Julie and Allan's wedding in Oban

The north west coast of Scotland is one of the most beautiful places in the world and it has been a favourite of mine since childhood. I was given my first camera at eight years of age and the first roll of film I ever exposed was on the Kintyre peninsula. Twelve years later I was travelling up and down the west coast of Scotland working within the Scottish tourism industry and shooting multiple rolls of film every day. Nowadays I usually pick up at least two or three commissions each year which gives me the chance to work regularly amid this stunning, dramatic landscape so I’ve been to Oban on many occasions. However, I’ve never actually photographed a wedding in Oban, so it was great to be back on Saturday for Julie-anne and Allan’s wedding!

I first met Julie and Allan back in February 2009, which sounds a long while ago, but the time seems to have flown over. I travelled across on the friday via Loch Lomond but this time driving up the opposite bank to which I’d photographed the monster last week, lol. This gave me ample time to carry out a recce of the church and the Argyllshire Gathering Hall where their reception would be held. The forecast for the weekend was sunshine and showers but as Allan and Julie had booked my 'sunny and dry' package I had to make sure there would be no rain after 3pm on the Saturday afternoon, which meant arising early on the wedding day morning and getting everything ready. Naturally this is a trade secret! ;)

The wedding was to be held in the Corran Esplanade Church. This is a prominent white building that sits atop a small hill dramatically overlooking the Oban Bay. It’s a gorgeous setting and so are the views, too, as you can see from the first couple of photos. The first photograph was taken before the ceremony as guests started arriving and the second was taken just after the ceremony as the newly weds were being greeted and congratulated on their marriage.

There are narrow lawns along the side of the church which I’d earmarked for the group shots. It would mean that not only would the groups be backlit (so no squinting because of the sun) but also they would have Oban Bay as a striking backdrop. The example I’ve used is the main bridal party (bestman, bridesmaids, both sets of parents) and as you can see the town is spread out behind the group and includes Oban’s legendary landmark, McCaigs Tower, up on the hillside above the Bay.

Julie and Allan are a wonderful couple, and as Julie almost never stops smiling I knew we’d have a great set of wedding photographs from their day. We’d planned to go down to a secluded little spot further up the esplanade and right on the waterfronts edge following the group shots. Amazingly, when we got there we had the whole spot to ourselves! Each time I’d visited it yesterday there had always been a few tourists using it. Anyway, at least that saved me having to chase them all away!

We had a superb time doing the photo session and lots of fun, too! We set up a few different shots, but all the while concentrating on very relaxed and natural looking images, which is not only my favoured style but suited the location beautifully. As we moved from one position to another I did my usual running ahead of the couple and photographing them informally as they walked across the grounds. This gets some totally natural photographs as well as showing off the setting.

Working as an Edinburgh wedding photographer I’m familiar with tourists cheering and waving at the bride and groom, taxi’s and buses honking and tooting them and even on the odd occasion coinciding with the firing of canons from Edinburgh Castle. But I’ve definitely never experienced a passing Calmac ferry sounding his foghorn at them! I was actually rummaging in my camera bag when I heard the blast of the horn. I looked up to see the ferry passing by with everyone on the decks shouting and waving at Allan and Julie. I quickly grabbed a camera and fired off a couple of shots before it passed out of frame. For those of you that read my blog from outwith Scotland, Caledonian MacBrayne is the leading ferry company in Scotland serving all the islands and peninsula’s off the Scottish coast and their ferries are something of an iconic sight around the country and are a highly popular photographic souvenir amongst residents and visitors alike.

I always like to get a couple of good individual portraits of the bride and groom along with all the photographs of them together as a newly married couple. My favourite two of Julie-anne and Allan are the two shown here. I asked Allan to sit on top of this craggy, rocky outcrop close to the waters edge. I then took Julie lower down the grassy bank and positioned her with Allan now up above her in the background. This was one of the shots I’d envisioned when I did my recce of the location the day before and I knew I could create several contemporary variations within just a couple of minutes, which proved to be the case. But as I finished up I quickly grabbed the camera with my telephoto lens on and zoomed in tight on Allan for the photo shown here. He looks so comfortable and relaxed I think it’s a good reflection on how much he’d enjoyed the day and how content he felt now being married to Julie.

