Slowly working through the last minute May pre-wedding sessions.

This was my first meeting with Katie and Doug - Katie’s mum booked me over the internet to photograph their wedding in Hampshire later this summer.

It was raining really heavily on the day of their pre-wedding shoot. Being a May bank holiday weekend, we sort of expected rain but decided to go ahead and schedule a session anyway. The trick was for my equipment to stay safe and dry, while Katie and Douf brought two brollies to brave the elements if necessary. We were intent on having fun regardless of the weather.

I received a thank you email from Katie a couple of days ago:

“It was so good to be able to meet you - and have some fun in the rain! - as well as having a chance to get a bit more comfortable in front of the camera. As you know, I REALLY don’t like having my photo taken - but you were great at putting me at my ease, and we both had a great time. Looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks!

Love

Katie and Doug”

Well, if Katie didn’t tell me that she does like to be photographed I would never have guessed! She was an absolute natural!

And now she knows that I don’t bite… no need to be afraid… not really… See you guys soon!

Here are some images from the shoot (and I am in a mood for black and white):

Just tidied up an album draft for Emma and Andy in Indesign CS3. This is for a magazine-style 12″x12″ album. The pallette is limited to white and pale grey for a clean structured look.

Hannah and James got married at a small church in Filby and had a marquee reception at Hannah’s parents’ garden. The whole atmosphere was light-hearted and summery, and so very English!!! I deliberately shifted into a high-keyish mode throughout the wedding trying to be in tune with it.

Hannah getting ready - she is absolutely gorgeous even in rollers!

Her bridemaids watching:

Nearly ready (and even more gorgeous):

The shoes (one of the two pairs - the other pair handpainted with chinese porcelain design was for reception):

Country-themed flowers:

James and his best man:

The rings:

Guests arriving:

Hannah and James showed with confetti - I thought that this sequence was very funny!

Hannah with her granma before leaving for reception:

Tables were decorated with pink welly boots that held the flowers:

The cake was amazing - I’ll indulge myself and show different views of it (a priviledge I normally reserve for shoes):

One of Hannah’s bridesmaids checking her rings:

Friends:

During the receiving line:

James holding a cork from the first champaigne bottle opened at the reception:

Bride and groom in the gardens:

Back to the marquee:

This was funny - instead of placing their hats on the hat pegs guests spontaneously norminated one of the trees in the marquee a hat tree:

Hannah with her bridesmaid after contributing her veil to the hat tree:

Reactions to speeches:

James and his best man opening a bottle of champagne behind the marquee after the speeches:

First dance:

Thank you all of you who congratulated us on our anniversary. We had a quiet dinner at a local fish restaurant. John treated me to five red roses, and our cats (I do not know which of them is responsible) gave us a gift of a dead field mouse delivered right to the bathroom. Ah well…

Back to work though… Sarah and Ricky’s wedding at St Mary’s Church, Ditchingham, followed by a wedding breakfast at St Peter’s Hall near Bungay.

Sarah had the most exquisite pair of shoes:

Her engagement ring:

In case if you are wondering it’s on the cap of an oval bottle of English Ale brewed at St Peter’s Brewery where Sarah and Ricky had their reception:

Kiddie-friendly getting ready:

Sarah’s mum with her grandson:

Sarah checking her make-up:

At the church:

Ricky:

Sarah arriving:

The ceremony:

Sarah and Ricky signing the register:

The newly-weds leaving the church to the sound of bells ringing:

Guests at the church yard:

St Peter’s Hall with its 11th century moat and bits and pieces of architectural salvage added in the 16th century - it’s so very English!

Sarah and Ricky arriving in an old car:

Drinks reception:

Kids - it was a very child-friendly event:

A brief walk with the couple on the grounds of the Hall:

At their wedding breakfast in the marquee:

Their first dance:

Hurray!!! John and I are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary today! And we are so happy together!

Since both of us are usually at other people’s weddings every weekend, I think it calls for a day off!

Hope you don’t mind…

Love

Galina and John

Just a quick note.

