Been a while since I put a new post on the old blog, new baby in the house and all that. Well, that ends here people – wedding season really kicking into gear for me now and, with that, comes a ton of pre-wedding shoots, which I totally love shooting, as it gives us a chance to get to know each other a bit better, find out what shots the couple like, and those that they’re not so keen on, so, come the wedding day, we can make sure that we focus on the right ones – it’s a win-win all round.
Lesley & Mark are friends of ours, and I’m delighted to be shooting their wedding at Glenbervie House very soon, where I’m both photographer and guest. But today was all about the pre-wedding shoot and, boy, what a strange start we had as I was promptly “reprimanded” by a student photographer for getting in the way of her landscape shot, also to be told that I needed a licence to shoot at Stirling Castle as I was a professional – er, not sure that’s right as I was outside the Castle grounds at the time and well in view of the Castle staff who seemed to have no problem with what I was doing. Anyway, having been moved promptly on, we just wandered around Stirling a bit to see what we could find – I often find that’s the best way; sure, some planning helps but you never know what the conditions are going to be like on the day. Today was bright sunshine, albeit very cold with it, so I’m on the look out for shaded areas (sorry guys, I know it was colder in the shade :-(), and little pockets of light that I can use for a bit of impact. And, every not and then, I’ll throw in my own “artificial sun”, courtesy of my speedlight.
Stirling is a great location for this type of shoot – full of history, old buildings, canons, interesting doorways, steps and a graveyard (yes, I did resist the temptation for a few shots in there, only just though). In fact, I could probably have shot for another hour, although for Lesley & Mark, it probably felt like I did anyway – every few steps I would say something like “oh, we’ll just do one more here guys cause the light’s really good” – of course, I’m just joking and I know that they did enjoy the shoot.
Guys, thanks for going along with my ideas today – I know some of them must have seemed a bit barmy at the time (like when I asked Lesley to stand under the tree and grab hold of the branches) but I hope you like the end results.
Here’s just a few of my favourites from the day – please feel free to leave a comment or two at the bottom if you like, always appreciated.
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