This week was a mix of emotions for me because i was asked to do a wedding. Nothing much unusual there for some, but for me i have never done wedding photography before so i was very nervous about the whole thing. I was asked by my oldest , and i mean that in a nice way , best mate. It was a very intimate affair and as such there were no other guests. He was also fully aware that i had no experience of being a wedding photographer and so i was doing it for the experience, and boy what a experience!
I arrived at his house two days before the event , along with my wife. We stayed with him and his now wife, for the first night and on the second day we headed out to The Alexander Hotel and Utopia Spar, Sussex. We were met by several members of staff who must have seen us coming on cctv. We had our bags taken in and when we checked in, taken to our rooms. The big thing that struck me throughout our stay was the first class service we received from the staff who are one of the biggest assets of the hotel.
We spent our first day looking around the grounds and checking out some locations for our photos the following day. From the moment i was up on the day of the wedding i was thinking about settings etc, do i shoot manual , in AV mode and use exposure combination , flash or natural light, as i discovered the answer is yes to all of them. My settings were changing all day long. Natural light window portraits and outside with the groom early in the morning, with and without fill flash. You really have to think on your feet as the locations you shoot change all the time. I have had to rescue a few images in post but as this is my first wedding i am happy to allow myself some errors.
As this was a very intimate affair i also didn't have all the normal formals to do but i still wanted to get lots of different images for the couple. So i found myself trying to enjoy the day but also thinking of shots and locations all day long. I have a new found admiration for weddings photographers lol !
Here are a few of the shots from the day, well from the ones i have processed thus far, i cant bring myself to batch process , if i was doing this everyday and needed to speed up my workflow i can understand sometimes this needs to be done.
I did learn a valuable lesson as i set up a four foot octabox outside in full sun with just a single speedlite , was not really powerful enough to use in such a large light modifier at the distance i had it. Good experience and once i had a few shots under my belt i was feeling happier and relaxed into the role a little more. I am now thinking i wish i had done this or i should have done that but i guess that is the learning curve you only get with experience.
Great couple of days with a great couple, i hope you have a few images you like to remember your day by. Here is wishing you both all the happiness for the future .