Let’s start with style. Right now you’ve probably disappeared down the rabbit hole of wedding photography and potentially feel a bit overwhelmed and bamboozled by all the different descriptions of wedding photography. Traditional, Documentary, Reportage, Fine Art, Photojournalism etc etc etc. It’s a minefield!
Maybe you know exactly what type of style you’re looking for but my guess is that most people just are looking for someone who can take killer images without getting in the way or being some kind of wedding photography diva making outrageous demands of you and your guests. That sounds pretty reasonable to me!
I describe what we do as simply Unscripted. I tend to follow the flow of the day being as unobtrusive as possible and if there’s some fantastic light which is going to make you look even more sensational then I figure it’s my job to nudge you into it and you’ll trust me to flex my creativity for a couple of minutes and then we can get you back to your friends.
You’re not petrified of having your picture taken but neither do you really want to disappear for hours on end posing endlessly feeling more and more unatural and awkward.
Which is handy, because that’s not how we want to do things either. Portraits don’t happen in a few seconds, they take a little while to warm up and ease into a sweet spot where the magic happens but we never ever want to drag you away from your friends and family for much more than 20-30mins.
We tend to ask for about 20minutes before you sit down for dinner and then if you’ve got the time in your day then it’d be great if we could steal you for another 20minutes later in the day, particularly if there is a warm hazy sunset going on.
You’re not particularly formal by nature, doing things just because they’ve been done before by lots of other people isn’t really your style. The thought of standing in a line getting face ache for an hour immediately after you tied the knot seems like the easiest way possible to suck the fun out of your day.
But, you’d still like a few group shots. You think it’s nice to have a few, some with your folks, your besties, maybe your Gran.
Which is cool with us. We don’t want to be those photographers that kill the mood of the day either. We’d rather gather together a small group of people, Mum’s and Dads, Siblings, Grandparents, The Groomsmen and the Bridesmaids and step away from the main crowd for 15-20 minutes and take some timeless frames of you all together that you’ll actually love and want to print and put up around the house.
It’s not ALL about the party but you’d be fibbing if you said it wasn’t something you were massively looking forward to! You’re not bothered if by that stage of the day your dress is a bit tatty around the edges or that your friends want to hoist you up on their shoulders in celebration.
Quite the opposite in fact, you want to let loose. You want the band to disregard the sound limiter, for people to forget that the evening buffet is even there in favour of packing themselves onto the dancefloor to throw some shapes and laugh their heads off with you.
You don’t care if these photos are a little sweaty, or that you rub your temples at the memory of how you felt the morning after, this is one of the best bits of the day and you want someone right there in the thick of it documenting the madness as creatively as they can.
You want your day to be everything you dreamed it would be. To be emotional, elegant and stylish, but above everything else you want to burst out into a big grin whenever you think of that day years from now. And you want your wedding photos to take you right back to how you felt in that split second in time.
You can leave that bit to us.
Michael & Hannah
xXx