Wedding photographer sued this week.

Well there’s been great interest this week in yesterdays news item about the wedding photographer who has been sued for delivering substandard photographs. As you will know from many of my previous blog posts it is these type of ‘photographers’ who create all the wedding photography horror stories and why it is so important you check out and book a good fulltime professional as opposed to a Saturday guy, or Weekend Warrior as we call them in the business. Now, I don’t know all the details as to how this particular couple ended up booking this photographer but I had a look at the photographers website (which incidentally I note is no longer online at the time I write this) and to be quite frank his images were dire all round!

Now all photographers will have some kind of portfolio to show to potential clients. This may be their website, wedding albums, brochure, etc. So it is very important that you give it a good look. And before booking anyone make sure you see plenty of wedding albums and study carefully the images. All the albums should be of complete genuine weddings, beware of the ones that are compilations from a number of different weddings. The standard of photography you see in the sample albums will be what you can expect from your own wedding day. It is highly unlikely a wedding photographer who’s albums are full of mediocre pictures is suddenly going to produce a set of stunning photographs at your wedding.

Another good tip is ask to see their most recent weddings. Most wedding photographers these days will provide the brides and grooms with their own online gallery. If a photographer is reluctant to let you see these then alarm bells should be ringing! All good photographers are immensely proud of their work and will be more than happy to show you as many photographs and albums as you wish. You’ll have noticed from my blog how most of what I talk about is weddings and wedding photography. That is because I love them! I love photographing them and I love spending the days afterward designing and creating the albums and books. These are a photographers selling tools, so make sure you pay more attention to them than to his sales patter.

We are coming into the wedding fair season and as photography is one of the key elements of the wedding day you’ll find at these shows photographers are a plenty. At the last big wedding show I exhibited at there were almost twenty Edinburgh wedding photographers. It is estimated that between 60-70% of wedding photographers are part-timers rather than bona fide full time professionals so if you are going to be attending any wedding shows please be careful. The couple in the above news item found their guy at a wedding fair!

Anyway, I hope some of what I’ve said may be of help. I had intended my next blog entry to be about my recent magazine work but decided to do a quick on this subject while its still fresh in everyone’s mind. I’ve posted a few images too from Louise and Alan's recent wedding at Craighouse in Edinburgh. If you want to see some more there’s three extensive wedding galleries on my website and I’ll be at the Queensferry Hotel open evening on October 21st.

More weddings at Melville Castle

Well I’m currently in the middle of five weddings all at Melville Castle with Anja and Daniel’s being the middle one of the five just this last weekend. This puts me well ahead as having photographed more weddings at Melville Castle than any other wedding photographer in Edinburgh. Melville Castle is now enjoying a new lease of life under its new owners and the beautiful venue is even more enjoyable to photograph at than ever before. I’ve also been here a couple of other times for wedding shows too, so I’m seriously thinking about moving in! lol. I’ve also been doing some magazine work too, that I will tell you more about next time, which is the reason I’m falling behind with my blogging!

Melville Castle is currently operating as an exclusive wedding venue, which I really like as it makes the weddings very private and intimate. There is also a new marquee up adjacent to the castle so it’s able to cater for even the biggest of wedding party’s. My last three weddings however have all been around the 100 mark so we haven’t needed to use the marquee. If you’ve been to Melville you will know how beautiful it is both inside as well as outside. All of the main south facing rooms have huge ornate windows that allows the light to simply flood through. Use of light is critical in photography and it is one of the key skills that set photographers apart. For my style of photography I like to exploit the natural light to its fullest extent sometimes carefully marrying it with light from a speed light, which is often called fill-flash or controlled flash. This is particularly important for bride and groom sets and bridal portraits. With bridal portraits my objective is to make the bride look as glamorous as possible. So I just imagine I’m shooting a front cover magazine image as the basic principals are exactly the same. Firstly I need to ensure that the light and shooting angle is the most flattering, which often entails manipulating the light either with a reflector or enhancing it with supplemental light from the speed light. And then, secondly, I need to make the subject feel comfortable and confident so as to get the best out of them. I also use what we call ’flow posing’ to make the session smooth and enjoyable which produces the natural, relaxed photographs that I’m known for.

On Saturday we had mixed weather with sunshine and showers and blustery wind. As is often the case we were able to pop out for fifteen minutes or so between showers and grab some outdoor pictures, including all the group shots. Anja and Daniel had booked me for 8 hours starting with pre-wedding preparations at 12.30 through until the first dance at 8.30pm. So we were going to get a good mix of around 300 images from the whole day.

