Helfa Gelf - The Glyndwr Collectives

Helfa Gelf - The Art Trail - is being promoted as part of the carnival celebrations in Wrexham.  Taken from The Helfa Gelf Website

"Now in its seventh year, this free annual event is now spread right across North Wales with studios taking part in Gwynedd, Conwy, Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham. It is a unique chance for visitors to peek behind the scenes, experience this normally hidden world and get to chat to the artists and crafts people about their creative process."

The Glyndwr Collectives . 

 Glyndwr University has two groups of artists taking part in Helfa Gelf - The Glyndwr Collective, and The Glyndwr Applied Collective - and myself and fellow photographer, Dawn Field, attended the opening show/exhibition, and also visited the studios at the university, to catch some of the artists involved .

The opening show was really enjoyable - it was fantastic to see such a diverse range of art work, and a reminder about just how many talented artists study at Glyndwr .

Some of the many talented artists, pictured with examples of their work

Katie Brute - and Thank you Katie, for the initial invite to the show, and your help .

Tessa Jayne Rogers

Clare Watson

Link to more of Clare's work

CDW-Ceramics

Rebecca Parrin

Malcolm Jones

A few days later, I visited the studios to catch some of the artists at work .

This is Paul Davies, ceramic's student - Paul was kind enough to send me some background info on himself .

 "I am 53years old . I came to university later in life due to a back injury that eventually stopped me from working as an Upholsterer and also a production operater for kelloggs uk.Being dyslexic I was worried about the academic side of the course but I have had a lot of help and support from the university. I started my 1st year on a 2year Foundation course 2010/11, but at the end of the 1st year was asked if i wanted to transfer to the BA degree course of which I am just starting my 3rd and final year. "

Rebekah McEvoy

Sarah Jones

Links To more about Sarah's work

Flickr

Shop

Some examples of Sarah's work

 

Fellow Photographer Dawn Field is visiting quite a few of the studio's on the Helfa Gelf around Wrexham - after seeing the work produced by Glyndwr, I am really looking forward to seeing Dawn's images too .

Many thanks to all the artists of the Glyndwr Collective, and The Glyndwr Applied Collective - both the show and visiting the studio's were really great experiences :)

Africa Entsha - Workshop and Performance at The Glasshouse

I've been lucky to cover a few events involving @67 and Wrexham Community Choir, and I was so thrilled when they asked me would I come and photograph a workshop they were involved with, at The Glasshouse, Cefn Mawr, with the absolutely amazing Africa Entsha  - and then, that evening, photograph Africa Entsha's performance -  following links put up on @67's page, I watched a couple of video's of this amazing a capella group, formally know as Soweta Entsha, and I knew this would be a fantastically enjoyable day .

However, I'll add here that for some reason, it was a day of technical failure, to a certain extent .The day started with my sat nav playing up and deciding to take me in completely the wrong direction - thankfully I still got to the Glasshouse in plenty of time .Then, a couple of days before, I'd been asked if I could find anyone to film this event, but sadly, hadn't managed to drum up any volunteers - however, when I arrived, a cam corder had been found, and I had a spare SD card, so I figured I'd have a go at both film and photography :)  I also eventually remembered that my camera has HD video - which turned out to be a blessing, because when I came to upload the video from the camcorder card, I found it was corrupted, and despite several hours of trying to correct it and salvage something, every thing I had filmed on that was lost - so I was very grateful and relieved that I had shot several sections of film footage on my canon !

Technical problems aside, I was right about it being a fantastic day . To start with, its always good to be involved with the choir - not just because I love the music these guys make, but also because they are so welcoming and really lovely people. It was nice to see Beryl and Penny from the Glasshouse again, too - I met with them several months ago when I photographed a 2 day Viking re-enactment  they had organised at Ty Mawr Country park :)

I was introduce briefly to Africa Entsha, and their publicist, Jo, before the first part of the day - the workshop - started .The group were, to a man, so friendly and obliging, and Jo too was a really nice lady - we arranged that after the workshop, and before the performance, I'd take the guys outside and we would get a few informal publicity type shots - Jo explained that they needed some images for the groups website that was being put together.

Then - the workshop . The Glasshouse is a lovely venue, but as always with galleries of any sort, lighting is a pain !  Bright sunlight that came through the windows, was absolutely dazzling for the participants, so it was partially closed curtains and overhead lights . I really didn't want to use flash, when people were trying to concentrate and enjoy taking part, so it was up with the ISO again - however, I was still pretty happy with the photographs I got .

