Photography in the Midlands and Shropshire including Shrewsbury

Back in March April time this year I was approached by Andy Rao the editor of a brand new FREE Lifestyle Magazine for Shrewsbury, I’d previously taken PR shots for the In the Know and The Best of Shrewsbury (add a testimonial about my business) staff and being a fan of my photography Andy asked me to write my top tips to help people improve there photography. I jumped at the chance as I do enjoy writing and sharing my photography knowledge with people but the challenge for me was trying to keep things simple, as the article needs to have tips for everyone to understand. So after removing all the technical jargon and advanced skills from my mind I thought about all the things I point out to my mum and friends who are snapping away with there compact cameras, all the simple things you can do to improve your photographs and this is what I ended up with:
I’ve been asked to write another piece for “In the know” this month which will be out this month and don’t forget its free so pick it up! I was surprised how much good stuff was in the first issue, cooking, CV advice, property advice, health advice,fitness advice, photography advice, events and film reviews, advice for first time fathers! the list just goes on and on! After the success of the first issue you can expect more of the same and even more in this issue! Enjoy!

Tweet

http://www.facebook.com/mikehubbardphotography

Ant and Kat – wedding slide show from Mike Hubbard on Vimeo.

Ant and kat’s wedding was an unusual one for me, I needed to be wrapped with a bow and possibly should of leapt out of a box! I was brought as a wedding present by one of their friends Dean who’s also a good friend of mine.

Once Dean had contacted me about the wedding my first question was do they already have a wedding photographer and the answer to that was yes, this posed a problem straight away but one with an easy solution, the expectations of the day had to be managed, I couldn’t get heavily involved and do all the traditional shots or take prime position during the ceremony as they were paying someone to do all that and whoever that photographer was would not be happy with me getting in the way. So after a bit of thought on the best way to do this, I realised it would be a great opportunity for me to shoot a wedding fully “Reportage” something I’ve always fancied but not something you can just do on a whim during some ones big day! I always mix styles on a wedding day capturing all the best parts in various traditional, reportage, high impact styles but with a relevance I feel fits that point of the day and the subject but I have never done a whole wedding reportage.

So it was decided, I would come along and shoot the day in a purely reportage style, keeping myself out of the way and not interfering with the booked wedding photographer Ant and Kat had already chosen.  My plan was to process all the images in black and white and have some fun with the day and try something new!

The wedding was in Essex, at the Fennes, Braintree and I had a room booked for the evening which was great as I could have a sociable drink or two after the work was done! I left Shrewsbury really early in the morning and got to the venue about 2 hours early but I’d rather be early than late! The venue was fantastic, a beautiful old mansion house and the bridal suite was actually a little cottage on the grounds, the venue only has a few bedrooms just enough for the main party and really allows the wedding to take over the old mansion making it a really private affair, giving me the normal feeling of being very privileged to be there.

The bridal party turned up first in a white stretch Limo, and I finally met Kat in person, we’d spoke on the phone but as they are all the way down south we’d not had chance to meet in person. Kat was whisked away to start the preparation and the boys arrived, I linked up with all the lads and joined them while they all got ready and sank some Fosters! Spirits were high and Ant didn’t seem nervous at all until he started getting changed and I could see a bit of reality hitting home in his face. At this point the wedding Photographer Ant and Kat had booked arrived, so I made sure I said hello and had a quick chat, I explained I was also on a paid job as well but will be shooting reportage and keeping out of his way as he’s the main photographer and he’s got to get all the standard shots in the bag, he seemed happy enough with the situation. I could tell he was a seasoned pro and had the confident energy and vocabulary to get the wedding pulled into line to allow himself to do his job with the minimum disruption but the right amount of direction, another bonus was I learnt quite a bit watching him work.

The venue itself was a beautiful old mansion house and the ceremony was in glass sided function room at the rear facing out to the gardens, the wall of glass provided some great lighting for the ceremony itself, allowing me to capture some really intimate moments between Ant and Kat, may particular favorite is this one just after they service has ended and they are now man and wife!

Once the ceremony was over everyone was moved outside for canapés on the lawn, while the main wedding photographer organized everyone for the couple and group photos, I hovered in the background and just photographed all the action as it happened.

Kat had these kind words to say:

“Mike hubbard was a recommendation from a friend who kindly sorted our wedding photographer for us. We were a bit apprehensive as Mike lived a few hours drive from us and our wedding venue and he had never been to the venue before. But we had no reason to be, Mike arranged a few calls with us both to get to know us, what our wedding would be like, all the details of timings, venue website, how we wanted our wedding day to be and what kind of photos we would like. We discussed some set up shots but really wanted natural shots of the day, us and our guests.

I arrived at our venue at 10.30am to find Mike already there scoping out the venue for shots, Our ceremony started at 2.30pm!! Mike throughout the day was professional but friendly and we thought we hardly saw him, until we saw our photos! He was polite to all our guests, made everyone feel at ease and worked brilliantly with the venue front of house and our timings.

