I’m heading back from Scott and Jess’ wedding this weekend. They had a handfasting ceremony and asked me to do their photos for them. While I was, of course, honoured that they would ask me and trust me to shoot such an important event, I was more than a little nervous. While I’m comfortable shooting live events and theatre, I had actually never previously shot a wedding. Wedding photography is not something that I have ever really wanted to get into, but I have known Scott since we were very young and Jess a few years now, so I agreed on the understanding that they know my style and they knew what they were getting.

I travelled up on Friday morning and stayed with my dad for the weekend. (I’m not sure how long I will have that luxuary now my mum has started her new job. Their house is up for sale and I guess it all depends on how long that takes to sell.) On Saturday my dad went to take some things to my brother so I had to find my own way to the place the wedding was taking place — the walled garden in Manor Heath Park, Halifax. It’s been years since I used the busses around Halifax for anything other than going directly into the town, so I thought I should leave myself plenty of time. I set off about quarter past 12, wandered down to the bus stop and had a look at the timetable. There was some information saying that there was only one bus which went near the hospital (which I knew was the right kind of direction) and that I had missed it this hour. I decided to catch a bus to King Cross and walk from there. the first bus which arrived was from a new company in the area, Centre Bus, so I got on and asked the driver if it went to Kings Cross. He told me it didn’t, that it turned up by the fire station. I thought for a moment, despiratly trying to work out where the fire station was. I couldn’t. I gave up and decided not to risk it. As the bus drove off it dawned on my where the fire station is. It’s exactly where I wanted to go. The next bus which came along did go to King Cross so I got on that and walked to the park from there.

I was very early when I arrived so I got myself a drink from the cafe in the park and sat on the grass in the gardens. The sun was wonderful. I’d been a little bit worried that the weather might not be so good based on the previous days and the forecast, but the sun came out and stayed out for the whole ceremony. Only once we got back to Scott’s grandma’s house did the rain finally come. Twenty or so minutes after I got there Gary turned up in a brand new, fresh from the packet, shirt. He was meeting Neal at 13:50 by the gates to carry out ushering duties. A short while after the lady carrying out the ceremony arrived and we were asked to help her bring her things from the car: a little table and a witch’s style broomstick.

Soctt and Jess had chosen to have a handfasting ceremony as they felt it was the least officially-sanctioned, most non-religious ceremony they could while still having a centrepiece for the occation. The ceremony itself was nice. The lady carrying out the service explained that quite a lot of the symbolism has worked it’s way into the more common wedding ceremony and that some common terminology relating to marriage comes from the traditions in the hand fasting ceremony. I shot the all the way through, trying not to get anyone’s way while still covering the the important things. After the ceremony Scott, Jess and I slipped off to take some more formal pictures aruond the gardens, the plan was to do photos with just them in the gardens themselves and then, once we got back to Soctt’s gran’s house to do all the stuff with the families.

Scott’s gran’s house is between the wedding venue and the reception venue, up a little side track, with a nice garden. We wanted to shoot the formal pictures backed on to the garden and up the steps, but by this time the weather was deteriorating. After the speeches by Scott’s gran, Jess’ mum and Ben, Scott’s best man, the toast, and the cake cutting, the rain started to fall and most people retreated inside. I tried to get some candid shots of people as they chatted inside, especially of the grand parents who had been the harder people to shoot during the service, until a break in the weather. We managed to grab a few family shots on the grass before the rain started again, so we moved to under an umbrella and did some more there. These photos are the ones which I was most worried about, and I don’t think they are the best formal photos from a wedding, but I think they will be ok. I hope no one is dissapointed.

After the grandmother’s house we moved on to the reception venue. The Malt House in Rishworth is a nice venue. We had the whole upstairs function room area and the whole thing was very informal. We didn’t have a seating plan, and the meal was buffet style. I think this is just what they wanted — I don’t think they would have enjoyed a very formal type of meal and reception, so it worked well. The people who had been at the ceremony itself mingled a bit and some people who were only coming to the reception turned up. I slinked around the edge of the room most of the time trying to take the most natural pictures I could. I got pictures of all the key things: guestbook, favours, cupcakes, and I think I covered most people who were there. I might have missed some who were in the other room and who didn’t hang around too long, but I will have to see. I hung around until near the end when a group of us took a taxi down the valley. I was heading back to Sowerby Bridge and a few others on to Halifax.