And - thankfully - I'd also recorded some of the workshop using the HD video on my camera

The 'Technical Gremlins', incidentally, came out to play again with this particular clip ! Although it appeared to have been recorded in the same format as every other clip I had filmed with the camera, the editing software I was using absolutely refused to play it - and nor would it upload to youtube or any other hosting site I tried - though it played perfectly in VLC, so I knew it wasn't 'lost' - it was 4 HOURS solid work to finally discover software that resolved the issue - I owe thanks to good friend Mark, and my husband, Sean , because it was combination of their advice that finally enabled me to sort it - meanwhile, I remembered why I prefer photography to film !

The atmosphere during the workshop was fabulous - everyone was having such a good time, and it showed - I hope I managed to capture some of that, with both the pictures and the footage I got !  The guys in Africa Entsha were just so enthusiastic, as well as talented, and everyone one of the participants was clearly loving it .

And a treat at the end - so glad I recorded this on my camera -

After the workshop finished, we were treated to some absolutely lush African food -

- I didn't realise how hungry I was till I smelt that food - and then I tasted it, and it was fabulous :)

The Jo arranged for the boys to pose for the photographs we had discussed earlier

Later, when I sent Jo these images she said they were 'amazing informal shots' and she was 'very happy', and they are going to be used on the web site that is currently being built for the group :) So, I am very happy too !

The guys had travelled from London the night before, and had had a packed itinerary for days - they had recently played at the Edinburgh festival (where they had been nominated for an award) and had a lot more dates to follow this event - but they never stopped smiling, and were incredibly courteous and friendly with everyone, posing for pictures with fans, and so clearly enjoying themselves - consummate professionals, as well as talented .  They even had the energy for some fun, in between working :)

Then, the performance - I spoke to the boys manager beforehand, and he said the guys were fine with me using flash - thank goodness, because it was obviously darker during the actual performance .

And WHAT a performance ! These guys are so entertaining, again, their absolute pleasure and enjoyment was so evident - everyone watching was smiling !

And again - very glad I used my camera to film a couple of songs :)

A couple of days later, one of the images I took was used to produce advertising flyers  for the group .


It was a really enjoyable day - I know I spent most of the time with a big smile on my face, as did everyone else there.  Big Thank you to @67 and The Glasshouse, to the Wrexham Community Choir, to the workshop participants and of course, to the amazing Africa Entsha - if anyone reading this ever gets a chance to go these guys perform, please go - you really wouldn't regret it :)

A Rather BIG Project !

This is by way on an introduction to a project that I've been putting together for a little while now, and that is going to keep me very busy for the next 2 or 3 weeks .

Over the Summer I've had a lot of contact with Wrexham Arts Council, attending and photographing several events at their request, and also several events that have come about because of the people I have been lucky enough to meet whilst attending Arts Council events .

Several weeks ago, Steffan Jones Hughes told me that Wrexham will be holding a big carnival day, on the 22nd of September, and he suggested it might be a really good event for me to photograph - well, if I can point a camera, I am happy, so of course, I was interested . This chat was followed up by an e mail that started to give me some idea of how big an event it would be, and Steffan asked did I know any other film makers/photographers who would be interested in getting together with me, and covering as much of the event as we could. 

Straight away, I called on Holly Cooper, who I'd already worked with on the ReImagine live music event, and who I knew was interested in more event work, and spoke also to Dawn Field, another photographer, who I have also worked with before .  Then, as event pages linked to the whole carnival started to appear all over facebook, I realised that 3 photographers would not be enough, and that it would also be a fantastic opportunity for any film makers that I knew, to document a big event.

And I mean big - before sending a 'shout out' to look for other photographers and film makers to take part, I listed what was involved -

On the 20th and 21st, there would be 4 dance workshops, organised by SWICA ,  (South Wales Inter-cultural Community Arts) and SWICA would also be organising the parade and street entertainment on the 22nd.   Peace day would also be starting 3 days of events, tied in with the carnival - on the 20th there would be Peace Day workshops held at St Christopher's school, with 10 other schools taking part; on the 21st there would be a community picnic and live music on Llwyn Isaf, followed by more live Music at Saith Seren till late ; and on the day of the carnival, there would again be a big Peace Day live music concert on the bandstand at Llwyn Isaf, followed by more live music in Saith Seren.  In addition, there would be a Zine Fair, in the Oriel Gallery on the morning of the 22nd, and to finish it off, the whole event was also linked to Helfa Gelf  - The Art Trail, where for the whole month, Artists across Wales would be throwing open their studio's to the public . 