The day after the wedding before we flew on honeymoon Mike kindly sent a couple photos by text to us, a brilliant idea as we were desperate to see some wedding pic’s before our honeymoon. We weren’t disappointed and couldn’t wait to see the rest. Mike sent down the photos and the DVD of the wedding snaps, WOW! I was completely amazed that the photos had captured every emotion of the day, the DVD is excellent. Mike had used our wedding songs to create an amazing modern slide show of the wedding day. Every time we watch it we can’t believe how the photos make you feel every emotion from the wedding day. Mike captured everything, we got all the photos we had asked for and much more. We can’t express how much we thank Mike for the photo’s he took, we now have an amazing gift to treasure our memories with.”

Tweet

Jorge and Kelly got married at Delbury Hall South Shropshire on the 4^th of June. They asked me to take the photos at their wedding just over 12 months ago and of course it was my pleasure to do just that.

Before the wedding we had a pre wedding shoot and a look around the venue a month before. Although it can seem a bit unnecessary sometimes, especially as you get more experienced and if the couple are confident, I really think this is one of the most vital things to do. It gave us ample time to discuss the timings of the day in a relaxed setting and any particular shots they would like. There is always something you notice on the pre-visit that might trip you up on the big day itself. Also, on seeing the venue I was excited as it was a beautiful location and with some nice weather it would be a fantastic day for a wedding.

So when the day itself arrived after packing and unpacking my kit several times the night before and again in the morning I was good to go. The sun was shining and it was thankfully forecast to be sunny all weekend! On arrival to the Delbury Hall I had a good walk around again picking out some spots for the photos, the one problem I had was the weather was getting too good! Bright sunshine was beating down everywhere, so I had a good scout around for some shaded areas that I could use to photograph Jorge and Kelly. Luckily I remembered spotting a good spot on my pre-visit so as ever that trip was worthwhile.  Apologies for teaching people to suck eggs, but as I am sure you know, if you take photographs in direct sunlight you’ll end up with harsh shadows, with wrinkles and all sorts of things appearing on the skin, if you find some shade you will get a nice even covering of light across the face.

I met up with Jorge and the ushers at the venue, Jorge seemed pretty calm even when for a short period they thought one of the brides maid dresses may have been left back in Shrewsbury! Thankfully not one of the Photographer’s responsibilities. Relief all round when they found it!

Once the usual fumbling around with cufflinks and ties was finished we took a walk from the hall to the church. Delbury Hall is a great location as not only does the hall face onto its own small lake that you can walk all the way around but the Hall has its own access to the church via a short walk through a wooded area. A perfectly tended foot path led up to the church adding a great extra element to the whole experience for the bride on her way to the church.

I then high tailed it back to Delbury Hall to capture the bridal preparations. In true bridal style things weren’t running on time but Kelly looked stunning. Due to the schedule slipping my time (as ever you have to be brutal with timings) with Kelly in bridal prep was very brief and then it was time to go! Instead of a fancy car the bridal party had a really beautiful walk to the church. This meant I got my exercise for the day running ahead shooting then when they were almost on top of me running ahead again, so after pepper potting all the way to the church I said a quick hello to the vicar and got ready for the service.

Once the service was finished I asked the ushers to hold everyone back while I took the short walk through the trees with Jorge and Kelly, once I had got everything I needed we got all the guests to catch up so the whole group were walking back towards the Hall.

Once everyone was back at the Hall it was a perfect afternoon the sun was shining, the bubbly was flowing and the atmosphere was fantastic. I stole Jorge and Kelly away for 20 minutes to get some photos of the new Mr and Mrs. This is also a really nice time for the bride and groom to spend alone in the mass of greetings and well wishes from everyone. You can tell them this at the pre-meet and make sure they really enjoy this bit.

The plan was then to get the group shots in the bag but just as we got back it started to rain! Everyone headed over to the reception and some shelter, luckily it was only a brief shower and everyone was straight back out in the sunshine. Note it is vital to have a Plan B if this happens.

The meal and speeches soon followed, an excellent round of speeches from Jorge, Kelly’s Dad and the two best men, it had the full mix of tears and side splitting laughter! I don’t think Kelly and Jorge could have asked for a better day! From my point of view it went well. I was glad that I had done a pre-visit so I knew where the nice shady areas were. I also really learnt how you have to be prepared not just for a raining day, but if it starts raining mid-way through the group shots – I got away with it this time, but definitely learnt for the future.

Comments from Kelly:
“I could not recommend Mike enough. He was very professional, flexible and generally made the photos a very enjoyable experience, even at my most most stressed moments and there were a couple! From the first time we met up with him at the pre wedding shoot he really went through how we would like our day to go; so he could work with us to achieve this. I was not the most organised bride in the world and going through things with him at the pre wedding shoot, actually helped me plan my day!! He made at us at ease very quickly and really worked hard to get the best shots he could.
The wedding arrived so quickly , and as normal I was not running to time ! Mike worked around this very well and worked with what he could ! He really made everyone in my wedding party at ease and even though last minute on the day we decide to break up the photos in to two parts of the day, Mike worked round this to ensure we had all the photos we could ever need. All in all we were very please with Mike’s work, he was professional, great to have around on the day and most importantly we were very pleased with the end product. All our guests have been commenting on how good these photos are. Thank you”