The day was very enjoyable. It was nice to see people again, and the whole event was very laid back. I’m sure, as everyone else has said, that Scott and Jess will be very happy together. The day was pitched just right for them. Now I just hope that the photos can live up to the day itself…

I did discover one thing though – I’m no good at networking. This causes something of a problem in my industry.

ISTA is the International Schools Theatre Association. My old theatre school hosted one of their festivals from the 28th to 31st October, 2010. I was invited to shoot the week.

I stayed with my parents and decided to travel up on the Tuesday before so that I had a day off before. The students were due to register at 4pm on Thursday, and I’d agreed to arrive at about half 2.30pm so that I could have a look around the school (the festival was based at Calder High) and get a good handle on what was going on. I arrived a little early: I had been in Halifax in the morning with my parents, and so got the bus from Halifax bus station through to Mytholmroyd, and I wanted to arrive in plenty of time as I’d never been to the school before. I waited in the school reception for a while until Jez arrived. (Jez is a teacher at Calder High who was also a member of Calderdale Theatre School. He, along side Gillie, had done most of the organising of the festival.)

Shortly after Gillie turned up with all the ISTA staff who had been having a tour of Hebden Bridge – as part of the festival the students were taken around a number of sites around the town in order that they may draw inspiration from them for their final performance pieces. I was introduced to them, and joined them on the tour of the school and their work spaces. Now, Calder High is a maze. My old high school was pretty straight forwards – one straight corridor on each floor with the classrooms off them. Calder High is much more complicated than that. It has corners and junctions all over the place. Some signs had been put up, but that didn’t stop me not being able to find the music rooms for the first session. I think, by the end, I could just about work out where I was going, but I certainly couldn’t give directions. Sam can testify to that.

Sam arrived on the Friday to get some video. He is working is ISTA itself to improve their marketing. Part of this task is using the Calderdale festival to put together a short video for their website showing what the festivals are like. Personally I found his style of working a little bit too intrusive. By that I mean that he would go out and put himself right in the middle of the activity he was filming; for example often getting between the group leaders and the students. This is not the way I work – I spent the week on the sidelines of the action with long lenses shooting past people, but trying to make myself as invisible as possible. (This method gets me the shots I want – real candid action shots – as people don’t know where or what I’m shooting, and seems to have been appreciated by the group leaders as well. Two of them commented on it as we were leaving, the first telling me that I was “discreet but still involved” and that it was “everything you would ever want from someone doing your job”, the second thanking me for handling the event “sensitively”.  Those two comments mean a lot to me. Now I have to hope they like the finished product!) I know that photography and videography are different arts, but I still felt he was a little too intrusive. Perhaps this is partly because he kept getting into my shots. I suspect when I finally work through the photos there will be quite a number with him in the background.

Friday was the day out and about around Hebden Bridge and Heptonstall. I went in the car with Gillie and David, the festival AD, and hopped around the different groups. I’m glad that worked out because I was concerned that I wouldn’t get to see all of the groups. As it was it was perfect, I got shots of Jess’ devising group in Hebden Bridge town square, Ruth’s movement group in the town hall, around the old packhorse bridge, and in a graveyard at the top of the ‘butress’ (the old trail from Heptonsall to Hebden Bridge), and the music group around in and around the church in Heptonsall. I even did the walk from the river in Hebden right up to Heptonstall at one point. And the weather held off wonderfully. I spent some time on Friday afternoon with the ensembles back at the school. It was interesting to see things coming together.

The students had a set of workshops on Saturday morning from some of the ISTA staff and some local practitioners. This was interesting – a number of the local practitioners are CTS regulars and it was interesting to watch some of the workshops I’d done before from the outside. There was also a trapeze workshop as well as a workshop from Ryburn Long Sword on traditional Yorkshire Long Sword dancing. All good fun.

