Man this was a great day, a day of everyone smiling as two groups of family and friends got together to celebrate. Starting at Rachael’s mums house in Near Sawrey meant prep was a bit of a drive away from the Wild Boar, due to the Windermere Ferry being grounded. In the short time that I was there I managed to catch some great images of everyone getting ready. I love the challenge of being invisible in a small space with everyone around getting on with hair and makeup etc.
After a dash round the lake I headed to the Boar where most guests had gathered and Russ was already waiting in the bar. I even had a chance to photograph some of the amazing interiors there too. I have always loved this place.
After the ceremony we had the chance for some group images at the huge oak tree and then headed up to the tarn. Its great heading up there in the Defender and you always get a chance to get some really unique images at a place less photographed than most Lake District wedding venues.
Another great idea from the bride and groom was to include local relish company Hawkshead Relish as their favours. Suppliers or Russ’s beloved Black Garlic Ketchup. The table layout by the wedding coordinators, linked with the yellow and sunflowers theme was amazing too.
Some days are a little more than you expect and shooting at a venue for the first time is more than enough to get me out of bed at some ungodly hour. Scott and Lynn were looking for someone to photograph their wedding at the Belsfield in Windermere and I went down to meet up with them in Ambleside to talk through the arrangements. I knew that they wanted something different and like most of my brides and grooms, got me in to take the photographs because of that. Lynn is stunning…. Thats it really, she photographed every bit as well as I expected and some of the images with her were some of my favorites of this summers season. All of the guests were from the North East and after living there for 7 years I well and truly had my geordie accent back the next day. What a great bunch of people.
The sun shone all day really and after a few clouds after coming out of St. Martins Church the sky was nice and patchy (weather with options) which is just how I like it.
On with the photographs.
I like weddings that are all about the details and this was no exception. Lynn got ready at the Belsfield in a beautiful Lake View room.
Just a quick warning: This wedding is image intensive. I do this so that people get the best idea of how I photograph and approach a wedding but also to show the consistency of a body of work across a wedding day.
Scott and the boys getting ready. Scott did not have a lake view room 🙁I am getting slightly obsessed with polaroid, especially in the lakes.I love details like this on a wedding day. They really help to tell the story of the day. In the lakes it is easy to lose sight of this in among the search for an epic shot that may never present itself.I love this set. It really tells of the excitement of the wedding day.I loved the lanterns in St Martins. They really gave a nice glow to the aisle.People always take photographs of brides arriving at St Martins, Its like part of the wedding day itself.Loved the kiss from Scotts best man as Lynn arrived.A cheeky look back to the guests! Love this image.A good first kiss too.
It was a great wedding made even better by a lovely and understanding vicar.We headed back in after the confetti for a few photographs.What a great spot for formal images. The light in this church is excellent.The recipe on this image really gives it a faded summery look. Sorry folks, my recipes aren’t on instagram.Can I squeeze one more in? Love this image of Lynn, with autumnal faded colour. Very vintage.Lots of guests milling around. I like to use this time to catch people smiling and chatting.Love this image. The only time really when the light was flat enough to take it.After a little recce I found a really nice view of the hotel and this was the result.Just came outside and when walking over the grass spotted this.Just another quick shot before the meal. The light was great.8.5 for this speech. Just for the gangsta lingo that was used… respect…On the lawn at the back of the hotel. The sunset was fabulous.Love, Love this. The sun was so weak by this point I knew that the detail in the sky would be retained.The vintage lift at the Belsfield made a fitting backdrop.Some of my favourite first dance images are taken in mono. Everyone danced. Even me a bit!
Thanks again both for choosing me to take your photographs. I had a wail and got to know a hotel that I had never been to before. There are so many images I love from your wedding so get picking!
Big Big beaming sunshine on my way down to meed Adrian of Blackwater Photography who was assisting me on this bright Friday. We convened at the Salutation hotel to go over the itinerary for the day. Kerry was also leaving from the Salutation, so we could get some time in shooting the preparations before we left for the registry office in Kendal. Kerry had booked me only six weeks before the wedding as the wedding was… Wait for it… A suprise.
