Roseblade Photography Blog

I couldn’t help but get this shot. This sweet old lady was wandering around the back of the church during a wedding ceremony with a bright yellow high vis jacket, very subtle. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t collecting for the couple but if you’re charitably inclined, it’s not a bad idea for your wedding list!?

This is so often the case at weddings. You get one shot at the day, and one shot at the key moments. You can’t exactly ask the bride to walk down the aisle again because you missed it. At Bryony and Adam’s wedding recently, I had a moment I just had to get right. They had a plan to do a hay bail roll, that means four massive bails weighing a couple of tons each, rolled across the field by the most alpha of males, competing for glory.

They were set to do it, then they weren’t going to as things were running late and light was fading. I managed to persuade them to sneak it in before there first dance but had no time to plan lighting or anything. Within a matter of seconds it was over. I was just running between bails trying not to get crushed, snapping away.

The best you can do this situation is know your camera, know your exposure, make sure you have space on your card, close your eyes and run. Well, keeping your eyes open might help.

It was a great moment to remember from the day, lots of fun, competition, heroics and victory. I was glad to be able to capture it. The fleeting moments are often the most precious.

The all new Roseblade.com. Yes it looks almost exactly the same as the last one! We’ve been working on it for quite a few months now, making the whole thing database driven from this blog to the wedding clients and right through to the latest content automatically populating the home page footer. It’s now really easy for wedding clients to view and add images to their basket and preview their orders.

So do browse, and let us know if there are any bugs. Thanks so much.

As a wedding photographer it’s easy to want to try and better your services each time, and so you should. The trouble comes when you find yourself thinking up more and more outlandish ideas, stupid poses or over the top editing. If the wedding itself is crazy, that’s just a gift and you lap up the couple’s innovation and creativity.

It’s a tough balance. Yes be creative, yes push the boat out a bit, yes try new ideas. But it’s not all about your portfolio, your marketing material or your blog. At a wedding it’s mostly about capturing moments, expressions and interactions that the couple will treasure. A genuine hug, laugh or tear is worth a thousand faux model poses, jumps in the air or waves at the camera.

Innovate but keep it real.

Granted this isn’t a particularly unusual or creative shot but it was made in a different sort of way. I don’t have a macro lens, I’d hardly ever use it for what I do but every now and then I need a close up shot. This technique uses a 50mm 1.8 lens reversed. If your not familiar with this, take your lens off, turn it round and hold it against your camera body. You need to shoot manually and focussing is a bit tricky but it works to a certain extent.