A few photos from Christine and Francis’ wedding at Southover Grange in Lewes last Friday. It was a family wedding with around fifteen guests, so a fairly short photography booking for me.

Not much room for photos inside the building so everyone had their fingers crossed for a fine day. Luckily, after a wet start, the sun came out during the ceremony and allowed us to walk through to the gardens afterwards. We found a beautiful red maple tree as background for some of the photos which gave a nice bit of colour to an autumn day. After taking a good selection of family photos, and some shots of Christine and Francis on their own around the gardens, the party headed off to Drakes in Brighton for the wedding breakfast.

Southover Grange were initially not keen on photos being taken during the ceremony, their written policy only allows pictures of the bride’s entrance and the signing of the register. Christine wanted to have some photos of her marriage and requested a bit of flexibility. In the end the Registrar turned out to be very helpful and allowed me to take some shots if I was discreet (discretion is my middle name, so this wasn’t a problem!).

I do think that ‘no photography’ policies are a bit restrictive and old fashioned these days, especially in a Register Office. Almost everyone wants some photographs of their ceremony and as long as the photographer isn’t overdoing it and distracting anyone I can’t see what the problem is. To be fair to Southover Grange I think that they will normally go along with the bride and groom’s wishes, despite the written policy.

This was probably one of my last weddings of the year, unless I get any last minute bookings, so I’m off to the computer to start working on my backlog of wedding album designs. If you’d like any information about my wedding photography services in Sussex please get in touch.

Laura and Steve in amongst the flowers at Nymans Gardens

Nymans Gardens only started catering for weddings this year and have had clients almost every weekend. This was my second wedding photography booking at Nymans and I can see why it has become such a popular venue so quickly, it’s probably one of the nicest wedding venues in West Sussex. The ceremonies take place in The Loggia, a small ‘Italianate’ style summer house, positioned in an attractive sunken garden. It takes around 25 seated guests and the public are excluded from the garden and building while the wedding party are using it.
The weather has been kind during my two visits but, if you have more than 25 guests and haven’t booked a marquee, you will be hoping for sunshine as there isn’t much in the way of shelter.

I’m posting a few photos from Laura and Steve’s wedding a couple of weeks ago. You can see how nice the Loggia looks, especially with a few custom decorations that the bride and groom provided. It is a bit cramped from a photographer’s point of view, and I had to tiptoe around during the ceremony to try and get a good viewpoint without disturbing the ceremony. It all worked out well in the end.

Laura and Steve were keen to get some photos around the rest of the gardens, so we set off after the ceremony and took full advantage of the beautiful flowers and buildings. I stayed with the couple until the gardens closed for the evening, when they left for a reception in their new home in Withdean.

The original image as it came out of the camera, nothing good here…

I had to photograph a wedding in East Sussex last weekend in typical church conditions, bad light and no flash allowed. When the bride took her place at the front of the church she was in the worst possible position for photos, in a really harsh pool of sunlight coming from a high angle and surrounded by gloom. The shot at the top is what came out of my camera, panda eyes, no shadow detail and burnt out highlights, yechh!

Professional digital cameras can deal with low light very well but there’s not a lot you can do about just plain bad light, except add some of your own with a flash or a reflector. If you can’t do that, the only thing left is software and digital retouching to try and rescue the image. I had a go at this series of shots and was quite surprised at what I eventually managed to pull out with the help of Lightroom and Photoshop.

First stage of the rescue operation in Lightroom

First step was to get the best I could from the RAW files in Lightroom. Using lots of fill light and some highlight recovery I ended up with the shot above, better but still not very lovely. I then exported two versions one as you see it and one overexposed until it started to reveal some shadow detail.

I merged the two files in in Photoshop, using the best detail from each version, then started work with Photoshop tools. After about ten minutes I had the final version below. It’s still not technically a great shot, but it was an important part of the wedding and at least it’s better than when I started.

The final image after quite a lot of work in Photoshop.

I sometime get asked if I miss using traditional film cameras. Well, not really, I love digital imaging and all the stuff I can do that I could never achieve with film. If I had taken this photo on film it would have been almost impossible to rescue. I do have the occasional misty moment recalling images appearing before my eyes in a tray of warm developer, then I remember the stink of the chemicals and being stuck in a darkroom for the whole summer and get over it very quickly!

