Weddings, Photo-shoots and Commercial assignments

What an incredibly busy and exciting year 2012 has been! To be honest I really didn’t think anything would eclipse 2011 for me after being featured by ITV in their five week run-up to the Royal Wedding as one of the top 12 wedding photographers in the country. It generated enormous interest and exposure and I was thrilled! However, this spring I’ve had the same amount of publicity after BBC Magazines included me in their Top 12 Wedding Photographers feature.

I’ve also ended the year by having several photographs published on the International Professional Photographers Society pages. I can’t tell you how chuffed I was at this as they only feature a very very small percentage of professional photographers work from all over the globe and the images have to be literally out of this world! Two of the photographs are in this blog; the wedding photograph of Emma and Stuart at Dalhousie Castle and the Storm over Melville Castle.

One of the things my friends and family are always amazed about is how, despite having been taking photographs professionally since the age of 16, my love and enthusiasm for photography has grown more and more over the years and is stronger now than it has ever been! When I was a young boy I got hooked on photography at 8 years of age and all I ever wanted to do was leave school as soon as possible and be a professional photographer. I am very fortunate to have had that come about and still be doing what I love almost 30 years on!

Weddings and Photo-shoots are of course my number one priority but I still enjoy freelancing for magazines and the commercial work I pick up, too. This of course has a great knock-on effect on my wedding photography as you learn some of the most highly prized secrets of the trade from magazine Editors and Publishing House designers which have a great impact on your skills and creativity. And it’s also nice receiving my Royalties every December ;)

December is always an extremely busy month for most wedding photographers in Edinburgh, especially those who do photo-shoots, too. Not only with the photography itself but also all the print, canvas and album orders. I’ve managed to get all my orders out today so everyone should receive everything in time for Christmas. This also includes my landscape prints and canvases that sell from website as well.

One thing I am going to mention is the price for my framed prints if you have had a photo-shoot or wedding with me. I do so simply because everyone has been telling me what great value for money they are, especially compared with other photography studio’s. So, a large 20” x 16” framed photograph is £69.95, a medium 16x12 is £59.95 and a 12x10 only £49.95. All my framed prints come in photo noir style, classic black frames with matching mounts. There’s a couple of pictures of them on my facebook page.

January is always a busy month for couples looking for and booking their wedding photographer. I’ve recently carried out a few tweaks on my website to try and provide all the information future bride and grooms need about myself and my services and costings.

2012 has been another year where poor wedding photographers have appeared on the news as disappointed couples attempt to sue them for their money back. Many of the experienced pro’s like myself work hard trying to help and educate couples in how to tell the difference between photographers and standards of work. An important point to remember is do not assume that all wedding photographers are the same, because they are not. In fact there are huge differences!

I do not who it was that coined the term “Frumpographer” but it does actually help in highlighting that it is not all about the packages and options but rather what you are paying your money for is the skill and level of expertise of the photographer himself and it is this that will directly affect how you look in your wedding photographs. So when comparing one photographer against another do so by looking carefully at his work. Even if you initially know little about photography you can soon train yourself to recognise the difference between what is a good photograph, a poor photograph and a stunning photograph. Go into the photographers Gallery and look at what they considers to be their best photographs and then compare them side by side.

Talking of looking at photographs please remember that if you click on any image here it will open a larger gallery style viewer so you can see the photographs at a larger size.

Latest work on Facebook

This has been one of the busiest years ever for me and it has been very hard trying to keep up with regular blogging...as you can see in the huge gaps between posts. I do not intend to abandon my blog but as I'm a working photographer I hope you will understand why the blog gets religate into second place. However, you can see and keep up with my most recent work and photographs by following my facebook page:
Philip Hawkins Photography Facebook

It's quicker and more convenient for me to post snippets from recent weddings and photo-shoots than it is to for me to blog them up. I am giving thought to perhaps giving a new direction to the blog in the new year so please keep an eye out. In the meantime I leave you with a promo photograph of Natalie and Billy and Melville Castle :)

Weddings at the Scotsman Hotel

It's a very busy time right now even though we're coming to the end of the traditional wedding season. I'm now doing a fair bit of commercial work alongside various wedding related photography as well. Last weekend was Kristen and Glenn's wedding at Norton House Hotel who's Engagement Shoot photos were featured in my last blog. A thoroughly enjoyable day even though it rained. Keep an eye out for some of there wedding pictures soon (although there is a sneak peek up on my facebook page).

We're also approaching the end of the autumn Edinburgh wedding fair season, too. As most of my work nowadays comes from recommendations and word of mouth I no longer do the larger wedding fairs, which are a bit of a free for all even though there not free! lol But I like to support some of the top venues where I'm recommended as their photographer and enjoy exhibiting at their shows. This Sunday I'm at The Scotsman Hotel wedding fair. So I thought it would be fitting to show some recent photos from this gorgeous venue.

