Peacocks and Waterfalls

Again, I have had the absolute pleasure of working on a project with the very creative Samantha Raynbould , Make up artist .

This shoot was a continuation of us using water - in the form of an actual waterfall - as the backdrop/location to the look created, and combined with Sam creating a 'fantasy look' based on that beautiful bird, the peacock.

The aim was for Sam to display her skills in these area's, and for me to produce editorial style shots, on location, using natural light and to create images that high lighted Sam's skills and pushed me to be more creative and innovative. We wanted the images to have a 'WOW' factor .  Once again, the model was the lovely Isabel Sophie, Anna Schwarz (Izzy)

Location was Plas Power Woods, in Bersham, and once there, Sam put the finishing touches to the make up.

I turned 'hair stylist' rather than photographer, for long enough to style Izzy's hair into this rolled up-do

Close up of eyes

The final touch was adding peacock feathers - Sam had bought up the entire stock from a large craft and hobby store - She had also crafted a 'peacock tail' which we could use as a prop/backdrop in some shots - it was a little small for one or two ideas, but a little work in photoshop to extend it, and itturned out to be incredibly effective .

The dappled light through the tree's was really effective, though very dark, so I used a flash and played with the settings to try and capture the light in a variety of ways that would accomplish what we wanted .

I also played around with over exposing, and then in post production, boosting the sats around the eye area . . . I quite liked the effect .

We then moved on to another area of the woods, stopping as we found locations and light that I felt could work to help create good, strong images .

I liked the way the spiky branches formed almost a halo .

Here, it was the shadows of leaves on Izzy's skin that I thought was effective .

Then, eventually, we made our way to Bersham Weir - the waterfall .  The light here was just fabulous, and the original idea had been to pose Izzy actually standing in the falls - however, recent rain had the water coming down with such force, that both Sam and I were very worried about this - Izzy, as always, was very game to give everything a go - she is an amazing model to work with, prepared to try everything, an absolute natural in terms of interpreting what is asked of her and moving and posing effortlessly .  However, we started off with shots just using the light, and the back drop of the falls to enhance the images .

Izzy was keen to have a go at actually getting in the water, but Sam and I were concerned about how safe it was . .  . so we compromised, by having Izzy stood at the edge and just sort of 'ducking under' . . .

Poor Izzy was blue with cold when she came out - but was still game for another couple of shots .

I was really happy with a lot of the shots we got - I think that they showed off Sam's skills, as well as feeling that my own skills and ability to gauge and use natural light, and to produce editorial style photographs in an outdoor location, were definitely improving .

Sam and I have quite a few other projects in the pipeline - I can't wait :)

Theatretrain - Summer Schools

As I have said before, both my daughter's have been heavily involved in the Wrexham Branch of Theatretrain, and over this Summer holidays, their involvement has continued, with my older girl getting work experience, and my younger daughter attending as a pupil,  two of the week long projects that have been running, at the Forum Theatre, in Chester.

Steve, the Artistic Director, kindly allowed me to bring the camera into and take photographs of the end of week performances . These images have been used on the Theatretrain page, and also sent out as press releases .

First - Les Miserables 

One of the images I took was sent out with a press release and published in The Wrexham Leader the next week

And Then, 'Disney on Broadway '

I love taking photographs of the Theatretrain productions - every time I am blown away by how hard the kids and the teachers work, and the polished performances they always deliver - from the huge show I saw several of the various Theatretrain groups perform in The Royal Albert Hall, through to performances like this, where they only have 4 days to learn all the songs, scripts and dances, their standard is amazingly high, and they are always a pleasure to watch :)

Its a Nice day for a 'Wet' Wedding day !

Katie contacted me several months ago, to ask me to take the photographs on her and Nick's Wedding day.

With the big event scheduled to take place in mid July, I guess we were all fairly confident that the weather would be dry at least - but, as it turned out, July 2012 was to go down on record as one of the wettest July's - EVER!

As the date crept nearer, day after day dawned with grey clouds and heavy rain, and it was clear that the chances of it being dry were getting slimmer and slimmer - despite having shot a lot of weddings prior to this one, I had always been lucky with the weather, even in October and November Weddings, and had never faced shooting one in the rain before . So, with just over a week to go, I started some research looking for tips and advice on how to cope with shooting a 'Wet Wedding Day'.