Yvonne’s “Trash the Dress” session attracted a lot of attention and I had a score of emails and private messages from various people.

It has been featured today in an influential UK online bridal magazine Wedding Path - http://news.weddingpath.com/newsdetail/5/180/.

The article has a bit more information how we did it and what you’ll expect to experience should you decide to commission your own TTD shoot. Check it out!

Next day when Sarah and Ricky turned up for their pre-wedding session it was pouring down with rain. It was only 2 days before their wedding and we never met - they booked me online, so we thought it was a good idea to come out and play.

Good old Eaton Park, with its bandstand protecting against the rain and cold… Really, I am lucky to have such a location just around the corner…

As our space was quite restricted we started along the lines of a portrait session, with John reluctantly wielding the silver reflector. I was quite happy about it - Sarah and Ricky (and the rain) gave me a rare chance to practice classical portraiture.

Well, things started warming up pretty quickly:

As I said, the next time I picked up my camera bag, it was for their wedding (which I have just started editing), so you’ll see these faces again soon.

Yep, a couple of days later we made another trip to Eaton Park, this time with Jessica and Chris. Several days earlier John and I were in a car accident (not our fault) and the insurance company issued us with a “spaceship-control” replacement. This was the first time I drove it - so back to Eaton Park’s car park we drove…

But you see - the challenge, as always, is to forget what I did before. Jessica and Chris are different people, so they were photographed differently.

At the beginning of the session Jessica wore her wedding shoes - she thought it might be a good idea to give them a trial run. Of course with all the running around she ended taking them off:

At the 1930s bandstand:

(Couldn’t stop myself from shooting the shoes, sorry…)

I loved how tiny Jessica looked next to Chris who is very tall, the repeated verticals of the columns and the stormy sky:

Being tender:

Michelle and Doug originally wanted to have their pre-wedding shoot on the grounds of Blickling Hall, but they were invited to a dinner party in Norwich, so it made more sense to come up with something locally.

And what is more local to me than Eaton Park where John and I go for a walk when we spent too much time at the computer… The challenge, of course, is to come up with a new interpretation of the location every time I photograph there.

When we arrived at the main car park it was about an hour before the sunset and the light cast long shadows on the walls of a derelict wooden structure where workmen keep sand and other stuff. I call it a sandpit - John says that it is not what it’s called but he hasn’t come up with an alternative name, so I’ll keep calling it a “sandpit”.

Anyway… I loved the dramatic contrast of light and shadow. The location had a lot of character and a certain distressed look to it, so I was very happy when neither Michelle nor Doug objected to me photographing them there.

These two are so affectionate and comfortable with each other!

Sun glare, bits of broken glass, wood and wire provided a visually interesting background for our couple:

Michelle against the concrete wall at the back:

In the “sandpit”:

There was a lot of greenery on the other side of the car park. Here’s a sequence of photos I took when I asked Michelle to go and play with the tree branches:

See - it pays off to be imprecise in your instructions!

The last shot of the session - contre-jour:

I am back to Norwich from David Williams’ workshop. A lot we were talking about was not photography but weddings as social rituals, interpretation, narratives and artistic influences. I was left with a lot to think about.

I processed Rosey and Ian’s photos before I left but did not have time to write a diary entry about their wedding. Now I decided to re-interpret a selection of images with a vintage treatment to tell the story of their wedding as an event that could have taken place 60-70 years ago.

Rosey’s engagement ring:

Rosey being transformed into a radiant bride:

Roman-Catholic cathedral where Ian and Rosey got married:

Ian and his best man mucking about with buttonholes:

Rosey arriving:

Her bridesmaids wave as they spot the old car:

Flowergirls and pageboys waiting for the grownups to get their act together:

Married!

After the wedding we went to the Secret Garden nearby, with it’s Victorian staircase:

An old photo of a married couple being passed around at the reception:

Kids on a couch prepped up for photos:

Best man’s speech:

… complete with a ritual humiliation of the groom:

How much of what we do now is different from the decades ago when Rosey’s and Ian’s parents got married?