After all these things in the day, there were a number of evening events for teachers and staff. I was invited to them all, but made excuses to avoid every one of them. I still think I had a good reason not to go to the meals and things, but I wish I’d gone to the wine and cheese evening on the first night. It would have been a late night, but I think it would have been a good networking opportunity. This is something I think I need more practice at. I’m not the best at talking to people I don’t know, and even when I do know people well I’m not the best person in big groups. I’ve noticed these things always seem to occur to me when I’m back up north. This is my homework for next time!

The festival finished on Sunday. The culmination of the event was a performance by each of the groups, put together into one piece of about 45 minutes, based on what they had been working on in the previous few days and the inspiration they had drawn from the day out around Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd. I wasn’t expecting a huge amount, but as I’d been lead to believe previously it all seemed to come together remarkably well at the last minute. I got to shoot the ‘dress’ rehearsal as well as the final performance which was a relief as my position wasn’t great and the lighting was pretty low during the final performance. It’s always hard to really follow something when you’re shooting it but the performance was well received (although given the audience was made up of parents and supporters, that’s perhaps not a huge surprise).

With the close of the performance came the close of the festival. There were many emotional farewells and, as expected with drama students, lots of tears. I hung around to get some choice shots of those too before quietly heading off home.

And I think sometimes it’s the same with my photography.

I take photos for a living and, don’t get me wrong, I love it.  I get a great feeling of satisfaction from producing something which brings people joy without them thinking about who I am.  (That’s the same with a lot of the work I’ve done: when I’m doing costume character work I enjoy walking around the place I’ve just been working knowing that none of the people who I’ve been interacting with have a clue who I am, and I enjoy working back stage in theatre, adding to the magic without people giving a second thought to me being there.)  But sometimes I get home, collapse into bed, and wonder why I just put myself through that.

This happens most when I’m out with my camera for fun.  I think this is mainly because a lot of the stuff I do for myself is different to the stuff I do professionally — my professional work is usually rehearsal space, studio or theatre based and generally pretty controlled (with some exceptions, of course, and I’m pleased to do those other things), while the stuff I shoot for myself is often outdoors in unpredictable public environments.  It’s kind of the difference between photography as an art and the thrill of capturing that candid moment.

When I’m out for myself I can spend hours on my feet with my heavy kit bag, sometimes walking for miles.  And today I’m suffering from the weekend.  But I still do it.  I still go out with my cameras when I have free time.  Occasionally I have the moments I just described, wondering why on earth I would put myself through that for no apparent gain, but I do.  And you know what?  I love it.

Events on the main stage in Trafalgar Square were due to kick off at 12noon, so I headed into London in the morning. I had spoken to Tiffany the day before and she’d talked about meeting up in the afternoon – she was babysitting for her sister the night before, and so would be passing through London.  I’d agreed to lend her and Stuart one of my old cameras, so this was an ideal chance to hand it over – so I wanted to get plenty of time in before I met her. When I arrived at the square, at about quarter to 12, there were already a lot of people waiting and so I went to find myself good vantage point at the top of the stairs leading up to the National Gallery where I settled down for things to get going.

12 o’clock came and went.  As did half past, as did 1pm.  And still we stood waiting.  Finally, about quarter past 1 our two hosts appeared on stage.  They were two young ladies (Not young young I don’t suppose.  Not what I might have referred to as young before, but from the view of my advancing age, young enough.) dressed in traditional Chinese outfits. It took me a little by surprise when they introduced themselves as Yvonne and [something equally non-Chinese].  Anyhow, they proceeded to introduce a whole load of dignitaries ranging from someone from the Chinese embassy who couldn’t speak English, through to some senior policeman, via Boris Johnson who couldn’t be bothered to turn up but sent us a video message (which we ended up seeing twice, apparently because of technical problems), all of whom made speeches about how great the occasion was and how proud they were to be associated with it.  After around 45 minutes, the painting of the dragons’ eyes and a photo call on the stage, the entertainment started.

