Dorset Wedding Planning : Gabby & Gareth

First off, a visit to the church.

Sixty-four hundred of my best ISOs in an unlit church bode well for when it is lit. Come the day, I just need to move a smidgen to my left to adorn Gabby with the perfect set of comedy stick on ears (Note to self: DO NOT move to the left on the day!) Seeing as we were already in situ we decided they might as well get on with the deed there and then. I can add a dress and suit in Photoshop later.

I asked Gabby & Gareth to take a seat in the pews so I could check my positioning for getting shots of the guests. Gabby hugs a much loved ... aunt/uncle/cousin/niece/friend.

Gareth experiences a fleeting epiphany.

Time for a first test of how Gabby & Gareth might wish to present themselves in their wedding day portraits. "Could you stand by that wall please and carry on for a second while I do a quick test for exposure?" Click (or maybe it's Snap, perhaps even Crack; I do so wish it were a gentle mechanical Purr). "Okay thanks. Now what I'd like to do is to work out with you how you'd most like to look...", I say, as I look down at my camera's display screen to ensure I have the exposure settings to my liking. "Oh! I think we've answered that one."

It's perfectly normal to be reticent in front of a camera when being photographed in a more formal context than with a point & shoot amongst friends or family. A key aim of these pre-wedding test shoots is to seek to break down such reticence, cumulatively. I do quietly take pride in my ability to desensitise my clients to the camera but I think this commission is going to test that ability to the maximum. Relax why don't you? It's only a camera!

On to Smugglers Inn where the evening celebrations will take place. Just across the lane from the Inn, panoramic views over the Isle of Portland and the sun sets ... just ... over ... there :~) With the Sun at its height at this point the haze doesn't do it justice but I know already how it's going to look come the time!

We set about doing some further exploratory work on the wedding day portrait pose. There are many well established and highly striking poses that populate the visual lexicon of wedding photography, from the gentle simplicity of the Birkenhead Kiss to the chiropractically challenging Dip. Well, with Gabby & Gareth's input, I present to you The Squish. It's set to become the wedding portraiture meme of the decade. Look out for announcements of my forthcoming seminar series that will be centred around this highly complex but visually profitable approach to posing.

Paul Newman. Sans salad dressing.

With apologies to Gabby I didn't fully catch the name of her notional wedding day bridal stunt double. It must have been the laughter still ringing in my ears from Gareth's additional suite of 'other actor' impersonations.

It was time to dispense with the frivolity and get down to the real task at hand. I pointed out that wedding photography is a serious business and that ultimately nobody wants to see all of their photographs subverted by uncontrolled, spontaneous outbursts of laughter and the like. Some reverence please for the image!

"Is the lesson over now?"

I give up!

Yep. Looking forward to this one.