Wedding Photojournalism by Simon Atkins

Top 10 wedding photographers in the UK

2008-05-14T13:27:00.002Z

I was very flattered to find my name on a list of the top ten wedding photographers in the UK.

"Wedding photography is changing. In a trade where return business can hardly be depended upon, photographers have traditionally looked to word-of-mouth for the lion’s share of their work. However, with the growth of the internet has arrived a new, and fertile arena for photographers to promote their portfolios; where reputation once stood, web-wise self-promotion now reigns.
But, is a camera and a website really enough to join the ranks of the UK’s wedding photography elite? When the stakes are high – and with fees running well into the thousands, they certainly are – who can you trust to deliver the most professional service on your wedding day? For this list of the UK’s top ten wedding photographers, Randolph Quan – himself cutting a respected figure in the business – offers a industry-insider look at some of the biggest names from the trade today. "

"Simon Atkins - It’s always good to see a photographer cut his teeth on the news circuit before working weddings – nothing makes for good preparation quite like the real world. The subject of some impressive media coverage himself, I’d say the portfolio – beautiful, imaginative and varied – speaks more for Simon than anything else.”

Claire & Ian at Cooling Castle Barn

2008-05-14T09:56:00.000Z

Claire & Ian married at Cooling Castle barn on Sunday 11th May. Ian proposed to Claire on New Years Eve while watching Jules Holland on TV, it was appropriate that their wedding took place at Cooling Castle Barn, next door to Jules Holland's house.

Here are a few of my favourites -

Client comments

2008-05-12T19:21:00.000Z

It's always lovely to receive emails and letters from my clients thanking me. These are a couple I have received this week.

Hi Simon,

Thanks million for those fabulous photos! The photos really capture the day and somehow or another you managed to get great shots of my best friend and my closest friends. I am so delighted and thankful. I will forward to Drew and he will be thrilled!

You are an Angel and so talented!

Best wishes,
Kate x

Kate & Drew's wedding took place at Burgh Island in Devon, you can view some of the photographs further down this page.

Hi Simon,

Just back from honeymoon on Saturday, the pics arrived the same day thanks. We're both absolutely thrilled at the results; you've done a fantastic job. My father in law was here looking at them last night and he commented therewere many pictures that could easily be Sunday Times magazine standard.

We have been fairly slow about letting people know about the website as we prefer to make as many as possible look at them while we're with them first, so we can lap up the ooh's and ahh's as much as possible.

Thanks, Geoff.

Geoff & Justine's wedding was at Hintlesham Hall, some photographs are in the blog further down this page.

Kate & Drew at Burgh Island, Devon

2008-04-29T10:15:00.000Z

One of the great things about my job is visiting all the fantastic venues. I first heard about Burgh Island a few years back and was delighted when Kate & Drew asked me to photograph their wedding at the hotel.

Kate & Drew's wedding took place at Burgh Island Hotel on the 26th April. The hotel dates back to the 1920's and has been restored to it's Art Deco origins. A mixture of original and reproduction furniture sets the scene.

Burgh Island, Devon

2008-04-27T18:00:00.002Z

I have just got back from Kate & Drew's Art Deco themed wedding at Burgh Island in Devon (http://www.burghisland.com/ ).

Burgh Island hotel is a stunning art deco hotel at Bigbury-on-sea in Devon. Access is by the "sea tractor" when the tide is in.

Here are a couple I took at night on the way off the island. I'll post some photographs from the wedding soon.

Geoff & Justine at Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk

2008-04-25T12:03:00.000Z

Geoff & Justine married on the 19th April 2008 at Hintlesham Hall in Suffolk. These are a small selection of photographs from their wedding.

Recent weddings

2008-04-25T11:31:00.005Z

It has been a busy start to the 2008 wedding season. Here are several photographs from each of my recent weddings.

Martin & Mary married at Home House in London.

Lucy & Michael married at Castle Ashby Church and had their reception in a marquee.

Recent weddings continued.

2008-04-25T11:23:00.000Z

Victoria & Tom married at Hambleton Hall in Rutland.

Recent weddings continued

2008-04-25T11:17:00.000Z

Jane & Antony married at Hanbury Hotel, Ware.

New domain name

2008-04-10T12:09:00.002Z

I'm often asked why I have the domain name pressphotography.co.uk. This dates back to 1998 when I was still working as a newspaper photojournalist. At that time my website was a showcase of my press work. I started photographing weddings in 2000, A year or so later I left the newspaper world behind and concentrated purely on documentary wedding photography.