I first met Anja and Daniel at a wedding show here at Melville Castle earlier in the year. I visited them again a few days later at their home for a chat and a more leisurely look through wedding albums and books which is when they booked me to photograph their wedding day. I then met back up with them four weeks ago and we chatted more specifically about the day itself going through their timings and arrangements etc. This series of meetings is the norm for couples in Scotland. For those coming from overseas or up from England we’ll have a series of telephone conversations instead.

The day itself was fantastic! Everything went off like a dream and we got a stunning set of photographs. All the photographs shown here are from their wedding and I’ve popped in a couple of Anja’s bridal portraits to illustrate what I was saying about utilizing the light. We had a lot of fun doing the main bride and groom sets, as you can see from the ’piano’ picture. As part of the re-decorations Melville Castle have just been getting an electronic mini grand piano which plugs in and plays itself. We could resist sitting Daniel down behind it and miming away as it played through a few tracks!

The next Wedding Show at Melville Castle is scheduled for Sunday, October 25th. The fifth of my five-in-row Melville Castle weddings is Saturday 24th, so maybe I will book a room! Anyway, if you fancy coming along and seeing some of the changes here I’d love to see you.

Wedding open night at Queensferry Hotel

Well the last few weeks have seen me busy with weddings with a few portrait sessions inbetween. The wedding work has included pre-wedding and post wedding meetings along with a couple of wedding shows and events. The weddings I’ve photographed have been in and around Edinburgh and at venues I’ve worked regularly. These have included Melville Castle, Craighouse campus, The Point Hotel and Dalhousie Castle. I’ve also met back up with some of my newly weds back from honeymoon. Whilst they are away I prepare an initial draft design of their wedding album or book and we meet back up and go through it discussing any changes or alterations. I’ve also been out delivering finished albums too which is something I love doing. Seeing the delight on my clients faces when they go through their album brings a lot of satisfaction and is another reason why I love my job so much!

Something new for me brought me back to the Queensferry Hotel. The Queensferry Hotel has recently started hosting wedding evenings and open days. These are very relaxed informal affairs allowing couples to come along and discuss any aspect of their wedding with the experts on hand. This a great opportunity for a show round of the hotel as well as enjoying a glass of wine and watching the sunset behind the Forth Bridges from the panoramic windows. Mary and Elaine, the hotels wedding and event planners, are able to answer most of your wedding related questions, and then in addition there is Adele from Finishing Touches who can advise on wedding stationary, decoration, chair covers, etc and then myself on photography. I really enjoyed this evening and I’m looking forward to being a regular feature here from now on. I took along several sample albums and books and had nice chats with many prospective brides and grooms over the course of the two hours answering a range of diverse and interesting questions.

One of the first couples I met were there with the brides parents who as they were paying for the wedding wanted to make sure they were going to get the best of everything. I had a nice chat with the father who’s first question was, who will be taking the photographs on the day? This arose as he’d recently been to a relatives wedding and the photographer they thought would be photographing their wedding was not the one who turned up on the day. For me this an easy question as it is ME who will be taking the pictures on the day, lol. Normally this scenario can arise if you have booked a studio for your wedding photography and then on the day it can be one of a number of photographers who gets assigned to shoot your wedding. Of course it can be disappointing if you have been shown photographs prior to booking taken by the studio’s best and most experienced photographers and then find you get assigned a junior on the day. I was also asked what happens if it rains on the day, too, which if you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll already know the answer to.

Another interesting question was from a couple who had already booked their photographer but had a concern about their timings. Their ceremony was scheduled for 2.30pm and would be around half an hour. The wedding breakfast was to be at 5pm with their line up scheduled for 4.45pm. However, their photographer was saying he would need two hours to get through the formal group shots and then some time for a set with the bride and groom alone and they were worried that this was obviously going to upset the timings quite considerably. They had asked the photographer if he could work any faster (which of course was my first thought lol) but he was insistent he couldn’t. Anyway, I was able to help with a few suggestions. Firstly, if the photographer was not able to work very fast then one option was to cut down on the number of group photographs you have him take. To ensure you don’t leave out any important family members or guests from the wedding pictures have the photographer do what we call the Big Group, a photograph of all the wedding guests. I’ve included a few examples here. Another option we discussed was after the ceremony their would be the usual drinks reception. During this the newly weds get to meet and greet all their guests as they exit the ceremony room. This can consume quite a bit of time. If you have say 100 guests and they all take 20-30 seconds giving you their congratulations that can run anywhere between half and three quarters of an hour. The same thing will happen later with the line up. So a possibility is to not have both. You could cut the line up and simply have everyone seated ahead of you, perhaps when you are finishing up the bride and groom photography, and then you can have a bride and groom entrance for the start of the wedding breakfast. Alternatively, if you’re going to go with the Big Group you can have everyone immediately take their drinks outside, or to wherever the photographer wants to do the shot, and go straight into the photography. The Big Group can be done first, and then while everyone enjoys their drinks the photographer can run through some family and bridal party groups whilst everyone is to hand. I think the couple are going to go with the latter suggestion as they didn’t really want to drop the line up from their proceedings. Table shots at the end of the wedding breakfast are also a good alternative and often produce more relaxed and fun images. If he has good communication and people skills, ask the photographer to do a circuit of the dining room getting a photograph of each table.

