BIPP Associateship

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Firstly, Happy New Year!!

I did say in a previous post that I was going to apply for my Associateship with the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) last year, well, I suppose technically, I did but the judges viewing wasn’t until the 23rd January – and I got it!! Naturally I was very pleased with myself (and I still am).

Without blowing my own trumpet too much, I got some very encouraging comments from the panel of judges. For someone who is not particularly self confident about my work this gave me a real boost. To be recognised by several renowned photographers and for them to agree that the standard of my photography is good enough for an Associateship. Not only has given me photographic confidence but also has started to get me to think about my business, how this manifests itself I’m not sure yet but I suspect there will be some changes.

The BIPP (www.bipp.com) is very well established and respected professional body and is an honour to have been awarded my Associateship. If you are considering turning pro or if you are already I would highly recommend joining and qualifying with them. Many photographers work on there own, as do I, and the BIPP provide a fantastic community to exchange ideas and advice and to have your work assessed with helpful and constructive criticism. This sense of community is best represented by their mentoring programme. Having registered my intent to apply for my Associateship I was given a mentor to help and advise me through the process. My mentor was Saraya Cortaville and I have to say that she was absolutely brilliant and I could not have done it without her help – thank you Saraya!!!!

The attached slideshow contains all 30 of the wedding images I submitted.

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Albums for Christmas

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I can’t believe I’m talking about it already but I’m but even now I’m thinking about albums for Christmas for my customers. I know I get on my “grumpy old man” high horse about shops preparing for christmas in October but here I am talking about it too. The problem is that it takes a long time to prepare design and make an album.

The lead time for my manufacturer is about 3 to 4 weeks so that takes us into November already. Then I always have a rush of customers wanting to get their albums for Christmas to show their friends and relatives.  So if you are a customer of mine and want to get your wedding book or album before Christmas it would be great if you could let me know soon as you can – thanks.

There is also the matter what kind of album you decide you would like. There are so many to choose from these days but basically you can narrow it down to a book/magazine style or perhaps the more traditional album with prints and mounts. The sometimes called, coffee table books are very popular now and it’s easy to see why. You can have any design or layout you want, each page can look completely different to the next with backgrounds, faded out images and borders. The choices for covers are huge and range from high quality leather to acrylic with an image behind.

If you look at the slide show below you can get I feel for how a magazine style album can look in terms of layouts. So if you fancy one before Christmas please let me know as early as you can.

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Second hand gear – would you?

I took a bit of a risk a month or two ago and bought a used Canon EOS 1Ds Mk2 on Ebay. I did have my reservations about the condition and quality before it arrived. I was however very pleasantly surprised. It came with three batteries and a small camera bag. More importantly, it was in very good condition – so I was pleased.

The reason I had for buying is that I wanted another full frame Digital SLR (I already own a Canon 5DMk2) so the lenses I use on a shoot or wedding day have the same effective focal length. My thought process was that if this camera’s quality, which is now obsolete, was of the highest quality 2 or 3 years ago then why should it not be good enough now? I have to say that I have not been disappointed and the differences (between it and the 5D) are only visible under the closest of inspections.

A couple of weeks ago however, I thought my rather clever theory had come undone. In the middle of photographing a wedding in Henley the shutter on the 1Ds failed – one of the blades stuck leaving big thick black rectangles across the image. This was spotted immediately due to the error message on the display. The problem, I thought, had corrected itself after a bit of fiddling but I couldn’t risk carrying on using the 1Ds so I switched to my back up Canon 50D. That day I had four cameras at the wedding so there is never any danger of a wedding being ruined by equipment loss or failure. My caution was rewarded as I noticed the next day that the test shots I had taken after the failure  had in actual fact a lot of over exposed ghosting across the images – phew!

I have now had the shutter fixed by Canon and it is as good as new though I am £200 lighter. I still have great deal of confidence in the camera and shall carry on using it as much as my 5D. Having said this though, I will never attend a wedding with only one camera – Imagine having to explain that your one and only camera has packed up, it doesn’t bear thinking about does it!!??

