Sonja and Dan’s wedding was one the highlights of last year – how often can you say ‘the groom arrived at church on his motorcycle’. Theirs was a classic summer wedding – the ceremony took place in a church at the end of a country lane in an unspoilt West Sussex village.
After the ceremony everyone left together, bride and groom with motorcycle outrider, guests following in a doubledecker bus, making for a memorable picture.
How often can you say ‘the groom arrived at church on his motorcycle’
After a wonderfully relaxed reception at Dan’s parents’ house everyone moved on to Amberley Castle for dinner. It was a day that had so many wonderful elements – the beauty and tranquillity of a traditional village and its church, the warmth of a reception at home and the wow factor of Amberley Castle, not to mention the chef’s amazing food – and I enjoyed every minute of it.
The pictures give some idea of the day, but Sonja and Dan also chose to have some handprinted black-and-white pictures taken on film, a choice I offer all my clients. I have to say I wrestle with this one.
The convenience of black-and-white converted from digital cannot be denied and if you’re going for a Graphistudio ‘book’ style presentation or tend to look at pictures on screen rather than prints then this is the way to go. And to be honest I expected the traditional print done by me in the darkroom to have died by now. But whenever I think that’s going to happen a client will opt for handprints and be overwhelmed by the result – I’ve spent a lot of this week in the darkroom handprinting pictures from a wedding shot both digitally and on black-and-white film.
The colour pictures are wonderful – and beautiful – but the black-and-white have a charm of their own. What I like is that my clients can have the best of both worlds – digital images on a disc, viewable on screen and instantly transmitable – and the wow factor and difference of black-and-white handprints.
If you liked to have framed prints out in your house they are definitely worth a look – all my clients say the black-and-white pictures are the ones that end up in frames covering their walls!
