Kent Wedding Photographer

This weekend is my first wedding-free weekend for 3 months! Time to recharge the batteries and catch up with some photographic literature. I've got 'Hollywood Portraits: Classic Shots and How to Take Them' by Roger Hicks & Christopher Nisperos and 'Best Business Practices for Photographers' by John Harrington to read. Stimulating stuff - I hope!

I've just placed my pre-order for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Camera World, who are offering it with the new BG-E6 battery grip and an 8Gb Sandisk Extreme III compact flash card thrown in. It should be in stock on November 30th. I've got plenty of weddings booked in December and January so I'm looking forward to entering the ISO stratosphere as I venture beyond 3200 for the first time. I'll still be creating a custom noise profile for my new camera for use with NeatImage though.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Wedding Photographer in Kent

When I photographed Clare and Alistair's wedding in Tunbridge Wells recently one of their friends, an aspiring wedding photographer, asked if she could tail me to watch me in action - no problem! I just had an e-mail from her:

Hi David,

We met at Clare and Alistair's wedding on the 6th September. I haven't had a chance to get around to sending you an e-mail to say thank you very much for letting me shadow you on the day and for giving me some advice. I just had a look on your website and found it really inspiring.

I am due to start a photographic course next week which I am really looking forward to. I was wondering what would you say is best way of advertising - word of mouth? And also how did you get your website? Did you get it done professionally or did you do it yourself.

Anyway thanks so much for your help.

Kind regards,

Julie Armitage

Some great questions from Julie - this was my reply:

Hi Julie,

Thanks for your positive feedback.

I would encourage you to be as self-sufficient with all aspects of your business as possible - it gives you much more control and allows you to troubleshoot more easily. Also, nobody cares about your business as much as you do.

I bought myself a book on HTML and wrote most of my website using a Word processor. I do all my own SEO (search engine optimisation) which is key to success. My website now gets 1500 visitors a month thanks to my efforts earlier this year.

I would encourage you to shoot weddings for free initially. Build up your experience and portfolio. Let the quality of your work attract clients. This will then lead to recommendations by word-of-mouth.

Buy the best quality kit you can afford. This includes computer, monitor and software. Read and learn as much as you can.

Good luck!

Yours,

David

Starting up your own business can be intimidating but you don't have to get everything right first time. The key is to be patient, determined and self-critical!

Lympne Castle Wedding Album

I've just designed an album for Tanya and Duncan, whose wedding I photographed at Lympne Castle in August - see their wedding gallery.

The album will be printed as a coffee-table style hardback book (15" x 11.5") with a printed dust jacket. They look terrific and allow you to offer your clients an album at a reasonable price. Check out my wedding album page.

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Ramada Hotel, Dover - Wedding Feedback

I received feedback from Louise and Adam yesterday, whose wedding I photographed at the Buckland Church of St Andrew and Ramada Hotel, Dover in August - see their wedding gallery.

David was truly amazing on our wedding day. What a legend!

His photos are absolutely brilliant. All our friends and family have commented on how impressed they are. We felt so relaxed when we were having our photos taken, so thank you. David captured the day perfectly from start to finish. Basically, we could not wish for anything more and we really are grateful to him for making our day so special. So a huge thank you.

This guy really should be charging more! QUALITY!

Louise and Adam Stennett

Definitely positive feedback here I think!

Check out more of my photography: Kent wedding photographer

Canon 5D Mark II

An exciting day for wedding photographers who use Canon equipment - the EOS 5D Mark II has finally been announced and with a stunning specification - 21.1 Mp with ISO from 50 - 25,600. Another 3-stops in ISO sensitivity over the 5D (and matching the Nikon D3)! This opens up the possibility of shooting in a very dark Church at f/4.0 or more, no more ultra-shallow depth of field. Image size will be 5616 x 3744 pixels, giving increased forgiveness with cropping. The shutter is engineered to give 150,000 exposures (compared to the 5D's 100,000 - a longer usable life). It will feature the 1D's well-received highlight tone priority feature, great for dealing with wedding dresses in bright sunlight, and a much improved screen (3.0 " TFT LCD, 920,000 pixels, automatic 3 level brightness adjustment, 170 ° viewing angle, dual anti-reflection - 'Clear View') and live TTL display of scene from the CMOS image sensor - 'Live view'.

I'll also be able to double up as a videographer now with the high definition movie recording feature. The price is £2300 and it should be available in November.

Key Features

New 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved EOS Integrated Cleaning System (E.I.C.S.)
New Full HD 1080 resolution movie recording
3.9 frames per second continuous shooting
High performance DIGIC 4 providing superb image quality
Maximum 310 large JPEG images in a single burst with a UDMA card
3.0″ VGA (920k dots) Clear View LCD
ISO 100-6400 (expansion from 50 up to 25,600)
9 AF points + 6 Assist AF points

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Wedding at Marine Hotel, Tankerton

I had the pleasure of photographing Suzanne and Steve's wedding at the Marine Hotel, Tankerton yesterday - see their wedding gallery. And what a lovely day it was - no clouds and no rain.

Since it was a late start for the ceremony (4:45) we had gorgeous evening light for the bride & groom portraits and group shots. Those colours have not been saturated in post-production - that's precisely how they were! We popped down to the beach for a few shots and Suzanne was perfectly happy to take her shoes off and go for a paddle - my kind of bride!

Check out more of my photography here: Kent wedding photographer