My favourite portrait of Julie from the day is the one shown here after Allan’s. I must confess I was torn between this shot and another one I’d taken down by the water where Julie looked absolutely stunning. But the photo here was totally natural as Julie wasn’t aware of being photographed. It was taken not long after we’d got to the Argyllshire Gathering Hall. The original is in colour but I did a black and white conversion which in my opinion gives the image a timeless look that I like very much.

The Argyllshire Gathering Halls are a great venue for a wedding reception. And the food was divine! The main course was a choice between chicken with stuffed haggis and roast beef. I opted for the beef, not because I don’t like chicken and haggis, but just because I know its easier for the Highlanders to catch cattle than it is to catch the haggis as being much smaller, nimble animals they can run much faster around the hillside ;) Anyway, my dinner was roast beef, potato pie, cauliflower cheese, veg and gravy. And it was one of the most sublime meals I’ve ever had! So a big thank you to Julie and Allan and their families, and Amanda at the Argyllshire Hall for looking after me :)

Now one of the requests Julie had asked for was a Big Group photograph of all the guests on the dance floor. There are not too many venues in Scotland where you are able to do a Big Group on the dance floor, but the Argyllshire Halls have a small balcony that juts slightly out over the dance floor, so she’d asked me if this would be possible. Of course, pretty much anything is possible with me, lol! The real question though was not whether it would be possible for me to get the photograph, but whether or not it would be possible to fit all the guests on the dance floor! Anyway, we’d soon found out!

So while the room was being turned around for the dancing I went and set up a couple of lights on the balcony. When everything was ready Allan and the ushers started herding all of the 3,500 guests through to the main hall (okay there maybe wasn’t quite that many!). I positioned Julie and Allan at the front and central and then arranged everyone else around them and behind them. I got everyone to snuggle in nice and tight and there ended up being space left over for a few more if we’d wanted to! I took one photograph with everyone looking straight up at me. Then I asked for the bride and groom to kiss and shot off another. I then asked for ’everyone to kiss’ which gets people looking at each other in confusion wondering if I was being serious before they all burst out laughing.

We were then into the dancing and I went down onto the floor to photograph the first dance from dance floor level. After getting a good range of shots including closeups and full lengths of Allan and Julie and also some wide shots of the whole dance floor as other couples began to join them, I ran back up to the balcony and photographed them from overhead. I also shot a few images with slow synch lighting creating motion blur which really captures the atmosphere of a good Scottish ceilidh.

The last image posted here is from when we were finishing up at the water front earlier in the day. We’d had such a good time and enjoyed a few good laughs that I thought I’d finish off by trying something fun but unusual. I don’t think it’s worked out as good as it should have but I’m sure you get the idea, lol.

Anyway, I really hope I get to come back for another wedding in Oban sometime in the future. If you are reading this and planning a wedding somewhere over on the west coast please don’t be put off because I’m based in Edinburgh. I go all over Scotland photographing weddings and absolutely love my job! Julie and Allan are back off honeymoon at the end of the month and they’ll then begin the process of selecting photographs for their album, which I can assure you is a really hard job when they are all so good! I’m off to photograph a wedding in the north of England next weekend, which is actually nearer than Oban, and if the food is half as good I’ll be happy enough!

Shooting the Loch Ness monster

I had one of the funniest and most bizarre experiences this week. In fact I’m still laughing every time I think of it! lol

The first half of the week has been primarily taken up with wedding photography engagement sessions and meetings with potential brides and grooms looking to book an Edinburgh wedding photographer. I’ve also had two bookings this week for weddings in 2011 which mean the couples qualify for a free engagement session currently available as a special May promotional offer to anyone who books their wedding photography with me this month.

