Kate and Ian, Amberley Castle, September 10^th 2010

A very Happy New Year to all my clients and readers. All the signs are that despite the dire economic  forecasts all around us happiness can still be found – I’ve just finished photographing a wonderful sequence of truly happy wedding days, starting in late November and going right through to Christmas.

The joys of winter weddings and weddings in the snow will follow, but first I want to catch up with Kate and Ian’s wedding at Amberley Castle back in September.

Many of my clients at Amberley Castle have their heart in such reportage pictures, but also want some photographs that show off such a fabulous venue

Elsewhere on the site I mention different styles of wedding photography and Kate and Ian’s wedding has them all. For those who wonder what ‘getting ready’ photographs can offer here are some wonderful examples, a fine blend of the informal and the timelessly elegant. The real emotion of the ceremony photographs shows the power of reportage photography at its best – such pictures just cannot be staged.

Many of my clients at Amberley Castle have their heart in such reportage pictures, but also want some photographs that show off such a fabulous venue. Kate and Ian were no exception, but their pictures outside neither feel staged or cheesy – they reflect the two people involved and the feeling of the day. Kate and Ian ended up with a set of pictures that had pretty much everything – elegance, beauty, emotion, the wonder of the venue and hilarious moments with their friends.

Thank you both for choosing me as your photographer.

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!

Henry has worked closely with a number of the pre-eminent wedding venues in southern England over a number of years, and is delighted to be recommended by them in recognition of the quality of his photographic images and professional, unobtrusive approach to each and every wedding covered.

As a way of helping future brides and grooms choose the perfect venue for their day, Henry has compiled an overview of each of these based on his extensive experience – visitors can learn more about their settings, and what makes each so unique. All of the guides are of course liberally illustrated with a range of favourite images that truly capture the essence of these most special of places.

Read the guides

• Amberley Castle
• Clandon Park
• Farbridge
• Gate Street Barn
• Jeremy’s Restaurant
• Ramster
• Upwaltham Barns

This is a special 15th anniversary blog – it’s fifteen years to the day that I left a well paid job and the company car behind to follow my dream of becoming a photographer.

Appropriately enough I had a wedding at Amberley Castle to celebrate with and Rachael and Peter’s wedding was everything I enjoy, relaxed, fun, unstuffy and very spontaneous – it had been all of five weeks in the planning! Thank you both for a great day and for your comments on the day and now you’ve seen the pictures: “they’re fantastic. You really captured the day …Many people commented on how nice and relaxed you were, thank you for adding to our day”.

They’re fantastic. You really captured the day …Many people commented on how nice and relaxed you were. Thank you for adding to our day!

It’s amazing how much has changed – I started working with Hasselblads and quickly left them behind in favour of 35mm autofocus SLRs – the reaction of other professionals at the time was “you can’t photograph a wedding on 35mm”.

In my training I shot a wedding for another photographer – I was given four rolls of 220 film (24 shots a roll, 96 in total) to cover the whole wedding. Today in the digital era it’s easy to shoot over 1000 frames at a wedding – and you may have noticed there seems to be a guest at every wedding who is determined to shoot even more.

A massive “thank you” to my clients and wedding venue partners

I’ve had many fabulous days with very happy brides and grooms and received lots of wonderful and treasured comments like those above. For me, around 800 weddings later, the adrenalin still flows and every wedding generates a huge buzz – so a big thank you to all my clients, past and present, and to those booking for the future.

And a massive thank you to the venues who have recommended me over the years – Ramster, Clandon Park, Amberley Castle, Upwaltham Barns, Farbridge and Jeremy’s Restaurant, your help has been and remains greatly valued.

New website. New kit. New opportunities for outstanding wedding photographs.

This summer saw the launch of the new website and the new blog – a big thank you to Alex for such a great result in a very short time, if anyone ever lived up to their company name it’s you – 247 Creative.

Next week a new Canon EOS7D arrives, which is hugely exciting – anything that helps to capture the moment is great news. In fifteen years the equipment may have changed, but the aim remains the same, outstanding photographs of genuine, uncontrived and spontaneous moments that truly reflect the day and will be treasured for years to come.

It seems only right in some ways that my first wedding entry on the new blog is from Amberley – I first went there over 10 years ago just after I had got married myself. Many weddings later it still has phenomenal wow factor – wedding photography at Amberley Castle is truly a joy.

Flo and Steve were clear what they wanted – very definitely reportage wedding photography, with just a few family shots. With around 60 guests I was able to blend the reportage photography of the two of them they wanted with captured moments of family and friends.

I’ve just been looking through the photos again and I just love them. Thank you so much for doing such a a fantastic job!

As Flo and Steve had a week at home before flying off on honeymoon I worked flat out so that they could at least see the pictures online before leaving. They also opted for some black-and-white photography taken on film which I’ll print in the darkroom next week so that it’s ready for their return. The bride’s reaction to the online pictures? – “I’ve just been looking through the photos again and I just love them. Thank you so much for doing such a a fantastic job, I can’t wait to see them in print”.