Zoe Lem’s Vintage Wedding Fair, this weekend in London
(Photo: one of Zoe Lem’s bridal dress collection, shot at the previous Vintage Wedding Fair)
I’ll be exhibiting at Zoe Lem’s Vintage Wedding Fair in Clerkenwell this Sunday, 1st April. Her previous shows have been a fantastic place to find all things vintage for your wedding and are a far more manageable alternative to the crazy massive bridal shows! You won’t be overwhelmed here, we promise :)
I’m not vintage, but I’ll be there bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to chat photography with you. Come and say hello.
Details
The Old Sessions House, Clerkenwell, London
From 10am til 5pm on Sunday 1st April
Tickets can be purchased in advance, or for £10 on the door.
To stand in a muddy field or not to stand in a muddy field. That is the question.
With every wedding I shoot, I learn something new; it might be a technical thing or it might be to do with a problem particular to the wedding. I have also learned from weddings that I have not shot, but have been told about. One grumble that has cropped up again and again is dissatisfaction with the wedding photographer. More specifically, issues with how the photographer handles themselves on the day.
Luckily I get told these unhappy stories when brides/mothers of brides/uncles/guests come to chat and let me know I’m doing a good job – usually because they’ve actually forgotten I’m there or they’re worried that I am getting tired and/or hungry! But I’m appalled at how many times I’ve heard a story about some awful wedding photographer who was clearly only thinking about their own portfolio and not caring about their client.
Let’s be clear: as the photographer, I am your employee for the day. You are my client, and you call the shots, almost literally. I am paid to do what I’m good at, but that has to be aligned with your wishes as the client. I am the experienced one at weddings and this is (usually!) your first time, so it is my job as a photographer when meeting couples to talk through how I work, what will happen and when, what we’ll do if it rains etc. If I am the sort of photographer who wants to spend a long time doing the more posed family shots, I should let you know so that you can be prepared for that on the day.
I have a friend who, along with her new husband, was taken off into a muddy field by their photographer, mainly it seemed so that he could get his portfolio shots; he certainly didn’t seem to have her comfort or happiness in mind. They were absent from their reception for well over an hour and when she objected to how long it was taking (plus I think it started raining), she was pretty much told to ‘shut up and put up’ if she wanted good photos.
Where do I start with the wrongs in that scenario?! Gone are the days when your head had to be clamped to keep it steady for the two-minute long exposures, wedding photography has moved on. We have digital cameras that can snap-snap-snap several times in one second and photographers (should) work very differently now; for me, it’s much more about capturing the moment, all the moments in fact, and telling the story of the day in all its glory.
At the very least, you should be warned about missed receptions and muddy fields so that you can get some wellies and a sandwich. It’s all about managing expectations…
Wedding photographer. And wedding counsellor.
So, I’ve been photographing weddings for about 15 years now, unofficially, and somewhere around ten years officially. You can imagine how many weddings I’ve been to in that time. A lot.
It’s a very privileged position to be in, as wedding photographer – you are an important part of a very intimate day. You are right at the heart of it all – the planning, the bridal preparations, waiting with the nervous groom, front and centre at the ceremony, disappearing off with the newly-weds to do some photos of them alone, right through to chatting cameras and lenses with dads and uncles. Over the years I have listened and learned as people chat to me and around me about weddings, and I have come to realise that as the photographer, you are also a counsellor or confidant for the day.
When I am with the bride and her entourage on the morning of a wedding, almost without fail I am turned to for reassurance or opinion. It can be anything from how on earth do you fasten these tiny buttons, to a look of panic on the bride’s mother’s face as she spies a small stain on the wedding dress, to “does my bum look big in this” and simply reassuring the bride that it is entirely normal to be nervous at this point (and in fact, she’s doing pretty well as far as I’m concerned given that I snuck off and got married abroad to avoid fuss!). Whatever the issue, I have become pretty good at finding the right response and think that it’s as important a role as taking the photos. It’s certainly something to bear in mind when choosing your photographer, because they will be with you throughout the day, from when you are at your most nervous to the other end of the day when you are the Queen of the show.
I had one bride (you know who you are Maxine…) who was obsessed with getting (or rather not getting) mud on her dress on her way to the church. It was summer and it happened to be a good one, but no amount of weather-checking appeased her anxiety. Realising that she was simply focussing all her pre-wedding nerves on this mud fixation, I suggested that if that did happen, her bridesmaids should cover themselves in mud too and make it a feature of the dresses…
It made her laugh. It made her relax. It made her feel like she had some control over the situation, and that, most importantly, as long as she turned up at the church to say “I do”, the day would be brilliant, mud or no mud.