But then on Thursday I travelled through to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs for something a little different. I have a wedding here later in the summer and the bride and groom are wanting some Loch Lomond scenic landscapes to be used throughout their album as page back grounds and linking fillers. I’ve wrote previously how my wedding albums and books are exclusive and bespoke designs and this is an example of just how personal and unique we can make them. Almost anything is possible creatively!

I’m pretty familiar with the Loch Lomond area from magazine and commercial work I’ve done in the past so I had in mind some great locations that I wanted to shoot. With landscape photography the best hours are the first hour after sunrise and last hour of the day before sunset. The sun is low in the sky and creates beautiful textures and lighting which is why these times are referred to as the golden hours. So I had a really early start in order to get to Loch Lomond for sunrise.

I got their in plenty of time and headed up the less frequented eastern bank of the loch, which in my opinion is prettier and also better for photography being off the beaten track and close to three other lochs, a river and two waterfalls. Anyway at just after 5am I was in position ready for the sun to arise at around 5.30am.

As I’m sat there studying the light I hear this rustling in the surrounding undergrowth. Initially I thought it must be a fox or a feral goat but then it grew so intense and deliberate I knew it couldn’t be a small animal. I admit to being a touch apprehensive because I was in a little known location that was completely secluded and at that time of the morning you generally expect nothing but total peace and quiet. The noise became louder and louder and was definitely heading in my direction so I stood up and braced myself. Suddenly, bursting out from the bushes there appeared this Japanese tourist carrying a camera with the longest lens I have ever seen mounted onto an enormous tripod! “Ahh”, he exclaimed with delight when he saw me, “I have found you!” With a mixture of relief and adrenaline still surging through my body the most I could manage was a “Hi” by way of reply, lol.

Apparently, he was staying in the nearby Inversnaid Hotel and had seen me draw up in my car and then head off into the woods. He’d grabbed his gear, its a 600mm Canon lens for you techies that want to know, and ran after me in the hope of catching me up.

“You are after the monster”, he said. I wasn’t sure if this was a question or a statement, but whatever, I had no idea what he meant. He must have seen the confusion on my face and tried an explanation. “You are here for the monster?” Still a baffled look from me. “The Loch Ness monster. You here to photograph.”

Well I had to try my hardest not to burst out laughing. “No” I said, shaking my head. “No monster here. This is Loch Lomond”. Now it was his turn to wear a confused look. “This”, I said pointing out over the loch, “is Loch Lomond, not Loch Ness. No monster here!” He pointed at my camera making persistent hand movements as if to prove I was wrong. “The camera”, I said, “is for the sun. I’m here to photograph the sunrise”. Again this was met with a puzzled frown. “The sun”, I said, pointing at the sun to make things clearer. “I’m waiting for the sun”.

“Ahhhhhh, I see” he said elatedly as he finally got the point. “Of course”, he continued nodding his head triumphantly. “Son of Loch Ness monster!”

“Nooooooooooooooo” I managed to stutter out between feelings of hilarity and frustration. I was about to launch another attempt when he firmly planted his tripod into the ground and declared “I wait with you!” beaming me a radiant smile. It was pretty close to sunrise now, and I didn’t fancy my chances of success with any more explanations, so I decided to simply get on with the job.

We stood side by side and waited just a few minutes as the orange, purple glowing sky turned golden and the sun duly arose. I took quite a few different shots as the sun rose above the loch and mountain side. My new companion kept looking at me suspiciously every time I fired the shutter, straining to look out across the waters to see what I was photographing. After several shots I showed him the images on the back of my camera and explained “beautiful sunrise”. Which he somewhat reluctantly agreed with. “You take some”, I encouraged. After all he had got up at the crack of dawn and he sure as hell wasn’t going to get any monster photos so I figured at least he would have some nice landscapes for all his efforts, lol.

When I’d taken what I wanted I pointed to the great looming bulk of Ben Lomond and told the man I’m now climbing up there. I was thankful he didn’t decide to come with me. Not because I didn’t want his company but because it would probably have given him a heart attack if he’d tried to lug his huge, heavy gear all the way to the 3,200feet summit!

