Live from Palermo, Sicily

I probably shouldn't be posting anything while I'm on holiday, but I'm just that dedicated....sometimes.

I was going to post up some of the pictures that I took at Mel and Andy's wedding, but it just hit me while I was mid-upload, they haven't even seen the pictures yet.  I think it's probably better to wait until they get the images from their day first, then I'll get some of the best ones up here.

As I said I'm on holiday here in Sicily for some R&R and for Linda to visit her family and her new niece.  It always takes me a while to get acclimatised, and I find that strange yellow orb in the sky (I think it's called 'the sun') makes the people in my pictures look washed out and have their eyes closed.  Being from Carrickfergus, I'm not used to this strange phenomenon, so I made do with shooting inside and finally using the reflector I bought in Jessops.

I was taking pictures of Linda's niece, Sveva, and some of the images turned out really well!  I was using my (now only working in manual focus) 50mm 1.8, and shooting between 1.8 and 2.8 and trying to keep the focus on the eye closest to the lens.  With manual focus and a hyperactive 8 month old baby, this was massively difficult, but out of about 200 photos I captured a few keepers.  I'm not going to upload any of the pictures, but I'm definitely going to use them for part of my portfolio.

Anyway, this was just a quick update because we've just had dinner and we're not going out until some time later.

Next time.....photos will be uploaded!

Ci sentiamo dopo!

Mel & Andy's Wedding

It's funny how you can make yourself nervous about something that you've never done before simply because of what you've read about it by 'professionals'

Yesterday, I shot my first wedding.  I was the second shooter for Billy McAuley at the Clarion Hotel in Carrickfergus.  First of all I owe Billy a massive thankyou because when I first started trying to contact wedding photographers about possibly assisting or even coming along to a shoot for the experience it was either no reply or a straight up 'unfortunatly, because of your lack of experience......." reply.  But when I got talking to him about what I wanted to do and how difficult it was to get that first shoot, he straight away offered me the chance to come along to his next wedding and bring my camera to get the guest shots and some candid shots too.

It was a bit of a late start for shooting so I met Billy at his house around 11am and we had a quick chat about what we would be doing during the day and more specifically what he wanted me to be doing while he was organising/shooting/generally trying to keep things on time.  It turned out that I had far more input than I expected as I was told just to work with the long lens and capture some candid images while Billy got the group shots.  I think this was probably the best scenario for me as I'm sort of used to taking street portraits and candid shots already and with the help of my good friend Sparky, I got my hands on a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 for the day.  I'm not going to wax lyrical about a lens, mainly because I don't have enough experience or the credibility to do so, but the difference it made to the shots I was getting compared to my 70-300 Tamron was unbelievable.  Needless to say, I'm already saving!

We arrived at Andy's house around midday and snapped a few of him and the grooms men ready to go, then we headed over to the Clarion to meet up with Mel and the bridesmaids.  Flowers, check.  Wedding dress, check.  Shoes, check.  Artsy picture of makeup being applied in reflection of mirror....check. 

The ceremony itself was short and sweet, getting underway in one of the event rooms upstairs and then it was a short wait before the meal was served.  The strangest thing for me was how relaxed and smoothly everything went the whole day.  Now, I've been told that this is unusual as normally there is some spanner that will inevitably find its way into the works.  But not on this occasion.  Everything just ticked over nicely.  Even when we were outside taking the last of the group shots, and it was quite obvious that most people would prefer to be sitting inside chatting with a drink in their hand, there were no complaints.

We shot the speeches and were even given a meal by David the hotel manager, who, because he was only working until 8, didn't get to show his party piece of singing 'Mack The Knife', or 'Smack The Wife' as he called it, when the DJ arrived.  Billy shot the throwing of the bouquet and that was it.  All done in ten hours.  I was exhausted, but I knew this was what I wanted to do.  For me photography is about telling stories with pictures, and a wedding is a pretty nice story to tell. 

I'm editing the photos today and I'll get a few of the best ones up, and then it's all about the next wedding!

I've only just started out, and I've got everything still to learn.  But I feel a little less embarrassed about telling people that I want to be a professional wedding photographer.....

Josh,

Back from a 2 month hiatus...

"Good things come to those who wait" probably isn't the best work ethos, but it seems to have paid off in this case.

So, it's not as if I completely stopped shooting for the last two months, it's more a case of I didn't feel that what I was doing was really worth talking about.  I was still out and about with the camera, including a trip to Rome which did result in some good images, but it wasn't really focused.  Then last week I ended up talking to a friend who is an established wedding photographer and midway through the conversation about lenses and new camera gear, he asked was I doing anything next Wednesday because he was shooting a wedding in Carrickfergus and if I wanted to I could come along for the experience.  I almost had to do an audio double-take.  I couldn't believe it that he was happy enough to let me come along.

Anyway, I waited a couple of days as he said he needed to call the bride to confirm the final details and he would let me know.  I wasn't really thinking too much about it but when I got the txt to say that we were meeting in the Clarion Hotel at midday and that if I brought my camera I could shoot the Groom and Groomsmen getting ready I was like a kid on Christmas day.

Needless to say I've been watching every video on YouTube about shooting weddings and preparing you gear even though I'm only shooting them getting ready.  The significance of this is huge, as everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm massively grateful to Billy for trusting me to have an input on what is one of the biggest days in any two peoples lives.

So before I get all philosophical I'm going to call it a night.  I'm also going to update the blog at least once a week on the blog, that is until I start to have something actually worth writing about.

Much love,