After the Ceremony and before the main Reception, English weddings generally have a break of about 2 hours. This is the perfect time to shoot great pictures of them looking fabulous.
Perfectly in Love, Perfectly dressed and now perfectly relaxed.(Since the hard part is over)
Almost every couple is amazed when I first tell them that I’d like as much of this time as possible on their wedding day so I usually have to do a little gentle persuasion in the months leading up to the big day.
Typically, my couples want great pictures, like the ones they see in my demo albums, but they say they don’t like having their picture taken. They like the fact that my couples are looking natural and figure that I’m in the background somewhere, snapping away out of sight. This is a common misconception. Like anything in life, great pictures take a fair bit of work.
If I were to hang around till my couples strike just the right natural expression at just the right time, in the perfect lighting, well…. I’d be waiting around all week and all week is what we haven’t got on a wedding day.
What we have got is a window of opportunity of 2 hours to shoot all the formals and great pictures of a couple who’ve never modeled before and make them look at ease, natural and cool enough for them to be proud to show the pictures to their kids in ten years time. Any photographer would find that assignment tough, so to give myself a fighting chance I’ve built up a little system over the years.
Firstly, I train my couples at a preshoot or ‘Engagement’ shoot a month or so before the wedding. (Actually we train each other. It’s a 2 way dynamic) At the preshoot, I get to know how the couple are in front of the camera and what kinds of things I’ll have to do on the day to bring the best out of them.
Secondly, I’ll go through the list of formal pictures and encourage the couple to let me do some in the mini studio after the reception. Most of my weddings generally only have 4 to 6 formals. This gives us more time to make the couple look fabulous.
Thirdly, I take the groomsmen and bridesmaids off on a ‘walkabout’ with the couple and a bottle of Champagne.
We explore the venue, or walk into town or take a ride. This is their big day and I want my couples to have fun and what better way to have fun than with a group of their closest friends?
If you have a look at all the pictures of couples laughing on this website… Those couples aren’t laughing at my “knock, knock” jokes. They’re reacting to something their best friends have said off camera.
I’ll direct my couples into the beautiful light and set a pose but the magic happens naturally.
[frame]This is the 1 Click Photography speciality. Cool, relaxed, fashionable, glamorous portraits of the bride and groom.
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