Sue and Nathan are getting married in September so this is technically a pre-wedding shoot.  But they’ve had one of those already – last year – in the grounds of Rushton Hall (their reception venue).  They planned their wedding so far in advance that they asked if they could have two photo shoots before their wedding.  Which of course we were happy to do.

Pre-wedding shoots generally start off with couples a little nervous and as the shoot progresses they relax and get used to having their picture taken. Generally, though not always, we’ll use a rural setting for these shoots. We have a lot of fun and by the end of the shoot and the viewing we’re firm friends.  All that gives us a flying start on the wedding day and we get relaxed photos from the start of the day.

Because Sue and Nathan had already done a shoot with me this time we could be more adventurous.  I had an idea for a shoot with a cinematic feel with the theme being a couple on a glamorous night out in the city.  No jeans and T shirts on this shoot – I wanted Sue and Nathan dressed to the nines.  They didn’t disappoint.

I also knew that I expected most of the shots in the set to be lit by flash rather than daylight.  In early July that meant starting the shoot late in the evening.  Couldn’t be a weekday – too much to expect them to do after a full day in the office.  Not a Saturday – too much of an audience.  Which is how we ended up in Milton Keynes city centre at 8pm on a Sunday night.

As a final nod to the cinematic theme every shot in this set was taken in landscape orientation, and unusually for us, every shot is in colour.  The album of the shoot is going to be a panoramic with one picture per page.  Spectacular.  Big kudos to Sue and Nathan who were brilliant.  Uber cool in fact (private joke).

What do you think?   Please leave your comments by following the link below.  Do you know anyone who might like a shoot like this (they don’t have to be getting married)?  Please send them a link to this post

Rosanna and James are getting married in Salisbury in August, and after their pre-wedding shoot a few days ago I’m really looking forward to it.  Its quite common for most couples to feel a little nervous at the start of their shoot.  As adults we’ve been conditioned by years of poor snapshots to think that we can’t look good in photographs.  That’s why the pre-wedding shoot is such a good idea.  We put that myth to bed which means couples can relax on their wedding day knowing they’re going to look great in their photos.

Normally I start a pre-wedding shoot with relaxed pictures and then as the shoot goes on I’ll mix in a few fashion-style elements to the images.  I call these Fusion Portraits™.  I’ve notice a trend recently that it’s these funkier-style pictures that couples are choosing for themselves.  Rosanna and James’ favourites were the last two pictures in this set.  They could have been lifted from the page of a glossy magazine and are going to look spectacular on the wall.

Thanks for a great shoot guys

Here are some of my favourite images from Shirin and Mark’s Pre-Wedding (engagement) photo shoot that we did in Northampton a few days ago.  It was a bright sunny day, which isn’t always great for photos, but it meant we could play with some cool fashion-style techniques to create great looking pictures in full sun. The set starts with a few ‘engagement classics’ with a couple of the funkier ones to end.  Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did the shoot.  Looking forward to the wedding in a few weeks time