Shiledhill Castle for Alyson and Duncan's wedding

Sheildhill Castle is a luxuriant and charming stronghold that dates from the 12th century. It sits within its own beautiful landscaped gardens in the Upper Clyde Valley just outside the town of Biggar. Last Saturday I was back here again for the wedding of Alyson and Duncan.

On the drive down from Edinburgh it was raining, although the forecast was for showers and sunny spells. The last wedding I had here it rained constantly and we didn’t get chance to exploit the beautiful gardens, although it wasn’t a huge problem as the castle is so full of character there’s plenty scope within its four walls. However, I still harbored hope of catching a few sunny breaks and getting some outdoor photography in between the showers today.

I arrived just after noon and spent a few minutes having a look around the Castle, grounds and chapel just to double check everything is as I’m expecting it to be and see what the lighting is like on the day. I then went up to Alyson’s room to say hello and chat with her for a couple of minutes just to help her relax and feel at ease. I had a little difficulty getting into the room initially as the videographer was busy behind the door shooting video of the waste bin and its contents. Its very rare I get to see the couples wedding video so I’m afraid my mind is going to have to remain baffled at what he intends to do with footage of the bin! lol. Anyway, when he finally let me in I had a chat with Alyson and her twin sister, who was her bridesmaid, and fixed a time for me to come back and shoot a few pre-wedding images once Alyson was all ready and into her dress.

The rain had now stopped and the weather was actually brightening up so I did some pre-wedding shots with Duncan, his bestman and the ushers in the Castle grounds before heading back up to Alyson’s room. I did a few bridal portraits with Alyson, including some full length images showing off her beautiful dress, and then some head and shoulder portraiture using the natural window light. Some quick pictures of Alyson and her sister and then also with dad, then we were off heading for the chapel with me running ahead photographing their progress and arrival at the chapel followed by the walk down the aisle.

The ceremony went over nice and smoothly, and as Alyson and Duncan had said they wished for something nice and simple the minister complied and the time flew over quite quickly. I got some really nice natural photographs during the ceremony from the corners of the chapel with Diane getting some from the back. I photographed the signing of the register and then the minister gave me the nod and I quickly set up a couple of different shots, too, finishing with posing the two witnesses alongside the bride and groom. I then positioned myself about three quarters down the chapel to photograph the newly weds as they made their way back down the aisle. The proceedings were held up momentarily as the videographer jumped in and got the couple to do some elaborate maneuvers with the fountain pen and register, which is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone interrupt a wedding ceremony and I think it was a first for the minister, too, lol.

The newly weds exited the chapel and were soon surrounded by congratulatory guests and then they made their way back to the Castle entrance for champagne. The sun by now was shining happily and so when everyone was ready I did all the formal group shots on the castle lawn with the attractive gardens spreading out behind as a backdrop. Video Bob came up with a few more antics during the group photographs, panning his camera along the faces of everyone in each group, getting them to wave their hands and arms in the air while jumping up and down, followed by “all the ladies kicking their legs as high as possible”. In the end one of the family asked me to have a quiet word with him to get him to stop, which he wasn’t too happy about.
We had a great session with Alyson and Duncan around the Castle grounds. I got a couple of typical, traditional shots with the castle looming up behind them before laying prone along the ground and looking up at them from a low angle for something a little more dramatic. We then moved further into the garden and did some poses by the charming pond before going into the woods for something more creative. I used the overhanging trees and foliage to great advantage running through a short, but fun set of pictures and then finishing off by using Duncan as a background for a glamorous close up of Alyson, which I hope he didn’t mind, lol!.

I finished off with a few minutes inside the castle as I’m a believer in making the most of every venue. Alyson was a great admirer of some of my staircase shots she’d seen on my website from previous castle weddings so we did some similar versions on the Shieldhill Castle staircase.

As the couple went in for their wedding breakfast the sun was still shining beautifully so I think the only piece of equipment I didn’t use that day was the big white wedding umbrella!

