Lots of lovely wedding photography articles by Dan Biggins Photography
Well, how fantastic is this?!! Last year I assisted Matt of Salt Photography for the wedding of Ben and Nancy at Richmond Park- well, their wedding has only gone and won Your Surrey Wedding magazine Wedding of the Year 2014!! HUGE congratulations to you both guys, and I feel honoured and privileged to have been one of the photographers capturing your special day. Cheers!
I like to think I’m a modern man (please, stop sniggering at the back). I can appreciate beauty in the world when I see it (and no, I don’t mean making somewhat inappropriate comments every time Holly Willoughby walks on the screen). I’m very much in touch with my emotions, and I’m not afraid to express them. For example, last week my beloved and I watched the Remembrance Day broadcast from the Cenotaph in London, and I’m not ashamed to admit I became very misty-eyed during the two minutes silence. I’ve even been known to have the odd sniffle during heart-wrenching primetime television shows (such as Surprise Surprise, but only because I know that Holly will never be mine. Wail!)
Being a modern man also applies to weddings – traditionally, the bride would perhaps organise the finer details of the Big Day, such as the guestlist, where to buy the rings, the wedding stationery and so on and so forth. The groom’s role would be to (a) organise the stag-do and the stripper (b) ensure his bride-to-be never saw the photos of said stag do, and (c) turn up to church roughly on time on the wedding day. But oh, how things have changed, and rightly so. There are now a plethora of resources to help the groom chip in with the wedding organisation, and there’s a wealth of info to help him write his wedding speech as well. Here are four of the best sites out there:
I find it impossible to read the title of this site out loud without resorting to a comedy East-End gangster voice (“The Maaaaaaaaaaan Registry!”) However, I can assure you that this site has nothing to do with dodgy goings-on in the Whitechapel area of London, but is a veritable smorgasbord of groom-related articles, such as what to look for when renting a tuxedo, how to buy an engagement and wedding ring, and even a guide to prenuptial agreements (for those of you with plenty of money, or perhaps more to lose than the rest of us). However, it’s the speech we’re specifically interested in, so follow the link below for more information:
To me, this sounds like the title of a particularly rubbish TV drama based around a groom working in the emergency services, where the main character isn’t very good at his job (i.e he’s a nurse and his patients keep popping off, he’s a fireman and is a poor timekeeper, so buildings have burned to the ground by the time he arrives etc). But hey, maybe that’s just me. Turns out, it is in fact an excellent resource to help grooms on their wedding day, even if they have nicked the design of their logo from the BBC. Naughty. Also, to be honest there isn’t actually a specific section related to the writing and making of a speech on Groom 411 (“Previously on Groom 411!”), but I’ve included it here so I could shoehorn in my somewhat pathetic analogy relating to an emergency service TV show. Sorry.
Now this is a bit more like it. Coming from a web design background, I can certainly appreciate the consistency and style this website possesses, and it’s literally jam-packed with all sorts of fantastic info. For example, there are ideas for organising the honeymoon, an article about wedding sex (which I haven’t read, honest. Ahem), and most importantly there’s a whole section dedicated to writing a speech. Phew.
Another excellent groom resource, and the main headline that particularly grabbed my attention was, “Kanye West Is An Involved Groom – Are you?” The article also says, “Kanye Is Also Completely Doolally Bonkers, And That’s Why We Love Him!”*, which is fine by me.
*It doesn’t really.
Oh how I love thee WordPress. I’ve been building websites for over 10 years now, and as satisfying as it is to handcode a site from scratch, nothing beats the convenience and sheer customisability of a WordPress installation. Heck, this site you’re looking at now is built using the WordPress platform, and modified by me (Dan Biggins, Wedding Photographer and Chief Code Monkey at your service). If you’re a photographer and your website isn’t powered by this fantastic Content Management System (or you don’t have a website yet), then here are five reasons why you should definitely consider WordPress:
As I write this, there are over 71 million websites powered by WordPress. That’s pretty darned impressive, and means there’s a massive support community out there as well. Whether your site isn’t behaving as you expect, you’d like some advice regarding a plugin or you’re looking for someone to help install WordPress on your server, you’ll definitely find someone out there in the community willing to help (like, ahem, me for example).
