I thought I put a port together of some of my favourite images that have won awards. Not so much to brag but I’m pretty proud of these award winning wedding photos and thought it would be good to talk about how I made them. Perhaps a little insight into where they were taken and more about the weddings that they are from. The images below have been entered into competitions along with some of the best UK wedding photographers. I know so many photographers within the industry and there are some incredible photographers out there. So to have won these awards competing against some amazing photographers is something I’m really proud of.
The first image I’d like to share with you is one of my time shooting some beautiful Southern France wedding photography for Cherry + Thomas.
The image above is of the bride kissing her grandmother. I think this much is obvious and I get a lot of feedback from visitors to my website on this image.
This wedding took place in Southern France about one hours and thirty minutes north of Nice out in the countryside. The venue was called Domaine Des Bruguieres and its super remote, but gorgeous. As the outdoor ceremony had finished and Cherry + Thomas has walked back down the aisle all of there friends and family and remaining weddings guests followed on and there were plenty of hugs, kissing and congrats going on. Though I noticed still sat down near the from of all the seating was Cherry’s grandma. Being so elderly and having difficulty walking (along with it being a really hot day) grandma stayed seated and relaxed for a while longer.
I knew Cherry was really fond of her grandma so I was almost waiting for her to notice her. When she did notice, she ran over pretty quickly. Lucky I was anticipation this moment the whole time and didn’t want to miss it. I had to quickly stumble over some chairs and across the uneven ground that the rustic outdoor venue had before getting close enough to capture the moment so intimately, though not so close to intrude on the moment.
This award was kindly awarded by the judges at This Is Reportage. They love to showcase the best documentary photographs from wedding photographers all over the world. They pride themselves on showing images that are 100% genuine with nothing staged or posed.
This second of several award winning wedding photos I wanted to share with you is from a wedding I photographed as a Thornton Manor Wedding Photographer not too long ago. Its another documentary image and again I’m super proud of it. I love the layers in this image and how the wedding guests are all waiting in anticipation for the bride to arrive. I had to get ahead for this shot and with brides being traditionally a little late for their ceremony, it worked in my favour and helped me get this photo.
Lauren had spent the morning getting ready for her wedding at home. It was great spending some time there in the morning capturing the build up to the wedding ceremony during the bridal preparations. Once Lauren was ready and I’d made some nice photographs of her and her proud “father of the bride”. I headed over to Thornton Manor ahead of them. I was able to get plenty of photos of Chris the groom along with all of the wedding guests eagerly awaiting for the bride to arrive. The wedding ceremony was at a beautiful pavilion next to a small lake. Its from here there is this long driveway that the wedding cars drive up to drop the bride off. Lauren decided to walk this and I’d spent a few minutes trying to find a great composition to shoot the cars driving up.
One small detail I love about this award winning wedding photo is how much Laurens father is holding on to her. He seems to be so aware that he’s just about to “give her away” it just adds so much to the image.
This image was awarded to me by Ninedots. This is huge community of wedding photographers always trying to make the wedding industry a better place whilst constantly trying to improve the quality of wedding photographers across the country.
Here is one of my personal favourite award winning wedding pictures. I was out in Lake Garda as Anthony and Vikki’s Italy Wedding Photographer for this one. I’ve never really seen myself as much of a landscape photographer but I think this has some aspect of it here. To be honest I don’t really know enough about landscape photography. Though sometimes I tell myself when I’m making a photo like this; “If I take the bride and groom out of the image, will it still look good?” I feel it’s the case in this image. I’d been out shooting in Italy not too long before this as a Lake Como Wedding Photographer so I had some ideas on how I wanted to incorporate the mountains and lake into the photos somehow. I was helped a lot by the light in this image though. I never thought I could have made a silhouette as you normally lose the sun early on behind the mountains.
This was an image that came to me more than I went out looking for it. The couple had a window in their wedding itinerary and we decided to go for a walk around the Italian town of Malcesine. As we were walking around I saw this image in my head as we passed the small docking area on the shores of Lake Garda. I simply asked the couple to head on over to the jetty, enjoy each others company and take in the amazing views. They walked up and down once and I knew I had the photo I wanted. I’m really excited to be going back here as a Malcesine Castle Wedding Photographer in the future and making more amazing photos here.
Another image from a destination wedding in this list of some of my award winning photos. Also another image involving the father of the bride. I was out in Italy shooting this Borgo Corsignano Wedding for Mark and Megan. I have so many favourite photos from this wedding I just love shooting at this venue, so much I wrote an article all about why I love Borgo Corsignano a while back.
Back to this image. Yeah so Megan the bride had told me that she really wanted to surprise her dad with how she looked once she was completely ready to leave for the wedding ceremony. So this is the image I got for her.
It was my first time out shooting as a Tuscany Wedding Photographer and I honestly couldn’t get enough of the light there. As a wedding photographer, its a location that’s pretty hard to beat when it comes to having great light at weddings. The morning had been really relaxed and with the wedding venue having little villas all over the place I was able to switch between taking photos of the groom and the bride. The stone buildings kept the indoors cool whist the warm Tuscan sun was warming outside. Just outside of the doorway and still under the canopy in the shade. Megan was having some finishing touches done wither her bridesmaids when the father of the bride himself came into the main room. Megan told me that it was important to get her dads reaction to I positioned myself behind Megan so I could get a good shot of dad as he came through the door. I’m super happy with this image and mainly because Megan was so happy with it.
Back to the UK for my next photo that I won an award for. This one was taken in Cheshire after I was hired to be a Peckforton Castle Wedding Photographer for Sarah and Sam. If you’ve ever seen this venue you’ll know how grandeur this place looks. Both inside the wedding venue and on the outside too. Although you cant make out much of the venue or what its like from this wedding photo, I’m really happy with it from a creative stand point.
When shooting the first dance for couples it normally difficult to get new perspectives and angles to make the images more interesting. Lucky here there was an area above the whole wedding reception room for me to shoot from. This is one of the reasons I love shooting at Peckfoton Castle. Once I knew I had a better image in the angle, I decided to change the colour of the flashes to make the image more interesting.
I love how the couple are framed within their wedding guests and you can see how much everyone is enjoy thing the first dance. Peckforton Castle is certainly one of the best Cheshire wedding venues and if you’re considering getting married in the North West of England for sure. I’d also love to be considered as your Cheshire Wedding Photographer too.
