This photograph was taken at our friends Julia and Carl’s wedding at the Adam’s Beach Hotel in Cyprus in May 2008.  It has long been a favourite of mine, not only because it was taken at a friends wedding, but because of it’s unusual perspective and composition – I have not worked in another wedding venue where I would have been able to take this photograph.

I first had the idea for this shot whilst we were visiting Julia and Carl in their hotel room a few days before the wedding. Whilst we were stood on their balcony, which overlooked the hotel gardens where weddings in the Adam’s Beach hotel are held, another bride whose wedding had just finished walked underneath and it struck me that the unusual angle would make a great photograph.

On the wedding day itself I obviously couldn’t be in two places at once(!), so once the ceremony had finished, I set up Julia and Carl and their bridesmaids downstairs before going up to their room to take this shot looking down from their balcony, whilst they walked below me.

Apart from basic levels and contrast adjustment, I did very little to the photograph in post production so the final image is more or less as it was straight out of camera. I was lucky that Julia chose black bridesmaids dresses because, together with the usual angle, the contrast of the black against the white floor is what really makes the photograph work.

This image will always be a particular favourite of mine as it was the photograph which won me the title of SWPP Members Choice Wedding Photographer of the Year 2008.

Each week on the SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers) forum, members are invited to participate in a wedding photography competition with each of the weekly winners going forward to the final vote for the annual title. I was really pleased that my image won as there were some exceptional wedding photographs nominated.

The award was given to me at the SWPP’s annual Awards Dinner at the Novotel Hotel in London in January 2009 by Jon Jenkins, a fantastic wedding photographer based in Wales.  It was a real honour to pick up the award in front of some many of the UK’s best wedding photographers.

This photograph was taken at Elizabeth and Austin’s wedding at Liverpool Town Hall in August 2008. I really enjoyed this wedding and took quite a few photographs which I was particularly proud of, but this one is definitely my favourite.

It was taken in Liverpool Town Hall’s large ballroom during the couple’s first dance.  It is one of those unposed emotional moments that would be almost impossible to set up. Elizabeth and Austin look so happy and everything in the shot, from the emotion of the bride and groom’s faces to the candles in the background, just fell right at that moment.

As well as myself, Elizabeth & Austin also hired a videographer to capture their wedding and whilst I was talking photographs the videographer was also on the dance floor filming.  The videographer was using a video light on his video camera and it is this light which is lighting up Elizabeth’s veil and giving the rim of light around the couple’s faces.  I think this really makes the image and it is an effort I have recreated at many weddings since by using off-camera flash.

To get an unposed photograph as strong as this also requires quite a bit of luck.  For example I wasn’t consciously trying to position myself so that the candles in the background were just in the frame – but I’m thankful they were as they give the image depth and warmth.

This photograph was awarded a Gold Award in the wedding traditional category in the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) monthly competition and was also featured in the SWPP’s ‘Annual Collection 2008′ publication which contained the top 3 images per category submitted to the SWPP’s monthly competition in 2008.  To have one of my wedding photographs included in the collection was a real honour.

In my opinion, this is certainly the best first dance shot I have ever taken but I will being doing my very best to beat it in the future!

I was delighted to find out that I had been awarded a Gold Award in the SWPP monthly competition in the Wedding Traditional category for May.

Each month members of the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) are invited to submit one image per category (there are four wedding categories) with each photograph then being award either a U, Bronze, Silver or Gold. Since the turn of the year marking in the competition has become stricter and higher awards have been made much harder to achieve – which my award this month all the more pleasing.

For example, in May’s Wedding Traditional category there were 97 entries and mine was the only photograph to achieve Gold.

And here is the image which was awarded Gold, taken at a wedding I covered at Rowton Hall in Chester in May 2009.  To view more photographs from this wedding please click here

As a Manchester wedding photographer, I was pleased to learn today that I have been awarded a Gold award in the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) monthly competition.

The wedding photograph which received the award was a reworked version of a photograph I took at a Liverpool Town Hall wedding earlier in the year.

This is the second gold award I have received since I started entering the competition in April this year but it is my first in a wedding photography category so I’m very pleased.

My aim for 2009 will be to get more golds within the wedding photography categories, it won’t be easier but I will be covering weddings at some lovely venues next year so I’m confident I can do it!