Bringing their closest family and friends up to Ambleside for the weekend, they announced that they were to be married on the Friday to them all on the Thursday night!
Its safe to say that people were looking a little bemused still early on the Friday morning but thrilled that Kerry and Neil were to wed in Just a few hours nonetheless. Kerry and Neil had also done their homework and preselected some locations that they would like to be photographed at. I had never been to these locations before on a wedding and with no time in a busy schedule to do a recce, I had to have my thinking cap on on the day.
From the very beginning I knew that this was going to be a really nice, visual wedding, partly due to Kerry being stunning and also because people were already laughing before we entered the room.We had a quick shoot on the balcony outside that looks out over Ambleside.Forgot to put this one in earlier. Everyone was getting ready upstairs, so this was a good time to grab a shot of the dress at the hotel entrance.Looking around on the quick recce, we found this nice little hidey hole at the back of the lounge and on our return we were graced with the sun peeping through the blinds. This made what was a nice shot into a much much nicer one.The golden glow here is from the lamp just over Kerrys shoulder. I pulled it a little closer so it was a little over the ambient light in the room to create a nice contrast in this image, shot in the lounge at the salutation.
One last shot on the balcony of one of the front bedrooms at the hotel (kindly allowed by one of the housekeepers) meant that we had a great summer image with the Ambleside skyline in the background. I must admit to pre-visualizing this one when speaking to Kerry on the phone, so it was a nice one to get in the bag.
Not many tourists on the third floor balcony. Possibly one of the only places in Ambleside where they find themselves absent.
Off to the registry office in Kendal now, just a short hop on from Windermere and Ambleside. We quickly met up with Ian before heading in to get the low down on one of our locations for after the service. So began the nervous wait after that with the whole family. It was here that we found out that the following Saturday Kerrys sister, also attending the wedding was to be married. Emotional times indeed.
Kerry arrived earlier than expected and was taken into a side room with her dad and little girl, who was nothing short of angelic all day.Love this room. It used to be the council chamber and is now used mainly for civil celebrations. It is set out like you would expect a courtroom to be set out.One of the first runs out for the silent camera. I thought it worked a treat here as the registrar didn’t turn around once. Maybe we will start re-writing that no photography during rule that the registrars have.Wooo hooo, nearly missed this for clapping. Over the moon for these two and they seemed to take it all in their stride.. I didn’t get emotional, it was a bit of grit that the wind blew in.Lots and lots of confetti. There were only 14 people at the wedding, so everybody used two handfuls… Right off to Kendal Park for a few.This is my pick of the groups in the park, shot without the use of a flash and at one of the lenses most difficult settings. I love it when things work out though.This was shot just outside of Kendal on the road up to Windermere. Literally blink and you will miss this lane at Black Moss.This one a little further down the road was shot with Adrians help holding the flash just a little off camera. He is becoming a great wedding photographer and was a massive help. Thanks again.
After this challenging shot we headed to Windermere to catch the boat, but a little ahead of schedule we were allowed to park at the Lake Cruises office, which was fab. I do a lot of work with the Lake Cruises and their site has a few of my images on it. If you are getting married in the Lake District a Cruise on one of the bigger lakes is a great addition to the day.
As Neil was waiting for Kerry we walked past and I happened to have my camera turned on. I managed to snatch two of these with the camera upside down as I was balancing my bag. This was the best of the two by a mile.What a great idea! fish and chips on a wedding day is a great idea, especially when you are on a boat in the middle of the Lake District…. With Champagne of course.
Lake District, Water, Fizz, Fish and Chips? Does it get any better than this? Done with style and panache too.
Ironic that I was to be at Graythwaite the next week and we were on the other side of the lake at one point. This shot was taken on the journey to the drop off point at Ambleside next to the glamorous ferry terminal.This was taken as the crew were turning the boat around for our lift back up to the cars at Windermere. The evening light was sublime by this point. It always gets a little softer at this time of day and makes photographing in direct light much easier.Room for one more… Go on then!