Other questions were album and venue related. Having a range of different of albums allowed me to show the difference between a modern Coffee Table Book and a traditional album, as well as an Image Book that’s sits between the two. Being a wedding photographer in Edinburgh is a perfect base for traveling all over Scotland. One couple had narrowed their choice of venue down to three options in various locations throughout Scotland and having worked at all three I was able to help make a final decision.

Anyway, the next open evening is Wednesday 21st October if you fancied coming along. If you can’t wait until then I’m at the newly redecorated Melville Castle wedding show on September 27th. I have back to back weddings again this weekend so I’m looking forward to that. If I can get time I’ll try and blog at least one of them for you.

Back at The Point Hotel for Gillian and Barry's wedding

Well I was back at The Mercure Point Hotel for the third time this year for the wedding of Gillian and Barry. I first met Gillian and Barry in February at the Scottish Wedding Show in The Royal Highland centre. They had been at the Point Hotel’s stand and fell in love with the pictures they saw of previous weddings at The Point and booked their wedding on the spot. The showcase album the hotel uses is one of mine so when Gillian and Barry enquired who the photographer was they were pointed in my direction and after looking through a couple more different albums at my stand they booked me to photograph their wedding too. By the time of the wedding day we’d met up a couple of additional times as well giving us opportunity to get to know each other better and forge a nice relationship.

For about 60-70% of the weddings I photograph I have the opportunity to do this. But being a wedding photographer in Edinburgh I also get a lot of bookings from couples coming up from England and Wales and over from Ireland, and also overseas too, who are getting married in Edinburgh but aren’t able to fit in a meeting. That’s an additional reason why I have plenty of wedding photographs in my wedding galleries on my website and also details of my pricing and packages so that it is easy for visitors to compare and assess the quality of my wedding photography. For most of these couples that book without meeting me I will still endeavor to have a pre-wedding consultation with them whenever they visit Edinburgh ahead of the wedding. However, with some couples even this doesn’t always work out and therefore the first time I actually meet them is on their wedding day. Sometimes this can throw up a pleasant surprise, like when I turned up for a wedding towards the end of last year and discovered the bride and groom were television personalities! In all our communications they had used their real names instead of stage names so I never twigged on, lol. Anyway it was a nice compliment when they said they knew as soon as they saw the images in my wedding galleries that I was the perfect photographer for them and so didn’t feel any pressing need to meet me ahead of the day.

I know most of the bridal magazines say how important it is to meet your photographer before booking to see if you gel and have a rapport, but to be perfectly honest a good photographer will take good photographs no matter what the circumstances. The bridal magazines tend to offer this advice due to the large number of Saturday photographers operating and the risks involved with booking them but if you have booked a bona fide full time professional who’s taking photographs day in day out you’ll be fine. When we are booked for something like a high end fashion shoot or a magazine shoot very often we never know who we are going to be working with until we arrive. It is part of the job to gel with and establish a rapport with whoever we are photographing. If I went back to the editor or commissioner and said “I’m sorry but the images aren’t too brilliant because we just didn’t gel on the day” I’d never get another shoot again! So if you are an engaged couple perhaps getting married some distance away from home and not able to meet with a photographer ahead of booking just make sure you do a good analysis online and get to see plenty of photographs. I strongly recommend you ask to see the online galleries of the last couple of weddings photographed which will let you assess the consistency of style and quality.

