The Memories Thru a Lens Blog

In one of my last posts I explained how I add my photoshop magic to my wedding photography and portrait photography and this post will explain a bit more about my style of photography.

Anyone who is looking for a photographer to capture their wedding day of the wonderful memories of their child growing up will often be asked if they know what style of photographer they are looking for; indeed I will often be asked what style of photographer I consider myself to be so that the potential client can weave their way through the field of potential photographers out their and pick the one that best suits what they are looking to achieve in their photographs.

When asked what my style of wedding or portrait photography is I would say I am bespoke and artistic, but why would I say this.

Firstly lets address bespoke; the dictionary definition of this is “made to order” which I feel couldn’t describe my service better, to me each and every client be it for wedding photography or portrait photography is different and deserves to be treated as such.  So I don’t head off to a wedding shoot or portrait shoot with a list full of poses that I use each and every time, instead I judge on the day and the person and adapt how I take photographs to that, so therefore each and every shoot is made to order.

So that brings me to artistic; now the dictionary definition of this is “having a creative skill” do I have creative skill in my photography?  Well that would be a question for my clients but what I do know is that I certainly put my own creative mark on all the images I take.  First its the actual shot being taken, how I do this is something I find very hard to describe I simply look around, look at my subject then look through my lens and out the shot comes.  Luckily for me its the most natural thing in the world to capture a photograph, a skill which I certainly cherish.  Next I edit the photo adding my photoshop magic, I guess this is where my creativity really comes into its own to make the shot a work of art that when my clients see it will love it and be proud to hang in on their walls.

To follow are  some images that I really feel are artistic…. enjoy!

One thing that I feel distinguishes me from other wedding photographers is among other things what I do with the images after the wedding day. I do a lot of post production work in photoshop because I feel this gives me even more scope to be creative and artistic which is what my photography is all about.

Now in this day and age I mention photoshopping a photograph and people believe I will be giving the images the same treatment as the glossy magazine do, now this is of course an option but is not what I mean by adding some photoshop magic to my wedding or portrait images. No what I do is play with the many effects photoshop has to offer to give said photographs some artistic touches, some may not be that far from the original image and some may be but all will look good once I have worked my magic.

So for example the images below where taken at Calum and Hannahs wedding, the first is the original image straight out of the camera and it is a lovely photograph, Calum and Hannah look great and the emotion has been captured, the second uses exactly the same photograph but enhances some of the elements of the shot and gives it more artistic depth.

And that is what I mean by photoshop magic!

I think every bride who plans their wedding around Christmas time, won’t say it but is secretly wishing for snow, a white wedding defiantly rates up there alongside a white Christmas.  So when Kara woke to find 4 inches of snow outside her window on her wedding day Im sure she was over the moon, well that was once the wedding photographer (me), hair and make up girls (her sisters) had arrived and she knew her guests where battling through to make her big and very special wedding day.

So just last week I attended a photography trade show so I could decide on my new album supplier…. more about that later. One thing that did concern me was the amount of companies there claiming that they could make you a wedding photographer in a weekend for a fee.  Now this intrigued me having studied the craft of photography and then spent even more time getting enough experience to actually be a wedding photographer; so I pitched up posing as a novice and asked a few questions, the thing that stuck me most was not one of said companies cared whether or not you could take a photo, just that you had the desire to make some money on the weekend.

Happy New Year!  I hope its a prosperous one for everyone.

As promised in my previous post, now Calum and Hannah have had a good chance to look through their wedding day images here are some of my favorites from the day.

I photograph weddings because I love it, I truly enjoy my job and am privileged that couples book me for their special day so I can indulge my passion.

Below is a slideshow of the fabulous album I have just ordered for Mark & Diane, they have upgraded their Queensbury album to a fully digital album which is just being produced.