I found a lot of practical tips - from how to protect my camera, through to advice like sticking a couple of white towels in with my kit, to place under the Brides dress for exterior shots, to protect it from wet and muddy ground.  At the rehearsal, I met the Vicar who was conducting the service, and he turned out to be very relaxed and very helpful, and he assured me that the Church would remain open for however long I needed it to, to get formal group shots, for example, should the weather be too bad for me to get them all done outside, as is more traditional.  The venue for the reception was lovely - a little village hall - but I knew, after I looked it over a couple of days before the wedding, that it wouldn't be big enough for the formal group shots, so I really appreciated the Vicar being so accommodating:)

I also realised that actually, the light on a cloudy, damp day, could  be really nice for photography, and providing the wedding party themselves were prepared to face it all with a smile, there was no reason why the photographs I got couldn't be as good as any taken on a dryer day  - especially as the location, a beautiful little village church, in a gorgeous rural area, gave me plenty of scope for really nice backdrops.

Aside from dealing in advance with the practicalities of the weather, I did all the usual preparation on the run up to the day - after the rehearsal, details about the style and colours of the dresses (Bride and her maids) were discussed and I then spent time over the next few days, thinking of shots and poses that would work with the outfits; I checked the light levels at the evening rehearsal, in the church, so that I had a base line for WB and settings for the actual service; We had a brief discussion about the style of photographs the couple wanted, and also factors like the numbers attending, and a host of other information was gathered and looked at.  At the rehearsal, I gave the bride printed examples  of photographs of 'rainy' weddings, that I had found on the internet - I hoped that would reassure her that the weather wouldn't spoil the shots, and it seemed to do the job - she loved a lot of the images I showed her, and was (luckily for me) quite willing to 'embrace' rather than curse the weather, and go all out to have a wonderful day .

So - the day dawned, and as well as my usual kit for weddings, into the car boot went towels, umbrella's and wellies ! . I arrived at the church just over an hour before the service, with my eldest daughter who acted as my assistant for the day, and straight away, we headed across the lane to the village hall where the reception was to take place, to start getting the 'detail shots' - i.e., shots of the tables, the decorations, place settings, flowers - these detail shots would later be used to compile collages, which can be printed off to be mounted in an album, if the Bride and Groom wish - and its nice to have a record of these little details, especially as in this case a lot of effort had gone into the decorating of the hall, and so many personal references were incorporated - the Groom had previously been in the army, so all the tables had 'names' that reflected this, and  The Brides colours included gold so - a really innovative idea - the decorations included bowls of goldfish !

Then over to the church, to get shots of the Groom and Best Man . The brief chats I'd had with Katie had given me a good idea of the type and style of photographs she wanted. Obviously, the traditional, formal shots are a given, but where possible, I like to have an idea of the 'feel' of the photographs that the couple want, to reflect what is after all, their day - and in their case the two key words were 'Romance'  and 'Humour' .

And after the 'traditional' shots, including the one above, time for some humorous shots . . .

And being as the rain just was not letting up, I decided we may as well have some fun making a feature of it!

Then it was time for Nick and his best man to head into the church - so we headed for the little gate, to wait for the Brides arrival . . . to add to the rain, there was also fog, and it wasn't long before we were soaked - the brollies were used to keep the camera and kit dry !

Rain and fog didn't wipe the smile off Nick's face, as he and his Best Man wait to enter the church.

Katie was fashionably late, lol, but when she did arrived - boy - did she look STUNNING !

 The rain continued to bounce down - as it did all day - but that didn't stop Katie wearing the most beautiful smile !

Inside the church, ahead of Katie and the Bridal procession, I made my way to the area where the Vicar had indicated I could stand to take photographs during the service.  In my experience, there are usually restrictions when photographing inside a church ( and often other Wedding venues too) - which, when you consider it is a legally binding ceremony, is not surprising.  Its a given that flash is forbidden, and the area's you can move around in are usually limited.  At the rehearsal, I'd taken test shots, and found that in the evening light at the time, I would have to go for 400 ISO - however, on the day itself, not only did we have rain, but fog as well, and the light inside the church was far dimmer than the rehearsal - no option but to bump the ISO up to 800 . I wasn't happy with this, but given the poor light, under the circumstances, I would rather have the increased grain and slight noise, than have the images too dark and risk a lot of blur.  Still - I was pretty happy with a lot of the photographs I got, and  I later desaturated quite a few of them, and found that the increased noise wasn't too intrusive.

Whilst photographing the service, I also kept my eyes open to try and get some reportage style shots too

Once the service was over, and the register signed - and again, taking photographs during the actual signing is strictly forbidden - I was able to start using flash ( a necessity, as the area where the signing took place was even darker than the main body of the church) .