The final image of the day was a little more unusual but works nonetheless. It was also taken on a rangefinder camera which makes it cool too, by default.. Seriously. They are the coolest cameras in the world and I get a massive kick out of using them to create images like the next one from the jetty with the Waterhead Hotel in the Background.
Possibly my favourite of the day. As my style of photography evolves into different areas and I gain newer experiences. Risky stuff like this only appeals more.
Thanks for everything both and best of luck in the future. Adam and Adrian.
On the very day that I should have been at the Rheged Wedding fair and left my stand in the capable hands of my wife, I was doing what all of the other photographers in Cumbria weren’t: Shooting a wedding. Bryan had a rather large support from his family who flew over from the states for the wedding at Jesus Church, Troutbeck. The “legendary amongst photographers” vicar there only lets photographers shoot from the back ( probably spoiled by a few amateurs) and it’s not particularly bright inside either, so long lenses and steady hands are an essential piece of kit.
It is a rather nice venue the Broadoaks. Loads of trees, hunting heritage, great views, friendly staff and even with a few fields between it and Windermere, they still seem to get the eccentric, creative types that tend to book me for weddings. I seem to find myself pigeon holed into photographing the weddings of designers, other photographers, artists and people coming from overseas. I can honestly say that I have never photographed a wedding for a dentist… Just thought I would throw that out there.. Tori and Bryan are half foreign and for honeymoon are going to sail a yacht to Africa, so they fit into the foreign (half due to Bryan being from the US) and eccentric category. Basically I seem to do weddings for those people who want something a little more unusual than a template of images.
So… Last wedding before the new website is launched with the remainder of the 18 blog posts that I still have to show within it. New site, new start and for me, that couldn’t be more poignant. This website was created when my little girl Rose was born and now Samuel is here I have a new website on the way. Suffice to say, if i want a new site after this we may have to have another child. Maybe if we got a dog I could have a small site? Maybe?
Moment of the day goes to the young man who on the way up to the church said “Mom… Who’s that guy?” after I had been photographing him for the entire morning. Then Bryan asking a little girl if what she had on her head was a hat and she replied in perfect queens English “No, it’s a basket” (see photo below). Safe to say the whole day was a real giggle for all, with everything going as planned apart from the sky lanterns in the evil wind and rain last thing in the evening.
Great people, great friendships formed, really, really funny children and some images that will still look cool in decades time. So.. Here we go (With a look over my shoulder to make sure there is no Alexi Lalas to rain on my parade) with the wedding of Bryan and Tori, up a tree, next to an old barn and on a swing, in around and near the Broadoaks Country House Hotel.
Well… I think that went well. A great first dance to finish off the evening for me, but I am sure things carried on until very late. There were so many images from this wedding, I couldn’t possibly post them all and some moments of prayer and silence that I captured which were so meaningful that I left them out on purpose. Thanks again both…
There really aren’t enough adjectives to get me through the descriptions of Jen and Phils’ wedding. Lets throw a few in early on so you can all get a feel for the kind of wedding that it was, the shenanigans that occurred and also the great people who were involved. So: awesome, fortunate, bright, emotional, sweet, grand, beautiful, wicked, dope, supafly… okay that’s enough. I always say that it is the characters that make any wedding day shine, regardless of weather, planning, location, style or color themes. This…. This wedding was no exception.
The Merewood is a favorite for me and I am sure that I am not alone in saying that as the location and the views are some of the best in the Lake District. Being high up off the Windermere shoreline means that you get a later sunset too. For winter weddings this is great as it means on clear frosty days you get at least another 20 mins of good light. Not to be sniffed at when you only have six hours of daylight total on a winter wedding. This was a summer wedding though and everything down to Jesus Church in troutbeck had a lovely hazy glow on an overcast but warm day. As I was photographing in Jesus Church I was consigned to the back as usual on the balcony but managed to get some really nice images with a long lens.
