Vintage Wedding

29 January 2013

         A potential client contacted me this week and with one word turned me from a business like adult into a six year old, salivating, at seeing her first confectioners window (probably in France where they have all the sticky, chocolatty, goodies on display). What did she say?

She said, I’d like a sort of ‘Vintage’ look.

       "How lovely." I shrieked.

Ideal wedding material in these gorgeous little bonnets?

    From the sepia tones of the 1880’s through the muted colours of the 20’s and thirties to the sharp black and white of the forties and fifties all these presentation styles have their delights but they are as nothing to the possibilities they present in terms of era?

Wedding bliss according to the movies 1820's

       Could she be wearing a Jane Austen style dress, puff sleeves, a sweetheart neckline and one of those gorgeous, little bonnets that frame the face and turn every Miss Jones into Clara Bow?

Not a wedding, the sixtieth birthday party of the Fagan tribe's patriarch

Or could she be wearing something out of the 1900’s with large frilly skirts and even larger hats sprouting window boxes of flowers, feathers and frills. Like in this picture of my family in Ireland in the 1900’s.

     Look at all those pillars!

(So where is this house now? Why isn’t it mine? And where did all the money go?) 

I can surely be forgiven for a little curiosity? 

     

Two gorgeous  Catherine Dean modern wedding dresses in slinky 1920's  Downton Abbey style

      The only thing my potential bride has mentioned since my reaction to the word ‘vintage’ turned into semi-hysteria is that the dress is satin and very figure hugging. That does sound exactly like all those lovely slinky, 1910/1920 Downton Abbey gowns.

I can’t wait.

For more lovely brides and their stylish spouses go to my website.

Memories

23 January 2012

My daughter and her brother. The beginning of her love affair with the camera?

        I have just been reduced to tears by looking at my daughter’s website! What does she do?

She’s a wedding photographer! In Spain, on the Costa del Sol.

        She introduces herself with a lot of the childhood photographs that I took of her.  It must mean something. 

     She takes beautiful, romantic images of her clients in delightfully warm, sunny and exotic locations. Maybe it’s knowing that my next lovely couple will be travelling into the Brecon Beacons for their reception that is producing a momentary frisson of envy in me.

As the queen of hearts in a little video I made of her and friends in the 1970's

     Looking back over some of her childhood photos I see that there is definitely a romantic element to many of the pictures I took of her and often a dramatic theme to the videos. 
The next one, I can't remember what it was called, but the making of it involved three 
broken down cars, three AA call outs, the (putative) director being, very reluctantly, 
coerced into becoming the leading man and the immortal line,

    "You be wet girl." 

I don't remember what was supposed to happen in  the script but I was reading a lot of 
Thomas Hardy at the time.  

In the 1980's "under the spreading greenwood tree?"

But I am grateful that despite the bits of flooding, moving house, lost crates and 

suitcases and the various other disasters that occur to photographs in the course of 20

or 30 years, I still retain as many as I do, that will continue to provoke entertaining and

sometimes emotional memories.

Every parent should have one.

Mum's worst nightmare, a man with a motorbike

         I think what I'm trying to say is you never know what memories will want to record and remember, so start soon and record everything.

For more romantic images and happy memories, see the bridal couples on my website

Home and Away

21 January 2012

A bride looking beautiful in the Welsh snow

      It is January in the UK, and a cold and frosty January at that, and even the happiest of photographers, in the beautiful green countryside of South Wales, (currently under a  blanket of snow) have to be forgiven if their dreams are full of sunnier climes.

Destination wedding? As reality bites in South Wales?

      At this time of year, when planning your wedding, perhaps one of the first questions to ask yourself, is it to be at home or away?

     For many it’s a no-brainer, Mum and Dad (of either the bride and groom, or both) are not keen on flying and a destination wedding in the glorious heat of Antigua in November, January or March, is therefore out of the question. After all flying half way around the world to hold your wedding without your family would be a sad affair.

Romantic Galleon Bay, less fun without your family?

      But nowadays many of the flower children of the sixties and the jet setters of the seventies are quite old enough to have grown-up children of their own, and as they were the first generation to flee the chilly summers of the British Isles in their hundreds of thousands for the summer holidays of their youth, to many of them, the Mediterranean Costas are a second home and they are happier to hop on a plane to Europe than they are to take a bus or a train to Blackpool or St Ives. 

      The advantages of a Caribbean Island wedding are obvious, not only, the year round glorious sunshine, silver beaches and turquoise seas but also practical matters like the language spoken being predominantly English.

