30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 22 | Black & White

After the wedding is over, and I have all of the photographs safely backed up onto my system, it's time for the edit.

This firstly consists of me choosing the best images from the entire collect which have been taken from the wedding. This process is known as "culling".

After the cull, I then edit each final photograph individually. I often tweak with the images brightness, contrast amount, and colour. This is also the stage where I decide if the image should be processed in colour, or the amazing tones of black and white!

I love black and white photos. I can't really explain why I love them, but it seems to add to the "moment in time" feel. Don't get me wrong, colour photos are a lot more popular and more seen than black and white, but sometimes it just feels right to take the colour away and add the black and white effect!

My favourite use of black and white is when the light in the image is "hard" or "harsh" and high contrast. Black and white simplifies the image and draws your eye to the lighter part of the photograph.

Here are some of my favourite black and white frames.

30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 21 | Entertainment

Keeping your guests entertained on such a long day can sometimes be a struggle. But with the right planning, entertainment can leave your family and friends with an amazing experience to finish the day off with.

I totally would recommend spending a decent amount of the wedding budget on some sort of wedding entertainment. Whether it would be a DJ, wedding host, solo artist or band, it really is a worthwhile investment for your day which you won't forget.

I often see wedding days where most of the budget has been spent on the ceremony and reception, but the evening tends to go overlooked. Ensuring you have a quality form of entertainment on the evening will be a decision you definitely won't forget.

I've also worked with lots of photo booth companies, Saxophonist musicians, and caricature artists which can help massively when trying to make your wedding day super special!

30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 20 | Sky

A good location always helps when making photographs, adding interest and being able to set the subject into a beautiful surrounding. But my job as a photographer isn't reliant on that. Although it's nice, an interesting portrait can be made from anything if you think creatively enough about it! 

One of my favourite backgrounds is the sky! I love using the dramatic multicoloured clouds as a background whilst photographing the bride and groom during sunset. This is what you'd call a photo on the more 'artistic' end of the scale.. much less traditional.

Getting down on the floor is a commodity for me with these types of shots, but its so, so worth it! Here are some examples of images using the sky!

30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 19 | Dancing

One of my favourite things about photography is having the ability to photograph a moment of high energy and intensity and to be able to freeze it into one single moment.

I love photographing the energy of the wedding dance floor as the night goes on. All of the formalities and traditions are out of the way and now it's the time when people can let their hair down and enjoy themselves dancing! 

As mentioned in most of my blog posts, I try to keep my distance throughout the day to keep people at ease, but this is probably the one exception. I think the best photographs are those where you feel in the moment when you view the image, and I find the only way to get this is to be up close to the action. I tend to jump right into the fun and capture all of the crazy dance moves I can see. It really is so much fun!

Most DJ's and wedding bands have coloured lighting which always adds interest into the dancing photos! 

All of my wedding packages offer full day coverage, with me staying until at least an hour after the first dance, ensuring I capture plenty of fun images! I don't like leaving a story untold.
 

30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 18 | Destination Weddings

Right from when I started out in wedding photography, it's been my dream to photograph a wedding overseas. The idea of going abroad to visit another culture and landscape really excited me!

This year was a massive breakthrough for me, as I was invited out to photograph my first ever destination wedding in Paphos, Cyprus. It was an unbelievable experience and I'm so grateful to have been given the opportunity. 

This first experience took me by pleasant surprise. I thought that the day was going to be more of a photographic challenge due to time restraints in the hot weather. I was pleasantly surprised as we had more than enough time to capture the images we wanted, and keep everybody feeling nice and relaxed. 'Relaxed' really was the vibe from this experience!

Let's be honest, the U.K. isn't the most consistent or reliable place for good weather, so it was refreshing to be able to know that the conditions were going to be good - or a very good chance at that! Sunsets are common in Phapos so we were able to utilise the soft light and make some killer portraits at golden hour!

Although the destination weddings provide an amazing set of photographic opportunities and I love travelling places, I will always approach them the same way I approach a U.K. wedding. Same style and attitude, whilst making the most out of the amazing location and scenery.

I'm very excited to be shooting a destination wedding in Amalfi, on the Amalfi Coast, Italy, next year! It's near the infamous Sorrento town, so I can't wait to use the local architecture, colour and seascape in my work!

I hope my career in wedding photography takes me to many more amazing destinations!