Wedding photography requires its fair share of pre-planning, especially when it comes to the formal photographs that are taken between the ceremony and the reception. For Jenny and Dave’s wedding this was especially true. A 4pm ceremony, a plan to take the two families and the bridal party to the grounds of Johnstown Castle for formal photographs and a closing time of 5.30pm at the castle all combined to make for a tight schedule that required all involved to be well briefed on the plan. For such a well-planned part of the day then, it was somewhat ironic that it would be something unplanned that would give the best results photographically.
The flip side of a 4pm ceremony is that it left plenty of time in the morning for me to make a pre-wedding visit to Johnstown Castle to scout out locations for that afternoon’s formal photos. The trip paid dividends, and as I left the castle to head to the bride’s house I had a pretty good idea in my head of where we’d go when I arrived back there 4 hours later with the families in tow.
The backdrop I had in mind as I headed for Jenny’s house was the front of the castle, an impressive looking and well-maintained building which was well worth the 15 minute drive from Stanville Lodge, where both the civil ceremony and the reception took place.
I was conscious that by 4.45pm the sun would have swung around to come from back camera-right in the photo above, which would prompt me to photograph from a slightly different angle, but would allow the sun be a nice back light with a hint of off-camera flash allowing me to independently control two exposures – the castle in the background and the subjects in the foreground.
As we arrived at the castle bang on schedule that plan was scuppered. There were two other wedding parties at the grounds at the same time, and unfortunately one of them had their wedding car and a second car parked beneath the archway the fronted the castle, making it a little unusable for any other photographs. Plan B was to move around to the back of the castle, which is the backdrop in the photograph at the top of this post, and one that probably worked better for the photographs as it turned out.
After we quickly got through the required family photographs, I brought the bridal party on a walk around to the edge of a lake behind the castle, with the walk giving me a chance for some nice candid shots.
The light when we arrived was quite soft – just what I hoped to see – as, while it was a dry day, it was a bit overcast. I didn’t expect the sun to reckon in the photographs I captured at the castle, but towards the end of our visit, after the families had left and as we were wrapping up some bridal party shots, the sun did indeed come out from behind the clouds and we were graced with some gorgeous light on the castle and the gardens.
The last shot I had planned required me to stay at the far side of the lake while Jenny and Dave took up a position on the castle-side of the lake and after I captured that I quickly made my way back towards my car as they headed for their car. Just as I reached them, and as they walked up some steps near the rear of the castle, the sun shone briefly again across the castle. Conveniently it also threw a pool of light on Jenny and Dave. I asked them to stop for a moment and captured the image you see at the top of this post – shown here virtually straight from the camera.
A few hours later, as guests sat down to dinner, I backed up my shots so far to my laptop in the hotel’s bar ahead of photographing the first dance after dinner. As I backed up I took a sneak preview at what I had captured and instantly fell in love with that last shot of the afternoon – a shot made all the sweeter by the fact that it was a spur of the moment shot in the midst of what, by necessity, had proven to be the most pre-planned part of the day.
Nice one Ronan, I think I agree, it probably will make it to the thank you card.