Prescriptive or descriptive?

Welcome! Welcome! Come in, sit down and make yourselves comfy! An extra special welcome to new readers and those we've met recently at the wedding fairs.

Carrying on with our introduction from a couple of posts ago, I'd like to share with you our vision of wedding photography. 

When Bob and I got married 26 years ago, wedding photography was largely prescriptive. You got what you got and everyone followed the same formula.

You stood and posed in lines, slap bang in the middle of the frame with various family members for 30 or so photographs. Then, just as the fun was about to start the photographer packed up his tripod (yes, it was always a bloke and he always had a tripod) and off he went. That, as they say, was that.

In due course you got your thirty pictures in an album, one picture to a page, with tissue paper between the pages. Your album looked the same as your Mum's and hers looked like her Mum's.

Then along came digital photography. 

Once digital photography reached a standard as good if not better than film photography all sorts of doors opened. 

Photography no longer needed to be prescriptive.

Now it could be descriptive. 

Suddenly the rule was: 

There are no rules, be creative and go with the flow.

(Imagine me singing for joy at this point).

Photographers now had the freedom to shoot as much as they wanted,  allowing them to pick up on the mood, the feel and the sheer joy of a wedding. 

Reportage was born.

For the first time we could photograph all of the details, the tiny but important items that make your wedding uniquely yours. 

The garter that belonged to your grandma, the ring sewn into the lining of your dress or the antique lace that came from your Mum's wedding veil. We understand how important these things are to you.

They are your cherished memories, memories that you'll want to keep forever. By putting these photographs  alongside and complimenting your main photographs we can tell the whole story of your wedding in your beautiful and unique storybook album.

Bob and I don't claim to be truly reportage photographers as experience has taught us that most people still like to have a few formal photographs and we're always happy to do those for you if you want them.

However, what we prefer to do is shoot very natural, unposed  images, the ones that show you enjoying every single second of your wedding.

What do you think?

David & Charlotte

Things are getting busy at Wow! Towers.

The wedding season is now well under way and the studio has never been busier.  This weekend and next weekend we have family portrait sittings and following that it's playtime for me and the daughter!

I've been mulling around an idea for a few weeks now, we are going to give it a trial run after I've finished work on Saturday. It should be a lot of fun, watch this space!

The latest news is that we now have the client galleries all up and running as well as the e-commerce sorted it it's possible for you to buy prints directly from the website. Technology, eh?  Where would we be without it?

While Bob's been getting on with all the techie stuff  which leaves me colder than a cold thing, I've been doing what I enjoy almost as much as photography - album design.

I've just finished David and Charlotte's album, here are a few of my favourite pages from it:

 Their  daughter is such a little cutie, I could hire her out as a professional bridesmaid. She very nearly is one anyway.  Just a few months after David and Charlotte got married, Charlotte's  Mum got re-married as well, guess who was a bridesmaid?  Got it in one.

Bob and me were honoured to be chosen as the photographers on the day. Of course it was all the same people at the second wedding, it was like meeting up with old friends. It was at the same venue as well so there was more than a bit of deja vu on the day.

Hope you like the album pages, I'll have more for you next week. Bye for now!

Back from Paradise

Not me, I haven't been to Paradise recently. I'm talking about Gina and Thomas  who have just arrived back from their honeymoon in the Maldives.

It's quite nice there by all accounts (notice how cool I'm being. I'd actually sell my own Granny to get there).

 I wouldn't really. No, seriously, I wouldn't.  It was only a joke, Gran, relax. I'm not going to sell you.

Moving on:  They had a wonderful time and the only thing that made it worth them coming back was the excitement of seeing their photos and reliving their wedding day all over again. Many congratulations to you both.

Here's a little preview of their day. I'll post more more later.  Enjoy.

More of the same

Bob and me are still ploughing our way through the wedding fairs.

 This weekend we are at The Wrightington Hotel which, funnily enough, is in Wrightington.

It starts at 11.30 till 4pm  As usual there will be loads to see and a fashion show with some beeeeeeyooootiful gowns.

Next weekend we are exhibiting at the Preston Marriot and then the week after we are at Park Hall at Charnock Richard.

We have recently made a few changes to the wedding packages on offer.

Do you want to know what they are?

Ok then.

We have introduced a new cd only package. It's superb value for those on a tight budget and there is also the option of buying the album later on if you want to.

On our bronze package we have introduced the option of a digital storybook.

The gold package now comes complete with a set of parents' albums.

WOW!!  Ahem, I mean jolly good!

There's never been a better time to get married!!

We have spent a lot of time over the last few weeks meeting you and hearing all about your wedding plans, some are just amazing. We are shooting a James Bond themed wedding in a few weeks, I can't wait for that one!

 I've been practicing "Martini. Shaken, not stirred."

Seriously though,  we have met with a lot of people over the last few weeks and the most popular dates are filling up fast for next year and even for 2013 so please don't hang about too long to get your date booked, you really haven't got as long as you think.

It's not only the time of year for wedding fairs, it's also the time of year for album design. All the couples from last year have now chosen their photos for their albums so I'm up to my ears in album design at the moment. That's one of my favourite jobs, it gives me chance to get creative and produce a totally unique album for each couple, one which brings out their personalities and the feel of their own weddings. Now what could be better than that?

 I'll be posting a few pages on here for you as soon as the b's and g's have given their approval. Obviously you can't see them before they do!

Well, that's it for now. See you Sunday.