There are literally thousands of themes available for WordPress, which means that however you’d like your site to look and behave, there’s bound to be a theme out there that caters to your needs. The beauty of this is that you can transform your site into whatever you want, from a simple photography portfolio through to a full blown ecommerce site.
As well as themes, there are also plugins to consider. Plugins are small snippets of code that you literally “plug in” / upload to your site to enhance functionality. One of the plugins I’ve recently installed places the Google+ box you see in the right hand column of this site, allowing people to connect easily with me (there are plugins for Twitter and Facebook too). Another plugin I’ve installed places a sliding panel at the top of my site, allowing me to easily customise it as I wish. The possibilities are endless, especially if you know a little bit of code.
The real beauty of WordPress is that you don’t need to know any code whatsoever to keep your site up to date. Let’s say you own a traditional static HTML website, and you pay your web developer a lot of money to update it every time you want to add a new photo / blog post etc. One morning at 3am you wake up with a fantastic idea for a blog post – if your site is driven by WordPress, you can login and thrash out your article to your heart’s content. I’m sure your web developer will be grateful not to be disturbed at 3am by a deranged photographer asking him or her to update their website.
This is perhaps the most important reason to adopt a WordPress site, and one that most photographers ignore (more of that in a bit). It requires a bit of tweaking out of the box, but there are certain things you can do such as changing the structure of your links to ensure they’re full of keywords (for example, from something like www.howhighthemoon.uk/p=6039 to www.howhighthemoon.uk/5-reasons-photographers-use-wordpress). A plugin that’s absolutely essential to SEO success is Yoast – it won’t transform your site on it’s own, but with a bit of tweaking you can make your site sexy and more visible in the eyes of search engines.
A small sidenote regarding SEO, and it’s something that photographer’s the world over are guilty of (myself included). A lot of photographers seem to think that “a pretty picture wins the day” – if they pack their site with loads of fabulous images and little else, search engines will push the site up the rankings because Google et al will know that people will want to visit that site to witness and marvel at the beautiful photography.
Search engines won’t, believe me.
A site without SEO-friendly URL’s, headings, keywords and (most importantly of all) written content will be as good as invisible to Google. As will Flash sites, incidentally – there’s absolutely no excuse in the 21st Century for any photographer to have a Flash-based portfolio. Two reasons – Flash is pretty much invisible to search engines (meaning your site will be invisible), and Steve Jobs and Apple have pretty much killed off Flash with the introduction of the iPad (whether that’s a good or bad thing is for another debate at another time).
If you’d like more help regarding SEO please feel free to drop me a line. If you’d like help switching from a static / flash site to a WordPress site, again, I’d love to help!
At the recent wedding of Sarah and Gareth in Liverpool I decided to try a new technique that I’d seen other photographers do, but had never attempted myself (after all, a wedding is surely the best time to start experimenting with a new technique that you’ve never done before, and one that has the capacity to go completely tits up. Isn’t it? Gulp.)
The technique in question is backlighting the bride and groom for the first dance, to create an attractive rim light around the couple, instead of firing the flash (modified or otherwise) straight at them. At the top of the page is an example of this technique.
It’s a fairly straightforward technique, if truth be told. The ambient light in the room at the time was pretty much non-existent, so I worked with a shutter speed and aperture I was comfortable with and within my maximum sync speed, and adjusted flash power manually to taste (none of this swanky TTL malarkey here, oh no). Out of interest, the exposure settings for all the following photographs were as follows: f4, ISO3200, 1/200s, 85mm.
As for the flash, I placed a solitary unmodified speedlight on a flash stand shoulder height, and around 10-12 feet behind the couple. I then manually (phew, hardcore eh?) set it to 1/32 power and fired it using a wireless trigger. And Bob’s your Dad’s brother.
Of course, the couple have to be directly in the line of sight between your camera and the flash, otherwise things can go a bit Pete Tong (also notice incorrect sync speed in this photo, resulting in black band along the bottom. Naughty photographer.)
However, when you get it right magic ensues. Here are a couple of other examples from the same wedding:
Earlier today I met fellow photographer Matt Jerram, who runs Salt Photography and ably assisted me in photographing Lindsey and Dan’s wedding in May last year. Not only did we share a few beers and munch on ribeye steak (God bless you Mr Jerram), we also discussed all things photography including marketing techniques.
