Trash the Dress on TV!

I've just completed a fantastic Trash the Dress shoot with a client which was filmed for TV.

Shooting took place in Norfolk on a private estate using a wide variety of locations. These ranged from beautiful gates, to an ancient tractor, a water sprinkler in a potato field! Finally we went to the beach where my client Susie was game enough to go into the sea! The weather had become somewhat windy and stormy by this time but we got some amazing shots. To view the video, please click on the link below. Please note that although I have usage rights, copyright is with Reuters, thank you.

Advice on Choosing Your Wedding Photographer. Recent Publicity - Wedding Venues & Services

Featuring one of my favourite informal photos from Elissa and Michael's wedding, I contributed to a piece in this summer's Wedding Venues & Services magazine: Ask the Expert

What interested me most on reading it was that all five of us featured - some of the top names in the wedding photography world - gave essentially the same advice to prospective clients seeking to choose a wedding photographer:

See at least two complete recent weddings; you get what you pay for in photography - the better the photographer the more they charge;

see client testimonials as well as wedding photography; check experience, & whether the photographer is full or part time;

check they have client liability insurance (an absolute must have);

choose someone you get on well with;

look for passion and emotion in the images;

choose a reportage photographer with great care, not all 'reportage' images are flattering - make sure they can also take the other type of shots that matter e.g. groups, lovely portraits of the couple.

In terms of trends, each of us picked our own trend, but I agree with all of them:

1. Image manipulation - there is currently a fashion for heavily manipulated, fashion style images.

Whilst I think this can work well for a portrait shoot, for a wedding I offer this style to clients on one or two photos only from the hundreds taken. I prefer wedding photography to be 'real' rather than fake, to tell the story of the day. When I do show such an image I usually recommend that it is a stand alone image, rather than one put in the album.

2. The best of both worlds - Not just reportage or portraiture.

More Brides are realising that posed photographs don't have to be stiff and formal and that reportage shots aren't necessarily relaxed! The best photographers are combining both, I certainly do.

3. Trash the Dress - the big trend coming in from the USA.

This is becoming more and more popular both with my existing clients and with Brides who have used other photographers for their wedding.

4. The importance of the classic wedding album

Digital only packages are popular, but invariably clients realise that a wedding album is more than a collection of photos - it's an heirloom, and a repository of their memories of an extra-special day.

Bumps and Babies

There's something quite miraculous about Bumps turning into Babies!

Congratulations to Jane and Phil on the arrival of their beautiful daughter Erin.

Jane is responsible for my fab logo and a very talented designer who is now enjoying juggling - time that is, not babies!

If you're looking for a graphic designer check out Jane's web site at www.danglydog.com

Funky fun!

One of the great things about a Love Your Dress shoot is that you can have a lot of fun trying out different 'looks' so that you have a wide choice of photos from the classically beautiful to the funky and fun.

I adore photographing weddings, but on a portrait shoot I also get the one thing I don't get at a wedding: plenty of time! On the wedding day itself, the most important thing is to capture the real day, and to spend time with the Bride & Groom judiciously so that they get stunning photos but don't feel that their day was turned into a full scale photo-shoot. Unless we can build in a lot of time prior to the ceremony, the portraiture time afterwards is usually about the couple, not the dress, so a Love Your Dress (or if you feel like living dangerously a Trash Your Dress) shoot is the perfect opportunity for us both to relax and have fun, without any pressure.

Recently, Emma and I had a fabulous afternoon doing just that at a variety of locations. We did some classic shots as a bit of a 'warm up' and then moved on to more adventurous pictures. Emma's stunning Vera Wang dress had the chance for another outing before being finally packed away.

She's still choosing her favourite photos which we intend to put at the end of an album with the photos from her wedding in Australia.

Sumptuous in Chocolate Leather

I'm just sending off a really lovely Chocolate Leather bound album to two super people, Sarah & David.

This is a classic album with a subtle twist, where the bespoke flexibility of the Queensberry product has enabled me to design the album to reflect the colours of the wedding and the intimacy of the day.

Their autumn wedding had a lovely bronze and orange theme, so the rich chocolate leather is perfect, and a softer option to black. The cover features a small image of the couple, and the colour theme is carried through with ivory mats and the photographs mounted onto chocolate pages.

On this first right hand page, instead of a traditional 'title' I mounted Sarah & David's wedding invitation into the square space - so just a thin cholcolate border shows - and then placed three small square images taken from different sections of Sarah's bouquet, as accents underneath.

The wedding at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London, was an intimate affair for close family and friends. The album relects this, in particular on the pages featuring the speeches where, using the option to include a 'flip' page, we can see both the Bride's speech and the whole speech sequence all at once. Capturing the reaction of guests during this time is one of my favourite parts of any wedding.

Getting your wedding featured in a Bridal title

Many Brides like the idea of their wedding appearing in one of the wedding magazines. It's just as well that magazines have no shortage of Bride's volunteering their photos - Real Life weddings are one of the most popular sections in any wedding magazine.

I've had quite a few clients featured over the years, the latest in the most recent issue of You & Your Wedding. Whilst there's no guarantee of your wedding being featured, here are a few pointers which might help you decide whether yours is likely to be in the running:

1. An unusual or particularly stylish wedding venue. There's a trend for weddings to take place overseas at the moment, and somewhere particularly beautiful has a head start.

2. A strong theme - colour or style - that flows through the wedding.

3. A good story - for example, how you met or the choice of dress.

4. Interesting and unconventional details - flowers, mode of transport, ice vodka luge, favours, cake - that can feature in the article.

5. Designer names - a dress by a top designer, flowers by a leading florist all add cachet to the feature.

6. Fabulous photos! - the details and some of the action. You may have some lovely portraits but these are almost never featured. The magazine editor is looking for pictures that tell the story of the day to accompany the words, so you'll need to supply a complete range.

However, don't be too disappointed if your special day doesn't make it into print. Editors are looking for inspiration for their readers, and they also need a variety of weddings in each issue. If yours is the third 1940's themed wedding they see that month then, however beautiful, it probably won't make it.

Recent publicity - You & Your Wedding

Lindsey and Adam were married in a stunning chateau in France, and although overseas weddings are on the increase the bespoke ones exporting a UK-based photographer (and in this case disco too!) are still quite rare. Not surprisingly, such an unusual day became a feature wedding in one of the UK's top Bridal magazines.

Lindsey and Adam were fantastic clients to work with - very organised with their preparations (essential if you're going to travel abroad to get married) and very calm throughout the action-packed weekend. Even the unexpected rain, which meant that the ceremony had to be moved inside at short notice left them unfazed.

The lovely thing about overseas weddings from a photographic perspective is the opportunity to take photos in completely different light to the type we usually get in the UK. A real treat!

The basic ingredients of the celebration are also a bit out of the ordinary - from the way the table is laid, the flowers arranged, or the cake is presented.

See more photos of the day in the wedding portfolio section of my site:

http://www.katehampton.com/wedding_portfolio.html