Initially, I got a rather lukewarm response to my asking for volunteers to become involved in this project .  This was disheartening, but for several reasons, I decided to persist - firstly, it was the opportunity and challenge this presented to work with a fairly large number of organisations, if I could get a team together  -  In terms of experience, forming connections, the chance to demonstrate and improve my ability to collaborate with others in the field, and the professional practise module of my degree, it would be invaluable . Secondly, through the connection with Wrexham Arts Council, over the Summer I'd become aware of just how much was actually going on in my home town, and how hard Steffan, the Arts Council and other organisations were working to provide community events that would be of benefit to Wrexham - and I felt very lucky to be given the chance to have a small role in documenting what was going on .  Added to that, again, it presented the opportunity for me to meet more talented and creative people, which I think broadens my views and experience in a positive way . So there were a lot of reasons I really wanted to pursue this .

There was also the fact that increasingly, I was being approached with events that would be better for having more than one person working as a photographer, and also I was increasingly being asked if I could 'find' people to film events - particularly music events . So, the idea of getting together a bunch of students and ex-students, who could provide this sort of service in exchange for experience and exposure (and hopefully, in some cases, expenses at least covered) started to form . And maybe, eventually, it could even lead to paid jobs, for some, or all, of us - the experience would surely increase our chances . Holly had drawn the same conclusions, we had discussed it a few times, and both of us felt that it could be a really positive move, for all those involved .

So, I sent out individual messages, and made some phone calls,  and also contacted Dave Robinson, who has taught some of the film classes I have taken in uni and who is very experienced and who (I hoped) would be able to suggest potential film makers, and I also spoke to Stewart Edwards, my film and photography lecturer at Gyndwr .

In response to the messages and phone calls, fellow students Dave Fisher (film), Gemma Jones( photography), and Paul Lowndes (Photography) came on board, as did  Mike Greaney, a talented photographer I had met whilst studying at AS level .  Dave Robinson hooked me up with Dave Hale, a graduate in film who I had worked with briefly, during last Summer - and Dave Hale brought Luke Parry, another graduate, into the project on the film side .  Stewart told me he was going to set up a FB page for all creative lens students - which he promptly did - and I put a post on there, explaining in more detail what was going on, and asking for volunteers - as a result of this, Beckah Hornsey, Ryan Ankers, Will Aron and Kathryn Lunt, all second year CLM students also came on board - several other people expressed interest also, but were unable to commit to the extent necessary .  Stewart, after I had explained what exactly it was we were tackling, gave us the uni's full support, and made the uni's film equipment available to us - which was very much appreciated, as was Simon, spending time with the film crews and taking them through using the new equipment .  With Dave Robinson also offering to oversee the film side and offer advice and support , this gave a good strong team to cover all aspects of these celebrations, hopefully in some depth, in both film and photography .

Whilst I was gathering together this 'team', knowing Steffan was swamped, I decided to 'take the initiative' and tracked down and spoke to all the various people and organisations involved, to establish contacts for us to work with, and to find out more about what each organisation/group/individual did, what they would like from this project, for information and just basically to introduce ourselves and explain what we were about . 

As a 'team' we then had a series of meetings, where we eventually established who would tackle film for this project, and who would be the photographers . After 3 meetings, tasks were assigned and people were appointed 'lead' on various area's to be covered.  By the last group meeting,  I had produced what I guess could be called an 'info pack' - in it, I broke down the various days events, listed locations and contacts for each component, and included any pertinent information that I had - deadlines, info on consent forms, details about different aspects - it ended up as a 14 page document, and was a solid days work to pull together into a format that I hoped was clear.  In order to allow the team to communicate effectively, following a suggestion from Holly, I set up a closed FB group - The Wrexham Film and Photography Collective - where any questions could be asked, and new information shared . 

