Pretty much the only non-rugby photography I’ve done recently was at a friend’s wedding in February. I wasn’t the official photographer or anything like that – I just did my normal thing and took loads of photos.
I think it’s only the second wedding I’ve taken any serious photos at – the first was an odd one. I was involved in a sort of informal photography club at a previous job, and one lady in it asked me to go to her wedding and wander around taking photos. It was a slightly surreal experience – you had people asking “do you know the bride or groom”, and I had to honestly answer “neither”! The photos came out really nicely and Nicky was happy, so that’s the main thing.
I don’t normally take many pictures of people, so the candid part of it is probably what appeals to me.
Caroline & Dom’s wedding was at Tortworth Court in Gloucestershire – next door to Leyhill Open Prison. Fortunately it was a lovely day, and really quite picturesque with a bit of snow on the ground – not that you can see it in this photo!
I spent some time trying to get a shot of the detailing on the back of Caroline’s dress – which of course led to accusations from SWMBO that I was just trying to photograph her bum…
I was trying some slightly different views, to give take something that they might not get from the main photographer. I also had a play around with the images on the computer afterwards, and really quite like the black and white conversion with a bit of softness – if gives it a bit of a “glow”. It’s probably very cliched, but I like it…
By the way, Dominic the groom baked his own wedding cake – really nice!
And this is him on the receiving end of the Best Man’s speech (“The Brother, The Man, The Legend”).
Obligatory confetti shot…
And there was dancing in the rather impressive Orangery. Oh God, the dancing. Enough alcohol was consumed for me to end up on the dancefloor, and that really doesn’t happen very often.
And this is my manager Graeme strutting his funky stuff on the dancefloor. I suspect he would have preferred it if there was some Motorhead playing.
All in all, I reckon it was the best wedding I’ve been to. OK, I’ve not been to very many, but that’s not to say that it wasn’t a good day.