Harburn House - Wedding of Lianne and David

I love the summer months, not just because the weathers is nicer but because the weddings come along so frequently I’ve no sooner finished editing one set of wedding photographs and I’m off to the next. I’ve also managed to sandwich in-between the weddings doing some work on the Edinburgh Wedding Fair which will be held at the Edinburgh Hilton on October 10th later this year. I promise you, if you only attend one wedding fair this year then it has to be this one! I will tell you more about things in another post as today I want to show you some photos from Lianne and David’s wedding, but I was delighted this week to secure Forth One as a partner for this exciting event, which will really add to the buzz building up for the show and of course also means extensive coverage and promotion from central Scotland’s most popular radio station. I think all of us involved in the organising are getting really excited about the prospects of staging a totally fresh and new kind of wedding show. You can click this Edinburgh Wedding Fair link for more information.

As well as loving the summer, I also love beautiful wedding venues! And as an Edinburgh wedding photographer Harburn House in west Lothian is one of my favourites! I’ve photographed many weddings here as one of their recommended wedding suppliers and each one is a delight! On the morning of Lianne and David’s wedding the rain was lurking, but I was pretty sure we’d get a few breaks where we could pop out for some photos, which proved to be the case. If you book Harburn House for a wedding you have exclusive use of the house and the vast estate. Lianne and the girls were getting ready at the main house, while David and the guys were over at the Haymains in the apartments near where the ceremony would be held.

We started at the house with all the pre-wedding getting ready shots. The main lounge had been commandeered by the hair and make-up artist who were busily working on Lianne and the bridesmaids. I shot photographs at various stages of the preparations unobtrusively from different angles of the rooms capturing some nice, natural images. We also flitted up to the main bedroom and got some detail shots of all the dresses, the bouquets and the shoes. I have to say that this is the first wedding I’ve ever photographed at Harburn House where the bedroom has been kept so tidy! So a big thank you to Lianne (or was it her mum? lol) for that as it made my job much much easier.

It’s about a two minute drive across to the Haymains so it wasn’t too hard to take a couple of trips over there before the ceremony to shoot some further details of the room being set up and also some shots of David and the groomsmen on a second visit. I was then back over to the main house for the final preparations before taking some quick posed photographs of Lianne and all the bridesmaids with the two flower girls.
I then made of to the Haymains once again to be there ahead of the bridal cars so I could photograph them as they arrived for the ceremony. Alongside the reportage photographs I briefly paused Lianne and her father in the ante-room for a quick portrait before heading off ahead of them and shooting them as proceeded down the aisle.

As the rain was still looking questionable we did the formal group photographs inside using the portable studio lighting as we had done at Michelle and Phil’s wedding. Following this I did a few quick shots of the newly weds in the same room but moving them across to one of the bay windows so we’d have a different back ground from the formals. As we then went out to the cars we found we’d hit a break in the showers so we utilised this by doing a ten minute session around the gardens of the Haymains before heading back over to the main house. We finished the main bride and groom pictures inside at Harburn House which included a mixture of classic wedding photographs and a few relaxed and fun images. Then we were all ready for something to eat.

Photographing the speeches at the wedding reception is great fun but it also requires quite a bit of skill and anticipation to capture the essence and the atmosphere of the occasions in a set of pictures. Of course with a set of photographs you need to bear in mind that you can’t actually hear what the speaker is saying. So in order to convey the spirit and fun in the images you are looking for the spontaneous expressions, movements and gestures that reflect the emotions and feelings of what is happening. Often this may be hilarity at a funny remark or story, a passing tear or reflective moment as someone gives a poignant remark or simply a look of enjoyment. To capture these moments you not only have to be extremely vigilant but also anticipate events and know which person to train the camera on at any given time. Timing is absolutely crucial as these expression are usually fleeting and if your eye to hand (or finger in this case, lol) isn’t spot on the moment will have gone by the time you press the shutter.

I hope the three examples I’ve chosen here illustrate the above. The first is a shot of the bestmans speech. Obviously in the photo we cant hear what he is saying but the captured gesture conveys quite accurately how he is in the throes of telling a gripping story. The following shot shows the bride and grooms reaction, which tells us the bestmans story was obviously about the groom, and that Lianne found it hilarious. The last photograph was shot just after all the speeches and toasts were concluded and simply captures the enjoyment on David’s face. Diane also took a similar shot of Lianne so both photographs can complement each other nicely in the wedding album.

A rainy day wedding at Houston House

Well we were at Houston House Hotel on Saturday for Michelle and Philip’s wedding amid the beautiful summer rain! lol I know that for most brides rain on their wedding day is their biggest fear, and it is for many photographers, too. However, I am never worried about the weather as it really shouldn’t affect you getting great photographs if your photographer knows what he is doing. In fact, quite often a rainy day gives you opportunity to get some really creative pictures that you might not have done on a day when the weather is fine.