The Scotsman Hotel booked me to come in last week to do a photo shoot for their new wedding brochure and wedding marketing. I was working alongside Zenith Events who had been brought in by the Hotel to decorate the rooms which would feature prominently in the brochure. We worked on three of the main suites decorating them as they would be for a wedding day and then photographing them from several angles. We also had a bride and groom come in for an hour in afternoon for some bride and groom photographs.

It's always nice working with professional models but for a wedding brochure I am very hesitant because usually the photos don't look authentic. I mean you pick the brochure up and you can tell straight away these are professional models rather than a real couple. So what I did was get on of my previous clients whose wedding I photographed a couple of years ago to come in for them. This is great for all of us. Natalie was thrilled to get the opportunity to wear her dress again and the hotel gave them a complimentary overnight stay and dinner for two in their award winning restaurant. And for me a I get a genuine, authentic married couple so the photos will be realistic.

The photos were completed and edited overnight as I had to get them into their design team down in London as they are aiming to have the brochure printed and ready for the wedding fayre on Sunday. The following day I was booked to photograph an award ceremony at the Roxburghe Hotel in Edinburgh and they were wanting their photos ready the next day, too, so a very busy week indeed! The Roxburghe Hotel also use me as their recommended Edinburgh wedding photographer so I'm happy to oblige.

As well as the company brochure and website, where I simply the photography, I'm also putting together a showround wedding album for the Hotel which is a bit more detailed and informative for couples interested in booking the venue for their own wedding. The design of this is very similar to one of bespoke real life wedding albums, although more tailored towards showcasing the hotel, but it does a view of how good the couples wedding photographs will be if they chose to marry here and of course pick me for their photography ;) I'm posting below some of the pages but if you're coming to the wedding fair Sunday I'll have the real thing together with a selection of sample albums and Storybooks.

If you click on any photo it will open a gallery style so you can see the pictures at a larger size...

Norton House Hotel weddings - Engagement Shoot

I am a great fan of supplementing natural light with studio lighting. Even on a wedding day I will do this for the main bride and groom session. Natural light can be very nice but you have little control over it on the day which can hamper the potential for really stunning shots. A typical example of this is with weddings at very grand venues like Castles and fashionable Hotels. There may be potential for a photograph with a very dramatic background, say the castle itself, but the lighting in that particular spot at that time is perhaps dull and lack lustre.

With mobile studio lighting you have the possibilities of manipulating things to produce the dramatic results you want. The secret is, of course, in the blending, just like a good whisky ;) And it this reason why many wedding photographers shy clear of external lighting and brand themselves as ‘natural light’ specialists. There is nothing altogether wrong with this, especially as external lighting, even from a simple flash gun, can be very unpredictable unless you’ve had a lot of experience with using it. However, if you really want to give your wedding images impact and have them jump off the album pages you simply cannot rely totally on natural light as it just too flat and limp to give the pictures sufficient boost. Hence, why I’m a lover of supplemental external lighting.

However, there are some situations where you can use natural light in a very similar way to studio light with the same dramatic results. One of these is the use of window light, and the photos posted today from Kristen and Glenns Engagement Shoot at Norton House illustrate this.

As a wedding photographer in Edinburgh I am privileged to work at many of our impressive and grand venues, most of these come with a magnificent array of fittings and fixtures. Huge, ornate windows are a plenty in these establishments and whilst the most obvious use of them is as impressive backdrops they can also be used as a light source itself. On the day of our shoot it was pouring with rain, so the plan for a walk around the beautiful grounds of Norton House for some photos was shelved and we had to stay inside.

I took Glenn and Kristen into an empty room adjacent to the main lounge and simply placed them at an angle to one of the large windows so that they were bathed in the beautiful light that poured in. I moved through several different poses and photographs all the while using nothing except the natural window light. Now whilst these photographs are lovely and I will always look for opportunities like this where I can utilise the natural light to its full advantage the difference is that you have to revolve the subjects around the light source when working this way, where as with external studio lighting I can move the lights themselves so I am not limited or restricted the same.

The last photograph here was taken by the hotel entrance. All Edinburgh wedding photographers enjoy using this area when photographing weddings at Norton House Hotel as it is under cover so you can still get some photographs even in the rain, as it was when I took these. Moving outside meant we were now back in flat lighting conditions. Although I didn’t use external lighting for these images I did attach a flash gun and bounced some light into the faces just to lift the flatness.

We are back in a couple of weeks for Kristen and Glenn’s big day and all looking forward to it very much. I have two more Engagement shoots this Saturday and then I am exhibiting at The Roxburghe Hotel wedding fair on Sunday. So if you are planning a wedding and looking for a wedding photographer in Edinburgh pop in for a chat.

Queensferry Hotel wedding and wedding fair

Had a great afternoon at the Queensferry Hotel wedding fair on Sunday so thought I’d post some photos from Lynn and James wedding which was held at this venue just a couple of weeks earlier.