Moral of the story: pick your photographer carefully. You’re paying us a handsome fee to do our job, but it’s not just our portfolios you should be checking out – we’re also your friend for the day so make sure you feel very comfortable with us. You should like your photographer, not just tolerate them, the day is far too important for that.
And as for that little mark on the dress… sssshhh, I wouldn’t mention it – by the time a bride sees it, she won’t care!
Steph & Richard: a weather-proof wedding
As well as attending Zoe Lem’s vintage wedding fair there, I was lucky enough to photograph a wedding at The Old Finsbury Town Hall. Steph & Richard live near the venue and decided to keep their plans simple and local by booking it for their wedding last autumn.
The brilliant thing about Finsbury Town Hall is that it’s not weather dependent. I have had so many pre-wedding meetings with fraught couples who are unsure about booking or not booking a marquee, and buying or not buying wellies + brollies, that it was really nice to shoot somewhere that works beautifully as a venue no matter what the great British weather throws at us.
As luck would have it, it was an exceptionally lovely October day so not only did we get great photos indoors thanks to the glorious rooms and windows at the town hall, but we also managed to go for a stroll around Exmouth Market, as well as to a little garden nearby. It was partly to give Steph & Richard a little ‘alone’ time (pretend I’m not here snap-snap-snapping…) and partly as I love taking photos of brides & grooms on the streets of good old London town.
Enjoy some photos from the day. And yes, I really wish I hadn’t been working so I could have had one of those delicious looking cocktails…
Sale! Prices slashed! Bargains galore!
Ok you get the gist, let’s not stoop to any more bargain basement speak plus it’s not actually January any more…
But anyway, it’s a new year and, following a hiatus after the arrival of a small shouty child who is now at nursery and standing on her own two feet, I am offering up my wedding photography services for a very nice discount to anyone having unusual weddings in the near future.
It can be indoor or outdoor, daytime or nighttime, big or small, I don’t mind as long as it’s interesting, has a theme or an unusual location, something to whet my photographic appetite. There’s no catch, I’m just really keen to get some nice interesting weddings in the portfolio and in this quieter wintery wedding season, I think there are bound to be some imaginative weddings happening. Get in touch, I’m looking forward to hearing about your circus/woodland/Las Vegas/rock n roll/gothic/whatever wedding!
Also, given that it’s the quieter season wedding-wise, same offer goes to anyone having a wedding on a day other than Saturday!
Contact me on: 0794 635 4308 / anne@itakenicephotos.com
The small print
The fee will be £500 for all day photography, as long as you’re inside the M25; that’s at least half my usual fee, pretty good no?! Anything further afield, get in touch and we can discuss a little extra travel fee. For that fee, you’ll get me taking photos all day, from the preparations to the dancing, and then high res images on a CD afterwards to do with as you please.
Steph & Rich, in the 70s…?
Following on from my previous posting, here’s an image I’m really happy with from a recent wedding in London. I’ve done a bit of Photoshop jiggery-pokery and, though the original image was good, it now looks really lovely and very evocative with its retro feel.
Steph & Rich were married at Finsbury Town Hall so we went for a post-wedding stroll around Exmouth Market, where this shot was taken. Steph & Rich were great to work with, a very easy going pair, but the one thing they asked me was to reproduce a few photographs that they loved from their own parents’ weddings, which we did. I thought it would most appropriate to treat these particular images like this, to give them that retro 70s feel, and I’m very chuffed with the results. More from this wedding on my site soon…
And thank you for the thumbs up on last posting :)
Messing around
I’ve been spending this afternoon playing around in Photoshop, giving images a vintagey Polaroid look. It’s good fun experimenting and I’ve found that certain images lend themselves to this process much better than others – a strong composition with a clear focal point for example, not too much clutter, works well. And also images with a warm luminosity to them already come out successfully.
Below are some examples of an image being given different colour hues and saturations; feel free to let me know what you think, which you do and don’t like. All feedback much appreciated (the original is the image in the middle and if you click on the image it will open in a new window, slightly larger for easier viewing).
Thanks!
A vintage wedding
I recently did a shoot for stylist, Zoe Lem, to show off her lovely vintage wedding dress creations. Zoe is hosting the Vintage Wedding Fair later this month at the gorgeous Old Finsbury Town Hall, where these photos were shot. It’s an old town hall now used for events and if you like the look of it, you should, it’s really lovely and most photogenic!
The hair and make-up was done by Issadora, who specialises in creating vintage looks for brides.
You can see the rest of the photos we shot that day on my site, itakenicephotos.com
If you want to meet any of us, come along on 30th October, details here. Come, there will be tea and cake…
Wake up and smell the flowers.
