
I felt like 2017 started at a reasonable pace but all of a sudden it’s August and I’m wondering where the summer has gone (especially as it’s currently raining. Again!). I’m close to 2/3rds through my 2017 weddings and I’m actually just about to shoot my 200th wedding overall, which is pretty exciting.
As a wedding photographer it’s easy to feel a little fatigued at this time of year – I drove 1000 miles last month alone (and stopped in my regular M4 service station for a coffee and a loo break at least 6 times!) – and this year so far I’ve travelled to Spain (twice), France, Costa Rica, Egypt, Poland and all over the UK. Travel is fun and I love destination wedding photography but it really does take it’s toll and I was thrilled to get home on Sunday after 10 days away, so I could sit around my house in my slouchy clothes!
I haven’t blogged much from this year so far – I like to give you some time to enjoy your images before I share them with the world so I have a whole load of brilliant weddings to share. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to share some highlights from my year so far today.
I have really, really loved this year’s weddings. They’ve featured lots of outdoor and humanist wedding ceremonies which I absolutely love, and lots of colour (including flamingos!). Highlights, as always, have been the genuine emotion, love, laughter and joy I’ve got to capture for my couples. I’ve had lots of brilliant feedback so far but this testimonial from Clelia, who’s wedding to George I’ll be sharing very soon, stands out:
It’s funny, as the wedding interlude became an almost fleeting memory in my head and I went back to my travels, I had almost forgotten that I would get to relive the day with your images. I wasn’t expecting they would bring me so much happiness, and I hadn’t dreamed of seeing so many beautiful pictures of every single person I love. When I first spoke to you eighteen months ago, and I was terrified of seeing a single picture of myself, I didn’t imagine that this day would be feel so empowering. The day where I look at images and see colours, not a shape or a number on a scale. Of course, it didn’t happen overnight, and came through eighteen months of daily ‘work’, therapy, listening to body positive podcasts, and even an online therapy course on how to accept my image through self portraiture. I know that some women may look at their wedding pictures with either sadness (they’d dieted and regained the weight), disgust and shame, and I am grateful that women who will work with you, will see pictures of joy. I am drawn to the words from a feminist writer that said something about bodies becoming our politics. I always thought that to be effective in changing perceptions, one shall choose a mainstream forum. So although that might be a far fetched interpretation, I am pretty convinced that with your images showing diverse bodies and non traditional gendered couples getting married, you are opening minds far beyond the traditional hipster audience. And empowering women to go beyond searching aesthetics and beauty, and embracing just a happy memory written with light.
Honestly, this sums up everything I believe about weddings and everything I try to capture when working with a couple. I am so glad I was able to do that for Clelia and George and also all of my other couples this year and I can’t wait to share some pictures from the weddings I still have left a little later in 2017.
I still have some limited availability for winter weddings this year and I’m now booking for 2018, so if you’re looking for a wedding photographer please do get in touch.
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