I know February seems like ages ago – but I didn’t remember to post these results at the time. I picked up two awards from the Guild of Photographers Image of the month competition. I’d like to talk a bit about both images…
This image picked up a Silver Award. Taken at Jo & David’s wedding in Bakewell, Derbyshire. I spotted the potential for an award-winning image – he’s perfectly short lit by the window to the left of the image – and it being a February afternoon, the sun in dramatic and low in the sky. This is one of those moments where the natural light was far better than anything I could have created in the studio. Also his expression – he’s obviously lost in his own thoughts, rather than distracted by the photographer, which is a lot more flattering and why I work the way I do.
For photographers: This was shot at f/4 on a 70-200mm lens. I’m going backwards and forwards between zooms and primes at the moment – I’m usually favouring zooms a) For big venues where the Vicar won’t let me anywhere near the wedding. and b) When walking into the unknown – (I hadn’t had a chance to see the inside of the venue on my visit). The 70-200 tends to get put away as early as possible. I have burnt in most of the picture. Particularly the buttonhole flower and above his head – which used to be bright and distracting. Otherwise, the picture is processed to bring as much contrast as possible to the face.
This Image, from Naomi & Tom’s wedding at Makeney Hall, picked up a bronze. I loved this image when I first saw it – and I still do (I prefer it to the silver image above, as I had to be a lot more intimate & present to capture this one). There was one major problem with it though, I took it whilst eating a meal, and all my camera gear – including a light stand, were in the back of the shot providing a major distraction. Still, the expressions on the children’s faces are priceless, so I had to remove them.
For photographers; I shot most of this wedding on a 35mm and 85mm f1.4 – it was a very dark venue, and the manager kept walking into the room and turning the lights down. This shot is the 35mm, which is my favourite focal length at the moment. I hate cloning out things in photoshop, (I try very hard to get things right in camera) but just about managed… This didn’t take much dodging burning / once converted to black and white there was a lot of contrast in the image, so there’s a light vignette to tidy up the edges.
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