I spent the remainder of the morning on the slopes of Ben Lomond taking photographs at periodic intervals on the route up finally arriving on the summit around noon. There’s a few shots from the day here together with a couple from previous visits. The guy standing on the Ben Lomond summit enjoying the view is me by the way. Gotta luv camera self timers!

Weddings amongst the April showers

Well spring is in the air, the blossom is coming out and we’re just about into the main wedding season here in Scotland. May through to October is the peak time for weddings in Scotland so if you are planning a wedding for these months its always good to book your wedding photographer as soon as you can. As a wedding photographer in Edinburgh I’m ideally based for photographing weddings all over Scotland as well as the north of England. This coming month I have two weddings in Edinburgh, one in Newcastle and one over on the west coast of Scotland in Oban.

Most of the weddings I get booked to photograph seem to be in Castles, Stately Homes or the high end hotels. However, although this is the case I must stress that I am happy to photograph weddings wherever you are getting married and whatever your venue may be. The wedding photos shown here are from Laura and Johnny’s wedding. They got married in Laura’s family church in Edinburgh and then had their reception at the Edinburgh Bowling Club. Although the surroundings are not as glamorous or majestic as a castle that does not mean they wouldn’t get a set of beautiful photographs. A good professional photographer will come up with superb wedding photographs no matter where you are or whatever happens on your day.

Typically for an end of April wedding we had a day of April showers. I had carried out a recce of both the church and the Bowling Club previously and so had already decided if it should rain I would do the group photographs inside the church as there was more room and the setting was better than inside the Bowling Club house. The group photo here is the newly weds with both sets of parents and their bestman and best maid.

Diane had tipped me off that several wedding guests had confetti to throw. So, rather than having random amounts thrown by different people at sporadic times I suggested we do a co-ordinated confetti photograph which I set up at the top of church steps. It was still raining and so as I wasn’t sure how much time we’d get dodging the showers at the Bowling Club I made use of one of the church windows for a couple of quick bridal portraits and then half a dozen romantic and contemporary images of the newly weds.

On the short walk to the car we gave Laura and Johnny our white wedding umbrella which allowed me to shoot some informal images as they walked through the church gardens. I paused them under the canopy of a large tree which I’d earmarked from the recce and shot another half dozen photographs primarily using classic poses. I knew Laura’s father had spent a considerable amount of money hiring the vintage Rolls Royce so I made sure to include it in several photographs. The one shown here was just before we left the church. I converted it to black and white to give an oldy worldly feel that would match the classic car.

My wedding pricing is principally based upon the amount of time you wish me to attend your wedding and for this wedding I was booked through until the first dance. This meant they would be able to include their cake cutting ceremony, wedding speeches and of course a lot more informal, fun photographs from their evening reception. We also utilised the breaks in the showers two or three times too for some quick ten minute sessions around the bowling green and the clubhouse.

I have a few portrait sessions lined up for this week and also a couple of e-sessions (that’s wedding photographer lingo for engagement session, lol) and then my next big shoot is back at Melville castle next Monday. A group of 33 of Britain’s top scientists are at the Castle for an important function and I’m booked to do the photography for it. When I was first contacted about the job I had hopes of perhaps going up on an exciting trip into space or something but then I discovered that they are biologists so I suppose there’s more chance of me ending up on a dissecting table! Yikes!

I mentioned e-sessions a couple of paragraphs ago so I’ll finish this post by mentioning that I’m running a special offer of a free engagement session for all couples who book me for their wedding photography during the month of May. I can do a natural and relaxed ‘lifetsyle’ engagement session either at the venue itself or we can select from a few good locations around Edinburgh. Otherwise I can do a mini studio session at your home. We then have your favourite photograph printed up and set into a beautiful wedding signature mount and you can also have your own personalised Save the Date cards using one of the images from the session, too. Details of the offer are on my website, just click Edinburgh Wedding Photographer to read.