Using space to create atmosphere and show the bigger picture and using distance to create an unobtrusive documentary feel to a large bulk of your wedding pictures.

I have picked a few pictures below to demonstrate my ideas and uses of space in wedding photography. Shooting wide or from a distance to involve more of the what is going on in the day. I of course often shoot the close and tight shots as well, in order to really get emotion in faces and fine detail of the tables, however often a wide shot tells so much more of the story in a natural way. Genuine moments as they happen.

Below are a handful of pictures that I explain the stores behind on initial meetings. I am a big believer in letting you see as much as you like, not just what I think is the cream on top of the strawberries. In fact at my last meeting the bride to be flicked through well over 1000 pictures, including two full weddings.

Weekend availability this year is still available on some dates. Contact me to check my availability.

Hope you like…

-BW

Brother & Sister, Jenna & Joe contacted me a couple weeks prior to our studio session and informed me they needed some christmas and birthday presents for friends and family and the shoot was to give them some simple, more formal than my usual style, portraits of themselves. The shoot itself was fairly simple in nature with a only a handful of suggested poses for the pair of them and one change of cloths half way through. It has never been my preference to direct people into a position, make/ask them to smile and then click my shutter, but I understand that at some points in people’s life, even with the new documentary and reportage styles that I openly embrace, the ‘old style’ posed pictures are still needed now and again. My job, as any of my clients would expect is to make what could be as boring as standing with a white backdrop and being blinded by studio light a little more fun and make the pictures a little more interesting, just giving the shoot a theme can really help.

Anyway here are a few of the pictures from my fairly short studio shoot with Jenna & Joe.

P.S Loved the thought of matching brown suede footwear they turned up with.

-BW

After meeting them 72 hours before the wedding I was getting excited both for there wedding and the mark of the end of 2011 for me. The wedding day held at Browns Hotel was my first and is an impressive little venue in the heart of Tavistock, and I have been booked for another wedding their next year, a summer wedding this time. The staff did an impressive quick change around of the rooms between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast and after several drinks under there unique glass roof it was time for there romantic fire side first dance.

All in all I am informed from the couple that a good day was had by all, now back from a lovely honeymoon in Iceland, the couple have seen all 400+ pictures and here are a few to share.

Hope you like. – BW

Below are 5 of my frames from the couple of weddings I witnessed on my travels in Paris. I also spent the day photographing various different types of people in the city, as well as some of the impressive architecture, I will blog these pictures soon under a travel photography blog that I am hoping to set up in 2012.

I was asked earlier in the year to photograph a wedding abroad in Italy but unfortunately was already booked for what turned out to me a various glorious wedding in Cornwall. Luckily I am off to Greece for a wedding in May, however I am very happy to travel abroad for a ‘destination wedding’ weather it be Spain, Italy, France, The Channel Islands or somewhere further afield. Please get in touch for a friendly chat.

-BW

The family recieved just shy of 80 pictures on disk in full resolution from amount 90 minutes playing in my studio. We spent approximately a total of 4 minutes shooting formal style pictures and for the rest of the time I just left them to it and pulled some funny faces and did a bit of dancing in the hope of entreating the child, not scaring her.  For this shoot I only used one light for the entire set of pictures and here are three of my favourite shots.

-BW

Just a quick thought anyway.

-BW

A few weeks ago I headed as far South West as I had ever been for a Wedding. St Hilary Church and Cape Cornwall Golf Club near St Just were the settings for what turned out to be a glorious October Wedding. I had been looking forward to this wedding for a while, its not often I photograph weddings so close to home (only an hour and half in the car), and I knew from the pre shoot with Jeremy and Beth that they would make my job easy.

The morning started off for me at a fairly late 10am at the Brides house where I set about my normal routine of documenting just about everything that happens. I like to arrive as everything starts in the morning, rather than coming in half way through make-up or hair. Once I’m there, I’m around if needed, but more importantly the family and bridal party can get use to me being around them, so that once they are nearly ready, they are comfortable having a couple of cameras around.

I had met up with Jeremy and Beth the day before the wedding at Cape Cornwall and we spent about an hour dry walking the day at the Golf Club for the reception and recapping what we had planned for the Church at St Hilary on the pre wedding shoot. The photos that you will see below of the Bride & Groom together were all captured when time would of otherwise been wasted. It is simple planning beforehand that led us to find less than a total of 10 minutes throughout the day to shoot a few, and I hope you will agree, more adventurous and stylised pictures than what many other wedding photographers are producing.

A big thank you to the wedding co-ordinator at Cape Cornwall who was very organised, which always helps, and to the staff who served up a lovely roast meal for us all. Most of all a big thank you and congratulations to Mr & Mrs Mepham. Below is a small selection of the 450+ pictures that the couple have received.