Cristy and Ryan waving the flags during their engagement photo shoot on Brighton seafront

I met up with Ryan and Cristy on the promenade on Thursday evening for an engagement photo shoot. The couple currently live on opposite sides of the Atlantic but will be getting married later in the year and making their home in London. They were taking a short break in Brighton and decided to get some engagement photos done while they were here.

I’d spoken to Cristy in the States the week before and, as neither of them were familiar with the area, suggested that we would probably get some nice shots on the beach and seafront. I was a bit concerned when I woke up on Thursday morning to see the rain tipping down and showing no signs of stopping throughout the day. Luckily for everyone, an hour before we were due to meet the clouds parted and the sun came out. We ended up having a really good session, walking along the front from the West Pier, past the Bandstand, up to the Fishing Museum and trying several different locations on the way.

The British and American flags were Cristy and Ryan’s idea, to use on their wedding invites. That Union Jack is falling to bits Ryan, try to keep up appearances!

Corin and Jon in Southover Grange Gardens in Lewes

A few photos from Corin and Jon’s wedding at Lewes Register Office on Friday, showing the ceremony and some photos in the gardens afterwards. The couple were lucky with the weather as, after a slightly damp looking start to the day, it brightened up as it went along. From my point of view it was a wedding photographers dream, nice diffused light and Southover Grange Gardens looking good with some beautifully tended early summer flowers.

The ceremony was mainly for family and a few friends so it was a short booking for me. After the photos in the gardens the wedding party made their way up to Pelham House in the centre of Lewes for the reception and meal, where I stayed for another half hour or so. It was my first trip to Pelham House. It looked like a great venue, friendly staff and a very nicely laid out room for the wedding breakfast (see shots below).

The venue had done a Jubilee display at the front of the building with Union Jack bunting and flags, so I persuaded Jon and Corin to do a bit of flag waving before they went in. This was done under mild protest so apologies to the bride and groom and all fellow republicans out there. They look good though don’t they!

I had some good news from my main album manufacturer recently. After a long dispute with HM Revenue and Customs, wedding albums have now been 0% rated for VAT, the same rate as for a normal book. There were some ambiguities about the ruling, it definitely applied to flush mount albums and probably to matted albums as well, though that seemed less clear. For the time being it’s zero VAT on everything. This is good news for my customers as I’ll be passing on all the savings directly to them. In the case of a typical album the VAT element on the manufacturing costs can be around £50.00, so well worth having.

I like to include albums in my clients’ wedding packages whenever possible, obviously because it increases my income but also because there is no substitute for a well designed and printed photographic quality album. I book quite a few CD only weddings these days and, although the images are well processed before I hand them over, I do wonder if they’ll ever be printed and displayed as well as they could be. If I design and print the album I know I’ve got the best out of everything, good for my clients and good for my reputation.

Hooray, for the time being something in the world has got cheaper, grab ‘em while they’re hot!

The Art of Off Camera Flash Photography by Lou Jacobs Jr. Cover photo by Claude Jodoin.

Just over a year ago I was contacted out of the blue by US photography writer Lou Jacobs Junior, to see if I would be willing to contribute a chapter to a new book he was compiling about off camera flash techniques. Lou had found my website and seen that I use a lot of off camera flash in my wedding photography and commercial work. His idea was to find ten photographers and give them a chapter each, to share some of their experiences and successful working methods.

It seemed like an interesting project so I agreed to join in. I spent a month sending draft text back and forth to the States until Lou and I were both happy with the results. After what seemed like quite a long wait, the book was published at the end of 2011, I’ve just received my copy and been having a first look. I find myself in good company with nine other well established photographers from around the world (see the full list of contributors at the end of the post). The end result is a useful reference book and an insight into other professional photographers working lives. In fact, as a completely unbiased contributor, I have to tell you it’s a really good book!

Off camera flash opens up so many photographic possibilities that it’s become something I use on a daily basis. Putting this chapter together has made me think about what I’ve already learnt and where I need to make improvements. It’s also made me realise that, after years of developing my own techniques, I can probably help other people get started. At the end of 2011 I ran a couple of photography workshops which went very well. This year I plan to run more courses and off camera flash will be one of the subjects on offer. I’ll be launching a new website very soon to promote this. In the meantime if you are interested in one to one lessons or group workshops please get in touch.