The organisation needed to pull together a project like this was immense - and something I don't think I had fully appreciated before actually taking it on . Because I was the initial person approached, and because I already had links with a lot of the groups involved in this event, it made sense for me to be the person who I guess, gathered and collated all the info and handled introducing the others in the team to the groups/organisations/individuals involved . It felt like I spent hours at a time sending and receiving emails, phoning people and researching, and taking copious notes - but, it was clear it was a necessary part of tackling a project of this size. I was very grateful to have Holly's help - as said, Holly had kindly covered a couple of the bigger events with me, prior to this, and had met several of the people involved with the carnivals various aspects .Once Dave Robinson and Dave Hale were on board, they thankfully took all the info and organised two film crews to cover the 3 days, and all I had to do was introduce them to the various contacts - at this stage, I felt it was better that they had direct contact, rather than going through me - the more layers in communication, the more chance that information could be misinterpreted or lost . Plus, film is not my area of expertise - better that those who were directly involved with the film side took over dealing with it - they would know better than myself what other information they needed to source, and what questions to ask .  The two film crews consisted of 'Film 1' - Dave Hale (lead), Dave Fisher, Dave Robinson and Luke Parry; and Film 2 - Beckah Hornsey (lead), Will Aron, Kathryn Lunt and Ryan Ankers .  Film 1 would cover the Peace Day events and Zine Fair, Team 2 would cover dance workshops, Parade and parade rehearsals and street entertainers .

The decision was made that with so much for the film crew to cover, and taking into account the amount of post-production involved, the live music at Saith Seren would be covered by photography only - we had to accept that adding more to the film side, given the size of the project and the number in the crews, would probably have lead to the standard of the completed work being compromised - Beckah took the lead for the photography . 

Also, on the photography side, we arranged who would cover what, and where necessary, who would be the 'lead' person to communicate with the organisations involved - others in the group are every bit as capable as I would be at this side of things, and as said - such a big project that one person being 'lead' on everything could potentially lead to lost/misunderstood information, or simply something being overlooked .  So, on the photography side, it looks like this . . . 

Dance Workshps with SWICA , on the 20th and 21st - Sue (me)
Peace Day workshops at St Christophers  on the 20th - Holly (lead) and Paul, with Gemma also attending if possible - with 300 children potentially involved, and several workshops plus the picnic, this was too big to ask just one person to cover .
Peace Day picnic and Music on the 21st - Holly and Paul.
Peace day Live Music at Saith Seren on the 21st - Will and Ryan.
Parade Rehearsal and actual Parade on 22nd - Sue (me) and Mike .
Zine Fair at the Oriel on 22nd - Holly and Dawn .
Street Entertainers on 22nd - Mike and Dawn .
Peace Day Live Music at Bandstand on 22nd - Sue (me) and Holly .
Peace Day Live Music at Saith Seren on 22nd - Beckah and Kathryn

Mike will hopefully be able to join the other photographers at one of the Saith Seren nights, at least :)

On the 22nd, Gemma is going to be literally where ever she needs to be - and she will be joined by Paul in the afternoon - it makes sense to have a couple of 'floating photographers', who are not tied to being at specific locations and events at specific times - they can literally 'wander' and in that way, hopefully they will catch a lot of unscripted and spontaneous moments, and be free to follow anything that comes up - the idea is this will give added depth to what is produced .

Helfa Gelf hasn't been forgotten either - Dawn and Mike have agreed to cover most of this, though Dawn and I covered the Glyndwr Collectives opening show as part of it,  both Dawn and I have visited the studio's at Glyndwr to photograph some of the artists at work, and Dawn has already visited and photographed yet another artist at their studio . 


Having got so far, and with the carnival now not so very far away, we are now at the stage where I feel pretty confident that between us, we are going to do a good job in delivering on this project .  I am so glad that so many film makers and photographers have committed to the project, and I really appreciate all the hard work that they are putting in .  I hope that this experience will stand us all in good stead, and hopefully generate more work experience and increase job chances for us all .

Its been a big learning curve, and pretty challenging - getting a team of this size together, having to sort and source all the information from all the organisations involved, connecting the various group members with the appropriate individuals and organisations, dealing with all the communication that's involved  for something like this - all new territory for me.  I've enjoyed it, but didn't realise in advance how much time and energy it would take , though I think from a learning point of view, its been worth every bit of effort I've put in . 