Gillian and Barry’s wedding was for 1pm with me being booked to start at 12.30. You’ll know from previous posts that my routine is always to arrive ahead of my start time so I can do a quick check round of the venue even if I have carried out a recce previously or have worked the venue many times in the past. Today was an example of why I like to do this. I’ve shot several weddings at The Point hotel and one of my favorite locations is the 4th floor corridor that runs to the Penthouse. The lighting along the corridor is very low and atmospheric making for creative and dramatic photographs. You’ll recall from my blogging of Lucie and Ryan’s wedding back in May how I love to make the most of the funky pink lighting at the far end of the corridor. However, today the lighting had all been changed! The usual overhead spot lighting normally used was not in place and therefore there was no way I was going to create the oozing pink wrap around light that I normally enjoy. I would still use the corridor for the back of the dress and a couple of quick bride and groom shots as there was some distinctive lighting at the far end, but I planned instead to work in and around the main lobby after we’d finished in the Penthouse.

The day itself ran beautifully and we ended up with about 160 photographs from the three hours I was booked for. I’ve included five pictures from Gillian and Barry’s wedding and four images from a previous wedding at the Point just so you can see the difference in the lighting. If you haven’t already done so check some of the photos from Lucie and Ryan’s wedding at The Point too from my May blog posts.

I’ll meet up again with Gillian and Barry when they are back from honeymoon and show them my initial draft design of their PhotoBook which I’ve just finished and discuss any changes and alterations before we go ahead and have it produced. Their photographs are already prepared on their DVD so they’ll get that straight away. I’m not sure if they’ve had opportunity to look at some of the pictures in their private online gallery before heading off on honeymoon but its had plenty of visitors from their family and friends so either way they’ll be eager to finalize the finishing touches to their album so we can have it sent off to print.

Queensferry Hotel for the wedding of Jenna and Casey

Queensferry Hotel sits on the north bank of the Forth Estuary overlooking the Forth Road Bridge. I’d never photographed a wedding here before and when I did my recce a week before Jenna and Casey’s wedding I was delighted at how picturesque the hotel and its gardens are with a plethora of photogenic locations I couldn’t wait to utilize. It is also close to North Queensferry pier and I knew Jenna and Casey were keen to get some photographs with the dramatic Forth Rail Bridge as a backdrop behind them.

The photography started at Jenna’s family home in South Queensferry with some bridal and family portraits. The day had dawned sunny and warm but the forecast wasn’t too promising with rain predicted for later in the afternoon. This wouldn’t affect me getting good photographs but I knew Jenna and Casey had particularly set their heart on going down to the pier as both of them grew up here and the famous Forth Bridge had always been an iconic landmark throughout their lives.

I took a selection of different images at the home including some bridal portraits and then some combinations with Jenna’s sisters who were bridesmaids, her parents and flower girl finishing up with a family shot of all of them. Diane and I then set off ahead of the wedding car and got to Queensferry Hotel about half an hour before the ceremony. I did a few pre-wedding shots with Casey and his bestman, a couple of detail shots and then had a quick word with Elaine whom I’d met on my visit last week just to double check timings and arrangements.

Jenna’s mother and bridesmaids arrived about ten minutes before the ceremony and I quickly got some pictures of them alighting from the car and then posed outside the hotel entrance adjacent to the red carpet that awaited Jenna. Jenna arrived ten minutes late, as was her prerogative, and I paused her and father for a photo in the back of the wedding Jaguar and then again on the red carpet at the hotel entrance after which I ran ahead of them to photograph their procession down the aisle. The celebrant was The Very Rev Kev Pearson who had stipulated no photography whatsoever during the ceremony, which would mean no pictorial record of the declarations, vows, exchanging of rings, etc. I always feel this is a shame but to be honest it usually occurs because the celebrant has had a bad experience in the past of photographers causing such a commotion and distraction during the ceremony they decide not to allow it ever again. There is no need for any photographer to be a distraction or take away from the dignity of such an important arrangement but sadly this is another instance of the part time Saturday photographers giving everyone a bad name. Anyway I got a nice set of three images of the two of them walking down the aisle, a wide shot of the whole room filled with all the guests as they arrived at the front, a quick grab shot inbetween of Casey and his bestman as they catch their first sight of the bride and then finally another wide shot of the whole bridal party standing at the front before retreating to the rear of the room. During the ceremony I did manage to sneak a couple of shots of the bride and groom from the back of the room, including the first kiss, by shooting unobtrusively from the hip with a telephoto lens without the Rev Kev noticing. Fortunately, a thunderbolt from heaven didn’t strike me down!

