Rainy Day wedding at Norwood Hall

Julie and deBroy on 19th February 2011

Saturday was very wet, windy, and almost all Julie and deBroy’s photographs had to be taken inside at Norwood Hall. Fortunately this Victorian mansion has lots of character and is a good venue for photography, both inside and out. de Broy got photographed with his son, Damien, his Best Man, at the front door and at the bottom of the stairs. David was upstairs photographing Julie getting ready while I photographed all the guests, also at the bottom of the stairs, before Julie came down and got photographed with her flowergirls and Kenny (who was giving her away) before going through to the service.

After the service, Julie and deBroy received their guests in the new bar area in Norwood while I set up my lighting in the library. I was using a Quantum T5DR on a stand with an umbrella triggered by an on camera Quantum Trio which has the built in radio transmitter. Setting the camera exposure to use some of the warm available light, and throwing newspaper on the fire just before the exposure creates good warmth combined with the  "studio quality" lighting.

At the pre-wedding meeting, a lot of groups were listed and most of these were taken in the library. One advantage of working inside is that you can get people sitting on the floor which for large groups allows more scope in the posing. I had printed copies of the lists prepared at the pre-wedding meeting and gathering people was delegated to family or friends allowing the photography to continue as quickly as possible.

A group with 14 children under 12 is never easy and there are lots of changes I would like to make to the posing of this group but you only get a very short time when working with this number of children.

Although it rained all day on Saturday, the rain eased a bot late in the afternoon and we went outside for just a few minutes to get shots and I got David to hold the radio controlled brolly flash.

To add variation to the bridal shots we used several of the areas inside the hotel – on the chaise longue in the vestibule, on the stairs, and also at the top of the stairs.

The 14-24mm wide angle is great for this type of shot emphasising the dress and the beautiful roof.

One of the things that can be difficult when working inside is to find somewhere suitable for close-ups. I always have a selection of pop-up backgrounds with me, which allows me to create studio style shots quickly and easily.

To see all my photographs from Saturday, click here. David’s informal photographs are available here.

They were on-line on Sunday and I got a nice email from Julie on Monday morning.

"Hi Neil
Thank you all so much for all your work on Saturday.  We had a fantastic day and loved every minute.  The photos are brilliant we are really happy with them and looking forward to seeing the informal ones later in the week – would you mind sending us an email when they go online too? Thank you so much.
Best wishes, Julie"

When I asked Julie’s permission to use her email in this blog, she added

Yes of course you can add my comments. You can also add that you made the photo sessions enjoyable and relaxed for us and that added to our day.