Lou Jacobs Jr has published over 30 photography books as well as several books for children. ‘The Art of Off Camera Flash’ is published by Amherst Publishing and, for anyone interested in getting a copy, available in bookstores and on Amazon, ISBN-13 number 978-1608952755.

Photographers featured in the book are are:

Bill Cramer, USA.
Dave Perris, UK.
Mike Duhon, USA.
Ali Hohn, USA.
Claude Jodoin, USA.
Lou Jones, Boston, USA.
Sergio, Tucson, USA.
Bert Stephani, Belgium.
David Tejada, USA.
Pete Winkel, USA.

Some of my own images used in the book, using lightweight off camera flash equipment.

The late heatwave brought a lot of people down to Brighton beach last night. The tide was right out to the West Pier and allowed people to have a paddle in the sand. Yes, there is sand in Brighton, you just have to wait a while for it!

Lesley and Steve on the stairs at Stanmer House

I’ve been slack with my blog postings recently, so thought I’d put up some images from Lesley and Steve’s recent wedding at Stanmer House.
This was my first booking as a wedding photographer at Stanmer. It’s one of the most popular venues in East Sussex, so I was keen to meet up there with Lesley in March and have a good look around. Wedding clients have the use of the whole ground floor of the house, which includes an elegant ceremony room, two receptions and a bar, plus a marquee for the wedding breakfast. The rooms are kept uncluttered, so there’s plenty of room for lots of guests. From a photographers point of view there are lots of nice spots around the house and grounds (depending on the weather!).

You’ll see some shots of the ceremony in the Henry Pelham Room below. It started with Lesley lighting a candle in memory of her mother and included Steve stamping on a glass in the Jewish tradition. Thanks to Sarah the registrar from Three Wishes Ceremonies for being so helpful throughout, even allowing the moving of a table mid ceremony so I could get a better shot.

It rained on the morning of the wedding and stayed damp for the rest of the day. The weather forecast was all doom and gloom, but luckily there were enough breaks in the cloud to take some group photos outside after the ceremony. I can usually set up some lights in a venue if I need to, but being outside with natural light normally looks better for large groups and makes thing run a lot faster. Quite important when there’s limited time between the ceremony and the meal.

Lesley wanted a shot with Stanmer and the grounds in the background, so after the group photos she put on her flat shoes and we all marched over to the other side of the field until we had a good view back to the house. On a good day I would probably have taken a lot more outside shots but, as it was wet and the light was quite flat, I decided to take the main photos of the bride and groom back in the house. The grand staircase made an ideal spot for Lesley and Steve to pose, using an off camera flash and umbrella to light the scene.

Wedding photography in Brighton this weekend with Jessica and Phillip. I spent the first hour with Jessica, her bridesmaids and parents at her home while everybody got ready, then walked around the corner to St Nicholas Church where the wedding was taking place. I took some shots of the bride and her father walking down the path to the entrance of the church and that was it until the end of the ceremony for me. The church has a strict no photography policy, which the couple were aware of and quite happy about, so the next time I saw them was for the signing of the register in the vestry.

After the wedding most of the guests took a bus down to Hove Lawns while I stayed behind to take a few shots of Jessica and Phillip in the churchyard. I’ve started to use a fold up reflector again quite a lot at weddings. Sometimes, when a shot needs a bit of extra lighting, a reflector is ideal and easier than setting up an off camera flash. In this case I asked the couple to stand in the shade of some trees and put some sunlight on their faces with a silver sided Lastolite (and a bit of help from Phillip’s brother Matthew). You can see the result at the top of the post, it gives a nice natural looking glow to the shot.

By the time we got to Hove Lawns the guests had arrived and the caterers were handing out the champagne. After a very gloomy start to the day the weather was great and ideal for the reception, a bit too bright and blowy for great shots of the b&g, but fine for general mingling and small group photos.

The wedding breakfast was at Fabrica in the middle of Brighton. I had no idea that Fabrica hosted weddings, the last time I went there was for a Brian Eno installation during last years festival, so it was interesting to see the whole space opened up. Jessica and Phillip had spent a lot of time with family and friends decorating the place for the event and it looked great (see images farther down the page). I stayed with the wedding party until after the speeches and then had a last chance to take photos of the couple outside the venue. The old church entrance made a good background and, despite the fact the they were standing on a very busy pavement with people whizzing by, the bride and groom look nice and relaxed.