Usually I do the group photographs shortly after the ceremony but we decided to make the most of the weather and get down to the pier with Jenna and Casey before the rain came on. This proved to be a good idea as we got not only a great set of pictures by the Forth Bridges but also a few from around the hotel gardens and grounds, too. The group shots I did just before the wedding breakfast inside the conservatory, by which time it had begun to rain steadily, and then following the meal came the speeches, cake cutting ceremony and first dance. All in all I got 299 photographs from the day which was very good given there’d been no ceremony photography. A few of my favourites from the bride and groom set are shown here.

Queensferry Hotel website:

http://www.bespokehotels.com/welcome/index.htm

Wedding details - photographs

Wedding details. For many, detail shots from a wedding are never considered and certainly not given any priority. Of course there are far more important photographs on a wedding list of priorities, but if I am booked for a Level 2 or higher I will always include some detail shots as a record for the bride and groom. I had a few pre-wedding consultations this week and as we were looking through a sample album one bride commented on some of the detail shots that had been included and said I didn’t need to bother taking any pictures like that for her on the day. Now of course I’ll work in accord with whatever the couple wishes, but I am also happy to offer advice and suggestions that may be beneficial, so I asked her if there was any particular reason for her decision? Basically, she simply felt there was no need for them. However, they do have some merit that can easily be overlooked.

I’m going to run through the gist of my conversation on this subject and you can decide for yourself if you feel they’d have any worth in your wedding day photographs. But please bear in mind that even if I do take some detail shots on your day they won’t go in your album unless you select them, so in many ways you really have nothing to lose.

Your wedding photographs are your memories from what is the most important day of your life. For the most part the photographs will be the only tangible thing you retain from the day that will be brought out repeatedly over the forthcoming years. The wedding dress, shoes and all the accessories will likely not be worn again. The cake will get eaten. The flowers will be gone and the wedding car returned. Okay, I’m not going to go on and on…don’t want to depress you too much, lol! But that’s why I think its nice to have a photographic record of these items so you can remember exactly what they looked like and how much they contributed to enhancing such a special day.

Lets take one example…the wedding cake. This is a costly item if bought and perhaps even more precious if a close friend or relative has baked and decorated it for you. If you don’t have a picture for your collection will you recall exactly what it looked like in a few years time and how it was displayed as well as all those intricate details that went into the decoration? At most of the weddings I’ve attended the wedding cake is put out in a prominent position on display before the wedding breakfast. Virtually all the guests at some point will saunter over and pay admiring looks. However, for the bride and groom the wedding day unfolds so quickly they seldom get chance to even see the cake until its time for the cake cutting ceremony.

It is similar with the ceremony and dining rooms. Because I arrive ahead of the majority of attendees I get to see the ceremony room and dining rooms straight after they have been set up and before anyone enters them. They always look absolutely beautiful and I cant help but think of how much time and discussion has gone into the layout, the decorations, the placements, the settings and look of the rooms and how during these deliberations, probably between the venue manager and the bride, groom and family, every member involved has tried so hard to visualize how the room will actually look when all the details are in place. And yet, the bride will never see them at their best! When she sees the rooms for the first time they are full of guests. I’ve had so many brides express their delight when going through their photographs and then suddenly seeing how their rooms looked all adorned and set out just as they had tried so hard to imagine in the days before the wedding.

There’s another reason why I like details shots, too. And that’s because they make good supplemental page shots. Very often I may be working on a page design with say a couple of important pictures but there is an empty space that if filled would improve the page look. However, you don’t really want an additional image to detract from the two photographs already selected for that page. This is where a detail shot can be ideal. It fills the space on the page giving the spread a nice balance but because it’s a detail shot it doesn’t conflict with the two main photographs, rather it serves as a complement. This type of use can be particularly helpful with linking images in a Storybook album or Image Book.

Anyway, that’s my viewpoint on the merit of detail shots. I’ve included a few here from the last few weddings I’ve photographed. A couple of these were selected for the newly weds album but most of the images are so recent the bride and groom haven’t yet finalized their photograph selection so it will be interesting to see how many get chosen.

Cathedral and Castle weddings

Well I had three back to back weddings last week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, all of which were excellent and it’s hard to decide which one to blog. However, I know a lot of my overseas visitors to my website and blog, especially the Americans and Canadians, love our historical Cathedral and castles so I thought I’d let you see some photographs from Katrina and Paul’s wedding as it involves both.

Katrina and Paul were married at St. Mary’s Cathedral at the top of Leith Walk in Edinburgh and then were going back to their reception at the Apex International Hotel in the Grassmarket. This was the middle wedding of my three.

