|
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Friday was the first day of spring, and on this day the lovely Bo and Dave tied the knot, we were honoured to be their photographers. The sun shone down on them, it was a truly glorious day.
The service was in Falmouth, and after the guests went back to Bo and Daves house in Portreath, for a truly wonderful garden party, massive bowls of chocolate dipped strawberries, jam and huge piles of scones made a fab cream tea.
There was bunting hanging and pink balloons, the chickens ran free and pecked up all the crumbs. It could have been the height of summer the weather they had.
We nipped down to the beach for some photos and there were people enjoying a drink at the cafe, they all cheered and clapped as the happy couple walked past, doesn’t everybody love a wedding?
After the garden party everybody piled into cars and drove to Castle Brea for a truly wonderful feast of vine leaves, dips, flat breads and falafels, followed by other wonderful delights judging by the smells wafting from the kitchen.
The sun was setting in a big ball of red and orange fire, and we got some amazing photos. The day was so diverse weather and location wise we almost felt we has attended two different weddings in one day.
Bo and Dave are the most amazing, warm, kind hearted people you could ever meet and we wish them all the luck and love in the world.
We have also had some lovely little ones in our studio and as ever they are a joy to photograph. The little man from carbis bay who stole my heart was so cute we would like to photograph him every week!! and little Jasmine you are a model in the making!
So we have had a wonderful weekend, weddings, kids and meeting even more brides, its so crazy I feel I need a sit down!
Weddings…..The Difference..
Every bride and groom (to be) that we meet here at Kiss Photography, and we seem to be meeting a lot lately, in fact its sort of become a full time job, are different, and quite rightly so. This also means the wedding’s will also be different. Its funny, weddings are so very steeped in tradition, and yet no wedding is the same.
The tradition part never gets lost, however off the wall, or different the wedding is; for example, we have never attended a wedding that doesn’t have a cake. Now the cakes all vary, from the grand royal icing number, some even have a horizontal tiered effect with bridges from one part to another, to the simple cake that granny made. The fairy cake (very popular) the cake made of rounds of cheese, it goes on and on….but we all have the cake!
Flowers: I have yet to see a wedding that has no flowers. Again I have been at weddings where the flowers cost thousands and thousands to ceremonies where the bride and her friends picked wild flowers from the local meadows and woods, but there are always flowers.
There is always a ring, sometimes two, I wonder what would happen if you announced on the day, to the person holding the service ” i dont have a ring, I dont want a ring” Are you still allowed to be married???? Of course! but what about the part of the service where you put the ring on the finger, what happens to that line?
So tradition aside, that none of us seem to defer from, weddings are as individual as the bride and groom themselves.
We have been at the Italian wedding, the bride and groom doesnt even know half the guests there are so very many, the Tarentella is danced, the meal consistis of a min. of 15 courses! We have been to a sit down fish and chip shop, followed by a night club, we have been to weddings of 12 guests to weddings of 500 guests, weddings in castles, weddings in villages halls, weddings at home, weddings in some elses home, because its bigger.
Whatever the wedding, whatever the theme, whatever day you get married, they are all truly wonderful and spectacular and so very very special. We always feel honoured to be asked to photograph a wedding, how amazing is our job? we get to go to hundreds of these amazing, traditional, yet different days!
We went on a recce last night to Carn Brae Castle, as we are shooting there in a couple of weeks, we wanted to do a quick camera test as we knew it was quite dark and lit only by candle light, we didn’t want any surprises on the day as we hadn’t been before. It was a misty moody night, we had a map, and we got completely lost, we could see the castle in the distance, but a few twists and turns later, it disappeared.
Dusk was falling and we knew we had to find it, we really were in the middle of nowhere when a man appeared, he gave us great directions and soon we were there and what an amazing place. I am a big lover of castles, and I fell in love. Just big enough to be a modest family home, but it was a castle!!!
The dirt track was rocky and rough, our car bounced along nicely, probably losing a bit of its exhaust pipe along the way, a black cat darted in front of the car (we swerved so no dramas there!) but it did add to the atmosphere!
