I had a great time in April shooting the wedding of my good friend (and band-mate in The Hundred Metre Club) John, and his new wife Becky. It was an intimate wedding, just 14 guests. We all travelled up in convoy from Edinburgh to the stunning Ardanaisaig Hotel at Loch Awe. I love a beautiful country house wedding! More pictures after the jump.
Scottish weather played its part…
I was, I have to confess, a bit worried about the weather when we arrived at the loch – it was tipping down! The original plan had been to hold the ceremony outdoors (the Ardanaisaig hotel has a specially constructed mini-amphitheatre by the shore of the lake just for that), but, even though the rain had stopped, it was decided that the bridal party’s high heels would sink in the wet turf! I’d rigged a remote camera to capture a wide shot of the ceremony and the loch, but we had to scrap that idea. Fortunately the Hotel’s drawing room was absolutely stunning, and lined with huge windows!
John and Becky started getting themselves ready, and I flitted about between their rooms and around the grounds getting a feel for the place!
Most of what I shoot at weddings is available light, but a technique I really enjoy for mirror shots like this is a small hot-shoe strobe with a shoot through umbrella behind the bride, bouncing off the mirror to light her face – I think it looks pretty natural, but throws a nice subtle, flattering light in situations where it usually isn’t that good!
This one of John is all natural light again – he has the window to camera right throwing tons of gorgeous light from the slightly overcast sky into the room, and a big mirror to camera left which is throwing the highlight onto that side of his face.
I took the opportunity at this point to shoot a few posed bridal portraits of Becky – she made my job very easy! Coupled with beautiful simple window light, my 50mm f1.4 lens and a simple reflector for a bit of fill was all I needed here!
The strong light and the beautiful views from the drawing room windows gave me the opportunity to shoot some fun silhouettes:
Tiptoeing round the other side and I had just enough room for a nice angle to get the kiss – beautiful light from those big windows again!
Ceremony over, and we decided to risk going outside for the formals and some shots with the bride and groom on their own. We were lucky – the sun came out for us and no one sank!
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone got married in stunning locations like this? This sort of thing makes me very happy!
I broke out the trusty hot-shoe flash and shoot-through umbrella for the next couple – I was working alone with the couple, no assistant, and we were exploring a little forest path with about 10 minutes to go before we had to be back in the hotel in time for dinner. We managed to find a few nice locations and capture some lovely moments.
I’m really thrilled with this picture, which is why I’ve put it in this post twice! I hope you’ll forgive me. A long lens, a shoot through brolly, and a quick meter reading, and this was the first frame we made in this location. Sometimes it works like that!
I’ll leave you with the rings, shot in the same fairytale forest glade as the last couple. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little selection!