After church and a great confetti shot we retired to the Merewood for a few extra images, drinks and giggles. I could put another hundred images into the online portfolio alone. Every single one was a keeper and together produced a portfolio of mighty proportions. A great day in the heart of the Lake District… Thank you both.
This is a great location for a wedding, it really is awesome. Throw in a lake Cruise on Windermere with Windermere Lake Cruises and you are set. Lauren and James Came through to Windermere from Thornaby, near where I went to university, so we could talk about the awful takeaways in Middlesborough and why the A19 is never busy. Also there to lend support with steaming dresses and giggles were her lovely bridesmaids – A right hoot on an otherwise pressured morning. The makeup on the day was the incredibly talented Jackie Brader who did makeup for my wife on our own wedding day and is without doubt my favourite makeup artist in the Lake District.
So. The wedding itself. A small affair with around thirty guests in total, just friends and family, but a really lovely atmosphere, which in many ways I really liked. It was a bit more about the two of them than the occasion or the venue, the food or the champagne. Really personal with small touches that bound the day together.
A small civil ceremony followed by a lake cruise and dinner back at the hotel with some great group shots on the lawn and a little jaunt under starling filled skys down to the Bowness marina at the back of the Old England. The starlings making a hitchcock esque backdrop for one of the final but personal favourite images of the day.
A real treat to photograph and a real treat to edit.
Shooting weddings on film can be a little nerve racking which is why Dave Draffan and I shot this one along side eachother so we didn’t miss a beat. The Punchbowl has acres of locations around it so we were spoilt for choice when it came to photograph the two of them alone. Dave was getting everything on digital which left me a little time to experiment. The Church is the very beautiful Our Lady Of The Wayside in Grasmere and the rain and storms were blowing in that morning. Even though it was only slightly calmer when we got to the church we gave it a green light for images outside sfter the service.
The Images that you see here are all film. I have left the digital images out to concentrate on getting the best from these film images. Not knowing what you have and seeing how the light has fallen onto the film is a great way of working for me and helps me to visualize what I want the final image to look like. These images are untouched and as such are straight from the Camera as the Ilford HP5 film has seen it. Wedding Photography at the Punchbowl looks very different through black and white film.
The beautiful interior of Our Lady Of The WaysideKnocked this out of focus in a deliberate way to give it a dreamy quality.I wish that this country lane was at the back of more wedding venues.
Some of these files have dark corners or ‘vignetting’ as it is called in camera speak. This is just a natural property of the lens that the Yashica 55 camera has and it really is a one trick pony for that reason. colour images look nowhere near as nice as black and white due to the colours becoming oversaturated at the edges. With Black and white though, it allows me to produce some beautiful results. I have seen the digital version of this file that I took afterwards and to me it doesn’t even come close.
Shhoting into the light at the back of the Punchbowl was a challenge but the late afternoon sun delivered this result. Very pleasing.
Obviously we shot digital images alongside these film images and to see those feel free to visit Dave Draffans site where he has a full blog post dedicated to this beautiful Lake District wedding. Just the mad creative stuff on here though 😉
As soon as I had taken this I said yyeessssss under my breath. I knew that it was the one that would knock me off my feet when the film was developed. It didn’t dissappoint.There is nothing more Lakeland than a dry stone wall and a beautiful country church.
There is nothing more honest than a black and white negative either. It isn’t something that is easily replicated and the tone and texture of these images is testament to what this camera that is twice my age is capable of. Some of the locations in the Lakes really lend themselves to this black and white imagery that was pioneered by the likes of Stephen Taylor in the nineties using two (Olympus) cameras, one colour and one black and white. My images are not really documentary images but more of a nod towards the style of images that my clients find aesthetically pleasing.
I wish more photographers still saw film as something of a creative tool than something that now just costs the earth and is more of a pain to work with. For the client I will be producing some authentic black and white prints made in the open access darkrooms that I go to to compliment their digital files.
