Beautiful day today as I set off heading for East Kilbride for the first part of Pamela & Geoff’s wedding day. As is usually the case, my day started with the bridal preparations and these were certainly in full swing when I arrived – the usual mix of nerves and excitement washed down with a glass of bubbly or two…always helps…by the way, that’s not me I’m talking about but the bride.
Half an hour or so and I’m done, now heading for Rutherglen and the impressive Stonelaw Church, setting for the wedding ceremony. A quick check with the minister confirmed my usual worry of most church ceremonies – there was to be no photography during the ceremony…unless, I could do it without being spotted by anyone else. Fortunately, Stonelaw has a raised gallery to three sides of the building, although this did put me some distance away from the proceedings. Still, at least I wouldn’t be spotted as everyone would have their backs turned to me. It’s at times like these that I can justify to myself paying in excess of a grand for a large zoom lens with image stabilisation, anything less and I just wouldn’t have got the shots!
With the ceremony completed, register signed and confetti thrown, it was time to leave for the reception venue, Eastwood House in Giffnock, another impressive building with a great central staircase that was just crying out to be used later on for a large group shot of everyone. But first the family group shots out on the lawn followed by my favourite part of the day, the bride & groom shots where I always like to try something a bit creative. Today, I thought it would be good to use a couple of flashlights to light both Pamela & Geoff and the large tree to create a dramatic image and I love the way it turned out.
For the speeches, I assumed my usual position towards the back of the room and simply photographed everything as it unfolded, looking for the reactions, and there were plenty, with Geoff receiving the customary roasting from best man Steve.
So, all that was left for me was to shoot the first dance and that would be me. Simple…or not as it turned out, as all the lights were turned off and the room was plunged into near darkness for the first dance which, as any photographer will know, makes accurate focusing a very difficult thing indeed. In fact, the autofocus was totally useless and I had to switch to manual instead which proved good enough to get the shots in the bag.
With job done, I left everyone to party on into the night.
Pamela & Geoff, thanks for going along with my ideas on the day – I had a good time and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Here are some of my fave images. The full gallery can be found in my Client Area (password required).