Whilst all this has been going on, I haven't neglected actually taking photographs, either - aside from the Glyndwr Collectives opening show/exhibition, I have also photographed at two other music events in the last week or so .  Blogs are to follow, on the absolutely fabulous time I had with @67, The Wrexham Community Choir and Africa Entsha, at the Glasshouse, Cefn Mawr, and also at The Wrexham Bandstand Marathon event, that Holly and I were lucky enough to go and photograph .  As well as that, the photography page I set up , Moments - Photography By McGrane  has been generating a lot of interest and I've spent considerable time keeping that up to date - and I really appreciate how many people have taken the time and trouble to look at and like the page, incidentally :)  Once you generate a certain amount of 'likes' for a page, you start to get feedback and statistics - discovering that in some weeks, the page had been viewed over 2,500 times is incredibly gratifying  - as well as surprising !

Blogs on the carnival will follow once we have the event over, and the work done . So for now, I'll just say Thank You to a whole lot of people who have helped us get this far, and who have welcomed and facilitated our involvement - to Steffan Jones Hughes (Wrexham Arts Council Manager), to Genny (Peace Day), Jenny (SWICA), Abi (Zine Fair), Laura (Oriel Gallery), Brendon (Live Music), Diana (Artist - Helfa Gelf), Vicky (Artist - Helfa Gelf), Angie (Artist - Helfa Gelf) , Katie (Artist - Helfa Gelf)  and all the other representatives from the organisations involved; To Dave Robinson and Stewart Edwards for their support . And to the other film makers and photographers who are involved, and who are working so hard :)  .

Wrexham Community Choir Workshop

One of the nicest aspects of being asked to go along and cover a lot of events, for work experience, this Summer, has been finding out about how much goes on in the local area, and how its allowed me to meet so many really lovely and creative people.  The message I got from Steffan, The Arts Council Manager, asking me to go along and photograph this workshop, held in The Oriel Gallery, is a prime example of this . 

I'd met with the choir, once before, at the Olympic Torch Ceremony - and I was blown away then by the fantastic music that they make .  So off I went with camera - and my youngest daughter, who is very musical and has a 'voice', and who was keen to take part in the actual workshop, whilst I photographed it.

Yet again, the members of the choir who were attending made me very welcome - its not just that they make wonderful music, its the enjoyment that they all so clearly get from their involvement with the choir, and their enthusiasm, that makes photographing events connected with them such an absolute pleasure.

The workshop started with Carol, the choir leader, taking the group through a series of warm up exercises - both physical and vocal .

It was great to see even the very young joining in :)

This didn't just 'warm' everyone up - it had everyone laughing and was a great ice breaker :)

Then started the singing - within a very short time, they were split into 'top, middle and bottom' and started off on a version of 'Pick a Bale of Cotton' - under Carol's guidance, the harmonies just seemed to pull together effortlessly, and my feet were tapping and my head nodding, within minutes - it really sounded good :)

From a photography point of view, the usual problems with light - I prefer not to use flash, when photographing something like this - apart from anything else, its distracting for the participants . Test shots had shown that with the high ceilings and artificial light settings in the Oriel, AWB worked best - with an ISO of 800. Just as the music had my feet tapping, it also quite naturally, had the singers moving - 800 was the minimum I could use and not end up with blur, and as I moved around the room, I sometimes had to up it from that too !

I spotted a window from the second floor that overlooked the gallery, and asked could I go up there, to try and get some different perspectives on the workshop, and as ever, the Oriel staff were very obliging and it wasn't a problem - not knowing I needed the circular polariser (to cut reflections) for this shoot, I hadn't brought it with me, for the lens I was using, but I did manage to get some images where the reflection from the window I was shooting through didn't intrude too much .

Back down to the main Gallery, and I just kept snapping away

The workshop lasted over an hour, and the time just flew by - at the end, I gathered all the singers for a group shot or two . . .

Just to be completely predictable - we had to have a 'jazz hands' shot :)

I want to say a big Thank you to Steffan, firstly, for inviting me along to photograph this workshop, and secondly, to every member of the choir and all the participants that made me so welcome :)  Several members of the choir were later kind enough to visit my facebook page Moments - Photography By McGrane and leave some lovely comments, the choir also asked could they use the images on their web site and facebook pages, which I was more than happy to agree to.  Best of all, the choir in association with @67 have asked me to come along and photograph 2 more upcoming events - @sixtyseven presents Africa Entsha live at The Glasshouse, Cefn Mawr and Wrexham Bandstand Marathon - which I am really, really looking forward to .  More info on these events can be found on the above links .

I really appreciate all the opportunities I have had to gain photographic experience through doing all these events - big Thank You to all of those organisations and individuals who have invited me along to take part :)

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 !