Oh and I though the magician arranged by the parents as a surprise to the couple was a great touch and went down as well with the Bride & Groom as it did with the kids.

-Barney Walters

You will photograph a few of our friends and family won’t you?

A recent question I got asked by a bride several times on their planning day, 48hrs before their wedding at Barclay House near Looe, Cornwall. For the majority of the weddings I photograph, documentary, candid, reportage wedding photography, or whatever you want to call it, is important to my couples. This is perfect for me and is often why couples choose me to photograph their wedding day in the first instance. Whenever I am not photographing the Bride, Groom, or couple together, then my time is spent flying around the walls capturing all those other moments that become the real reminders of their special day. Therefore I was happy to reassure the bride that all aspects were covered and quickly asked her to reflect on all the pictures they sore from real weddings when we first met.

My style to wedding photography is very much a documentation of the wedding day as it happens, storytelling. As with most good stories though some of it is fiction and this is why I do not describe myself as a pure documentary wedding photographer. We will shoot some ‘posed’ pictures and one or two are likely to be ‘traditionally’ in nature, whilst others will make use of scenery/space/natural light or some high impact artificial light. However I like to use methods that appear genuine and inspire spontaneity, where by I make suggestions and don’t ‘pose’ my couples. These fiction moments are simply another aspect of the wedding day and on average in total takes about 10 minutes, split up in to a few 2 to 3 minute sessions throughout the day. I hardly ever take time out of your day, time is used when it would otherwise be wasted. Planning.

The images here are a small selection of the pictures that my Bride was insistent on having and shows a few of the moments that the guest were having after the wedding breakfast. I shoot a variation of these pictures at every wedding and my couples receive them all.

- Barney Walters

http://www.weddingphotographyselect.co.uk/wedding-photographers-featured/features/wedding-photographer-barney-walters/wedding-photographer-cornwall.html

Tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Barney Walters, and besides photography my passions are skiing, F1 racing, Apple products and above all, travelling the world.

How did you get into wedding photography?

I have been a wedding photographer for just over 2 years, I starting shooting weddings after I met another photographer at a wedding of one of my relatives. We talked and it went from there…

Can you share how you’ve made your business a success?  Any mistakes you made along the way? 

To a degree its luck, but you make your own luck, from the first day you talk to someone, its about having the confidence in yourself, belief in yourself and never giving up. I carry a camera with me everywhere, even if its just my iPhone. Take pictures everyday and compare with other photographers. When in any doubt, when I have made a mistake or just not feeling the passion, I do one of two things. Read a couple pages from a Richard Branson book or browse the web and see how the vast majority of other photographers are all the same, in the knowledge that I am a little more interesting.

How do you advertise yourself and what for you has really worked?

SEO, Facebook and word of mouth. The three things I put most my time into as far as advertising goes. I belong to a couple of website searches and have done a couple leaflet drops in the past. However for national coverage I find the web and word of mouth the best. Plus it only costs your time, and I’m lucky that I enjoy doing it.

Why do you think people hire you?

They believe they deserve good wedding pictures. They are fed up of the same old stuff that is produced by the majority. They want something a little different but nothing stupid. Sensible and well thought out photography.

How many weddings do you average per year?

Current I photograph about 25 a year, I could use a couple more, but love having time available to travel and to photograph other people, things and events. Variety in life.

Whose wedding would you love to shoot?

Impossible to say, what I love about weddings is the people, and if I get a couple that are really suited to each other and give off the same persona, then my job is easy. They do the magic.

If you were asked to shoot a destination wedding, where would you hope it would be?

I have been asked in the past, and with my love for travel this is the direction I would like to push my business in years to come. Where would I hope it would be? Somewhere you wouldn’t normally think of.

Do you have any goals for the future photography related or otherwise?

Travel the world with a camera and get paid to photograph what I find interesting.

What do you think is key to being a successful wedding photographer?

Make sensible suggestions.

Are there any other wedding photographers whose work inspires you, can be a well know photographer or somebody you’ve stumbled across?

I find very few current wedding photographers of any inspiration. There are a small handful who’s work I look out for. There are great photographers around but in a saturated market. I always say… ‘ if you were in a room with 100 photographers all of whom had a display of pictures, you could make easy work of picking out 5 on a shortlist. The internet unfortunately makes this job a lot harder.’

Final then.  A serious one.  Have you ever ripped your trousers when you’ve bent over or squatted down at a wedding to take a shot.  Basically has anything ever gone wrong during a wedding?

Optimism is Key. All I can say is… ‘Prior planning prevents poor performance. ‘

http://www.weddingphotographyselect.co.uk/