weddingbelles

A German wedding

thehertsweddingphotographer — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:02:20 +0000

On a recent trip to Germany, which was part holiday and part music photography (see www.krisgruber.com/blog for a rundown of my music activities) I had the opportunity to go to a wedding.

Whilst, obviously, I go to a lot (!!) in the UK, I haven’t been to one in Germany for years so I was interested to see what the differences were.

The first thing that struck me was that the ceremony room in the registry office was very nicely decorated, in stark contrast to the majority in this country.

Table decoration in the registry office

I already knew that it not customary for couples to have a wedding photographer at the ceremony, so the obvious care with which the room had been laid out was a surprise. The usual routine there is for the couple to book an appointment at a studio, between the registry office formalities and the church service if there is going to be one, although there is an increasing trend towards outdoor location photos.

I was also surprised to see that the act of signing the register was not only allowed but actively encouraged – there was no dummy register for posed photos after the event.

Signing the register

The registry office in this case, in a small town called Bunde, was in a charming half timbered building next to a river, which provided some good photo opportunities after the ceremony.

All in all an interesting experience; wedding photography in Germany strikes me as a much easier proposition than here, particularly as the photographer has so much more control over the location, lighting and people than would be the case here. On the other hand, it’s the challenges that make the job so much more interesting!

Anja and Andreas, the happy couple

Mosaics

thehertsweddingphotographer — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:27:28 +0000

Today I was talking through the products I offer with a young couple when a chance remark triggered a memory of an experiment I’d tried a while ago with another wedding couple but not really pursued. We were talking about the process of building pages in a photobook when I said something to the effect that sometimes it’s a good idea to put together a collage of detail pictures to fill a whole page. “what, like a mosaic?” said the groom. “Exactly that” I said. “Hang on a moment while I get something to show you”.

The something was an A2 print of a pre- wedding shot I’d taken of a couple a year ago. Nothing remarkable about that, except this image was made up of every image I (and my trusty assistant James) had taken at the wedding, so it encapsulated the entire wedding from the pre-shoot to the reception.

Today’s couple were really taken with this as an idea and are already planning where they’re going to hang their version of the image!

The 'standard' photo

The mosaic version of the same image

It’s fair to say that the mosaic version of the image looks much more impressive at full size and viewed from a distance, especially as you can pick out each individual image, but the web versions above give you an idea of what this is about.

Now I’ve been reminded of the idea, I’ll be doing a lot more of these, I’m sure!

Trends from America

thehertsweddingphotographer — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:40:59 +0000

A couple of things from the States that are very slowly starting to catch on here., one before the big day and one after.
The (usually) before trend is what Americans rather coyly call Boudoir Photography. This is a set of pictures the Bride has taken for her groom normally in a soft focus look showing her at her best in lingerie.. I must emphasis that the idea is to produce suggestive and tasteful rather than explicit images, although that might depend on the Bride and her taste.
The other trend is ‘trash the dress’ where the couple are photographed on beaches, in swimming pools and other locations you wouldn’t normally use on a wedding day for fear of marking the dress (or the groom’s suit). Doesn’t work particularly well if the bride wants to save the dress for a future occasion, or if the groom has hired his suit, but potentially could be a lot of fun for both photographer and couple.

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Wedding photography

thehertsweddingphotographer — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:31:17 +0000

Photographing weddings is unlike any other form of photography. For sure, the technical requirements are similar, you need a camera, lens and possibly a light source, depending on the ambient conditions. But while most other forms of photography offer the opportunity of having another go if you don’t get it right first time, that’s definitely NOT an option at a wedding or civil partnership ceremony.
I know of a well known professional photographer who absolutely won’t touch weddings because there’s too much to go wrong!
On the other hand, weddings are such joyful occasions, it’s a delight to be a part of them and speaking personally I find it very satisfying to create something that crystallises a couple’s memories.