Down the mine for Claire's Wedding

Wedding photographers in Edinburgh are spoiled for choice with such a plethora of gorgeous Hotels, Castles and Stately Homes.
But we also have some wedding venues that offer something completely different (yes, I am a Monty Python fan lol) and my first wedding of 2011 was just such a venue. I was going down a mine!

Claire and Stuart were married on Saturday at the Scottish Mining Museum on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
Claire’s grandfather used to work in the mines but sadly passed away a couple of years ago. Due to her mining connections Claire was able to arrange it so her immediate family could go down to the coal face for a couple of photographs on her wedding day in memory of her father. However, the Mining Museum had advised her that it was so dark down at the coal face they weren’t sure her photographer would actually be able to take anything so they left the decision up to me. I went out to the museum with Claire three weeks ago and we went down the lift to the coal face to check things out. Sure enough it was pretty dark!
However, I knew how important this was to Claire and I thrive on photographic challenges so I had told “Sure, it’ll be no problem”.

The wedding day itself loomed rainy and overcast. "Well it won’t be raining down the mine" I told Diane as we left home, lol. We were due to start at The Sun Inn with some getting ready photos of Claire and bridesmaids and then up to the Museum to photograph
Stuart and the groomsmen arriving. By the time we’d finished at the Inn it had stopped raining but was still very cold. I had also noted three weeks ago that it gets even colder the further and deeper you go down the mine so I’d popped a fleece in the car in readiness.

The ceremony itself is held in the large function room adjacent to the museum. It looked very atmospheric adorned in the deep rich colours Claire had chosen. It was a civil ceremony and the registrar is someone I’ve worked with many times before so she was happy enough to
allow me complete freedom as she knows I’m very unobtrusive. You will find that most Edinburgh wedding photographers are known to the registrars as well as other celebrants and their previous reputation can have a considerable influence on what parameters they will be allowed.

I got some lovely images from the two front corners of the room during the ceremony and Diane grabbed a handful too from the back with the telephoto lens. When the register had been signed the bridal procession exited the room and out into the entrance courtyard for the dove release. I was asked to advise
on the best location for the release so I suggested the top of the museum’s outside stairs as then everyone would get a good view and also the photos would look good with an upwards angle as opposed to if we had been on the same level. I wanted to shoot with a fairly wide angle lens as I know that once released the doves fly off very quickly and if you’re inexperienced they can be out of frame as soon as you’ve fired off the first shot. With the wide lens I knew I’d get three good images of the dove inflight. I also had Diane use the telephoto to get a couple of close ups as well.

When the doves were up, up and away we were all back, back and inside as it was pretty chilly. I did Claire and Stuart’s group photographs first before we went down to the coal face, which only took about twenty minutes as is my custom. The plan was to go down to the deepest point with Claire and Stuart, her two bridesmaids and immediate family. And then on the way back up I was going to stop at a couple of locations to do some photographs with the newly weds.
When we got down to the coal face I found that it was even darker than when we had been here three weeks earlier. It was so dark in fact I couldn’t see a thing when looking through the camera viewfinder. I positioned the group at the shaft entrance that Claire had wanted and then stepped back in the confined space to take the shot. With the help of Diane I was using a two light set up but found it was so dark the camera couldn’t calculate the exposure or lock onto the subject so I had to quickly switch everything to manual and rely on my experience to guestimate the settings for myself. As you can see the photograph was spot on!
I did four different combinations with Claire’s family that she had requested and then we all hurried back upwards where it was a touch warmer. The last three images shown here are ones we stopped off for on the way up in different parts of the mine. I’m not sure if I’m the only Edinburgh wedding photographer who has taken a wedding party down to the coal face but I’m pretty sure there can’t be many, lol. Anyway I was absolutely delighted with how stunning and atmospheric the images look and can’t wait to receive Claire and Stuart’s selection list so I can start on their album design.