It appears I have been more useless than normal at keeping my blog up to date - it was last May when I posted about Amie & Ste's wedding!  So, with a new year about to come upon us I have decided to take a slightly different approach and, hopefully, post more regularly.

A friend of mine has been posting images with the 'story' behind this and taking inspiration from this, rather than posting a load of wedding images, I will post a series of images from weddings, with a bit more about the image itself and I hope this is slightly more interesting.

First up is Alison & Sam's wedding from April last year.......

Not everyone has bridal prep coverage (and that is fine, coverage is tailored to every couple) but I caught up with Alison and her and bridesmaids at Mom & Dad's house whilst Phil covered the lads getting ready at Brockencote Hall.  Bridal prep not only allows me to capture 'getting ready' images, but also allows time for the detail shots of dresses, shoes and flowers.  I chose the images in this post to tell the story of the final stages of make-up and Alison getting ready with the girls.  Although neither image is posed and both were shot using natural light, the make-up shot looks more 'posed' because Alison was sitting for the 'mua' and I could move around to find the best light/background for the image.  Because the location of this shot was the kitchen, the image was created using a shallow field of focus on Alison's eyes to draw you to the area where the makeup is currently being applied and the blur beyond her face/darker background removes any kitchen distraction behind her.  The second shot was essentially from a sequence of 'grab shots' that were taken in the bedroom.  Alison was running a little late and so it was a bit of a 'last minute' scramble to get the dress on.  I was allowed into the bedroom once the dress was on and lace being tied and had about 2 minutes to get images before I had to leave for the church.  Of the images taken, this is the one where the girls shared a last minute joke and so gave me a great relaxed shot, with a sepia tone applied to cut down colour distraction and allow the dynamic between the girls to be the main focus.  A larger field of focus is used to include the bridesmaids but still leave the background (the room, which is of less importance) slightly soft.