We arrived, the castle looming against the dark sky, propped up by gigantic boulders that formed part of the wall. It was AMAZING, I felt I had gone back in time. The restaurant (which is now is) wasn’t open yet to the public, so it was just us, the castle door was locked so we knocked and waited. I was actually a bit dissapointed when a lovely young man answered, i almost expected a wizard or a king Arthur look-a-like to throw open the door and demand “are you friend or foe?” So we entered, were taken up twisty turny granite steps into the depths of the castle.
The restaurant is so dinky and just wonderful, the cold thick walls, freezing to the touch, with small windows dotted about giving a wonderful show of light in certain corners, the candles flickered on the tables and the amazing aroma of middle Eastern cooking.
What an amazing setting and what a place, we cant wait to shoot there, it will be a challenge with the lack of natural daylight, but the character of the castle will be the backdrop for mind blowing photos. If you have never been you must go, we are certainly going back for a meal!
The Camera Never Lies……
This phrase popped into my head today, Ricky was taking pictures of our little girl on a swing, her hair was flowing in the breeze and her face was a picture of pure delight, I knew the photos were going to be amazing of her, capturing delight is one of the best things you can capture. Then he turned the camera on me, I was on the swing next to her. I had hardly any make up on, my hair was windswept and i had just realised that actually swings made me feel slightly sick, not such a nice thing to capture…..the camera never lies….or does it?
Ricky is a fantastic Photoshop expert, he can do almost anything to a picture. When we are working with families and weddings, you really don’t want to do anything to the people you are shooting as it then wouldn’t be them anymore, but this is what he has been asked to do only in the last couple of months: Double chins reduced (this lovely lady didn’t even have a double chin! Dinner lady arms taken away (her words not ours), wrinkles smoothed away, spots taken off, he did it all and made it all look natural (what an amazing man to have around the place!, I just wish he could do it in real life we would be millionaires!!!)
Then I started going back over our years of working in this industry, many, many years ago, I , just out of fashion college, went to work at one of the major catalogues, I wanted to see production of a massive catalogue from beginning to end. The research, the photo shoots, the buying side of the clothes and the final graphics putting the whole thing together. They used a well know ‘star’ as a model for a certain range of clothes, the contract stated that she would only appear if her legs were reduced to half there size! And there she was in hot pants and mini skirts, you never saw her in those in real life.
This was well before the days of Photoshop on a big scale, and there it was going on, all top secret, one man in charge of reducing thighs, he told me not to tell anyone at the time, and you know what? I was so shocked i didn’t….and notice i still haven’t mentioned any names!
Then years later i knew a food photographer very well, who shot hundreds of advertising campaigns, she told me how the best way to shoot ice cream was to substitute it for lard! yuk, but lard doesn’t melt under the hot studio lights and you can scoop it like ice cream. Next time you look at a picture on an ice cream box, it could be nothing but lard!
I could go on and on with these stories, and you know what all these years of working in the industry, it still foxed me sometimes. I brought a bikini, it was very overpriced, but looked so nice in the picture, I sent for it, it was horrible, not well made and not a good shape, I sat at work that day saying how lovely it looked in the brochure, to hear lots of sniggering, ” how long have you been working in this industry? and you still believe all what you see’, I felt quite silly.
I spent years of my life in London at model castings, choosing girls who would be the next big thing. These gangly teenagers would arrive, often with bad skin and lank hair. I would open there portfolio and the pages would be filled with these photos of a beautiful smiling girl, with perfect skin and bouncing vibrant hair..the camera never lies?
But there are times when the camera never lies, and its a positive thing, the joy on a brides face as she walk back down the aisle, now a married woman, the proud look on her parents faces at the church. The joy of the little bridesmaids when there dresses are put on the morning of the wedding and they feel like little princesses, twirling and dancing.
The look of love that a groom has for his bride when she makes her appearance. The content look of a newborn baby, oblivious of having his picture taken, all he knows is hes warm, happy and loved. The sheer joy of children when you blow bubbles or produce a balloon for them to play with on a photo shoot. These are the moments the camera never lies and these are moments no one would want to change for the world.
|
