Now I do not process to be an expert but I am more than willing to offer advice so today I was able to do both, by running a workshop for members of the Hutt Camera Club and the Wellington Photographic Meeting Up Group on wedding photography. In this I was helped by Hutt Photographer Iris Kauffeld who has over 30 years of experience shooting weddings.

We started with a theory session covering all of the background that you need to contemplate before getting to the venue.

We then went inside St Johns’ Church in Upper Hutt that I has chosen for the day. The church is a very classic Anglican church which means it is incredibly difficult to shoot in. It has lead lights on all of the windows and only a single aisle so both light and movement are in limited supplies. Furthermore it is a church where flash photography is not allowed for most of the service.

We staged each major event that occurs during the church service. For parts of them  I split the participants into Main and Second shooters and pointed out where each would stand. With an empty church I was able to move around quite freely.

For the first set of shots our Bride Lydia was a real trooper as I asked her walk down the aisle ten times. Groom Adrian just had to stand there for that time, but later on he got to take a full part when we came to the kiss.

The weather forecast yesterday was extremely variable but we were very lucky that we were inside when it decided to rain, and then it cleared up when we went down to the river to practise some formals which are shown in the images below.

I understand that everyone got something out of the day which is the main goal in running day.

The final tip that I told everyone was this. “Once the images have been done, the only people who must love them are the bride and groom. Do not get wrapped up with negative comments from other photographers”.