articles/Training/confettilace-page2
by Mark Cleghorn Published 01/08/2008
The Bride at Home
Confetti & Lace III starts off at the bride's house for the wedding details, where I show how I set up the simple still life images in a minimum amount of time and fuss, followed by the informal images to capture the chaos of a wedding morning, including the bride's son, who was not willing to co-operate, but that's all apart of a wedding day. Eventually when the bride is ready some 15 minutes late on my schedule you get to see how I orchestrate the formal portraits of the bride and her entourage in only a few minutes, whilst throwing in some informals into the mix before I finally dash off to the church already late, but on a real wedding day this is nothing new
Be Ready
Things happen too quickly on a wedding day for most photographers. This can be overcome by trying to be two steps ahead; I am always assessing the situation in case any candid moments arise, especially as I am the only shooter on a wedding as a rule. This shot of the bride's mum, a fellow photographer, was grabbed just as I was about to do a detail of her hat.
The Church
When I arrive at the church things hot up as the bridesmaids are hot on my heels before I have even one image of the groom and his groomsmen, so you get to see how I work backwards between two group set-ups and still complete the groom shots, the bridesmaids' group, and individuals, in a matter of minutes, whilst not sacrificing expression or quality. I love working under pressure as it always makes me get back to basics by defaulting to 'tried and tested' techniques that allow me to capture the event in full, shooting everything from the groom's formals to the signing of the registers, as well as the start of the formal groups and guest candids outside the church.
The Bride and Groom
Shooting the bride and groom is the fun bit of any wedding and this one is no exception as you get to see the 15 minutes of fun that I try to keep to for the bride and groom photography. In this section you see me in full flow, working at an alarming pace, whilst trying to maximise my shooting time and variety in three locations. I rely so much on my speed-posing and my back-to-basics mentality when shooting the bride and groom, creating formal and informal images in minutes with expressions that are real, passionate and fun, and, more importantly, great for sales
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