Brecon Castle Hotel hosts a Valentine's day Wedding

Craig y Nos Parc a beautiful place to relax on your wedding day

       As the bride said to me when arriving at her mother’s house, I failed to recognize her. “I scrub up well, don’t I?” 

She' s in the pink! Wedding day glamour for Angharad

        Always a pretty girl, the joy and excitement of her wedding day transformed her into a beauty. When I mentioned this,  I got a sardonic hmph! 
"Being made up to within an inch of your life will do it every time!"

         The bride on the arm of her father comes down the aisle of Saint David's church in Abercraf, South Wales. 

For more gorgeous brides visit my website

Weddings in charming Welsh Churches

October  6th 2012

St Crallo's, a lovely Welsh wedding in February

A wedding at St David's beautiful church in Abercrave in 2013

A nice wet Sunday morning and time to have a look at the interior of a church where I shall be covering a wedding in February. No point in going on a sunny summer’s day when I’m trying to reassure myself that I shan’t need to use flash during the service.

     What a joy, the church looks stunning from the outside and has a large area around it, where if it is not pouring I can perhaps grab some formal shots before the guests set off across the Brecon Beacons to the reception. Despite the large number of soldiers amongst the guests presumably they are driving rather than yomping.

     The interior stained glass windows are an attractive mix of ancient and modern style and the walls are a charming light cream colour with none of the dark nooks and crannies that older churches have. (Photographer chortling with glee as no need to fight with the vicar about how and when a flash gun may be used!) And if, with permission, I do use one at all, lots of light walls to bounce it off.

Light and bright, the church of St David in Abercrave, a photographers delight

   

    The main thing to note is that many of the parishioners park their cars on the asphalt entrance.  Hopefully the bride and groom can discourage this or they will  lose the picturesque background this handsome building makes and our chance of getting some formal groups in the can before everyone gets into the chocolate fountain waiting at the reception venue!

As yet no details on their choice of vehicle?!

For more beautiful brides in picturesque churchyards click this link

    

Photo-journalistic Wedding Photography

      Looking at wedding websites on line, both in Wales and in Spain, I see that for many wedding photographers, the current buzz word is photo-journalism. I imagine that the suggestion is that the photographer shoots what he sees and not the line-ups of family and friends so dear to the hearts of brides and their families the world over.

      For somebody who was a photo-journalist for 25 years (ie: earned my living as a photographer and occasionally wrote articles for newspapers) it’s irritating because it’s incorrect. Anything except hard news, war zones (and even here, history relates, a slightly singed teddy bear has been known to be strategically placed in scenes of devastation to increase the pathos) and sports photography, were totally posed and controlled by the photographer.

Wimbledon 1986 we were not disappointed

   A slice of photo-journalism specifically for everybody who knocks Andy Murray 

      In the late eighties, Andrew Castle, shared two things with Britain's current number one tennis player. His christian name and the fact that he was the British white hope and number one. His highest singles ranking was 80 and in doubles he made it once to the third round of a grand slam tournament but as far as I remember he was never vilified the way our current number one is. In fact he was never vilified at all, he was charming, good looking and we all knew that, "it wasn't the winning that mattered, it was the taking part", after all we were British and that was the British way. Ooh how we've changed.

Andrew Castle down and out in 1986

     In this era of vastly higher tennis ability and achievement Andy Murray has committed only one crime: he has allowed the British public to hope! And so far he has not quite delivered what they want. 

        How greedy and impatient we are!

        Nobody can doubt how talented and committed our gravel voiced Scot is. 

       Don't give up folks, remember Ivanesovic, always there or thereabouts until his last and final slam.




And for a photo-journalistic style of wedding photographs
Go to: patsyfaganphotography.co.uk

Crop Rotation

At PatsyFaganPhotography we believe our job is to make every bride look and feel like a star on her wedding day. So that is what we do.

    But like every other photographer once we get into post production there are issues that arise.
  "To crop or not to crop, that is the question?"

The bride pauses to see the Costa del Sol below her. The shot as taken on the day

For more wedding photographs see my website

http://patsyfaganphotography.co.uk

Nerja on the Costa del Sol, beautiful Christina on her way to the roof of  the Castle Hotel.

A headshot portrait of lovely bride Christina

   There is a theory adhered to by many purist photographers that the only acceptable image is the one framed in the camera on the day. I beg to differ.
      I imagine, in this case, the hotel might like the top one, the bride the second one and the bridegroom the bottom one.
     In the 1st one, the bride adds to the charm of the staircase, with its rustic tiles and lamps.
     In the 2nd one the bride can see how delightful her dress looks and in the 3rd one the bridegroom can clearly see the beautiful face of his new wife.
      Guess what, the photographer likes all three versions!
To choose your wedding photographer click here

http://patsyfaganphotography.co.uk