A November wedding at The Quay, Musselburgh

I love November weddings! Mainly because you don’t have to wait until 10 o’clock for a sunset! lol In all seriousness though weddings that occur towards the end of the year always have such beautifully atmospheric lighting due to the fact that the nights are drawing in quicker. Jemma and Mark’s wedding at The Quay in Musselburgh turned out to be a perfect example and from the 393 photographs that we took throughout the day we got some real crackers!

This was the first time I’d photographed a wedding at The Quay and hopefully I will get many more here in the future. It is a very popular wedding venue and as an Edinburgh wedding photographer I will very much look forward to working here again. I was already very familiar with The Quay as I live only a short drive away and have carried out several magazine commissions in and around the Firth of Forth coastline including the picturesque Fisherrow Harbour which sits adjacent to The Quay. I have also eaten many times in The Quay restaurant which is well known throughout the Lothians for its superb food.

Jemma and Mark booked me for their wedding photography as last year I had photographed the wedding of one of Jemma’s friends, Gillian. Gillian and Gary had a fantastic wedding at Craighouse which I thoroughly enjoyed photographing. You can see some of their photos in the next issue of Best Scottish Weddings magazine which comes out the first week in December as it is being run as a Real Life weddings feature.

Jemma and Mark had booked us for pre-wedding 'getting ready' photos through until the first dance. As we drove through to Jemma’s parents home on the morning I could see that the weather was shaping up pretty good and with a bit of luck we’d get a nice sunset at the end of the afternoon, something all wedding photographers in Edinburgh enjoy! We arrived just before noon and started with a few photographs of the wedding dress, shoes, flowers, etc before grabbing a few hair and make-up shots. I also snatched a couple of photos of the wedding cars parked outside the house just as we left to head down to The Quay for some photos with Mark and groomsmen.

Jemma and Mark’s wedding party was quite large, somewhere in the region of 140 guests. Most wedding photographers in Edinburgh will probably agree that 80-90 day guests is about the average. The Quay complex is equally large however and also has several function rooms so can accommodate things with no problem at all. I did the photographs with Mark and his bestmen, two of them, in one of the side rooms overlooking the harbour. Although I had planned on doing the group photographs after the ceremony in front of the large window of the ceremony room the way things worked out following the newly weds exit I could see it would be more advantageous to use this same room instead. Most weddings never go 100% to plan and its part of the job to be flexible so that everything still runs smoothly.

As usual I captured plenty of photographs of the ceremony itself working quietly in one of the corners. Everyone enjoyed a wee drink for a few minutes following the marriage and then we got the group photographs underway. I deliberately timed these carefully so that we’d finish for around 4pm. I knew the sunset time was quarter past four and I really wanted to be outside doing the bride and groom session so that it would coincide with the setting sun. Things went pretty much perfectly here and we got out for some photos on the beach and then by the harbour for the first ten minutes or so before I took Mark and Jemma around to the opposite side of The Quay so that the sunset would be behind their heads. As you can see the sky was a glorious colour!

Following the sunset shots the other image I wanted to finish with was the bride and groom at the main entrance to capitalise on The Quay’s lighting. Most lighting is enhanced at night when things get darker and subsequently the artificial lighting appears more dramatic. However, the secret with night photography is to catch the sky as it turns deep blue. It is quite easy to assume that night photography will always have black skies, but in between the dusk and the skies becoming black there occurs a brief period of time where the skies are actually deep blue. This is the optimum time for night photography as it is far more dramatic than having a plain black sky. The last photograph here is a reasonable example. It is not perfect as really I would prefer the sky to have turned a touch deeper blue but I am aware that at this time of year I don’t want to keep my bride and groom outside too long as I don’t want them becoming cold. As I knew that the sunset shots were going to be stunning I was happy to compromise on the night sky.

Mark and Jemma’s evening reception went over beautifully. Some great speeches, a scrumptious meal and lots of fun! Between the meal and the cake cutting I had plenty time to do a few requested photographs for some of Jemma and Mark’s family and friends, and I also made sure I got a photograph of Gillian and Gary, too. We were then back in for the cutting of the cake which was carried out on the dance floor before going into their first dance. All the photos I’ve blogged today are from Mark and Jemma’s bride and groom session, simply because I love the striking November lighting. When I blog next week’s wedding I’ll try and use more of the reportage images.

