Coincidentally Melissa and Steven had booked their wedding on the same weekend we had planned to arrive for our holiday in Devon which worked out very well. So I’m writing this blog while on holiday, the weather has been great so far and we will be back in London this weekend.

Melissa and Steven are moving house next week and will probably take a holiday later in the year.

The guests were taken by two beautifully restored Routemaster buses from the ceremony to the reception along with the Fiona and Matthew on board. Drinks were served on the bus by Matthew’s groomsmen which made the trip more fun for everyone. Fiona’s mother had made a fantastic job of dressing up the marquee in the garden and we left the party when it was in full swing at about 11pm.

Fiona is a work colleague of Madelaine Davis whose wedding I shot three years ago, and I met Fiona and Matthew in February this year.

Fiona and Matthew will take their honeymoon in Edinburgh where Matthew’s father lives.

St. Mary’s church in Battersea is one of the few churches in London that is next to the river and fortunately as Emma and James had provided their guests with umbrellas we were able to take some of the group shots alongside the Thames.

We all made our way by Routemaster bus to the One Aldwych Hotel, a much drier location, where a fantastic reception was held.

Emma and James are planning to go on honeymoon next weekend to Malta.

We made good use of the cars and above is one of the many shots that were taken on Saturday. The rain threatened to disrupt things at times during the day but it added to the fun with guests and the family dodging showers in and out of the marquee. I met Charlotte and Max at two weddings I photographed last year in Scotland and they came to see me at my studio in January.

They are off on honeymoon on Tuesday next week.

I’m always surprised how little traffic there is in the city at the weekend, and you could see Caroline arriving with her father in her white London taxi from some way away.

They had a fantastic day with their family and friends and they are off on honeymoon to the lake district on Wednesday.

I have met Caroline and Paul a number of times at their friends weddings during the last year and they booked me last September at a wedding where Caroline was maid of honour and Paul was an usher. Find out more about my wedding photography services here.

Saturday was a windy but otherwise a sunny day and the confetti shots on the steps of The Chelsea Town Hall were excellent. The party moved morved across the road to the Bluebird restaurant where they had their reception.

Simon and Karon will take their honeymoon in New Zealand later in the year.

I met them both with Jessica’s mother at my Battersea studio last December and I’m told that since then Jessica and Charles have been to an incredible fifteen weddings! So, having seen what others have done at their weddings the couple had a pretty good idea of what they wanted to achieve and I they think they pulled it off in great style.

For more information on Wedding photography go to: http://www.weddingphotographerslondon.uk.com/
The photographs will be ready to view by Wednesday this week.

I have a DVD sitting on my desk with 1000 photographs taken by a real uncle Dave at a wedding on December 12th last year. The couple whose wedding uncle Dave attended came to see me last July to talk about their wedding photography. They were on a tight budget which all couples have to grapple with and they were looking to make savings wherever they could.
They came to see me again last Friday with their set of photographs that uncle Dave had taken and they said that would would ‘pay whatever it cost’ to rescue their wedding photos. Having thought they would make a saving they will, in the end, pay about the same price as they would have for a professional photographer. They’ll be reminded of this everytime they look at their set of retouched rescued uncle Dave’s pics.

And on Saturday a client brought me some black and white prints that he had printed by ‘a well known high street photo shop’ from an image that I had taken and supplied to him on disc. They were badly cropped, printed on colour paper so it had a green colourcast, there were also some watermarks on the paper which indicate sloppy printing. I have offered to reprint them myself free of charge despite the fact he offered to pay me to print them properly. I have to prove to my client that the product I have provided him was as high as he had expected. My high standards have been debased by another supplier in my industry. Uncle Dave is also employed by well known high street shops because professional image makers are expensive to employ.

My point in this blog is that in the last couple of years there seems to have been a significant shift towards cost playing a much larger part in the decision making process even if the risk is poor quality, poor service, and bland, dull, lacklustre work. The recession has a lot to with this and I suspect many industries other than photographers have found cost basis decision making a problem too.

I have never been busier and I know other photographers who are busy too, but there are now many in our industry, particularly in weddings, who have positioned themselves in order to take advantage of the unwary who are looking for photography done cheaply. For uncle Dave this is excellent news. He can join the mass of ‘weekend warriors’ shooting weddings without having to give up the day job. With his new gear, and little experience he can make some easy money taking advantage of couples on a tight budget.