The rain, if anything, was getting heavier, so although I would usually use the area at the entrance to the church to get some of the bigger group shots, on this occasion the lack of space plus the necessity of not letting the guests get soaked meant that the photographs were restricted to shots of the couple themselves, and much smaller groups .

Wanting to make use of the light outside, I 'reversed' the usual positioning for this style of 'traditional' shot - I moved inside the entrance,  and took pictures from there - the backlight was really nice.

In light rain, I may have risked going for at least one or two large groups shots outside, but it really was too wet, so I gathered as many of the wedding party as were there (some had headed for the reception hall all ready, the need for the loo more urgent than the need to stay for photographs, lol ! ) and took some shots in the interior of the church - I owe the Vicar big thanks for being kind enough to allow us the time to do this.

Katie and Nick professed themselves quite happy to pose - with the aid of umbrella's - for some outdoor shots, so allowing the rest of the guests to escape to the comfort and dryness of the reception, we ventured out into the church grounds.

And being as you couldn't avoid the rain, again, it was a case of using it to get something a little different .

 

The rain was just getting heavier and heavier at this point - so it was time to head over to the reception, where I was kept busy photographing the speeches and toasts, and grabbing any reportage style photographs that I could.

And obviously, shots of cutting the cake .

 

Over the next two hours, it was non stop, watching for photographic opportunities, and grabbing them - although the hall was a lovely size for the wedding party, there was little room to stage any 'big' shots, so formal style photographs  were pretty much impossible - still, I was happy with what I did get . . .

And the goldfish made for some novel props . . .

With the rain still teeming down,several of the guests were quite happy to brave the weather for  some fun . . .

And the confetti shots . . .

And the reception drew to a close .

This was quite a challenging day, simply because of the weather.  Several planned shots had to be abandoned, which meant me really thinking about a way to come up with a variety of photographs that still captured the feel of the day, despite the rain-imposed limitations .  I was very lucky that the Bride and Groom were absolutely determined to enjoy the day, and chose to laugh at the weather, rather than let it spoil anything - their attitude certainly made it easier for me .  I was glad I'd put the time in looking for tips and advice - things like having a small towel hanging round my neck, to wipe down the camera body every few minutes made a big difference, and having a white towel handy, to place under the brides dress on wet ground helped her to relax, without worrying that her beautiful gown would be ruined .  An assistant, holding a brolly to shelter your camera is also essential !


The hardest hurdle was coping with very poor light inside the church - during the service, obviously the last thing the participants are worried about is posing and holding still for the photographer, so you really can't slow the shutter speed .  A high ISO isn't ideal, but it was the only thing I could do - even with the lowest F stop, I had no option but to go up to 800,  thanks to the dark clouds and fog affecting the light available in the church - It was really frustrating, as was the fact that despite lens hood and the handy towel, as soon as we got inside the church, my lens fogged up, and it took a few minutes to clear it.

Editing took the usual 35 - 40 plus hours - aside from the basics of cropping, the bit of cloning out clutter where possible, blurring backgrounds and the odd tweaking of levels , I had promised a selection in black and white, sepia and with selective colour.  I also created around 18 collages, in both portrait and landscape format - previous experience at weddings had taught me that if the Bride and Groom want to print off shots for an album, having 'pages' put together like that gives a better 'finished effect' . 

(Some of the individual images incorporated into the finished collages were taken by my 'assistant' daughter - in between helping to keep the kit dry and generally fetching and carrying, she also had a camera and took quite a few 'reportage' style and detail shots, that I felt were more than good enough to include in the final images.)


The collages are where having the 'detail' shots pays off - photographs of the tables and decorations by themselves are not that exciting for others to look at - but incorporated into 'pages' like this, they really add to the impact, and its a lovely way to have a visual record of every little detail of the day.  I included in the collages a couple that focused on just the bridesmaids, as well - these are nice for those individuals to have a 'collection' of images, just for them.

And here endeth this very lengthy blog - because this was the first wedding I've photographed where I have been faced with such awful weather, I wanted to record very clearly what I had learnt from it, how I overcame some of the obstacles,  and also demonstrate that despite the rain, I still was able to get a wide selection of pretty good images for the couple .  

At least I know that if I am faced with such a 'wet Wedding day' in the future, I can cope :)

Thank you to Kate and Nick, and all their lovely guests, for allowing me to play a role in this very special day - and its as well to remember that according to the sayings, 'Rain on your wedding day means your marriage will be full of sunshine'  - so you two are destined to have one of the 'sunniest' marriages in history !