Sylwia and Simon's wedding photography blog

Winton House, at Pencaitland in East Lothian, is one of the loveliest and most friendly venues that we have had the chance to photograph in our career as wedding photographers in Scotland. Apart from providing a beautiful backdrop for photographs, the venue is made particularly special by the venue organisers, led by the inimitable Morag, a kind of Jeeves in female form, who make sure that everything glides along smoothly, anticipating not only the needs of the happy couple and their guests, but also making sure that behind the scenes life is made easier for the photographers. All of which translates itself ultimately into creative and happy pictures!

The house shape is eccentrically unique as various bits were added to it in the course of the centuries and family heirlooms are still preserved in the beautiful interiors.

While enjoying all that one can browse through a vast art collection dotted on the walls. The very first time I went there I was absolutely gobsmacked by the fact that Bernardo Bellotto (otherwise known as Canaletto), one of the favourite artists of the last Polish king, has his beautiful paintings hanging there so close to the audience that you can study all the painstakingly painted details of Venetian houses with your nose almost touching the frame!

The food is also exquisite – I hope one day they will gather all these delicious recipies in a special Winton House cookbook!

My photo series on Lviv Ballet has appeared as a slideshow on the Economist’s Intelligent Life magazine website. It appeared as a photo essay in the autumn print issue of the magazine, and it’s good to see it appearing online too. There’s a link on More Intelligent Life’s home page, but you can go direct to the gallery here

We have received a lovely email from Lindsey and Mark, whose wedding we photographed at Lennoxlove, on the eve of New Year’s Eve. As you can see from the photos, the wedding took place while the UK was inundated with snow. Happily the weather was fine, though bitterly cold. A snowstorm could have made for some interesting pictures, but the bride and groom were adventurous enough venturing outside, and a white-out might have been taking things just a bit too far!

Dear Simon (and of course your lovely wife)

I have received the disc and I want to say an absolutely gigantic thank you to you guys for the photos. They are absolutely wonderful, really just perfect. We are so thrilled. We couldn’t have been happier with your service, both before and on the day -you were friendly and discrete and accommodating/obliging and not intrusive in the slightest, and the final product is very impressive. We were very happy with our package and think it was great value. I can’t thank you enough.

This kind of reaction is one of the best things about being a wedding photographer!

We were especially honoured to be chosen by Joe and Allan to photograph their civil partnership wedding – it was our first ever civil partnership, and it was great! The ceremony was very touching, as were the after dinner speeches – it was great to be part of such a day with such obviously close family and friends. The setting couldn’t have been more central, in the Royal Overseas League right in the middle of Princes Street. It was a freezing cold day, but the location with the Castle as a backdrop and the rush of Princes Street was too good to waste and we managed to escape with Joe and Allan for a few photos outside:-

Stacey and Sean were brave enough to book us for their wedding at Dunfermline Abbey and Dalhousie Castle without ever having met us until a couple of days before the wedding. Stacey confided that she was mightily relieved to see that we were more or less ‘normal’!

Flying over from the US with 14 of their closest friends and relatives, they had never been to Scotland before. The excitement of the travel made it a really special occasion, and having such a close group made the wedding a very intimate and fun one.

Here are some of the results. The flowers were by Fiona Halliburton:-

Welcome to the Low Light Special – Part Two!

This time we were at Karen and Jim’s  celebrations which took place at the Howard Hotel in Edinburgh’s New Town.

This hotel is a friendly and cosy venue with great potential for photographers who like working in low light conditions. Its cosy rooms were mesmerisingly lit with candles, especially during the speeches. I really had to force myself to photographing this part of Karen and Jim’s wedding though, as Karen’s dad did such a beautiful, personal and moving speech that I had to take pictures with my eyes full of tears! I couldn’t say whether the tears were of laughter or caused by his moving life stories!

Here is a small glimpse of these beautiful celebrations which we were invited to be a part of.

Sylwia

The latest news is that Simon is featured in the current issue of Practical Photography magazine. There is a whole 5 pages of interview with him about a speciality of his: low light photography. One of the pleasures of working with Simon is to be able to learn tricks of one of the best photographers I have ever known. In the interview he spills all (well,  most of) his secrets about working difficult lighting conditions to your advantage!

One venue where these low light skills come in very useful is The Hub on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. A steady hand, a top Nikon camera and a reliable cable release were our best friends during Pamela’s and Richard recent wedding there.