My new domain name is http://www.weddingphotojournalist.co.uk/, which better reflects what I do.

Recent weddings - Penny & Mike at Great Fosters

2008-03-11T21:06:00.000Z

Penny & Mike held their ceremony in the Orangery at Great Fosters in Surrey. These are just a very small selection of the photographs from their wedding.

Recent wedding - Kelly & George in Hampshire

2008-03-11T20:18:00.000Z

Kelly & George married on a rainy day in Hampshire. These are a few of my favourites.

Wedding bookings

2008-01-30T13:13:00.000Z

January is always a busy month for bookings. I have never worked out if this is due to the start of the year, or just that January is cold and dark and thoughts turn to summer weddings.

My latest booking is for Sharron & James who are having a summer wedding in Venice.

I'm certainly looking forward to the start of my wedding season. My first wedding of 2008 is in a couple of weeks time when Andrea marries Simon at Fawsley Hall.

So what do wedding photographers do during the winter break? My break is never that long as December is always a busy month for weddings. I use this time of the year to catch up with making new sample albums for the coming year. I also have client orders coming in all the while for albums and prints. Usually I manage to get a week off as it's impossible to take any breaks during the summer months.

http://www.pressphotography.co.uk/

Sabrina & Nathan's wedding on the 29th December 2007

2008-01-02T14:58:00.000Z

On the 29th December I drove up to the Wirral for Sabrina & Nathan's wedding at Our Lady and St John's church. The reception was at Thornton Manor.

This was my last wedding for 2007.

Katie & Joe's wedding on the 22nd December 2007

2008-01-02T14:49:00.000Z

Katie & Joe married at St Martin's church, East Horsley. The reception took place at Horsley towers.

Photography restrictions during the ceremony

2007-12-23T11:28:00.000Z

I'm used to running into issues with taking photographs during the ceremony. Often with both civil and church ceremonies I am told that I'm unable to take any photographs at all.

But I was rather surprised when I turned up a recent church to be greeted by the vicar with "Are you the photographer?" on confirming I was indeed the photographer he added "I don't want you in my church".

While I sympathise to some extent as I know some photographers move about, take photographs during the prayers and use flash. I usually explain that I stay at the back, don't move around and don't ever use flash and use a camera with a quiet shutter. However this vicar told me it wasn't open to negotiation and he wasn't interested in talking to me about it despite the couple wanting to have a few photographs from the ceremony.

Unfortunately there is nothing I can do when presented with this situation and I find it frustrating watching the emotion of the ceremony without being able to photograph it. Earlier this year I blogged about registrars banning photography during civil ceremonies. Once again I have run into this on a few recent weddings.

Often they will also place restrictions on photographing the signing of the register, usually saying it's due to data protection (which is partly true but I'll explain exactly why later). I had one wonderful registrar tell me I couldn't photograph the register signing as they use a special ink which can't be photographed. The actual restriction is on making copies of the register book itself as it contains details of other people. There isn't actually a law which prevents photographing the signing itself and funnily enough there never seems to be any restrictions imposed on video.

I advise all couples to discuss photography in advance with the vicar/priest/registrar. The couple stand a much higher chance of being granted permission than the photographer does. Once I was told by a registrar I couldn't take any photographs as it would disturb the couple. Apparantly she seemed lost to the fact I'm working for the couple.

Jenny & Charlie's wedding in London on the 15th December

2007-12-17T18:01:00.000Z

Jenny & Charles held their ceremony at Middle Temple in London followed by a reception at the Honourable Society of Lincolns Inn.

These are a few of my favourite photographs from their wedding.

Steve & Eleanor's wedding on the 7th December

2007-12-14T13:38:00.000Z

Steve & Eleanor married at Swinfen Hall on the 7th December 2007. The Met office might not have forecast snow but that didn't stop them from walking out into falling snow after the ceremony. As a suprise someone had hired a snow machine.

Lighting your reception room

2007-12-10T14:08:00.000Z

Let there be light. Without light photography is not possible and the quality of light is as important as the quantity.

