I love this part of the story.
As you arrive at wherever the bride is getting ready you never really know what's is in store for you.
If it's at a house I knock on the door and wait, if a hotel I ask Reception to ring up to see if they are ready for me but all the time wondering what mental state everyone is going to be in.
The most chilled bride at meetings might be in a mad panic over some detail or other, people might be running late and you are the last person they want to see or everyone might be so relaxed that it's hard to get a sense of excitement or anticipation into shots.
Whatever people are feeling it's the start of the story and really important to set the tone for the day ahead and get some good images in the bag straight away.
Sometimes I find it hard to get going - I like to get into a flow through the day and how I start seems to be crucial.
On entering the room where the bridal party is getting ready I try to introduce myself to everyone and let them know the type of photographer I'm going to be throughout the day - 'Just keep on doing what you are doing and for the most part ignore me.
I'll just lurk around and get a few shots.
Oh, and chuck me out of the room if you need to change', that sort of thing.
The first thing I do when entering a room is look at the light - where is it coming from?, how much of it is there?, what is the quality of light like? (Is it a room full of horrible downlighters blazing away? Is there a window with lovely soft light streaming through?).
This tells me where I need to be to get well lit images and what my background is going to look like.
I'm going to take a moment here to lay out my feeling on how much interference I allow myself as a photographer.
I used to be a documentary fascist and never alter anything in a room or ask anyone to move to a better position or even into the light - I have mellowed.
The photojournalistic or reportage approach is 'style' of photography to me and one I really enjoy BUT I also have to serve my clients to the best of my ability, make the best images I can.
I now will tidy up a background by moving things out of the way, suggest that certain things happen in certain places ('Can you get into the dress over by this window', 'Stand here to help put the necklace on' etc.
) and if timings are crucial for me to say get to a church even suggest when a bride gets into her dress so I can tell that part of the story as well as catch everyone arriving at the church.
I'm setting the stage for things to happen but not dictating what happens.
The day still flows naturally but I can capture it in the best way possible within the setting.
Having said hello to everyone and looked at the light the first thing I tend to do is get those 'texture' shots in the bag that are expected but also make a nice start to the story.
Shoot the dress, the shoes, jewellery, flowers (if they are there yet), personal good luck cards/tokens, anything special or personal to the day that is around - these can be uninspiring 'weddingy' things to shoot but I find if I do this first then it acts as a warm up for me to get my eye in and for people to be used to hearing the shutter going off and having me around.
But I like to always be aware of what else is happening - I don't want to be doing these shots if the make up artist is about to start on the bride or mum pops in to see how everyone is and I miss a lovely moment.
I'm flexible and alert (oo-er!) and keep a mental checklist of everything I want to shoot in the room that I can keep going back to.
For those of a technical disposition this is how I'm generally shooting this part of the day - 28mm 1.
8 on my 1Dmk4, 85mm 1.
8 on my 5Dmk2 both shooting in Aperture Priority at f2.
Lots of light flooding in with a nice shallow depth of field and hopefully a beautiful bokeh.
There.
I think I've rambled on long enough in this part now (and not really got started on photographing the bride) so next time I'm going to walk through the rest of how I work through this section of the day.
As you arrive at wherever the bride is getting ready you never really know what's is in store for you.
If it's at a house I knock on the door and wait, if a hotel I ask Reception to ring up to see if they are ready for me but all the time wondering what mental state everyone is going to be in.
The most chilled bride at meetings might be in a mad panic over some detail or other, people might be running late and you are the last person they want to see or everyone might be so relaxed that it's hard to get a sense of excitement or anticipation into shots.
Whatever people are feeling it's the start of the story and really important to set the tone for the day ahead and get some good images in the bag straight away.
Sometimes I find it hard to get going - I like to get into a flow through the day and how I start seems to be crucial.
On entering the room where the bridal party is getting ready I try to introduce myself to everyone and let them know the type of photographer I'm going to be throughout the day - 'Just keep on doing what you are doing and for the most part ignore me.
I'll just lurk around and get a few shots.
Oh, and chuck me out of the room if you need to change', that sort of thing.
The first thing I do when entering a room is look at the light - where is it coming from?, how much of it is there?, what is the quality of light like? (Is it a room full of horrible downlighters blazing away? Is there a window with lovely soft light streaming through?).
This tells me where I need to be to get well lit images and what my background is going to look like.
I'm going to take a moment here to lay out my feeling on how much interference I allow myself as a photographer.
I used to be a documentary fascist and never alter anything in a room or ask anyone to move to a better position or even into the light - I have mellowed.
The photojournalistic or reportage approach is 'style' of photography to me and one I really enjoy BUT I also have to serve my clients to the best of my ability, make the best images I can.
I now will tidy up a background by moving things out of the way, suggest that certain things happen in certain places ('Can you get into the dress over by this window', 'Stand here to help put the necklace on' etc.
) and if timings are crucial for me to say get to a church even suggest when a bride gets into her dress so I can tell that part of the story as well as catch everyone arriving at the church.
I'm setting the stage for things to happen but not dictating what happens.
The day still flows naturally but I can capture it in the best way possible within the setting.
Having said hello to everyone and looked at the light the first thing I tend to do is get those 'texture' shots in the bag that are expected but also make a nice start to the story.
Shoot the dress, the shoes, jewellery, flowers (if they are there yet), personal good luck cards/tokens, anything special or personal to the day that is around - these can be uninspiring 'weddingy' things to shoot but I find if I do this first then it acts as a warm up for me to get my eye in and for people to be used to hearing the shutter going off and having me around.
But I like to always be aware of what else is happening - I don't want to be doing these shots if the make up artist is about to start on the bride or mum pops in to see how everyone is and I miss a lovely moment.
I'm flexible and alert (oo-er!) and keep a mental checklist of everything I want to shoot in the room that I can keep going back to.
For those of a technical disposition this is how I'm generally shooting this part of the day - 28mm 1.
8 on my 1Dmk4, 85mm 1.
8 on my 5Dmk2 both shooting in Aperture Priority at f2.
Lots of light flooding in with a nice shallow depth of field and hopefully a beautiful bokeh.
There.
I think I've rambled on long enough in this part now (and not really got started on photographing the bride) so next time I'm going to walk through the rest of how I work through this section of the day.