The first, and by far the best, act was a dragon dance.  We were told that it was telling the story of a dragon who was sent into the mountains to collect some kind of special tea.  He had to overcome a whole load of problems on his journey and, apparently, was scared for a long period around the middle.  The dance was impressive.  The dragon was made up of two people and the whole dance took place on top of a set of 7 and 8 foot poles.  There were lots of acrobatic jumps from pole to pole accompanied by traditional Chinese drums and thing which no one but the front row of the crowd right by them could hear because it wasn’t amplified.  Following that there was some singing and something else (probably: I can’t actually remember, it made such an impression).

By this time I was losing interest and wanted to wander up to Chinatown, but was a little bit trapped.  Even when they moved the barriers back to make more room on the ground the steps were pretty crowded and I was struggling to escape.  I found my way down the side of the steps in the end, knocking out as few people as possible on the way down. I took some general shots around Trafalgar Square and then my phone rang. It was Tiffany.  She was just setting off from her sister’s house and, after a little discussion, we arranged to meet outside of Leicester Square tube.  This was on the right line for her, and was a good reason for me to head that way.

So I did.  I walked up around Trafalgar Square stopping to take some shots of the stalls and people around the edge (as well as taking a picture for some foreign visitors. It seems if you have professional kit on your shoulders people expect you to be able to take good photos on their little instant digital cameras.  This is, of course, the opposite of the truth.), and headed up the (closed) road to Leicester Square.  There was more going on there, and I spent some time taking pictures around there.  The plan was to then go into Chinatown itself, but a little exploration revealed that wasn’t going to work because of the crowds and time.  So I just went to meet Tiffany.

Once she arrived we headed off for a break at a lovely little cafe in Covent Garden.  On the way there we spotted a whole load of TV OB trucks parked outside the Royal Opera House so went to investigate. Of course neither of us had realised it was the night of the BAFTA awards; why would we? It’s not like we both work in the entertainment industry or anything. We sat for an hour or so in the cafe, Tiffany had soup while I had a very large slice of Chocolate Bombe and surprisingly nice Apple juice.  We chatted and I got to take the weight off my feet for a while.

One thing Tiffany wanted to do was get photographs of some graffiti which had appeared on some building site hoardings near London Bridge.  We decided we should head there before the light faded too far.  With those photos in the bag, we walked back along the south bank of the river toward Waterloo, snapping away as we went.

As a theatre and events photographer it’s been a long time since I took landscape pictures so it was a bit of a change for me, but still remarkably enjoyable.  It’s also been a long time since I went on a shoot with another photographer, and it’s always very interesting to see what they spot that you missed, especially when out of the confines of a performance space.

Tiffany and I parted company once we reached Waterloo station.  It was pretty late by this stage and we both needed to get off home.  We sorted out who was taking what camera kit (I was still carrying some of the things she wanted to borrow in my kit bag), said our goodbyes, she headed off underground and I went and got my train.

On the train home I sat opposite a photographer who had clearly been on the BAFTAs red carpet.  He was editing and tagging his photos with the help of a celebrity cheat sheet issued by BAFTA.  It crossed my mind that it would be very helpful if something like that could be provided by producers when I’m working with particularly large casts.

I beat Tiffany back home for once, although unusually we did start off from my main station rather than hers.

I was glad of a few days with nothing planned this weekend.  The last few weeks have been a bit non-stop.  Early in the year I bought a whole new load of camera kit but hadn’t had much chance to take it out for fun and play with it through January so, on Valentine’s day, I packed up my backpack and headed off to shoot the silent disco in The Scoop at More London.  I was expecting it to be a reasonably busy event with plenty going on to photograph.  Unfortunatly that wasn’t the case.

My trains arrive into London Waterloo which is just a few minutes walk away from the London Eye and South Bank.  Once on the South Bank you can walk along the Thames path right down to Greenwich (in fact the path runs 184 miles from near the river’s source, according to the National Trail website).  So I decided to walk from the station to City Hall, quite a nice walk I’ve done plenty of times before with a full kit bag.  What I failed to factor into my journey was how much heavier my new kit is when compared to my old kit, and how out of practice I am at walking with it after winter (in fact quite probably how out of practice I am at walking at all since I started using my bike for local journeys just under a year ago).