       The only disadvantage is the cost. There is no real way around the cost of flights to the Bahamas if you are committed to having more than a hundred guests at your wedding.

Destination Spain, Nerja on the Costa del Sol.

      Bringing things closer to home, it is probably worth investigating whether holding your ceremony in Spain or France would in fact cost you that much more than a similar venue in England and whether you can persuade your friends to combine your wedding with a holiday in the sun.

For more beautiful venues and happy bridal couples visit my website

Black Wedding

17 January 2013

Natalie Portman beautiful as the evil temptress in Black Swan

     "Brides have been wearing white since the Victorian era, so perhaps it is time for a new colour to be introduced?" So says a pundit on the wedding web.

      " When you think of wedding gowns,  a white or ivory confection comes to mind. But recently designers such as Vera Wang have been experimenting with a bold alternative: black. Some may say it can look distinctly Gothic, therefore undermining love, while others  say it is a statement dress that everyone will remember.  It will be interesting to see if this trend will reach local bridal boutiques or will be restricted to the cat walks. Is black the next white?" The pundit continues.

Wedding day bling. Did Klimt get it right is gold the colour of love?

     She definitely wasn't thinking of gold, or to be exact yellow but Klimt's wonderful exercise in bling maybe gets it right.

     The only problem I can see looking at Vera Wang's selection, of predominantly black dresses, on her website is that all the striking girls wearing these witchy black wedding gowns (the designer herself is said to have admitted that they are on the 'witchy' side) would probably look more attractive in white, cream, ivory or almost any other pastel shade. 

    The rebellious, statement making, drama queens who might be tempted to weddings with a gothic look, might be put off by 'gothic' being a bit passé these days, and are surely the girls who would probably find the whole idea of getting 'married' an anathema anyway.

     Better than the designer black perhaps, a scarlet woman?

Ruby red wedding dress for a foxy lady.

   However, I don't think it is the colour black that is at fault. Any bride thinking of a dramatic statement dress might well be tempted by the look above. All it requires is the healthy beauty of a real woman rather than the clothes horse, bag of bones, "you wanna see my skeleton? " image demanded of model girls.

Five lovely bridemaids in black and not a witch amongst them

More Swan Lake than Hansel and Gretel, the black tiara and stunning eye make-up above would certainly set off a black wedding gown. If you then dress your bridesmaids in fluffy white tulle you have all the style, romance and drama that your friends swan like forms can support. 
    You can have the choice between being Odette or Odile, black swan or white, (if I were you I'd base the decision more on Tchaikovski 's ballet than the heart rending cinematic update of the same theme).

    Less  art and ballet and more happy brides on my website

Sundry thoughts on Wedding dresses

January 14  2013

Lovely Lyndsey and her  bridegroom share a kiss at King Arthur's hotel on the Gower Peninsula, despite the weather

    In a magazine somewhere I came across a photographer  complaining about a bride "bulging over the top of her wedding dress!" 

    Poor lass! The dress may well have been bought six months or even a year earlier.

      Imagine her horror if in her joy at her forthcoming nuptials she, and her other half, have been indulging in too many evenings out with their friends, and too many of the lovely meals she has been cooking him. Now, on the day of the rehearsal, with 24 hours to go, she discovers the dress is so tight she can hardly breath! 

     Fifty years ago, mother, mum, nanny, gran and granma could all wield needles and sewing machines like professional seamstresses. They'd have had that dress off, the seams let out, tacked and re-stitched within a couple of hours with not a bulge in sight.           Nowadays however more than fifty percent of modern women, old enough to be parent or grandparent of the bride, pride themselves on their inability to ply any sort of needle.      Thank goodness for the green revolution bringing back all the 'old fashioned' crafts and skills otherwise come Armageddon those of us left behind will be trying to re-create the computer chip before re-inventing the wheel and brides will go to the altar in sackcloth.

     With all the developments in technology, I've yet to find a computer  that can darn a sock or let out a wedding dress.     

Wedding day glamour, a dress from 'White Mischief'  looking glorious on a very slender model.

       This type of dress, absolutely gorgeous, would look just as wonderful on a fuller figure  but it wouldn't prevent the bride's biggest mistake: choosing a photographer who couldn't see past a few bulges to the beauty every bride exudes on her wedding day.       
     In the UK wedding photographers like to take you, the bride and groom, for a wander to capture romantic portraits at some point during your day. Before the chocolate fountains and the demands of family and friends begin. This is a time for the two of you to relax together and enjoy some special moments in the early evening light. usually immediately after the ceremony and (if your photographer has any sense) before you get stuck into the champagne (renowned for creating flushed cheeks and runny mascara). 