And then yesterday I read an article in ‘The Professional photographer’ written by a fellow photographer, Allister Freeman. Allister is an established wedding photographer with a good reputation. The article talks about his opinons on the current state of wedding photography. He quotes ” ……An age where Joe Public beleives he can do a better job than you, poor perceptions, fuelled by a mass of similar styles and monotonous imagery already saturating the market have a deleterious effect on an already beleagured industry”. A lot of the mystery of photography has been taken away by digital and it’s understandable that Joe Public thinks that he could do a better job with his new gear, but a camera has always been a box with a hole in the front of it and it takes just as much skill and experience to make a good photograph as it always did.

Several years ago it was quite clear who knew what they were doing and who didn’t just by looking at their website, now it is possible to make a slick presentation online for little cost and pitch yourself against those who are good at what they do. At least established photographers can rely on their reputation and on word of mouth, but this is becoming a real problem for photographers who are just starting out and want to offer their customers good quality. And for the client it’s almost impossible to make an informed decision particulary in these days where price is very important.

When the recession has been and gone we’ll look back on ‘the uncle Dave days’ and perhaps simply put it all down to cost driven behaviour. There are uncle Daves in all industries but in this perfect storm where the importance of price meets rapid technology change a new breed of operator has emerged who is satisfying a new demand for cheap at all costs.

At my stall in Northcote Road we see the agonising over ‘what to get you know who’ first hand. It might have been decided that a framed or mounted photograph is the ideal present for ‘you know who’ but will ‘you know who’ like the image you’ve chosen.
The relief is palpable sometimes when a gift voucher may be the answer. OK, its not the ideal solution as you would much prefer to give ‘you know who’ something to unwrap rather than a voucher but ultimately ‘you know who’ will get exactly what they want rather than a near miss.

We can send you your gift voucher through the mail or by email. You can see the selection by going to the following page;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/vouchers.php

You can use the voucher to purchase or put towards any of the framed and mounted prints we have on offer as well as any of the services we offer.
Below is a list of links to the relevant pages. To buy a voucher just go back to the voucher link above.

Portrait photography;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/porgallery.php

Event photography;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/eapgallery.php

Wedding photography;
http://www.weddingphotographerslondon.uk.com/portfolio/

London photographs, Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

London Photographs, Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

London Panoramic photographs
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New York photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New York photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Paris Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Paris photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Prague Photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Prague photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Sydney Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Sydney photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New Zealand Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New Zealand Photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Most modern couples are looking for something quite different from the photography their parents probably had, and rightly so, as times have changed not only in terms of modern camera gear and techniques but also in terms of style and composition. ‘Reportage’ and ‘Contemporary’ are words widely used within those 46 million websites, and I use that sort of vocabulary also as that’s generally what modern couples want to see in their wedding photographs. They want to see all of their friends and family having a great time at their party, and they want to remind themselves in the years to come what a great do they put on, and how good they looked and how happy they were on their wedding day.

I believe that successful wedding photography involves not simply portraying the main events of the day but capturing the mood and spirit of the occasion. To do that you need to be able to get in close without getting too close, ‘unobtrusive’ is another word we photographers use a lot. You also need to produce a good set of group shots as well as the animated photographs, and I think these group shots are often the most difficult to make a good job of. The group shots need to be well lit and well composed, throwing a group of people no matter how smartly dressed they are won’t work. The groups need to look balanced, not only in terms of family groupings, but also well structured. It’s also essential to have a responsible member of the bridal party on hand to help assemble the groups so the photographer can concentrate on getting the shots of the group coming together and moving apart. Some of the best animated shots can be taken as groups form and move apart again.

Key photographs such as confetti throwing and bouquet tossing also need a little bit of organising, it’s important that the photographer is a good position and that the throwers are coordinated. Photography is all about being in the right place at the right time and very little about what gear you have.

Post production is a very important part of the process. One you’ve loaded all of the images onto your computer, and there may be in excess of 1000 images, you can then enhance your style as a photographer. Most of the couples I’ve photographed over the years ask for a mixture of black & white and colour, and they also know that each image starts life as a colour image which can be manipulated almost to their specification.

I then put the finished set of photographs on my website which can be password protected if required, and send a DVD with the high res images to the couple. The couple normally have their finished set of photographs about 2 weeks after the wedding day, often a nice surprise for when they return from their honeymoon.

I also offer a selection of wedding albums as part of my wedding packages. This year my digital packages have been very popular as the couple can pay for the photography and the digital photographs and start making an album when funds allow.

Take a look at my wedding page on my website and send me an email for more details.