The Point Hotel for the wedding of Lucie and Ryan

The Point Hotel is acclaimed as one of the most chic and stylish hotels in Edinburgh and has the awards to back this up. It’s also a popular choice of many visiting celebrities too, as Lucie and Ryan’s guests discovered during their wedding breakfast when they spotted a couple of well known television stars booking in at reception, lol. Lying in the shadow of Castle Rock the Point Hotel certainly makes a dramatic wedding venue. I’ve been involved with weddings at The Point right from the get go, exhibiting at their very first wedding show (and all the ones since) and shooting and designing showcase wedding albums for them. I met Lucie and Ryan at the Point Hotel’s wedding fair back in January and after seeing photographs from the previous weddings I’ve shot at The Point Hotel they booked me on the spot. On Saturday their wedding day had finally arrived!

Being the Point Hotel’s main recommended wedding photographer ensures I’m at the venue regularly so I know it extremely well. To get a stunning set of photographs from any wedding at the Point Hotel entails exploiting the spectacular view of Edinburgh Castle from the penthouse suite and then making the most of all the fashionable nooks and crannies that I’ve discovered around the lesser frequented parts of the building.

I was booked from 1pm - 9pm, with the ceremony being at 2pm. I started in Lucie’s room with a few detail shots including the brides, bridesmaids and flower girls dresses. Then a set of relaxed, informal pre-wedding preparation shots of Lucie and the girls. I then whisked down to the hotel lobby for some pre-wedding shots of Ryan and his bestmen and ushers then back up to Lucie’s room for some contemporary bridal portraits. After a couple of quick photographs of Lucie and her father I then kept in the wings as much as possible and simply photographed the ceremony as it unfolded.

Most weddings that I shoot are a mixture of photojournalistic photography and then posed or classic photography. Both styles require their own separate skills. With photojournalism I’m endeavoring to capture all those magic, spontaneous moments and therefore tell the story of the day in pictures. Much of this is dependant upon being in the right place at the right time (which I’ve discussed before in my ‘wedding recce’ post) but coupled with this is anticipating when the magic moments will occur. An example of this is the shot of Lucie and Ryan immediately after being pronounced husband and wife. The couples first kiss is always a key shot, and of course I have to ensure I’m in the right place at the right time to capture it. However, from experience I’ve noticed that in the few seconds following the couples first kiss they often will share a moment of intimacy, which may be some whispered words, a look or an intimate smile. Very often this can be a moment more special and intimate than the kiss itself and I think the shot of Lucie and Ryan shown here illustrates that so well. These are the images that really capture the warmth, feelings and emotions of such a special day.

With classic or posed photography a different set of skills are required. Personally, I don’t like the word ‘posed’ as it’s rather square and conjures up images of the old fashioned ‘stand to attention’ type of photographer. I prefer instead to use the word ‘set’, as in ‘set up’ but most people are more familiar with ‘posed’ so that’s why I’m saying that instead, lol. Classic photography, particularly creating romantic and contemporary images, is all about getting your subject to look good, or au courant. To accomplish this I need to get them feeling relaxed and confident and comfortable in the poses (grrr, that word again) I place them in. Now every person is different so its no good simply running rigidly through a set of pre-planned poses with every bride and/or groom. The skill is tuning in to them and establishing first of all a comfortable rapport, but also a knowledge of styles and shots that will suit them and their personality and show them off to their full potential. With Lucie and Ryan I was able to quickly get them looking relaxed and natural as we ran through a set in the penthouse with Edinburgh Castle as our backdrop and then a few minutes after down in the Point Hotel’s lobby. I was also able to set up a number of shots that I would do on a fashion shoot utilizing the funky lighting in one of the hotel corridors. I knew both Lucie and Ryan would suit this style and the resulting images were striking enough to grace the cover of a glossy magazine.

Between the wedding breakfast and the first dance I was kept busy with requests for different group shots, which is always good fun, and then we quickly grabbed 5 minutes before the dancing for some shots of the newly weds before the castle as the sunset. The first dance got under way about 8.30pm and an hour later I was downloading the photographs onto the computer with a well earned bottle of beer!

The Point Hotel’s website is: http://www.mercure.com/

Harburn House - Kelly and Nick's wedding

Harburn House is an elegant Georgian mansion on its own private estate located a few miles to the west of Edinburgh. It is set within 3000 acres of beautiful gardens and parklands making it an idyllic venue for weddings. Harburn House is another wedding venue where I am the recommended photographer so I’ve photographed many weddings here and know it really well. Our biggest wedding of the week was here on Saturday for the marriage of Kelly and Nick.