I was booked to start half an hour before the ceremony so we started with some photos of Philip and the ushers. There is a slight canopy overhanging the entrance of the hotel so I grabbed some quick pictures of him with his bestman here before doing a couple of portraits with Phil back inside one of the hotel corridors. I knew Michelle wouldn’t want to hang around longer than necessary upon her arrival at the hotel so first of all I waited at a large window in the lobby looking down the long drive and photographed the wedding car with a telephoto lens as it made its way up the drive with Michelle and the bridesmaids in the back. I then quickly went out and shot informally as they donned their umbrella’s and made a dash for the shelter of the hotel.

Inside the lobby I shot some nice portraits of Michelle and her father and then the whole bridal party including the three bridesmaids, page boy and flower girl. Before proceeding down the aisle the bridesmaids were asking me the best way of holding their bouquets. There is a common tendency to hold the bouquet too high. It feels natural to be holding the flowers at chest height, but it looks far better to lower them slightly and hold them around the midriff. It also makes you look more flattering holding them in this position as well as you look more gracious and elegant. To be honest the girls didn’t need too much coaching anyway as all three of them looked fantastic and the deep rich colour of the bouquets was an inspired choice as it complemented their beautiful green dresses perfectly!

The humanist ceremony went off brilliantly being a great balance of fun and dignity. I worked around the couple in the two corners at the front of the room whilst Diane shot from the rear with a long telephoto. As usual we got a great mix of shots capturing all the fun, laughter and spontaneity of the proceedings. From the six hours we were booked we ended up with over 250 photographs, the majority of course being photojournalistic capturing all the magic of the day as it unfolded naturally. However, I am going to talk more about the formal photography part of day and use photos from it, simply because it will illustrate why you shouldn’t need to worry about rain on your wedding day.

Firstly, lets talk about the formal group photographs. Houston House has gorgeous grounds and of course Michelle and Phil, and myself too, were looking forward to doing all the formals outside in the gardens. However, as that was not possible I had a look around the hotel and commandeered a small room behind the bar where I did the group shots. What I liked about the room was it had plenty of character, and there is always somewhere like this to be found at virtually all venues if you know what to look for. I set up a couple of mobile studio lights around the fireplace in the room which I knew would create some beautiful lighting. I think this is one of those occasions where you have an advantage being a full time professional photographer as opposed to a part timer. Most photographers who dread it raining on a wedding day are usually the ones who have nothing more than a flash gun atop their camera. Flashguns, of course, create very harsh light, especially when you are restricted to being indoors, and if you don’t know how to get around this I can imagine it giving them quite a cause for concern. Studio lighting on the other hand is superb! And also affords opportunity for creating several different styles and effects. Now normally on a fast paced wedding day you are not going to get the time or option to set up a studio type environment. Except...when it rains.

Have a look at the first two photographs in this post. I positioned the groups in front of the fireplace and set the lighting left and right at forty five degrees towards the subject. We call this butterfly lighting, as the two lights will cross over as they light the group in a kind of butterfly effect. It is one of the most even and flattering styles of studio of lighting. The first image illustrates this with a full length group shot. You can see how everyone is lit beautifully and the detail in the pattern and texture of the dresses and kilts are preserved perfectly. The second photograph is a three quarter length shot of Michelle and her bridesmaids and again you see how first of all the skin tones are preserved accurately and the lighting is at its most flattering. Not only do all their faces look beautiful but it also creates wonderful highlights and shadows bringing out texture in the dresses.

Following the group shots we did a twenty minute bride and groom session which simply utilised some of the nooks and crannies I had earmarked around the hotel. As I mentioned earlier, every venue will have its own unique and quirky little corners and settings which provoke so many creative idea’s you usually don’t have time to use them all. So you can see why I enjoy photographing weddings no matter what the weather does on the day. It is great fun which ever way it works out!

One of the shots Michelle and Phil really had been looking forward too was all the guys in kilts. This is a popular photograph at Scottish weddings and always looks particularly good. It was still raining a little but we decided to go out and get everyone standing under the hotel’s canopy. Well, everyone except me of course! lol I don’t mind at all getting wet if it means great photographs so I was all for it, even though I had to virtually climb into a bush and flower bed (which you can just about see as the tips encroach into the foreground of the photo) in order to squeeze everyone in, lol!

Although I have no worries over the weather on a wedding day, at Michelle and Phil’s wedding I was under pressure as there was another Edinburgh wedding photographer working at their wedding as well. She was younger than me, had more energy than me and being quite a bit smaller than me was able to squeeze into places I could not. I can’t wait to see her photos however and hope she didn’t mind me grabbing this last shot of her at work ;)