Shieldhill Castles website: http://www.shieldhill.co.uk/

A wedding in the zoo

Well the last couple of weeks has been almost entirely devoted to weddings, with a couple of portrait sessions inbetween. The last three weddings I’ve shot the couples have all opted for a large Coffee Table Book so I’ve been busy working on their album and page designs. Usually what I do is an initial design of all their pages and then we discuss from there any changes and alterations. The albums and books are never sent to print until the couple are totally happy with how their album looks. I must confess I love designing albums and Image Books and so I’m almost as happy as when I’m actually shooting the wedding. Once again all the weddings have been fairly local in and around Edinburgh, with Saturdays wedding being in the zoo.

This was the first time I’d photographed a wedding at the zoo so I was really looking forward to it. Carol and Ben and their families were all coming up from England and I had arranged to meet them the Friday afternoon before the wedding day. Around 30-40% of couples book me without a meeting beforehand, particularly those coming in from oversea’s or up from England, Wales or across from Ireland. That is an additional reason why I make sure I have a good selection of photographs on my website as referred to in my last blog post. Anyway, I realized Saturday’s wedding was going to be fun quite early in our conversation when I was told the most important shot of the whole day had to be Carol’s mother, Barbara, next to the penguin enclosure. Apparently, she has this ‘thing’ for penguins!

Weddings in Edinburgh zoo are conducted in the Mansion House that sits in the middle of the Park. The weather forecast was for sunshine and showers and that’s how it proved to be on the day. I was booked to start at 2.30pm, half an hour before the ceremony, and began with a couple of portraits of Ben, then some shots with him and his bestman and then a few informal pictures as he chatted and greeted arriving guests. Barbara and the bridesmaids were due to arrive in the main wedding car at the main front entrance of the Mansion House about ten minutes before the ceremony but they surprised everyone by suddenly appearing at the back and walking in via the graveled pathway. The official explanation was that the driver took a wrong turn and missed the Mansion House entrance but as the penguin parade had begun a little earlier at 2.15pm many of us suspected Barbara had requested a quick detour!

Carol arrived just about on time and we did a few quick shots of her and her father and then with her bridesmaids before we went into the ceremony. The Humanist ceremony lasted about half an hour up in the MacMillan Lounge and then the newly weds and their guests went down through to the Mansion Bar for their drinks. As it was raining fairly heavily by now I took the bridal party back up into the spacious MacMillan Lounge for their group shots and used the large and elegant bay window as a backdrop. It took me half an hour for the formal group shots, a little longer than my usual twenty minutes as Carol had presented me with a twenty three page list of all the different groups and combinations she wanted (ok, that’s maybe a slight exaggeration, lol) and then we did about 10 minutes inside the house with Carol and Ben. As soon as the rain stopped it was time for the key moment…Barbara and the penguins!

Carol, Ben and myself and Diane made our way down the ornate spiral staircase and out into the main park. Barbara was moving so fast we could hardly keep up with her but I managed to stay ahead of the bride and groom and grab some informal pictures as they made their way through the park towards the penguin enclosure.

I took two images of Barbara, a full length and a close up, beside the main penguin enclosure and that was her happy for the rest of the day! I also got a couple of shots of Carol and Ben with the penguins and then Carol, Ben and Barbara followed by Carol, Ben, Barbara and David (Barbara’s husband who had been forced to come along too!). It now started raining again so we gave Carol and Ben our big white wedding umbrella and hurried back to the Mansion House with me once again running ahead and shooting some candid images on the way.

We made it back in plenty time for the wedding breakfast line up which was scheduled for 5pm and then the wedding speeches provided some fun and laughter between the starters and the main course. Once again we got another break between showers at the end of the meal so we managed to get everyone outside for a big group shot. There was plenty of laughter and frivolity too, especially surrounding Barbara’s hat which had been ‘borrowed’ from her head, to keep me busy capturing those spontaneous candid moments.

Just after 8.15pm the wedding cake was set up in the middle of the dance floor for the cutting of the cake which all the guests crowded in to observe. And then afterwards the floor was cleared and Carol and Ben went straight into their first dance at 8.30. I’d been booked up until the first dance so I was back home for just after 9pm and downloaded the photographs onto my main computer making sure the shots of Barbara at the penguin enclosure were backed up and triple checked and labeled high priority!

