A busy few days...

It was a full day on Saturday, I was covering a wedding with Samantha at Colwick Hall. This is a great venue and in time I will post some of the pictures. We arrived at Colwick Hall at 11am and the day ended for us at 9pm, shortly after the first dance.

It was then an early start on Sunday, as we were exhibiting at a wedding show at the De Vere Belton Woods Hotel, just outside Grantham. Samantha and I have recently joined forces to create a larger and stronger wedding photography business. We are both based in Newark and we work really well together. Over the past two weeks we had been busy getting some new exhibition displays ready for the show at Belton Woods - new displays, new sample albums, new prints and some new display furniture.

The show was really good and if we met you there then "hello from us". Working together means we can offer a service where both of us cover the same wedding. This means we can make the best use of time and physically be in two places at once. This works especially well during the preparations - Samantha with the bride and me with the groom - and during the service, with one of us at the front and one at the back. There is also something different about pictures taken by a male and a female, you get a slightly different feel from the image. So, as you can imagine, when we both cover the same wedding the pictures are simply great - even we surprise ourselves. I guess it is the strength of the team approach.

And on Monday I went to meet a couple at Stapleford Park Hotel in Leicestershire, just outside Melton Mowbray. Wow, what a place. I met Kelly and Neil, who are getting married there in June and I am their photographer. I am really looking forward to taking their pictures - they are a lovely couple and have put a lot of thought into the day. It just sounds fab - I'm excited and it is not me who is getting married!

Pictures during the service

The service can be a great time to get some spontaneous photographs, especially during church services, which are normally longer and the setting provides more scope. This is of course the first time the bride and groom meet and there are normally exchanges in body language between them. If there are two photographers, then one can be at the front and one at the back. The contrasting views can make for some really nice pictures. You obviously need to check with the person conducting the service, but most are okay so long as there is limited flash and you do not distrurb the proceedings.

Here are a few of my favourites:-


(above) this is a lovely candid moment, with the bride looking up at her new husband.


I use this picture quite a bit for promotion, as the soft tones and the gentle holding of hands portrays the mood and atmosphere of a wedding so well.


I love this shot, again a candid moment, using a slow shutter speed, so there is a bit of motion in the picture.


The expressions on the faces of the newly weds make this picture. It is a nice informal moment caught as it happened.


The first kiss. I thought this looked better in sepia, as it takes away some of the harshness from the white.

More dog photos

Our house has lots of small dogs, four to be exact. So, they end up getting photographed quite a lot. Their names are Jamie, Sam, Emma and Fleur. Jamie and Sam are King Charles Cavalier Spaniels, Emma and Fleur are small poodles. Fleur is not very well at the moment, she keeps on having fits - so it is a bit of worry, especially as she is only 6 months old. My wife also dog sits on occasions, when someone is going away or on holiday, in place of using kennels. So sometimes they are even more dogs around. I don't mind, as they all seem to get on well and it keeps me fit with the walks.


This is a moody picture of sam, obviously waiting for something of interest to come along.


This is a guest dog, Jaz. Jamie took rather a fancy to Jaz and is looking forward to her next stay in a few weeks time.


This is fleur, playing in the garden.

How much should I spend?

Weddings are expensive at the best of times and deciding how much is the right amount to spend is a tiresome task, especially when it comes to photography. This is not helped by the advent of digital technology and the internet, which means there is even more choice and therefore a much greater spread of abilities and prices.

The largest cost item is by far time. Living and working in the UK is simply very expensive. The more involved the photographer is for your wedding - before the day, on the day and after the day - then the more time he or she is allocating to your wedding, which has a cost.

However, equipment and professional development is important too. It is not just a case of getting an expensive digital camera. My main investment is in a range of professional camera lenses and flash, all of which I simply would not purchase just for personal use. You will have many guests at your wedding with their own cameras and they will take many snaps for you. The reason to hire a professional photographer is to get some truly great pictures, not just more snaps.

If you are reading this and your budget is for £1,000 or less then my best advice is to look around hard. Many traditional wedding photographers – the type of pictures your mum and dad will have had – charge less than £1,000. There are some more contemporary photographers who are prepared to charge this, but it is not enough to justify a full time profession, so the chances are they relatively new or have some additional source of income and are happy for this to be a labour of love. That’s no bad thing but just have a good look at their work first and satisfy yourself with what you see.

If you are looking at spending between £1,000 to £2,000 then it is worth thinking hard as to whether you are at the £1,000 or £2,000 mark, because there is a lot of difference in terms of choice. You will find many photographers with a price in this area, as it is the upper limit of the cheap photographers, the main price for the middle ground and the lower price for the high-end photographers. It can get really confusing, so it pays to do your homework.