    Americans do their romantic couple shots in a completely different way. The “Don’t let the groom see the wedding dress” taboo is reversed, as the photo shoot is before the ceremony. Before you are married! That means when you first walk down the aisle he has already seen you. (And there is much less opportunity for you to leave him, in that invidious position so beloved of British soaps: Dumped at the altar! ) But also, sadly for the photographer, there is less chance of the lovely moment when he first catches sight of you gliding towards him in all your bridal finery, and his heart fills with joy and his eyes fill with tears.

Bridegroom Alex with tears in his eyes as he first catches sight of his beautiful bride

His irreverent bride is moved to giggles

See more laughing brides and grooms on my website

Photojournalism and wedding photography

January 8th 2013

      Christmas is great but I am always glad when it's over and we've turned the corner to the first of the new year's weddings. 

    I really look forward to all the  excited brides, their nervous grooms, the lovely places and the photographic challenges the wedding season brings. 

     This year 2013, it won't be a long wait, my cameras come out on Saint Valentine's day.

A wedding in Seville where after the ceremony groups are always posed on the 

steps of the alter. Will the Vicar let me do that in Abercrave if St Valentines day 
turns out to be a washout?

    I am all for the natural and spontaneous. I’m not happy if someone else is taking a photograph and everyone has to stand in formation for ages… but I do my bit – I aim to smile or laugh in a natural fashion. After all I really know what the photographer wants and why he/she wants it despite the fact that I don’t see myself as a formal photographer and a series of formal poses is not how I would want to shoot a wedding, I do understand that  some formal poses are essential to the wedding album, if only to show (the grandchildren) who was there.

     However, the opposite of a traditional wedding photographer is not necessarily a wedding photojournalist. Often enough these days I get emails from brides who like my work, saying they don’t want posed pictures they want a photo-journalistic approach – I think this has become a style that is being used in wedding circles around the globe. Wedding photojournalism is an amazing movement, it began as a backlash to the staid, traditional posed wedding photography of the past. Before the backlash, a photographer would appear with his studio lights and his assistants, and he would prepare for the posed portrait photographs that would make up your wedding album. During any “action” he might stop the bride every few moments to issue instructions, “Stop there, tilt your head, a little more to the right, lift your chin dearie” he might say (yes he was almost always a man) “I just need to light a halo effect around your hair”, and every part of the day included him directing the bride and stopping the flow of her day for posed shots.

      Sadly the day was more about his portraits than the coming together of family and friends to join with the bride and groom in celebrating their love.

    With the advent of digital cameras, wedding photography has changed considerably and wedding photojournalism is all about capturing the reality of the day, getting the truth of the story on film without staging events. In short, keeping it real.

       “Most wedding photojournalists … focus on finding moments during a wedding that happen naturally, rather than setting up portraits.”

Wikipedia, says “The phrase wedding photojournalist has been in vogue for at least ten years and has now become almost synonymous with normal wedding photography.”

      This has got to be a good thing for the bride and groom when they come to look at their album full of spontaneous memories of the day.

      However although the bride and groom's desires are obviously the most important to the photographer nobody wants the day's memories later spoiled by a parent disappointed at the lack  of photographs of her and the family or the formal shots that she may wish to treasure on her mantelpiece.

A rather forced smile on the face of beautiful bride Luisa.

To see more formal and informal brides and grooms on my website:    
  The slightly fixed grin on this bride's very pretty face was followed by a demand for a more natural looking shot and she and the girls swiftly arranged a new group.

This one definitely did not make it to the album

              As I spent my first 25 years in photography working for newspapers, I really know what photojournalism is.

       Capturing reality yes, but a little formality or judicious placement doesn’t come amiss. I got my first job on a newspaper because an editor sent me to photograph a girl who had just won a place at a police academy. Before I left my house I borrowed a toy helmet from my children’s toy box, I had no trouble persuading the young lady to wear it, and the ensuing photograph so delighted the editor, that I shot instantly to the top of his list of freelances.

       Since then I have heard of several photographers arriving at scenes of fire damage or bomb disaster with a wounded, teddy bear conveniently secreted about their person!

       Every so often a bride (or groom) will say I can’t bear all those shots with everybody staring into camera. Of course I can see her point but when they take charge the results can be quite strange.

Hayley and Wayne cutting their cake at Margam Park Orangery

A bride who didn't like pictures of everyone gazing into camera  but forgot (or didn't know) how strange conflicting eyelines can look.

Check out more eyelines on my website