The photo spreads here are from a Storybook album I designed in time for the wedding fair, so what you are looking at are double page spreads. The Hotel already has a Bellissimo sample album of mine but we thought it would be good to show off a really fresh and recent wedding in a different style Storybook album in time for the wedding fair.

This album is a 12 x 12 Designer Storybook which is personalised to fit each wedding. When you go round wedding fairs, particularly the wedding fairs with many photographers, you will notice that most of the albums look very much the same as wedding photographers tend to use the template software supplied by the album manufacturer.

As I do a lot of magazine and commercial work I am one of the few wedding photographers in Edinburgh that does not use the templates but creates each album from a blank canvas which allows me to give bespoke design so that each and every album is unique. You’ll notice from the pages here how I deliberately took a number of photographs on the day to use as tailored backgrounds for some of the pages. So you have close ups of the bouquets, floral arrangements, chair sashes, etc which of course personalise the album so it fits and marries with the overall feel of the day and the bride and groom themselves.

You may also notice how many page backgrounds are textured or have had a smooth sheen applied (these may not show up as well on your computer screen as they do in the flesh so to speak but hopefully it will be adequate for you to appreciate the difference) which gives the pages a nice weddingy feel. It is impossible to do this with a template system as they mostly work in solid colours only (hence why a lot photographers albums only have black or white pages).

The beauty and flexibility of this is that I can also incorporate your own ideas into the album design as well. Many couples enjoy this and give some great creative input. I send through page proofs at every stage of the design for comments, amendments and approval so your finished album is exactly the way you want it to be.

This Sunday I’ll be at The Point Hotel wedding fair with plenty sample albums including a real life wedding from the Point Hotel, too. One thing I must point out after over hearing comments from the last two previous wedding fairs is that all the photographs I use, both on my website and in my albums, are from genuine weddings that I have photographed. Some girls have passed comment that they thought the brides and grooms were models.

I view these comments as enormous compliments as it’s a great reflection on the quality of my photography but just for the record let me make clear that none of the girls or the guys are models.

If you would like to see some wedding photos where I’ve used models then have a look at my facebook page. I did a photo shoot yesterday for the newly refurbished Brunton Theatre for their wedding brochure which will be coming out soon. I was booked by the PR company to do the

commercial shots and also the wedding photographs and they brought along their own models. I was quite honoured to be booked for this as the PR company are based in England and do not know any photographers in Scotland. They simply googled - wedding photographer Edinburgh and compared the photographs on everyone websites.

I have another similar job tomorrow at The Caves in Edinburgh, another great and unique wedding venue. I will blog some photos from a recent wedding at The Caves very soon to show just how atmospheric it is. It seems 2012 must be the time for all the top venues to put together new wedding brochures. So far this I’ve already done work for Melville Castle, Shieldhill Castle, Oxenfoord Castle,

House and the Royal Terrace Hotel. After completing the Brunton Theatre yesterday and then The Caves tomorrow I’m booked to do a photo-shoot at the Scotsman Hotel. Most of these venues when the shoot is complete make me wine and dine in their posh restaurants, on the house. So it really is a hard life!

Note: if you click on any of the photo spreads it will open up the larger gallery style viewer so you can see the images better.

Melville Castle Weddings

I had a great time on Saturday photographing the first 2012 wedding at Melville Castle. I’ve been in and out of Melville Castle over the last few months meeting with the owners and new manager and helping them out with photographs for all their new marketing. So, it’s all been very exciting! I’ve photographed many weddings here over the years and so it was nice to be back with a bride and groom on Saturday. If you’d like to see some of the photos you can find a sneak peek on my face book page, here is the link: Marianne and David’s wedding at Melville Castle.

This week is super busy with weddings as I have Denise and David at The Caves on Friday, Emma and Neil at Edinburgh’s Capital Hotel on Saturday and then the first Melville Castle wedding fair of 2012 on Sunday. So as you can imagine I am a very happy Edinburgh wedding photographer!

I know from my emails that many of you are planning to come to the wedding fair on Sunday so I look forward to seeing you, especially those of you who are friends and relations of couples whose weddings I’ve photographed in the past! It’s always a real pleasure to photograph these weddings. As you may have read in my previous blogs because the majority of my bookings come from referrals and recommendations I am cutting right back on exhibiting at wedding fairs and so will only be doing ones that will have hand picked exhibitors by invitation only. Personally I believe this is more beneficial not only for me as a wedding photographer in Edinburgh but also for brides and grooms visiting wedding fairs as well as there is at least some kind of vetting of the wedding companies. Melville Castle have recently put together their recommended supplier list and so all these companies you can find and chat with on Sunday.

I will have on my own stand sample Bellissimo albums, the album of choice for Prince William and Kate Middleton, and the holder of Wedding Album of the Year so you’ll be able to see what all the fuss is about and if you agree that it is the best wedding album you’ve ever seen. I’ll also have some new Designer Storybooks and I’ll be running a special Melville Castle Wedding Show offer. I’m through in the Arniston Room adjacent to the bar, now there’s a coincidence ;)