items. I did have a situation 2 wedding seasons ago when I was shooting the speeches at Danny and Kate's wedding with my Nikon D300, all of a sudden, the autofocus mechanism stopped working. I immediately reached down to my D200 and was able to keep shooting missing only about 30 seconds as I changed cameras and reset.

I use all of the items that you see in the picture above on a regular basis. This is just what sits in my camera bag. I will be posting an article later on in the week about my lighting kits, both portable and studio based sets which i hope the 'gear heads' and 'strobists' out there may appreciate.

So to give you a quick tour around the gear....

A- Nikon D300

B - Nikon D700 (Just love this camera and will be getting another in the New Year)

C - Nikon Sb800 Flashguns x 2 (I also have an Sb28)

D - Extra Battery packs for the SB800s (allows 5 AAs to be used)

E - Nikon Temperature correction Gels for the SB800s

F - Nikon 60mm f2.8 Macro lens (I always use this on the D300)

G - Pocket Wizard Flash Transmitters x 3 - stupidly expensive, but oh so reliable.

H - Quantum Turbo Z Batteries x 2 - great for fast flash recycling

I - Sekonic Flash Meter

J - Nikon 50mm f1.8 - one of my favourite all time lenses.

K - Tokina 12-24 f4 - a little soft around the edges but great when used carefully.

L - Mini tripod for positioning flashes.

M - Home made 'gobo' - prevents light from background flashes flaring into the lens.

N - Nikon 24-70 f2.8 - this lens is my general 'goto' lens for the majority of jobs.

O - Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR - another amazing Nikon lens, beautiful for portraits.

P - Rocket blower, keeps all the glass dust free.

Q - Honl 'Speed Strap' - used with the Honl flash mods.

R - Nikon SC17 flash cord

S - Cleaning Fluid

T - Quantum cord to connect turbo batteries and Sb800s

U - WhiBal - colour correction card.

W - Xtra Batteries - you can never have enough, I now use Sanyo 'Eneloops'

X - Honl 1/8th Speed Grid - great for restricting light from flashes to a small area.

Y - Strobframe flash bracket

Z - Swiss Army Knife - no photographer should be without one!

1 - Ball bungees - used to secure flashes to pipes/struts etc

2 - Lumiquest Softbox III - great used close in for 'wrappy' portraits.

3 - Various cables for flashes/pocket wizards etc.

4 - Honl Speed Snoot - creates cinematic spotlights.

5 - Wet weather camera casing - now I don't shoot sports so much, doesn't come out too often.

6 - CF Memory cards - about 24gbs worth split between 1gbs/2gbs and 4gbs.

I hope this was useful/interesting and I'd love to field any questions people may have about any of the gear in my bag. Thanks for stopping by!