Sophie & Andy, The Swan, Newby Bridge

October weddings are a bit of a gamble – you hope they’ll be ‘autumnal’, but are aware the weather could be rubbish. And in the morning it was. Wind, rain, cold, the lot.

But as I spent an hour or so with Sophie and her hairdresser and make-up team, it got brighter and drier outside. By the time the ceremony was over, we even managed a walk alongside the river. OK, it was a tad nippy and the wind was whipping around, but that’s ‘autumnal’.

A last look in the mirror.

Not your average wedding car.

See? It was a beautiful day.

And not a bad setting if you have to be inside at the Swan either.

 

Suzanne & Andrew, The Swan, Newby Bridge

Thank you to Suzanne and Andrew, whose wedding took place at the Swan Hotel at Newby Bridge on Friday 26th June. It wasn’t just sunny, it was HOT and humid. Luckily, the ballroom where the ceremony was held is air conditioned!

Bottles of essential, life-giving liquid on a day like today…

Not many people actually look good when they’re wearing the wrong jacket, but kids just know how to do it…

I don’t need to know ‘why’ to know that it’s worth taking a photograph…

Anyone work out who the groom supports?

A few quiet minutes amid the fun…

Choosing a Wedding Venue

I don’t envy couples trying to choose a wedding venue in the Lake District – there are just so many, and every one is different. I genuinely do not know which one I would choose if I was in that position. And as a photographer they are all different again: great gardens, great views, great buildings. And I get to turn up and take photos.
These are just a few of the venues I visit from time to time.

Suzy & Joel, Langdale Chase, Windermere

The Langdale Pikes always provide a great backdrop, but the snow on the tops on Monday was a bonus and a little bit different. A winter wedding is always a gamble weather-wise, but Suzy & Joel’s party was small enough to find shelter indoors if we needed it. As it happened, we didn’t, and wandered the gardens instead.

Even the swans came out to play

Had a busy day

Swan Lake – Bowness Floods

OK, so I’ve said before how much it doesn’t rain in the Lake District. Only now and then I get proved badly wrong, and it rains so hard that this happens.

Alison & Justin, The Swan Hotel, Newby Bridge

The Swan Hotel at Newby Bridge has a great interior for photographers. It was dry and bright outside on Alison & Justin’s Wedding day last week, but I took plenty shots inside too.

This the Swan…at Newby Bridge…right on cue.

Swan Lake – Windermere Wedding

People often bring their pet dogs to weddings, but swans are not quite as common. A short walk from the church down to Windermere there are a few jetties to get shots of, with the lake and mountains in the background.

Of course, not knowing exactly what ‘wedding’ means, the swans just assumed we’d come to feed them and probably weren’t too impressed at the distinct lack of bread thrown at them. This one decided to see if me or my camera was edible.

Wedding Photography Season

There isn’t one. Not any more. OK, most happens in the summer months, say from April to October, but winter is popular too now. This is probably due to being able to get married in more and more venues, which then become popular on ‘peak’ Saturdays , so people choose to get married mid-week, or out of season. And why not?

In January, Ian and Ann organised, booked and married in the space of a couple of weeks – that’s the way to do it! The venue was the Swan in Newby Bridge, which I knew had some lovely rooms – a bonus for a photographer anytime, but particularly if it’s too wet or cold to get outside. This is something every bride should think about, in England at least. I’ve been very lucky with weather recently – only one wet wedding all summer ‘07 - despite most peoples’ memories of that period! But if the interior of your chosen venue has plenty of space for you and your guests to mill around with alcohol in their nervous hands, then the day will go a lot smoother – whatever the weather.

Knowing how nice this window can look, I loitered at the other end of the room waiting for the bride to be almost alone in front of it, but without staging anything.

Good Day, Sunshine

It’s officially a good day today. Some clients called in and paid me for their upcoming wedding photography – which is lucky because I got a call from the motorbike garage saying that I can collect my newly MOT’d machine from them, in exchange for a larger amount of cash than I’d reckoned on. But hey, it’s been off the road for six months and I’ve almost forgotten how to ride it.

The sun is out despite all the BBC weather people constantly telling us how awful it’s going to be. You often get some rain in the Lakes, but it’s usually balanced out by the view you get when it stops.

But the best thing – for me anyway – is that I’ve been accepted by Alamy, a major stock photography library. That won’t mean much to non-photographers, but it’s a way of selling images to (usually) corporate customers for use in advertising, editorial etc. There are many libraries out there, but Alamy are one of the biggest and best known, and are not one of the ‘microstock’ libraries that pay you a dollar a go, meaning I’d be 104 before I earned anything worthwhile from it.

So if you want a photo of a black swan for any reason, or a sheep or a duck or a humourous picture of a baby laughing – look me up. www.alamy.com