Matt recounted the tale of Joshua Bell who, back in 2007, treated unsuspecting commuters to a virtuoso performance on the Washington Metro system. For those who don’t know, Joshua is an American Grammy award-winning violinist, so you’d think that (a) commuters in their hundreds would stop to listen to Joshua’s playing, and (b) Bell would make an absolute fortune from his busking exploits.
Of course, as you’ve probably guessed, it didn’t quite work out that way.
This started me thinking about us photographers, and our marketing efforts (or lack of, in most cases). As creatives, I’m sure we’ve all been guilty at some point or another of the, “If I build it they will come” syndrome, in which we’re sure that our beautiful photography will automagically generate clients out of thin air, with little or no effort on our part.
Or, we spend hour upon hour updating our websites, in the knowledge that clients will definitely book us because our photography is fantastic.
You know what? I’m sure your photography is fantastic. I’m sure it could make a burly Canadian lumberjack weep openly in public at thirty paces. The problem is, the quality of your photography has no impact on your success as a photographer.
That’s a bitter little pill to swallow isn’t it? But it’s true.
So, to recap. If our fantastic photography has no bearing on our success, and nobody seems to care even though we’re virtuoso performers in our chosen field, then what’s the point? The point is, it’s all about where we market ourselves. To take an extreme example, as a photographer you wouldn’t dream of advertising in Gardener’s Weekly, would you? (Unless you’re interested in photographing someone’s prize begonias, and if you are , then good luck to you). If you’re Joshua Bell, then you’re unlikely to choose busking as a viable method of attracting new clients (yes, I know he’s won a Grammy and is famous, but even if he wasn’t, I’m sure he’d be more savvy than to rely solely on busking as a way of generating interest).
As photographers, we need to ascertain who our clients are, and where they’re hanging out. And then stop busking to them and start marketing to them instead.
This is probably the most personal post I’ve ever written, and was inspired by Kathleen Trenske’s excellent article, “The Case Against Good Enough“, in which she extols the virtues of owning physical copies of your wedding photography, instead of allowing them to languish on a disc tucked away in a dusty draw. I recently saw the fantastic Jerry Ghionis at the SWPP convention back in January, and he echoed those sentiments by saying, “If your house was on fire, would you rush back in screaming, ‘Oh my God, we need to save our wedding jpegs!’ Of course you wouldn’t – whereas your wedding album would be one of the first items you’d rescue.”
And he’s right. Of course, some couples request a disc-only package because they intend to print out the photographs themselves, either individually or as an album. Or they may come back in a year or so and ask me to design an album of their images for them, which is great. As wonderful as it is to be able to view your photos on a computer, laptop, iPad or smartphone, you simply can’t beat holding and connecting with an actual printed photograph.
Which brings me neatly to the crux of this article. My parents Pat and Alan celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year, which is an absolutely incredible achievement. They also have physical copies of their photographs, taken by a Colchester wedding photographer (whose name I can’t recall but will find out) and they’re kept in a small card box. They still look as if they were printed yesterday, such is the love they’ve been afforded over the years.
Looking at them now, the true value of them shines through. There are photos of family members that are sadly no longer with us – most notably, my mother’s parents Bob and Violet, her sister Maureen, my father’s parents Albert and Hilda and my Dad’s brother Mick. In other words, everyone in that main photo except my parents.
It seems strange looking at this photograph now, knowing they’re no longer here. However, this image will always be a reminder of them, and as a result they’ll always be with us in our hearts.
(That I’d Like to Photograph!)
Today I’d like to blog about fantasies (not those kind, you saucy lot…!) but wedding venue fantasies. Amazing locations, sweeping vistas, breathtaking spaces…basically, any location where getting married would be an absolute dream come true. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to photograph a wedding at the amazing Leez Priory, but with all due respect to that venue, these following locations are a league apart. So let us begin…
As a child, my folks used to take my brother and I on day trips to London. We’d do all the touristy things – visit Buckingham Palace, Madame Taussauds and the London Dungeon…however, there was one venue that was always a real treat to explore, and that place was the Natural History Museum. When I visit now I feel very excited about the amazing architecture and venue as a whole (take a look at one of my favourite architectural photographs to see how magnificent the Central Hall is), but as a kid it was all about the dinosaurs. Or rather the unbelievably massive “Dippy” the Diplodocus skeleton. How cool would it be to have your wedding reception overseen by one of the largest mammals ever to walk the earth? Yes, very.