Some brides are nervous on their wedding day and it teaches you to be a little more distant on the morning of the wedding. Some brides are excited and bouncy which makes for great images too. Kerry was the third type and so laid back that she was practically horizontal. This lets me get great shots of her and her lovely family as there is no big focus on this one person. There aren’t many brides like this and they usually fall into the other two categories listed above….. It is quite safe to say that when a bride smiles all day like Kerry did, the blog post as a result is going to be a little heavy on images. If you were going to put the kettle on before reading this post, in fact I would recomend a Daiquiri instead… Maybe a gin.
Lovely bride and groom, sun all day, amazing sunset, bouncy castles, children laughing, good food, wine and some gee gee’s to finish off the day. I always remember weddings that have a lot going on and this one feels like it was just a moment ago…
There was something going on in every room.Love this shot. Its a personal one and you dont see many from me.Lots of details and the I Do on the shoes was a nice touch.
Just a little time left before moving on to the church and as I was leaving Kerry wandered into the kitchen. Just a couple more shots before I left for the church as I wanted to get there early to catch people arriving.
Hold it, hold it, oh never mind....I adore the shot of the little girl walking into church in the bottom right corner.
During the ceremony the rings were delivered by owl to the best man. The owl was quite stubborn at first and refused to move but as the vicar pointed out in a prayer, it didn’t pooh on the carpet, so it wasn’t all bad. I love it when alternative things happen during a ceremony and this was a nice touch.
It's always this moment where you could cut the air with a knife and I wish I could have photographed everyone in the church at this point.The owl makes an entrance.What a great first kiss .Just before we went outside for confetti I spotted this shot on the move.
Outside we did the confetti shot at the gates of the church and a few groups in the church doorway. Lots of people hung around to see them leave in a traditional horse and cart, so I was constantly moving locations as the crowd followed. I managed to get Steven and Kerry alone for a couple of moments at the back of the church after we had finished the groups. Westnewton Church is beautiful inside and out.
Back at Hundith I stole Kerry and Stephen away for 5 and the light was superb.
Hundith has some nice little spaces for photographs. Fight your way through the trees and you are welcomed with this lovely little garden.
I love photographing at Hundith, maybe because I used to go there as a kid. I am sure that there is more to Hundith like the secret room that we found the other day. The only way to get images like these is to stay all day and every service that I have is geared towards covering a day in its entirity. Most brides and grooms are retiring for the evening when I am still on the journey home.
Sometimes images can be so simple but so effective. Here we have a bride, the sun and a tree as the elements but its simplicity makes the image jump out, even when it is displayed in black and white.The speeches tickled everyone. I love the oh God moment from Kerry.
That Horse took a spacial shine to Stephen.Stay until the end and be rewarded with evening time images like this one.
Spent a day helping Dave Draffan with logistics and extra filming at the awesome Storrs Hall (I am learning video) and the light had been really harsh all day but in the evening everything just came together. This is the benefit of shooting weddings as full days, the light just fell right as the sun dropped down over Windermere and it dropped slowly, almost like everything slowed down then everything around us went soft. I was asked by Dave if I could do a cover image for the DVD box and after a late night walk through the woods, this is what we produced. We used a Magneflash system fired off a nikon sb800 flash and Hahnel triggers to fire a soft light in the small pier house and bounced it off the back wall at a low power setting. For camera geeks It was exposed on a nikon D700 with an 85mm f1.8 lens at a 40th of a second handheld.
A conversation that I had on a blog recently with a friend of mine who has a studio in Bowness-on-Windermere set me off thinking about why I still shoot on film as well as digital. I thought I might clarify this for anyone wanting to book me to photograph their wedding and also add my two cents to the wider debate on film vs digital etc….
Digital images are synthetic versions of their film counterparts, so a digital image is one that seeks to replicate and improve upon the older film process that we used to use to create our photographs. Film is an organic or largely chemical process which works on the same principal as digital of having something behind a focused glass lens to capture an image of whatever your camera is pointed at.
