Being a wedding photographer is always an interesting job and come across lots of storeys good and bad however a friend at work came to me and asked if he could hire me for a day to cover his sons first wedding anniversary to be set at Skipton’s Coniston hall to which I agreed. As the friends son was from America and only visiting for two weeks this made it difficult to have a sit down consultation with the couple like I normally would
The day came for the wedding anniversary and I was to meet the party at Coniston’s hall falconry centre. The bride and groom turned up in there wedding dress and suit from the wedding day which was a bit of a surprise but a nice surprise to say the least. I quickly spoke to the couple and asked them for their ideas for the day as all my dealings previously had been with the father of the couple.
It turned out the reason for the grand first year anniversary was due to the wedding photographer over in America which had covered the wedding had been paid to cover the full day and he attended the wedding and captured the day as requested however when it came to the couple getting the images from the day the wedding photographer refused to give them and said he had gone bankrupt and no longer traded as a photographer so any wedding day images were not going to be issued to them, This I felt sorry for the couple straight away and making me feel that anything from then on would be done to meet and surpass the expectations the couple wanted and to give them the images they needed to soften the blow left by the photographer that had let them down.
We started the day off with the party spending time looking and holding the birds of prey barn owls and Harris hawks etc. however the day was very windy which made it difficult for birds to fly I walked around the party capturing those moments where people are talking at ease with out the posed shots knowing that any images from this time would look natural.
Next I took the couple away and captured some intimate images of them together as this is the one thing they was upset the most over the whole wedding day photographer fiasco that they had missed out on these images. If I had known about me doing these images I would have taken an assistant with me to hold my lighting set up as the day was just too windy to use the flashes, umbrellas and soft boxes but the lighting was nice. I knew I still would be able to get some exceptional images just using natural light as I do prefer natural light as oppose to studio lighting.
The falconry session was coming to an end and the next location was back down to Coniston hall for afternoon tea and champagne. I continued to go round capturing the natural shots of unsuspecting people laughing and joking. Once everyone had the tea it was time for formals dues to another wedding being on this would have to be done in doors so I moved a few tables and as it was a small party gathered everyone together for the big group shots calling off people as and when they were needed.
By this time the bride had got changed so thought it would be a good opportunity to capture the bride in her new dress so they had a few more of those intimate solo shots she had longed for with just her and her husband.
Over all the day was a great success I felt I captured some great images from the day which would help build up my event photography Skipton portfolio as well as my wedding photography Skipton portfolio, The images came out great and most of all the client loved the images which hopefully restored their faith in wedding photographers which had been destroyed by the photographer from their wedding day.