Once I reached The Scoop I was disapointed that there weren’t many people there, and it wasn’t much of a sight.  I couldn’t even easily get close to the edge of The Scoop because they had security barriers around it.  There were pretty friendly looking staff around (one of the young ladies gave me quite a smile as I walked past, actually) and I’m sure, had I asked, they would have been quite accomodating, but I wasn’t really in the mood having walked all that way, so I just stomped past, around the other side of City Hall and flopped onto the stone seating / steps for a rest and to decide what to do. For some reason I chose to walk a bit further.

I wandered across Tower Bridge, in front of the Tower of London and along some of the roads in the City. I didn’t take any pictures.  I had half an idea to walk to St Paul’s, but didn’t make it that far.  I came back down to the north side of the Thames by St Magnus the Martyr (who were ringing their bells at the time) and walked back up to Tower Bridge.  By this time I was starting to hurt; my feet and legs were the worst. I crossed back over the river with the intention of seeing if things had hotted up at the disco, but they hadn’t so I decided to head home.

By this time my shoes were feeling really quite uncomfortable and I was limping slightly.  It felt like my sock had shifted slightly aroud in my shoe and the feeling of it moving against my foot was starting to annoy me, so I stopped to sort it out.  Unfortunatly it wasn’t my sock, it was the skin on the ball of my foot which had blistered very badly.  I hobbled on to London Bridge tube and back to Waterloo where, thankfully, it wasn’t much of a wait for the train.

I continued to suffer for it the next few days.  While my feet felt a little better after a good night’s sleep my legs decided to start aching more.  I think perhaps I was a bit ambitious (albeit not intentionally) on my first outing of the summer, but at least I know now how much practice I need to get in before we really hit the summer events season…

This obviously throws up a few issues, both morally and technically.

To be quite honest I don’t personally have a moral problem with the adult industry.  It’s not something I’ve particularly wanted to get into, but I don’t have objections to the principal.  My view is that so long as the people involved are there willingly and are comfortable with the situation then there’s no problem.  I appreciate the argument that some of the issues are with the message this kind of work gives to young people, but my general opinion is that the majority of people understand that it’s art and that the people in the images have chosen to be involved.  Not everyone I know would agree, and this is another slight issue — if I do take the job, do I keep quiet about it?

Technically it’s portrait work and normally I would turn down portrait work.  It’s not my area of expertise and I know others who specialise in that kind of thing could do a much better job.  While I have similar thoughts about this kind of thing, and it’s well out of my comfort zone, I kind of think that I wouldn’t feel as unconfident about taking these pictures as I would doing traditional studio or location portraiture.  For one thing I think these would be more casual shoots with fewer expectations of what is expected.  This would give me more freedom to experiment, and to some extent shoot in a more candid style that I’m comfortable with.

I gather that the client already has a number of ‘models’ lined up — a handful of friends who want to do some sets of this kind — and I guess he’s got a good idea of the direction of the site he’s building and so the kind of image he wants to end up with, but another concern would be how we would go about about capturing the images themselves.  I’d want the shoots to be casual and fun, but I don’t really know the best way to go about making the models feel comfortable.  I’d certainly want to take a girl with me as my assistant because I think that would help the model feel more relaxed, and then I guess the client would want to come along.  (In fact I’d really appreciate that — given I don’t have any experience in this kind of thing I wouldn’t feel comfortable myself trying to direct a shoot.  Obviously I’d be willing to put my artistic opinion in but I wouldn’t be happy being fully artistically in control, at least for the first few sets. )  I’d also be happy for the model to bring a friend along with her, be that a boyfriend or a girly friend, if that would make her feel happier, but after that I think I’d want a closed set.  That would mean there would be 5 people on set, each with a clearly defined role.  I would be concerned if it turned into a much bigger group with people hanging around not having anything to do.

I still have to get back to them about if I’m willing to do it, and it still might not take off.  But I’ll keep this updated with what I decide and, if I do agree (which I think I’m leaning toward at the moment) my experiences of the shoots themselves.