Film: fuji 400 pro vc: camera Nikon F4: 85mm lens.
I found that when post processing my digital images on the Mac that i was striving to achieve a filmic look from the effects that I was employing on the images, bearing in mind that this period was after I had already invested significantly into digital technology, learned how to use it and done my Adobe Photoshop accreditation.
The reality of the situation was that if I shot film, I would make my images look exactly how I wanted them to look in camera. This would mean that whatever came out of the dark room to be scanned would be the finished image, plus a little retouching for imperfections. However……….. There is no denying that digital has its advantages of which the chief advantage is cost. Memory cards can be used for an indefinite period as long as you format and keep them clean, to clean a sensor on a digital camera costs around £35 every two or three months of heavy usage.
Film costs around £7 for 36 images once chemicals to process the film and scanning time at the computer are taken into account.
Shot on a Nikon F4, Ilford HP5 400 film with a 50mm F1.4 lens.
I decided that I would work on a percentage at all of my weddings from 2010 up to the weddings that I will be shooting in 2012 and 2013. That split would be 80-20. 80% digital and 20% film, carrying two cameras at once with the digital backup in my bag so I can always shoot on either, freeing me up to shoot the images that I want to shoot on film and the bulk digitally.
There is no doubt that I am an oddity in this respect as far as how I work with the two mediums together and I can find no-one locally doing anything similar or even considering using film based alternatives to digital.
Digital rules the roost in wedding photography because the technology allows us to do things that with film were impossible, so film has been left behind with only Kodak pushing the technology and Ilford in financial trouble and Fuji struggling to justify opening its plant to produce the stuff.
The future for film looks grim……
shot on a olympus om40, kodak tri-x 400 film and a 50mm f1.8 lens
Does this then mean that images like these will become a thing of the past? Shoe boxes of photos in the cupboard will no longer exist because they are all online in our cloud storage and film cameras will become obsolete with expensive ones going to museums and collectors and the cheap ones going to the dump? For all intents and purposes, yes is the answer. Film will die eventually, no matter how many resurgences it goes through as its production cost will become astronomical. A cost that will be passed onto us as photographers which we can little afford.
shot on a canon eos 50e with a 70-200 f2.8 lens. Ilford fp4 100 film.
So we have resolved that film is expensive and because it is no longer a popular medium, the emulsions used to capture images on film are at least ten years old and it takes a lot of time to develop and get right……
But just look at it.
The range of tones that film can capture, the subtle way that with care you can make light fall off a subject, its muted but accurate colours and the sharpness and clarity with which it delivers black and white make film completely unique.
Its not about delivering an image that your clients are happy with but rather an image that your clients are ecstatic with, being able to reproduce images from negatives that are real and have a permanence, with a tactile finish to each negative and print.
From my own point of view the smell of chemicals used to develop the film at home will be a memory that my little girl can revisit hopefully when she is old enough to pick up a camera. Seeing the negatives soaped and coming off the reel for the first time and knowing that what is on that strip of negatives is going to look exactly how I saw it in my mind when I pressed the shutter on the camera.
shot on a Nikon F80, 50mm f1.4 lens and Ilford HP5.
The reason that my images look so different to everyone else’s is because I use techniques and processes that nobody else has the time or patience to use. My background is in modelling, editorial, fashion and studio work, so my influences are different to everyone else’s too and I take ideas from all over the media from MTV to Vogue, Harpers, ID and a pile of American wedding magazines that I subscribe to and love.
Film is perfect for vintage styled or themed weddings of which I have a few this year and am really looking forward to. The future is without any doubt digital and what I continue to use for at least 90% of my photography and 80%-90% of weddings, but as long as my clients still demand the type of images that only film can produce, it will always accompany the digital.
Shot on a Nikon F4 with an 85mm f1.8 lens and fuji 400 pro film
Lake District Wedding Photography, 21 Mill Road, Glasson, Cumbria, CA7 5EE