This shot was actually taken on film with a medium format camera to get the best possible resolution of modern negative emulsions. We usually work with our trusty digital cameras but sometimes it is fun to come back to one’s photographic roots:

The Hub’s staircase has a spectacular interior, which was a challenging place to photograph in late November due to the limited availability of daylight:

We were especially pleased to be asked to register that important day as the couple had a very original and highly personalised wedding day. All the dresses and bride’s and bridesmaids’ jewellery were custom made, and Richard’s outfit was finished with a beautifully decorated cane and pocket watch.

One of the bridesmaids in the custom made jewellery:

We were keen to catch the last minutes of daylight over cloudy Edinburgh, for a moody feel. We ventured onto a roof terrace for a little portrait shoot of the couple in the blowing wind. We worked quickly enough so that not to ruin the bride’s hairstyle but long enough to register a beautifully blowing veil!

Pamela and Richard are fans of Tim Burton and their wedding cake was a homage to their favourite director!

Another medium format image of the Hub’s interior with our precise Mamiya 7. I usually stop breathing while taking a picture so sometimes a special shot indeed leaves me…breathless!

Having a team of two photographers working during the wedding gives a huge advantage of being in two places at the same time. Can you spot Simon?

It was a pleasure to watch this couple on the dancefloor but a challenge to get a sharp shot of them moving during their dance!

Blind Lemon provided an energetic soundtrack to the evening festivities:

See you in Part 2 of our low light adventures!

Sylwia

This morning I had a call from the Royal Photographic Society with the fantastic news that they have elected me as a Fellow – the highest distinction that the Society can award. It was awarded in recognition of my photojournalism. Apart from anything else, it means I get to add the prestigious “FRPS” letters after my name – I’m really chuffed!

The RPS has three levels of distinctions – starting with Licenciateship (LRPS), through Associateship (ARPS), up to Fellowship (FRPS).

When it comes to membership of the various photographic associations, there are quite a few of them, several aimed at wedding and social photographers – the RPS is the oldest and I would say the best known, and very well respected. It always seemed strange to me that there are organisations which allow photographers to join and advertise the fact that they are members without any kind of verification on the quality of their photography. Members of the public can join the RPS easily enough in order to support it, but you are not allowed to advertise the fact that you are simply a member, and are only allowed to use the RPS’s name in your advertising if you have achieved a distinction with them – which requires having your photography assessed by a panel of top level photographers.

Simon

We were really delighted to see more magazine coverage of our photography – this time in the current issue of Real Life Weddings magazine, over a full seven pages! It is all about the wedding of Natasha and Paddy whose wedding we photographed back in June at Paxton House, and there is a lovely interview with Natasha – her bubbly personality really comes across, and there is a very romantic story from the 18th century connected with the wedding.

I won’t spoil it by recounting it – Natasha tells it much better than I could, so if you get the chance please do go out and buy a copy The full article is available from Real Life Weddings magazine. Amongst other things, she had quite a few things to say about our photography, this is the edition of the magazine to look out for (the Winter one, that’s out at the moment), and one or two excerpts about us:-

And the whole article looks like this :-

 

I (Simon) am just back from ten days in St Petersburg, “on assignment” (I love using that phrase, it sounds so Clint Eastwood in Madison County) for children’s charity EveryChild. It was a roller coaster of a week, meeting some wonderful people, and having the privilege of glimpsing their lives, and taking their portraits. Speaking to many of the parents was a humbling experience. Some of them had gone through incredible experiences and deprivations for the sake of their families. A number of families that I visited had children who were disabled, or suffering from illnesses such as Downes Syndrome, often with a single parent left to look after the family.

One lady had been a refugee from Chechnia, where her home had been destroyed in the war, and she had been left in a coma. She had recovered and escaped to Russia with her seven children, but being a semi-legal immigrant she had no right to work. Her youngest daughter was born with Downes Syndrome, and a heart defect that required an expensive operation. Her husband could no longer cope, and left.

She had survived (to a large extent with assistance from EveryChild) and managed to find at least low paid work, and arranged her daughter’s heart operation, though unfortunately not before brain damage was caused by a stroke. In spite of all this, she is an incredibly positive person, believing that we are subjected to such trials to make us stronger.

I could say a lot more, maybe that is enough for now. EveryChild are really doing a fantastic job – so if you get the chance to support them, please do. I won’t post any of the portraits that I took yet, the films are still being developed, and they will be on my personal website in due course. But here are one or two more general pictures that I took around St. Petersburg to give a flavour:

This groom was intent on climbing lamposts, but for some reason his bride seemed less keen to follow him:

These white doves were used to add a little extra to portraits of the happy couple:

Bears in the streets: