Pre wedding shoot
It was a day of pre wedding shoot firsts for me on Saturday.
It was the first time I’d met Helen and David in person. They had booked me for their July wedding after a Skype meeting. It was also the first time I had ever been to Brightlingsea in Essex. We had decided to meet reasonably early as, in true bank holiday style, the weather was promising to turn nasty. With my obsession for promptness, I actually arrived early, so had time for a breakfast bacon roll and coffee at Batemans Cafe before taking some images for myself.
When Helen and David arrived for their pre wedding shoot, I was so pleased they had booked me. A fun, easy going couple, who were just great to be around. We were treated to some blue skies and sunshine for most of our shoot, with the bank holiday rain only appearing as we were winding up over a final coffee. A good morning all round.
The majority of my wedding photography is documentary in nature. By that I mean that I shoot what goes on around me without interaction or direction from myself. This is slightly at odds with a pre wedding shoot, where there really needs to be an element of ” posing”. Whilst I do organise the shoot in terms of where we go and how I shoot it, I still, as much as possible, like to leave my couples to interract with each other. This gives a more natural feel to the finished images. I call it a directed shoot, rather than a posed shoot. I generally just get couples to do the sort of thing they would do anyway if they weren’t being photographed.
As it turned out, Helen and David were naturals in front of the camera, slipping into my suggested scenarios really easily. This is great for me at it means I can concentrate on the composition or concept of the shot, knowing that Helen and David were just going to look great anyway.
As for Brightlingsea… it wasn’t at all what I expected. Although, to be honest, I do know what I was expecting. I found the people to be exceptionally friendly and there was a great variety of dogs being walked – many of whom decided they would like to jon in the pre wedding shoot.
If you are planning a wedding and would like a pre wedding shoot, please get in touch to discuss your plans. I would love another trip to Brightlingsea….