Anyway, failures aside, I think the quality is excellent – even now! I guess you have to ask yourself why should you take the hit on depreciation when you consider that I paid 20% of the original cost of the camera and that includes the repair. Can you tell the difference? Have a look at the gallery below, there are 8 images from a  wedding – four taken on the 1Ds and four on the 5D Mk2, but which are which?

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Lauren and Robert’s Beautiful Wedding

17th September 2011 – The Venue Lauren and Robert had chosen for their big day was Eynsham Hall just outside Oxford. I love going there, it has so many photo opportunities and everything is close by so shots can be taken with the minimum of disruption.

I arrived at Eynsham Hall nice and early and luckily, Kim from Riche de Fleur (www.richeflowers.com) was just finishing off the tables in the Green Room where the meal was to take place later. Kim is fantastic and always produces stunning displays. I took the opportunity to photograph the room and details so I wouldn’t need to later when time would be tight. Then it was a quick trip upstairs to find a very relaxed Lauren, the Bride to be. Got some lovely preparation shots of her and the Bridesmaids.

The ceremony was also taking place at Eynsham so there was no rushing about between church, hotel and venue. I got some shots of Robert and his Best Man and Ushers before the main event. And if he was nervous he wasn’t really showing it.

Though light rain was forecast the weather really did behave very well all day. I did suggest though that we took the group shots straight away just in case. Following that I took 20 mins with the Bride and Groom away from the crowd to get more personal, relaxed photos of the happy couple. Eynsham is great for this, you can nip around the front where it is much quieter and there are loads of locations. I love to use arches, steps pillars etc in my photography to create interest but they also serve to provide a reminder to the Bride and Groom of the venue they have chosen.

Anyway, the shots were all completed in plenty of time much to the delight of the venue staff and the meal went ahead without a hitch. The speeches and first dance followed and I went home to put my feet up – I think I may have had a glass of wine too!

Thanks so much to Lauren and Robert, you were great sports and I hope you are thoroughly enjoying your honeymoon.

 Some shots below…

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Terrible Blogging

I admit it, I have been rubbish at blogging. I haven’t posted anything for months. In my defence I can claim that I have been very busy photographing weddings all over Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t finished yet with the wedding photography for this year but I do have a weekend off this weekend though I am at the Tally Ho wedding fair on Sunday – maybe see you there.

Thank you so much to Barry and Emma last Friday. Their wedding day at Phyllis Court in Henley (Oxfordshire) was a fantastic success.  Their day was a little different for me as Barry is a very keen photographer and has his own highly successful blog

 (www.FreePhotoResources.com). No pressure there then! To Barry’s great credit he just let me get on with my efforts without a mention of cameras, lenses, ISO settings, apertures etc. Thank you Barry.

 

Happy New Year

It’s a few days late but I hadn’t properly woken since the Christmas break. I’m looking forward to another year doing what I enjoy the most – taking photographs. I feel I am very lucky to able to say that, I don’t think too many people can.

I’ve said it before, but wedding photography is a great pleasure and privilege for me so I can great care and pride in my work. This philosophy has led me to commit to going for my Associateship with the BIPP (British Institute of Professional Photography). This basically the next level of qualification for me. So now I have put this on my blog I am really going to have to pull my finger out as it is in writing for all to see. 

That is my new year’s resolution, at least for work anyway.  Watch this space!!

If you are looking for a wedding photographer covering Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Berkshire (and further afield) have a look at my site (www.garethrichards.com) and drop me a line – thanks.

Weddings and Weather

It seems that everybody is talking about the weather at the moment. I know it is a great British pastime but now it is more than ever. Whilst Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire seem to have missed a lot of the snow it is still very cold.

I have been meaning to put my thoughts to “paper” on the subject of facing a wedding with whatever the weather throws at us.