I confess I’ve never been to San Francisco, but judging by the grandeur of these interior photographs of the City Hall, I think that I’d rather like to…
What an amazing venue, and the cathedral where Charles and Diana were married. if you’d like to get married there, you need to (and I quote from the St Paul’s Cathedral website) -“be a members of the Order of St Michael and St George, the Order of the British Empire, holders of the British Empire Medal, members of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor and their children (but not grandchildren).”
That clears that up then, eh?
A few years ago I visited Santorini, and it’s absolutely breathtaking. Most adverts and TV programmes that depict the white buildings with the coloured roofs are all filmed in Santorini. If you get married or spend your honeymoon there, be sure to visit Oia to witness the sunset. Beautiful.
It’s one of the most prestigious hotels in London, if not the world, so who wouldn’t want to get married there? (well, anyone whose budget is less than the GDP of a small country, but we can all dream…!)
You know the rubbish, miserable and downright depressing weather we’re having in the UK at the moment? How about forgetting all your cares, maxing out your credit card* and getting married on the British Virgin Islands?
*(I assume no responsibility for any dubious financial advice administered on this site…!)
I went to Venice a few years ago with my girlfriend. At first it’s completely overwhelming – so much staggeringly gorgeous architecture, all tightly-packed within a small area, that it literally befuddles your head. So much beauty, so little time. However, after a cappucino / Peroni or two and a few deep breaths, you can begin to digest just how spectacular this place is. Within 30 minutes we’d visited the chapel where Vivaldi first performed The Four Seasons, a hotel where Tchaikovsky used to stay, as well as being charged around £12 for a pint of beer (be VERY careful where you go to eat and drink!)
We didn’t get to see the Historical Gothic Palace, but just look at it. Makes my eyes water, in a good way.
Ah, France. The country of romance, exquisite cuisine, and Zinedine Zidane, one of the finest footballers ever to grace the planet. They also have some absolutely spectacular wedding venues, if the Chateau de Challain is anything to go by…
Words fail me. Simply look at the stunning painting and architecture (designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor, fact fans), and imagine walking down the aisle here….sigh.
I thought I’d end with a venue that’s literally just down the road from me; if anyone out there is getting married there (or would like to get married there), then hire me as you’ll save on my transport costs! (I’m kidding…) I’ve walked past Dulwich College on a number of occasions, and it’s spectacular on the outside (and even more spectacular on the inside, judging by the photo above…)
We all need to keep learning, right? No matter how good we think we are, there’s always room for improvement, and when a chance to learn from two of the best in the wedding photography business looms on the horizon, we’d be fools not to grab it with both hands.
Speaking of which, yesterday I had the pleasure to attend the Shooting Winter Weddings Workshop in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire with renowned wedding photographers Damien and Julie Lovegrove. Together they’ve photographed over 350 weddings, as well as releasing a book and a number of DVDs, so it’s safe to assume they have a pretty good idea what they’re talking about..!
The basic premise of the workshop was to demonstrate how to take (hopefully) fantastic photographs throughout the course of a wedding, often with very little light to work with. To quote from the official blurb, “This workshop is designed to give wedding photographers the confidence and skills to take beautiful images that the client will love. Simple, repeatable techniques are taught to provide you with all the necessary skills to take your wedding photography further.”
The day was divided up into three sections – the bride and groom getting ready, pre-ceremony portraits of the bride and groom, and finally shots of the ceremony and the couple together immediately after the ceremony. As a bonus, the day ended with Damien talking about lighting solutions for weddings, and Julie covered the psychology of a wedding shoot, from meeting the couple, arranging the flow of the day with them and so on.
What struck me most of all during the workshop was how possible it was to capture fabulous images in extremely low-light conditions using very low shutter speeds! For example, two scenarios spring to mind; the first was a shot of the bride Sarah in one of the corridors of the hotel against some beautiful wood panelling, where there was seemingly no usable light except for a splash coming through from a window opposite. Previously I’d have disregarded the location, and would have deemed it too dark to capture a usable image. How wrong I was…using a monopod, high ISOs, low shutter speeds (sometimes as low as 1/15 and occasionally 1/10…shudder…) and overexposing by +1EV on this occasion, it was entirely possible.
