Why have two professional photographers at the same wedding?

One of the reasons why I have decided to join businesses with Samantha Hook is because of the pictures we can get when we both attend the same wedding - they are in a different league. It takes time to work as a team and develop a good working partnership. We have done around 10 weddings together, and the pictures just keep getting better.

Use the link below to see a slideshow from a recent wedding.

Slideshow of Jenny and Bruce

The wedding is of Jenny and Bruce, which had been booked through Samantha Hook Weddings but I joined Sam throughout the day. The location for the service and reception was Colwick Hall, Nottinghamshire. If you are viewing this page and you know the family and would like to purchase prints, then please visit

Samantha Hook Weddings

oh, I turned 40 today... i suppose it has to happen someday.

Reportage or "Snapography"

We often have this discussion with couples. There is a strong preference for natural pictures amongst many couples and it is easy to think that these are taken naturally - snaps. For those who have either tried themselves to take natural pictures or have looked at different styles it will be very clear that this is a much harder ask than it may seem. For those who have not, it is easy to think that natural pictures are simply taken with little effort, after all they are just natural pictures.

Taking snaps is one thing - and you can tell when photography is portrayed as natural but in reality it is just some snaps. No, good reportage photography is a whole skill on its own. Much of this skill is about learning when NOT to photograph - it is easy to go around taking 'natural' snaps, but many if not all of them will be that, snaps.

We take the view that couples will have many guests with digital cameras and they will not be short of snaps. They don't pay us to take even more - so we don't. Our time and effort is spent getting great natural pictures. I'm not blowing my own trumpet, because simply that is what people are paying for - a professional service to provide professional images of their wedding, and good reportage photography is a skill in its own right.

One of the problems with wedding photography is that it is relatively easy for someone to buy a digital camera and set themselves up as a professional - it can make for a nice part-time income, but I'm sorry, you can tell the difference between a snap and good reportage photography.

So what makes a good reportage picture. Composition has a large part to play, taking the picture so that it is not cluttered or confusing, so that it tells a simple message not a crowded one. Second, use of different lenses makes a large impact, whether using a wide angle, shallow focus, low light or telephoto - they all have their role dependent upon the situation. Most of my lenses cost around £1,000 each and they are all professional grade - which means they are big and heavy as well as expensive. Being in the right place at the right time is a large factor and this is about being able to anticipate where the best shot will be, from what angle and using what lens.

So the next time you are looking at natural photography, why not pause for a second and ask if this is a snap or something more.

Lucy and Dean

It is always nice to meet up with couples after their wedding and see how they are getting on with life. I met up with Lucy and Dean on Saturday, who were married last May. I dropped off their wedding album (yes, it had taken them a while to choose their pictures).

Anyway it was very nice to see them again. They had had a lovely new kitchen fitted, which was a present from all the guests at the wedding - which I thought was a rather nice and very practical gift. It is a very homely and inviting kitchen.

For their album they decided to have an art book album, which I have made using photographic paper. The album is laid out liked a matted album but you can also have pictures that cover the entire page. Lucy is very into creative design - being an art teacher - and so she took my initial layout, which gave her a basic idea how to layout an album, and then made her own changes. The resultant design is very nice and is personal to them. Click on the link below if you want to see what I mean:-

slideshow of Lucy and Dean album layout

Here are a few pictures from their day:-

Fleur

Some light relief from wedding photos:-

Now for those who have read my earlier posts you will know that Fleur is a 6 month old small poodle, a very small poodle. She weighs in just over 2 kg, that's a couple of bags of sugar. She had fits when she was a puppy, a very small puppy, and again about a month ago. She has to take drugs each day to keep her stable, but apart from that she is fit and well.

Now she may be small, but she is no angel. You could call her a minute T-rex or a small dog who thinks she is really a big dog. Here are a few pictures of her in the garden this afternoon.

For those technically minded, about cameras not dogs, these pictures were taken on an Olympus E1 with a 35-100 f2 (70mm -200mm for 35mm equiv). They were taken at F2.8, 1/200th and ISO 200. The last picture was taken on a 11-22mm wide angle (22mm-44mm for 35mm equiv) at f2.8. The Olympus camera produces some real nice colours and the f2.8 aperture throws out the background to give a nice pleasing feel to the picture and some depth.

We've just chosen our wedding photographer

I'm so relieved and absolutely thrilled to have found and booked Glen for our wedding. Everyone else we looked at was either booked, too expensive or not quite right. When I saw Glen's pictures I knew he was the right one, I just had to hope my fiance felt the same way. You can see from his pictures that he likes weddings, he likes taking pictures of people's weddings and he has a natural empathy with everyone involved. I'm really thrilled he'll be there because I know he will get a fabulous result and I don't have to worry in the slightest.

posted by Natasha

Guest posts

One of the joys of wedding photography is getting to meet so many people; one of the frustrations of being a wedding photographer is that you have to meet so many people! You see, there is very little repeat business - for obvious reasons. So I have very many, satisfied but once time only clients.