Engagement Shoot at The Point Hotel

A busy period just now what with wedding fairs, Edinburgh portrait sessions, album designing and still a couple of weddings to photograph before the end of the year. Last weekend was the Edinburgh Corn Exchange wedding fair, the biggest in central Scotland, and then this Sunday I’m down in Newcastle for the Great North East Bridal Show, one of the leading wedding fairs in the North East of England. I really enjoy doing wedding fairs as it’s a chance to showcase my albums and Storybooks which being bespoke designed makes them really stand out above the template system of designing used by most wedding photographers.I fundamentally believe that a photographers work should speak for itself so I love having the opportunity to lay out three or four albums and then just step back and allow couples to browse through them and see the quality of photography that I provide. I’m not much good with clever sales tactics and I don’t have the gift of the gab so it’s probably just as well I have a more laid back policy, lol.

As we are in the middle of the autumn wedding fair season I’m going to take the opportunity to talk about pre-wedding Engagement Shoots. My last engagement shoot was with Nikki and Russell just two weeks ago. I took them to the Point Hotel in the centre of Edinburgh who very kindly gave me use of the stunning Penthouse Suite function room that looks out across the city towards Edinburgh Castle. I’ve photographed many weddings at the Point Hotel Edinburgh and also do a lot of photography for the hotel which is why they were happy to allow me use of the Penthouse for the photo shoot. If you haven’t yet booked your venue for your wedding and wanted to consider the Point Hotel I’m sure we could arrange an Engagement Shoot for you which would give you a chance to see around the Hotel for yourself and also sample how great your wedding photographs would be if you held your wedding here. Please drop me an email or give me a call if you’d be interested.

Engagement Shoots are pretty much win win events for all involved. Firstly, it gives you the chance to work with a professional photographer who can coach you through the secrets of how to look good in front of the camera. We can try different poses and sequences and experiment to see which ones you feel most comfortable with and that work best for the style and look of the photographs you’d like. If you are the type of person who doesn’t really like having their photograph taken, or feels uncomfortable in front of the camera lens this is an excellent opportunity to learn tips and tricks of how to relax, look good and feel confident in front of the camera. If you haven’t yet booked anyone for your wedding photography it also lets you assess your photographer and the quality of his work. Very often I run promotions offering free Engagement Shoots for this very reason as the quality of the resulting photographs is so high the couple will go on to book me to photograph their wedding.

A typical Engagement Shoot will last around 45 minutes. I try not to make it too much longer as a 30-45 minute slot is quite close to the time you will have for your main bride and groom session on your wedding day and it allows me to demonstrate how I can produce a large variety of different images within a modest time frame. For Nikki and Russell we ended up with around 50 different photographs.
They will then pick their favourite image which I will have printed and mounted up into one of our wedding signature mounts which goes on display on the wedding day for guests to sign and leave congratulatory messages on the special signature mounting board. For the photo shoot itself and the signature mount print I currently charge £90, but keep a look out for special offers and promotions. You can purchase any of the remaining photographs from the session at the normal print rates or we can compile all the images from the shoot into an Engagement Image Book. The first picture you see in this blog post is the opening double page spread of a 12 x 8 inch Engagement Image Book.

I don’t know how many other wedding photographers in Edinburgh offer Engagement Shoots but I’m sure they will become more and more popular. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time with Nikki and Russell and love their photos! I think they loved them too. Here’s a quote from an email I received from Nikki after sending through her photo proofs...

"Many thanks for your time yesterday. We were both surprised how much fun and comfortable it was. The photos are stunning! I was gob smacked when I saw them especially as neither of us like having our picture taken. I will email you later in the week what pictures we want to get and as soon as I have a confirmed date I’ll be looking to book the date with you."

I mentioned in last weeks blog, Karen and Norman’s wedding at Barony Castle, how I’d entered two of the photographs into the Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers monthly contest (October) and I’ll be entering a couple of the photographs in this weeks blog into next months contest, too. I managed to win two awards in the 'Bridal Portraiture' category (the back of the dress shot of Karen in the window) and the 'Weddings Contemporary' category (2nd to last shot from last weeks blog of Karen by the mirror) both Bronze. The last time I did an Engagement Shoot I managed to pick up an award in the Contemporary Portraiture category with one of the shots so I’m hoping I might do well again with the images that I’ll enter from Nikki and Russell’s shoot. I’ll let you know in due course.