I think the first thing is to state the obvious, whatever happens you cannot do anything about it. It is obvious but many people (quite naturally) worry about the weather on their wedding day as do many wedding photographers. In my experience of photographing weddings, I cannot remember anyone’s big day being ruined. If it rains it rains, everybody still has a great time.  The photographer has to have a “wet weather plan” though, which is why I always meet with the Bride and Groom prior to the wedding not only to discuss the details and timings of their big day but also to see what options there are if the weather takes turn for the worse.

My philosophy is to embrace the conditions and reflect them in the photographs. If it is raining why not get shots of people with umbrellas or reflections in puddles. Snow can make beautiful shots and storm clouds can look very dramatic when pulled into an image.

So, I say go with flow and don’t try to hide the weather. However it turns out, that is how the wedding was and my photography at least, will reflect it.

Any style you like!

 

As I am sure most wedding photographers do, I was looking through a few websites to see what the competition was up to. Having looked at a few galleries I moved on to see what the photographers say about how they might approach a wedding. Many of the comments were similar to those on my website which read along the lines of “an unobtrusive approach, relaxed, fun, etc” whilst acknowledging that there was a need for some posed group shots.

On more than one site though, I found photographers suggesting that they could shoot any style the customer wanted for their wedding. Maybe I’m over-reacting, but I did find this a little alarming. I’m not sure how I could shoot any style of wedding photography that the customer wanted. The whole point of the galleries on my website is to give the prospective customer an idea of what my style is. If they find that my style is not for them then that’s fine. I would feel very uncomfortable about promising any given style at the drop of a hat. Perhaps it sounds pompous, but I have my own style of wedding photography which has evolved over time and that is what the customer will get.

During a wedding I will of course take many different types of shots such as close up (or even macro) details, cake, candid, bride, bride & groom, groups and so on. These all however, are conducted within my overall style. Maybe these websites were referring to these or even “reportage” which is often mistaken for candid photography and vice verse.

I would never think of telling anybody how to approach their photography and do not wish to appear as some kind of authority on the matter. I always try to ensure that the customer understands what they are going to get. Most of time this almost goes without saying as the reason they are talking time is because they liked what they saw on my website.

Please have a look at “my style” at www.garethrichards.com

Thanks.

My New Website – garethrichards.com

It’s surprising how much work goes in to a new website even when somebody else is doing it for you! Everything from colour of the background to the style of font not to mention which photos to include – or actually, which not to include.

 

I took ages deciding what the text should say and does it say enough about me and the way I work.  As a photographer at a wedding it is essential to not just give examples of your work but also to give an impression of how you will be on the day. You spend so long thinking about the text that eventually you can’t see the woods for the trees. Anyway, it’s done! I hope you like the pink – it took a while to grow on me but really like it now.

I must say a big thankyou to Rowena at www.instantmemories.co.uk who built it for me. It any of you (especially photographers) don’t know Instant Memories then you should take look. They host and administer all of my on-line sales. They free up so much time and provide an excellent service – everything just works. Not only that, they do great websites too – thank you again.

So if you have time, please have a look at www.garethrichards.com

If not, here are a couple fo shots from it…

Look mean guys!

Backlit at Cliveden

 

Cloisters minus tourists.

I cover wedding photography in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Surrey but am very happy to go further afield so don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks for reading.

Gareth.

Thanks for coming on Sunday

Thank you very much to all those who visited the wedding fair at the Oxfordshire Golf Club – and thanks to those who visited me. It was busy day with plenty of interest from Brides and Grooms looking for a wedding photographer and other services.

Apologies to those whose date I was already booked for but I am always very happy to talk about photography for your wedding. Which makes gives me an idea for another post for my blog… I have been to more weddings that you can shake a stick at and have experienced almost everything to do with weddings and not just photography wise. So maybe I could share some of my experience in terms of the runnng of the day?

Watch this space.

If you would like to see some of my Wedding Photography, please have a look at my main site…

www.garethrichards.com

I am a wedding photgrapher working in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Surrey.