So, I have asked couples who know something about me to send in a post. It is entirely their words not mine. Over a period of time this will build up into a collection of comments, and useful tips and advice for prospective couples. A big thanks in advance to all those who are kind enough to set a little bit of time aside and send in a post. If you would like to and I've not asked then simply send me an email and i will tell you how.

best wishes, Glen

Seeing all the images from a wedding

A couple recently asked me if they could see all the images from a wedding. Many people advise couples looking for photography that it is one thing to put together a sample of images from many weddings, it is another to produce consistent results throughout a whole wedding. So here are two links for slideshows for all the images from 2 weddings I did last year. They both contain around 400 images each, so be warned it may take a while:-

slideshow of Lizzie and Ben

slideshow of Helen and Andy

happy viewing!

What's in a name?

This is an open invitation for you to influence what we call our new business. It is of course our photography and approach that will define us, but names are important too. So far the thinking is:

Samantha Hook and Glen Ford Photography - a bit long but it says on the tin what's inside. A big thing about the new business is that the real usp (unique selling point) is the power of the team, in that Sam and I working together on a wedding can achieve results that are simply difficult to get using other models, i.e. one pro photographer or one pro + an assistant. So if the main selling point is both of us then why not include in the name, or that's the logic.

Sam and Glen - a shorter version of the above. We'd really like to hear some views on this one - does it work for you, could it work for you, does it really matter anyway?

A name without using our names. This is a real tricky one, because we really don't do cheesy names (no examples for fear of causing offence) or names to infer a more corporate feel - because, well we are not corporate. All ideas welcome, but be warned it is harder than you might think.

If you have any views then email me using the link here Help us to choose a name!

There are no prizes for the winner except the satisfaction that you can say - 'I helped choose their name'. So go on, don't be shy, just send me your thoughts whatever they are on email.

Deadline - well in the next few days would be helpful.

A few of Sam's pictures

I've picked out a few of Samantha's pictures that I really like and say a lot about why her style works really well at weddings. My approach tends to be more hands off, I simply prefer to control less and shoot more - I like to capture the natural moments without too much intervention from me. Samantha is similar in a way but is much better at what we called 'directed photography'. This is very different from the traditional approach, where the pictures are heavily directed and controlled, it is simply giving people a little direction to enable some great photographs.

There is a big trend away from posed pictures and instead to have lots of natural and candid pictures. Our belief is that a mixture of styles is what works best for most people.

Let me show you what I mean:-


Taking a small amount of time with the bride and groom, away from the gaze of their guests can make for some very nice, intimate pictures. This is about setting the scene and then giving a little prompting on how to stand and what to do. I think it works really well.


I absolutely love this picture. The expression, colours, lighting and composition all make for this to be a beautiful and stunning portrait.


This is a more fun shot, but well set up. I'm not a great fan of tilted camera shots but they can work well and this one does. Asking the bride to spin her dress, the setting, timing and composition - and especially the bride's expression - all make for a great picture.


This is a nice picture and could easily have been a candid picture, but was not. There was no heavy control but some gentle direction to help turn what would have been a nice snap into a very nice and pleasing photograph.

Designer Package

More on the new business with Samantha Hook Photography – Samantha and I started to work together last August. We covered around 7 weddings together last year and we were really pleased with the pictures. We work well together at a wedding and our mixture of styles makes for a good balance of coverage on the day. So one of the reasons why we created a new, joint business is so that we could offer a true two-photographer offer – which we have called the designer package.

The benefit of doing this as a joint business is this approach uses two professional photographers who have established a good working relationship – and this is different from just hiring a second photographer for the day. Just putting people together does not make a team, the team comes from working together over a period of time. There is no personal connection between Samantha and I, so people really are getting two professional photographers, because the only basis is a professional one.

Many of our bookings for next year have opted for the designer package, which is a real encouragement to us. We like to shoot together and we love the pictures we create, but obviously not everyone’s budget can extend to two professional photographers.

In essence, the designer package means you get both Samantha and me at your wedding day, with no restrictions on time on the day. The other main element is the photography and the package are built around the couple. The concept is different – because we spend more time with each couple to understand in some depth their day and what they want from their photography. It is more a case of commissioning creative professionals to work with you rather than buying an off-the-peg package. We get more involved in your day and you, which means more time for us and hence a higher cost, but the resultant photographs are the best we can produce. We would like all our weddings to be the designer package, because that's when we take our best pictures, so we don't charge silly amounts but obviously we have to pay two wages from the one wedding.

We often say to couples that good wedding photography is a partnership between us and the couple. We can do our best to photograph the day, but how the day is planned, the setting, and the contribution from the couple and their guests are big factors in the type of photographs we can get. And in short, that is what we do in the designer package.