Edinburgh zoo website: http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/

Wedding photographers in Edinburgh

Wedding photographers in Edinburgh are spoiled for choice with such a plethora of beautiful wedding venues located in and around the city. And with the capital being such a popular choice Edinburgh wedding photographers are kept pretty busy! I’ve had four weddings and over a dozen meetings with future brides and grooms since my last blog entry…which is why I’m a little later than usual. All the weddings were in Edinburgh and all the meetings I had were for Edinburgh venues too. My wedding photography of course isn’t restricted to Edinburgh, in fact I enjoy traveling further a field, but being based in Edinburgh means around sixty percent of my weddings are here.
Most of my wedding meetings were for dates in 2010 with three couples having dates in September, October and December of this year. Just as there is such a diverse choice in wedding venue’s in Edinburgh there is also an equal abundance of wedding photographers. Personally, I’m not the kind of wedding photographer who spends great quantities of time and resources trying to track and work out why couples pick me over other Edinburgh wedding photographer’s. I’m a great believer that discerning and educated clients are very easily able to judge the quality and skill of a photographer from his photographs and therefore I adopt a simple approach of having plenty of images on my website and an ample variety of books and albums for meetings. I’m always happy to show any enquiry the complete set of photographs from my last two or three weddings too.

A common denominator from several meetings this week however was brides giving me a specific reason why they were going to book me and I found some of their reasons quite intriguing…

The first booking I took this week was from a bride who had simply fallen in love with one specific photo on my website. As soon as she saw it she’d made up her mind that I was going to be her wedding photographer (I love these kind of brides! lol) The photograph in question was an image of Maggie who was married at Melville Castle last August. It is the first picture shown here. I’m not sure what exactly makes the image so magical, and the bride in question couldn’t put her finger on it either, but whatever it was it touched her anyway.

Another bride I met this week said how she loved the fact that I make all my brides look like fashion models. I’ve been told this a few times before, too, lol. Again, every bride is individual and different and some personalities I may endeavor to portray and work with in different ways, but as a brides wedding day is going to be the most glamorous day of her life I believe it is important that among her wedding memories are a set of images where she looks absolutely stunning!

I also met back up with a couple who had visited my stand at a wedding show earlier in the year but hadn’t yet set their date. Once again this was a couple who had already set their heart upon booking me so I was glad I still had their wedding date available. The thing that had triggered it for this bride was she remembered one of my Image Books at the wedding show, and in particular one specific page. This was a multi image page spread, containing six photographs across a 12” x 8” page. I had given the page a light purple background which the bride who was browsing through the book was observant enough to spot that this was the colour of the sash the small flower girl was wearing. This is a typical example of the albums and books being designed around your wedding photos, not the other way round. It is also a touch you can only employ if your creating the design from a completely blank canvas. It certainly isn’t possible using generic album templates where the pages have already been created for you and the images are simply being dragged and dropped onto them. Anyway, it was this little detail that stuck in the brides mind.


Amongst the above comments were two other couples who gave the same reason, and this brings me back to the theme of this post. On looking through my photographs they said that one of the things they really liked was that I really made the most of each venue, capturing the character, ambience and charm of each location. This is something that I not only consider important, but also get a lot of pleasure from. Wedding venue’s in Edinburgh, and indeed anywhere, are very costly, probably taking up the highest percentage of a couples budget, so it is therefore essential that I make the most of each venue in the wedding images. But over the years I’ve also received many magazine commissions to photograph some of our most illustrious castles, palaces and stately homes in the country, including their renowned owners. However, although these establishments may very well be enchanting and indomitable they are never more alive than when hosting a wedding. The buzz of having a bride and groom getting married and spending the day within their walls really does breathe life into it!
Edinburgh is famed for its magnificent churches, cathedrals, hotels, castles and palaces which is one reason, as I said at the outset, why Edinburgh wedding photographers are very blessed. Not only does it keep us busy and on our creative toes but also enhances what it is already the best job in the world!


Links related to pictures:
http://www.melvillecastlehotel.com/
www.apexhotels.co.uk/hotels/edinburgh-international
http://www.macdonaldshotels.co.ukroxburghe/
http://www.royalmusselburgh.co.uk/