Leith Walk is one of the oldest, widest and most well known streets in Edinburgh linking the town centre to Leith and St. Mary’s sits in prime position right at the head of Leith Walk atop a large flight of steps. There’s a narrow track at the bottom of the Cathedral steps where the wedding cars are allowed to temporarily park. Diane and I had decided to take a taxi as it would be quicker for us to simply hail one from the top of Leith Walk and get across town to the Apex after the ceremony than it would to hunt around finding a parking space at the hotel. The wedding car was a beautiful old Jaguar which looked majestic as it waited outside the Cathedral after dropping Katrina and her father. I grabbed a shot of the bride and father standing beside it before going into the Cathedral and likewise later did a set of images with Katrina and Paul after their wedding ceremony.

Inside, the Cathedral is stunningly ornate, but also cavernous! I had to use a long telephoto zoom lens for the majority of the proceedings which was a full Roman Catholic ceremony lasting almost an hour. When everything was over and the newly weds had made their way down the long, deep aisle I congregated all the guests on the Cathedral steps for a big group shot. There were about 75-80 guests altogether so it was a comfortable fit on the steps with plenty of room to spare. I’ve had 200 guests arranged on the steps here at previous weddings. The weather was glorious, as it had been the day before, with warm sunshine and clear blue skies. After the big group shot I ran through Katrina and Paul’s family groups and then spent 10 minutes with the two of them alone before we headed off for the Apex.

Getting around Edinburgh, particularly through the city centre can be fairly slow progress with all the sluggish traffic but there are priority lanes for buses and taxis so we got to the Apex ahead of the wedding car which gave me chance to shoot pictures of it arriving outside the hotel and then I paused Katrina and Paul alongside to get a shot of them and the car with the looming hotel entrance as a backdrop. I had to stand in the middle of the road for this, quiet a daring feat in the bustling Grassmarket, but it only took me a few seconds and I managed to make it back onto the pavement unscathed, lol! The Apex had laid out the red carpet for the bride and groom so I paused them for a second half way along it and grabbed a shot with the Grassmarket now as a backdrop. I knew that this image would look great when I colour touched it later retaining the colour in the bride and groom and the red carpet but converting everything else to black and white. This is the colour touched photo shown here.

Katrina and Paul were met by Duncan who was to serve as their MC for the remainder of the day. However, before mixing with the rest of their guests Duncan took us all up to the Apex Heights which is on the top floor of the hotel looking across to Edinburgh Castle. The Heights restaurant is where the wedding breakfast was to be held but before all the guests came up for it Katrina and Paul were allowed out onto the outside balcony for photographs. The balcony is fairly narrow and only the bride and groom with their photographer are permitted to go out onto it, hence the reason the hotel staff take them up ahead of their guests. I’ve photographed weddings at the Apex before so I’m familiar with the stunning views but I think this was the sunniest day I’ve ever been out here.

I started with a classic shot of Katrina and Paul chinking their champagne glasses with Edinburgh Castle sitting majestically behind them. I then ran through a set of different images that encompassed a few more classical poses, some contemporary images as well as some relaxed and fun pictures. I didn’t take too long as I was aware of the hotels timings for the meal but we got around two dozen different images in about ten minutes. Duncan asked me if I wanted photographs of a mock up of the cake cutting before the guests were brought up to the restaurant but to be honest the pictures always look far better when you shoot it live as you capture the atmosphere and vibe of the occasion which of course isn’t there if you are simply doing a fake mock up. As I was booked up until the first dance there was no need for a mock up anyway as I would be photographing the cutting of the cake as well as the speeches before and after the meal.

Lots of reportage photography for the remainder of the day right up until and including the first dance. I was recently dropped an email saying that I never state how many photographs I end up taking at the weddings I blog…so just for the record…Katrina and Paul had booked me for Level 2 coverage (full details of my packages and pricing are on the main WEDDINGS page of my website) which is up to 6 hours attendance at their wedding starting at 2pm with the first dance at 8pm. They will have a total 231 photographs on their DVD and I uploaded about 150 onto their private online gallery. I’ve just completed the initial draft of their album and we’ll meet up when they’re back off honeymoon to discuss any changes and alterations they want to make. I hope that keeps the statisticians happy!

The website for St. Mary’s Cathedral is: http://www.stmaryscathedral.co.uk/
And the Apex International Hotel is: www.apexhotels.co.uk/hotels/edinburgh-international
My website is: …oh, never mind, you should know it by now! lol