East Sussex Wedding Photographer
In my Behind the Lens series, I thought i would share an image that was taken on a very wet June afternoon at a wedding at the very special Le Manoir.
Although an East Sussex Wedding Photographer, I have shot about 50% of the weddings i’ve covered outside of the county. I love the excitement of working at a venue or location totally new to me. Generally, I reccee a venue on the morning of the actual wedding so that I can take into account the lighting and weather on the wedding day. Then using my experience, I come up with some special images for my couples with the minimum of fuss.
A good friend of mine, who is an exceptional photographer, showed me a wedding image that he’d taken at this venue a few years before with the swans. I couldn’t understand how he had achieved this despite being a brilliant wedding photographer.
So I was excited to reccee the venue on the morning of the wedding and find out where the swans were. Imagine my disappointment when I realised they were in fact, statues. I love a challenge so this was a bit of a downer for me.
Anyway, with my experience, I already had this image in my head. It was easy for the couple to do in such difficult conditions. My aim is always to ensure the couple are comfortable so after I explained where I wanted them to stand and what I needed them to do. Then I raced around to the other side of the pond, composed my shot and asked the groom to hide the umbrellas behind the wall.
The whole idea was to have the bride and groom in one corner of the frame and the swans in the other. Sort of a mirror effect. Then with the miserable weather and muddy, moody light or lack of it, I had always seen the final image as a black and white photograph. Of course, in post production I had to remove the stands that supported the swans but otherwise the majority of the images is as I shot in camera.
I was also lucky that this image went onto to win an award with the MPA South East Region Annual Awards.
To view my wedding portfolio, please visit my website here and my Instagram and Facebook pages.