We were booked to start just after noon but when we arrived there was no bride and no groom, lol! I was scheduled to start up at Haymains on the east side of the estate with Nick and his ushers getting ready, but apparently his DJ had ran a sound check the night before and blown up the amplifier so Nick had to do an emergency trip into town with him to find a new one. Kelly had gone into Edinburgh to have her hair done and was not yet back. So while waiting I grabbed some photographs of the ceremony and dining rooms and some detail shots of the flowers, bouquets, placements, etc. When Nick arrived back I quickly took some pictures of him with the ushers whilst in their casual clothes. Due to Nick now running late we weren’t going to have time for a full set of the guys getting ready as I had to be across at Harburn House for Kelly, so instead we’d do a before and after and I’d come back just before the ceremony for the guys all dressed up in their kilts.

It’s about a half mile drive back across to Harburn House and when I got there not only was Kelly back but she was ready too and looking a million dollars! We did some bridal portraits in her room first of all, full length, three quarter length, close up, back of the dress, etc. In my pre-wedding consultations with my brides and grooms I run through tips and tricks on posing and relaxing in front of the camera and Kelly had got them all so was an absolute dream to work with. We did a mix of classic and informal portraits and then some more contemporary images. Although all the bridesmaids were running late getting ready I managed to get a shot of them all with Kelly on the steps of Harburn House before heading back across to Haymains.

The Humanist ceremony went off great, nice and relaxed with plenty of stories and anecdotes written by Kelly and Nick to keep everyone interested and create a few laughs. Following the drinks reception I ran through their formal group shots starting with a big group photograph of all the guests followed by their family and bridal party pictures which took around twenty minutes, although ten of those were spent looking for people who had gone AWOL, lol!

Diane and I then took the newly weds for a 20 minute set around the gardens and estate and again shooting a mix of classic, romantic and contemporary images. They were both delighted when we took them down to a picturesque wrought iron bridge that spanned a heavenly little loch on the west edge of the estate that they never even knew existed. We finished up back at Harburn House and then made our way back to Haymains for the wedding breakfast, speeches and cake cutting.

Sumptuous roast beef with all the trimmings was on the menu and was (as the food always is at Harburn House) absolutely delicious! The speeches were good fun, Kelly’s father speaking first, then Nick and then his two bestmen doing a double act. We then went through for the cutting of the cake followed by a couple more group shots Kelly and Nick had wanted before my day ended with the photographing of the first dance. All in all it was a fantastic day and I think I enjoyed it as much as Kelly and Nick! I’m already looking forward to my next wedding at Harburn House!

Harburn House website is: http://www.harburnhouse.com/
Just click on the ‘Philip Hawkins Photography website’ link towards the top right hand corner of the page for mine.

Niagara Falls

Two weeks before I arrived in Niagara Falls the landscape was covered in snow and they were being buffeted by storms so it was a pleasant surprise to have nothing but blue skies and gorgeous sunshine…I even got a suntan, lol!
I started off shooting the rapids on the American side of the Niagara River as it makes its way down and around Goat Island. My original plan was to get across the border first and checked into my hotel and then come back out for photography but I couldn’t resist the view and the low spring sun which was hung over the river. As it turned out it was a good move because checking into my hotel proved longer than I anticipated as it seems the Canadians love the Brits! As soon as I started to speak I was told how much my accent was loved and then bombarded with questions about where I was from, why I was visiting and what could they do to make my stay more enjoyable. It continued like this pretty much everywhere I went and in the end I had to resort to trying not to speak too much or I’d never get any work done!
My hotel was situated right between the Falls and Tim Horton’s, which is Canada’s equivalent of Costa Coffee, and really good coffee it is too! They don’t do my favourite latte’s tho so I had to make do with French vanilla capps. I know, it’s a hard life, eh?
You can walk between both the Bridal Falls and the Horseshoe Falls via the Rainbow Bridge, which is the Border Crossing between America and Canada, and there are plenty of great vantage points that bring you up close and personal with both falls. I managed a couple of early morning sunrises from the Canadian side, and then crossed the bridge for some alternative views from the American side.
I also rode what I was told is the worlds largest Ferris wheel, although I havent had chance to confirm this yet. There are good views from the top but the glass was too smudged for photographs. Anyway, adjacent to the Ferris wheel is a specialty fudge and ice cream parlour where they sell cheesecake ice cream thingys. Okay, that’s not the official name but what they do is put your selected cheesecake on a stick (mine was a toffee cheesecake) rather like a lolly, then dip it into melted chocolate and then allow the chocolate to harden so you end up with a chocolate covered cheesecake ice cream thingy. Hmm…maybe ‘thingy’ is the right name after all ;) Anyway, suffice to say they are yummy!
I knew that the colossal amount of water plunging over the Horseshoe Falls creates an enormous amount of mist and spray making a full image of the falls virtually impossible as it obscures such a large area. So I decided instead to use the spray to diffuse the early morning sun, which would normally be so bright it would burn out other area’s of the image, so getting up as close to the falls as possible I was able to frame the sun on the left handside of the image right above the falls and have it peering through the spray. Frequent lens cleaning w

as needed as both myself and the gear got covered in spray but it was well worth it as I got the image I wanted…and several others too, lol! As I’m back to weddings and wedding shows next week I took a trip out to Lake Ontario and photographed the smallest working chapel in the world just to feel at home.