Ashley and Lydia got married at Kempsey Church in Worcestershire and held their wedding reception just down the road, at the Nash Kempsey, a beautiful privately owned Manor House with vast grounds and gardens.
Ashley and Lydia got married in early March, which meant that we didn't have a large amount of daylight hours in which to take photos. Some people think that having short days and low light is a problem for wedding photography - it's not, you just have to use it to your advantage like you would anything else.
Imagine you're getting married in the middle of summer, and really want to have fireworks or sparklers, or even just some stunning wedding photos outside when it's dark - you're going to have to wait until it's gone 10pm before you lose enough light. This is where winter weddings, or weddings early or late in the year come into their own. You have opportunities for wedding photos here that you simply don't get at other times of year.
This photo of Ashley and Lydia at the Nash is a perfect example of this. In order to take this photo, I took the couple outside into the venue's garden, and placed a flash behind them, pointing back towards the couple and myself. The flash serves to produce what's known in the industry as a 'rim light' - where the outline of the couple is brightest. With the typical wedding dress being white in colour, a lot of that light has the tendency to bounce back, evenly lighting both the bride and the groom as can be seen here.
I made all the necessary preparations with the location and the light in order that I didn't have to stand the couple outside in the cold for too long - I made sure everything was ready to go, and had taken a test photo using my assistant, before I simply walked the bride and groom into position and took a couple of shots at most before I had exactly what I wanted.
Location: The Nash at Kempsey.
Keywords: Photographer-directed image (149).