Favourite of the week (Number 1)

I’ve decided to mix up my blog posts a bit for 2014, and every week I’m going to post 1 image I love from the week before, and talk a bit about the thought process, how it was made, and some of the boring techy stuff for the fellow wedding photo people who like to know that sort of thing. So lets start. This is a picture I made last week with Jess and Ollie at their wedding in Sheffield. Some of you might know that the technical side of photography kind of bores me to tears. Talk of F-stops and shutter speeds will generally have me asleep within seconds! Sure, I know what to do within camera, but I care way more about what’s happening in front of the camera, than within it. The technical info is Canon 5D MK3, Canon 35mm F1.4, 1/3200, iso 100. Are you still awake?! Ok I’m joking, but my point is I love making art way more than techy photo stuff, and I can talk about making art a lot having done it for most of my life (both the good and bad). To make this picture I took Jess and Ollie out in ‘golden hour’. At the end of May this was around 7.45pm if I recall. I could see the sun dipping as the speeches were happening in their marquee reception, so I didn’t know if we’d get out in time, but as soon as they ended we jumped straight in the car. I knew the location I wanted to take them, and it wasn’t actually this spot. I have a love of randomness. On the drive out I noticed this field at the side of the road. At first glance from the road it looked just like any other over grown field on a moor, but I knew that it was right next to the new home Jess and Ollie were building, so straight away there would be meaning to the picture. We dumped the car at the side of the road and headed over the fence. Along the way I’m shooting all the in between moments, like Jess in her wedding dress and welly’s jumping over a fence. They’re the shots I know will be memories for them, but what I’m looking to make is the one which will go on the wall for a life time. As the sun started to go I knew we had roughly 5 minutes and that by the time we got to the main location, golden hour would have been over, so it needed a good shot. The road next to the field is quite a busy one, so I had to shoot in between cars passing, whilst hoping the pieces would fall together. I haven’t posed Jess and Ollie, I just told them where I wanted them to be in the frame. I shot wide open to get the flare off the sun, and caught the streak of light by angling the dipping sun to clip the corner of the tree in the centre of the frame. Doing that just gave the image a little something extra, which I think completes it and makes it one of my favourites. It will be gracing my studio wall and I hope it find a nice place in Jess and Ollie’s new home. Thanks for reading. Always happy to answer questions. Picture >