At this time of the year many couples opt for a cosy candle light theme for their reception. Candle's give a lovely warm glow to the photographs. The key to getting great photographs is to have enough light and this is usually best achieved with a mix of both candles and other forms of lighting. This is especially true for dark venues with wood panelling, often the venue switch off the room lighting and place just a few candles on each table. Balancing the candle light with some room lighting gives a much nicer look to the room and photographs.

In the example above large candles are in the centre of each table and small spot lights have been positioned above each table. Uplighters have also been placed around the room.

This marquee uses a combination of floating candles as the centre piece of each table along with small tea light candles. Chinese lanterns hang from the ceiling and a spot light has been used during the speeches.

This was a small wedding with just one table at the wedding breakfast. Tea lights have been placed in coloured glasses and up-lighters in the corners add some extra light.

Tips for creating a lovely warm candle light look -

* Use lots of candles, a mixture of tea lights and large candles looks great.
* Leave some room lighting on, candles alone look too dark and make photography difficult
* During the speeches some extra lighting works well. I have seen venues so dark that the brides father was unable to read his speech. Turn up the room lights or use spot lights.
* Chinese paper lanterns look fantastic suspended from the ceiling of a marquee

http://www.pressphotography.co.uk/

Nicola & Andrew, 24th November 2007

2007-11-29T18:06:00.000Z

Nicola & Andrew married on the 24th November at The Old Rectory in Crudwell, Wiltshire.

These are a small selection of photographs from their wedding.

http://www.pressphotography.co.uk/

Wedding Photographer steals photographs from my website

2007-11-23T16:29:00.000Z

Today I received an email from a bride telling me my photographs appear on another photographers website with a different name for the couple. Unfortunately this sort of thing is not uncommon and it's not the first time parts of my website have been stolen.

Fun Photos (4un Photos) of Bournemouth (website http://www.funphotosonline.net/) have been using wedding photographs of mine in their portfolio. I network with many photographers around the world and have since discovered several other photographers from the USA whose work also appears on this website. Ironically they have set up a right click message which says "No copying!! copyright 4fun photos" . It seems the photographs came from the WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) online gallery of award winning photographs.

Couples would have booked these photographers based on their online portfolio. I'm saddened that these couples would not have received the level of work they expected. When looking at photographers websites ask them to show you the complete weddings from the featured photographs. Genuine photographers won't mind you asking a few questions.

Update 29/11/07: My photographs have now been removed from the Fun Photos website.

Online proofing. New features.

2007-11-07T13:23:00.000Z

For the past three years clients have been able to view their wedding photographs online and order copies of prints.

I'm pleased to announce a couple of new features to the online galleries. Each photograph now has "favourites" underneath. Clicking on this will add that photograph to your favourites list. Use the back function on your web browser to get back to the full gallery. Once you have compiled a list of your favourite photographs you can view them as a slide show or send them to me as your album choices.

The second feature is the ability to view the entire wedding as a slide show. Each page has a link to the slide show in the top right hand corner. The photographs will load in the left hand box. To start the slide show click on the play button just above the ordering box.

The new features allow you to choose the photographs for your wedding album online, compare them, watch them as a slide show and email them to me.

To choose photographs for your wedding album start with the full gallery (from "view your wedding" at http://www.pressphotography.co.uk/). Add your photographs by clicking "favourites", use the back function of your web browser to navigate back to the main gallery. Once you have chosen the photographs for your album you have the choice of watching them as a slide show. Once you are happy with your choices you'll find the text "click here to send your favourites selection to Simon Atkins Photography" which is at the top of the page on the favourites gallery. For security reasons you'll need to complete your name, address and email details on the following page.

You'll receive an email to confirm your list has been received.

Lisa & James, 13th October 2007

2007-10-18T20:03:00.000Z

Lisa & James married at St Mary's church, Greasley, followed by a reception at the Priest House by the river hotel at Castle Donnington.

Caron & Austin at Fawsley Hall, 6th October 2007

2007-10-16T14:10:00.000Z

Caron and Austin had a civil ceremony and reception at Fawsley Hall in Northamptonshire.

Fawsley Hall is one of my favourite wedding venues and this is my fourth wedding at Fawsley this year.

After the wedding breakfast guests watched a firework display.

Gerry & Karen's wedding on the 5th October 2007

2007-10-09T16:56:00.000Z

cGerry & Karen married at the Manor House, Norton Park, Hampshire. The wedding was also a going away party as two days later the couple set off to live in Abu Dubai.

These are a few photographs from their wedding.