If your budget is more like £2,000 and above, then this where you should expect to get real quality, both in terms of the photography and the choice of albums. There are some great wedding albums but they are expensive and it will be difficult to provide these albums at much less than this amount.

The general advice is to allocate around 10% of your total budget for photography. This is good advice, as the larger the wedding in overall budget then the more you will want to capture this with the photographs.

Blasts from the past

I love to look at old family photographs. They bring back so many memories, many of which I had forgotten. I like to capture two aspects in my photography, firstly I like to capture a scene that invokes some form of emotion - a pleasant smile or a special moment - and secondly I like the picture to have a creative, pleasing aspect - in short, something that I will look at and say 'now that's a nice picture'. Just having snaps is not enough, the picture needs to have a clear and simple message - otherwise the scene becomes too cluttered and confused.

Here are a few of my favourite old family pictures.


(Above) This is my daughter several years ago. The light is great and creates a nice modelling effect.


This picture won a competition at the time. This is another one of my daughters, the picture was taken over 10 years ago. She was always very curious and obviously wondered what happened to the washing - a great candid moment.


For those of you who have been to Toronto, Canada, you will recognise this as the CN tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world, with a 60's style revolving resturant part way up.


This was from a family holiday in Italy. We were standing by a vast lake and I wanted to take some scenic pictures, but large lakes are always a real challenge for photography. I then saw this jetty nearby and it made a great landscape feature. The reflections work well too.


This was from another family holiday, on Maderia. You can catch a ride down a very long, steep hill in these baskets. The men were waiting. I thought it would make a nice portrait. I like the composition and the balance of light.

Claire and Nigel

Claire and Nigel were married a few years ago - in August 2005 - and I took their wedding pictures. Shortly after the wedding they had quite a tough time across their family, including the death of one their close relatives - a disabled boy who was much loved by the family. And so it was some time before they were able to think about their wedding photographs.

I have put a link below to a slideshow I have recently done for them, well the shortened version. They are a lovely couple. Claire is a primary school teacher and Nigel is a policeman. I remember when I first spoke with Claire, way back in 2004, she was keen to have natural pictures rather than the more traditional type of wedding photographs.

Many people comment about my photography that I manage to capture the atmosphere and character from the day; it gives them a sense of what it was like to be there on the day. Well here is the link for the slideshow:-

Click here for slideshow of Claire and Nigel's wedding

The Meal and Speeches

The speeches can be a great time for informal photography. The day is in mid-flow, the nervous parts of the day are over - well for some at least - and people are generally much more relaxed. In many weddings the photography stops when the meal starts, it is the traditional divide that signals the end of the day for the photographer. I normally stay through to just after the end of the meal. It means a few more hours but I find photographs during the speeches in particular - of the guests and the bridal party - can make some fantastic pictures.

Here are some of my favourites:-


(above) This is a candid potrait of a bridesmaid taken during the meal. There is something about this picture in black and white that I like.


A classic reaction picture. The bride is holding her hands at some youthful story told by her dad!


This shot makes for a relaxed picture. It was during the speech by the best man.


One of those 'corker' moments - when I believe the best man came out with a great line. Being in the right place at the right time is key to getting these shots.


Again, a candid portrait. This is the bride's mother at the table.

Samantha Hook Weddings

Today marks the start of new month and a new venture. I have been working with another photographer in Newark (Samantha Hook) for the past 6 months and from this month onwards we are business partners.

It has been a real privilege working with Samantha and I have really enjoyed having another professional to work alongside. We are both professional wedding photographers and separately moved to Newark about 2 years ago. Samantha gets on well with my wife, Janet, whom she met at the gym, LA Fitness in Newark. After several coffees and chats it made sense to join forces.

We have done about 6 weddings together and we work well as a team. This means that we can share some of the costs - marketing and overheads - and can also offer couples the option of two professional photographers at the same wedding. This means we can capture formal and informal shots at the same time. Samantha can spend a bit more time with the girls whilst I spend some time with the boys, and so forth. We make a good combination and this makes for some great pictures.

It also means we can help each other for creative development and help make better business decisions. This is all great news for our customers, as this means they have the benefit of a larger and stronger business - but we are still small enough to remain personal and friendly. We cover weddings all across the East Midlands and will go further afield also.

Here is a link to a slideshow for a wedding we did together in December last year. The wedding was Rachel and Matt. They were married in Nottingham and had their reception in Southwell.

Click here for slideshow for Rachel and Matt