Wedding photographer Essex

After the glorious weather of the last few months & not one Saturday with any rain, i was about to come back down to UK weather with a big bump.

Last Saturday the 24th may I photographed the wedding of peter & Katie in Harrow Weald. 

The weather looked very iffy leading up to the day and driving to Katie's mum's house for the bridal shoot i could see very dark, ominous clouds building up, not a good, foreboding of the hours to come. Bridal shots done with Katie & her 3 children, to the church to meet up with peter and get the guests and family shots before the service started, nice warm day & sunshine & i thought ( prematurely ) the weather was going to get better & turn into a spring sunshiny day, How wrong could i be, Bride arrives with dad in his Morris minor, service done, processional, & as the couple get to the entrance, The heavens opened up & didn't stop for over 30 minutes.Confetti & group shots missed.

We had arranged to do couple shots at Eastcote park near Pinner & then on to the venue, " Tudor lodge " just around the corner.

As we arrived at Eastcote park a really nice 15th century Tudor House & gardens, the rain was hammering it down so decided to find a spot under a tree to get some nice romantic snogging shots, weird weather in this spot the foliage of the trees protected the couple from the rain yet the background was blazing sunshine ( 4 seasons in one day ).

I had intended to do as much off camera flash as i could but in order to maximise the use of what sunshine there was it was a rogue flash bender on camera, but as the rain stopped and the sun came out so did the pocket wizards and a couple of Nikon Sb-910's.The heart shape umbrella shot was Katie's idea, very simple a Sb-910 mounted on a stand with a rogue flash bender behind Peter & Katie, a couple of test shots and nailed!. I loved this picture and will be doing it in future weddings,corny to some lovely to others,each to their own.Wedding photographer Essex

 My favourite shot the couple with the Morris minor

wedding photographer essex: Wedding photographer in EssexEssex wedding photo...

wedding photographer essex: Wedding photographer in Essex

Essex wedding photo...: Wedding photographer in Essex Essex wedding photographer wedding photographer kent Kent wedding photographer Richard kin...

Wedding photographer in Essex

Essex wedding photographer

wedding photographer kent

Kent wedding photographer

Richard kinsley photography


Who do you choose to take the pictures of your wedding day, the cheapest, the most expensive or somewhere in between.Price alone can not determine how good or how poor an image is, some photographers realize that in order to be a good photographer you have to be a good business man and offer value for money, whereas other photographers believe photography is more important than value for money.

Wedding photography is a game of two half's, half knowledge and half equipment, your photographer must have the experience and knowledge on how to handle different lighting environments which can change in the blink of an eye, is there enough light?,  is the light too strong or too weak,  do i need to add flash, ?, how much flash, what aperture, what shutter speed,?, the list goes on and on and all these thoughts that create that picture of your wedding day have to be processed and put into practice constantly throughout the day. So yes, anyone can buy the latest all singing all dancing dslr camera and take a picture, but if they don't have the working knowledge on how to apply that knowledge to a camera they might as well stick to their grainy mobile phone.
 
The other half of two half's is equipment a wedding photographer will invest thousands of pounds into his/her equipment where as an amateur wedding photographer will most likely have an entry or  mid level dslr with standard kit lens which may only cost a few hundred pounds and the ability to take crisp, clean images on an overcast summers day may look nice in program or semi auto modes then try to take a picture in a 11th century Norman church where there is no natural light and only old tungsten light giving off an orange haze and the clergy have said flash is not allowed. This is where a professional quality dslr and fast 2.8 lens can work in almost non existent light and produce grainless images with no flash and the knowledge to apply manual settings just by looking at available light will come into their own.

So yes do your research, look for consistency in the pictures you are vetting , look at church wedding photo's , look for shadow and light, but above all like the picture....no like no buy.

Fancy a bit of fancy dress

Wedding photographer Essex

Saracen's Hotel Chelmsford 19th April 2014

As any photographer will tell you, when working with flash, be it on camera or off camera, off camera flash nearly always gives the best results.

As mentioned in a previous post i photographed a post wedding party for Scott & Charlotte at the bull in Boreham, the following week i was asked to photograph a fancy dress party for the same said couple at the Saracen's hotel in Chelmsford high street.

Richard kinsley photography

Because of the nature of photographing parties i knew everything would be moving at a mad pace, initial set up was 2 Nikon Sb-910's mounted on light stands and bounced off an almost white ceiling with pocket wizard tt's and a zone controller, power set to 1/2 power, which gave quite good results to begin with but there was no where to put the stands without someone tripping over them, at first i hid one behind a full size cut out Elvis and the other behind a full size cut out president Obama, come 8.15 pm and there was maybe 10 people at the party then all of a sudden close to 150 by 8.25 and it just went mad and i could see my cherished Sb-910's going for a dive especially once the booze started flowing.

   Plan B

Stands packed away and switched to on camera ttl flash minus 1.3-1.7 fec with side and rear bounce, probably not the best way to get perfect lighting but a good sake safer for my gear. As the evening wore on more and more people turned up and people really made an effort to dress up, got loads of really excellent shots.

The Gang

3 Amigo's

Charlotte & Scott