They were terrific fun to work with, really got into the spirit of the photo shoot & were game for anything. At one point we even had them throwing autumn leaves all over each other! We took some photos around the church, then we tried a spot near the lodge (no John was not home...) to make use of some interesting trees in the park there, & finally over to Nara Park.
In this entry I'll try and explain the background to some of the photos & how they were achieved.
This shot was taken with the bride just sitting on the end of the bed with her bouquet. I just positioned her to make use of the natural window light & then darkened out some of the room distractions in post-production to give it a sort of clean studio feel.
I usually like to do something a bit silly to warm the bridal party up a bit for the photo shoot later on - to help them have fun & be less conscious of the camera. In this case we simply got the girls to jump up & down on the bed!
The hotel where Kirsty got ready had some really nice paintings in the walkways. This one was situated just nicely with a skylight to the left throwing some natural light onto the scene. I filled the frame with the painting, again to make it look like a studio shot, when in actual fact it was just taken on location in a hotel!
When I first went to Kirsty's room I noticed this lounge on the floor below hers & pre-visualized a shot from above with her draped across it. The high angle gives it an different feel.
This was shot directly under another of the hotels skylights. In this one I was experimenting with the vertical panorama format & the negative space above the bride.
Another painting, this time a black & white one that went well with the B&W theme of their wedding.
This shot was taken coming in from the balcony at St.Andrews. I rarely get the opportunity to shoot out there due to the time constraints of the church, but this time we were the last wedding of the day. Unfortunately the outside shots I wanted to get didn't quite come out as I'd hoped as the light was in the wrong place, but I loved this candid shot of the couple framed by the door & the strong back lighting. Serendipity sometimes makes for great photos even when what we intended doesn't work!
Love this ornate door. I have added a vignette & some darkening in post-production to bring out the texture in the bricks & wood a bit more.
These are the trees I wanted to use - I thought they looked quite dramatic with the shapes of their bare winter branches.
I thought this shot had a nice feel to it, like they're out for a stroll in their country estate with the beautiful, warm, late afternoon light.
We wanted to have some more fun with the veil but it wouldn't behave itself. I had my wife behind & to the left throwing the veil over them a number of times before we finally got this shot. Shhhh.... don't tell anyone we cheated!
Kirsty & Adrian wanted to get some photos with a bit of foliage in them if possible. There wasn't much around & it was fairly drab. This was taken with a wide angle & enhanced with some Photoshop magic to make the foliage more vibrant.
This photo just cracks me up.... The boys were trying to "synchronize" their jumping & clicking heals, but they just couldn't do it, they were all over the place - I think they were laughing too hard after the first go!
A silhouette shot to show off the fairy lights.