The other seemingly unusable location was under some trees just by the church. By this time the heavens had opened and the sky was bleak and angry, so the group looked at each other when Damien led us all under some trees where there was even less light. Again, using a monopod, a slow shutter speed, high ISO and overexposure, we all managed to capture an image that the couple would adore.
I’ve read numerous wedding photography / processing articles where the author warns against blowing the highlights and retaining all the detail in the bride’s dress. Julie was happy to dispel this myth, if it meant capturing some wonderful images. Damien emphasised this point by stating that all the shots should look like they were shot on a sunny day. After all, the couple hardly want to look back at their wedding photos and remember that it was tipping it down on their special day!
As you’ve probably guessed, I’d thoroughly recommend the workshop. It’s set in a beautiful location, Damien and Julie were extremely friendly, approachable and happy to help and assist along the way, the couple Alex and Sarah were extremely professional, and I came away with a renewed sense of optimism, enthusiasm and most of all, inspiration.
A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to photograph the wedding of Nigel and Carmen Smith, and thanks to both of them for a wonderful (if extremely challenging) day!
I thought I’d detail my experiences here, for anyone thinking of shooting their first wedding – hopefully this will outline some of the things to look out and prepare for, as well as any pitfalls that may arise during the day.
I really can’t emphasise this enough. Two people have entrusted you to capture their special day – it doesn’t matter whether they’re paying you a small fortune to do so, or whether it’s a favour to help them out at the last minute. Either way, their expectations will be high, and they’ll be counting on you to capture some wonderful images of the day.
I met with Nigel and Carmen a month before the big day. Ideally I’d have met them a few months before that, but time being of the essence meant that I had around four to five weeks to prepare, which was just about enough time. We discussed timings, including:
And lots of other questions to boot – the more info you can garner at this stage the better.
A bit of a no-brainer this one, but the last thing you want to happen while the bride is walking down the aisle is trying to figure out how to change the aperture or ISO.
For example, I bought a Nissin flash unit to help out with the shots during the speeches, and had relatively little experience regarding how to use it. I’d taken some shots using studio lighting, but a small flash unit is a different kettle of fish. For example, would I shoot using manual flash or E-TTL? How would I balance ambient light and flash to obtain a natural looking exposure? So I bought a copy of On-Camera Flash Techniques for Wedding and Portrait Photography and devoured the information within it, while taking various test shots over the next couple of weeks until I felt comfortable using it.
I also hired a Canon 5D Mkii and a couple of Canon lenses (24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8 IS, both wonderful and flipping heavy lenses…!) The 5D has a different menu system to my 400D, so I spent a couple of days using it, ensuring I knew exactly how to quickly change the aperture, ISO and shutter speed at a moments notice.
This is something I didn’t have time to do unfortunately, but something that I thoroughly recommend. It’s incredibly helpful to know where everything is taking place, especially as a lot of wedding venues tend to be fairly dim places and lacking in natural light.
For example, Nigel and Carmen were married underneath one of the towers at Leez Priory, and although it was a beautiful location it was lacking in natural light (okay, not strictly true – there was plenty of natural light, but they were facing away from it). As it was, I had to make a snap decision to bump the ISO up to ensure a fast enough shutter speed. Not a massive decision the grand scheme of things, but something extra to think about when you’re under a lot of pressure.
I was lucky enough to attend the wedding as a guest, although I have to admit I didn’t really feel like one due to the pressure of capturing the wedding. Saying that, I ate with everyone else during the reception, but foolishly didn’t take any water with me (a huge thanks to Steve and Kirstean for buying me a couple of orange juices during the day…lifesavers!) It was a hot day, I was on my feet for pretty much ten hours, and those two lenses were heavy. Take some liquids at least.
Overall, the experience was an amazing one, but I haven’t felt that knackered for a long time. Wedding photography is hard but ultimately rewarding, especially processing the images and discovering that a fair few of them were pretty good after all. If you’re thinking of shooting your first wedding, prepare all you can – meet the couple, look at the venue, know your equipment inside out and most of all stay calm during the day. I had a few moments of panic and there are things I’d do differently next time (try and relax a bit more would have been nice), but once the clients see the shots and are thrilled with them, it makes it all worthwhile.