2018 Review

2018 has been a fantastic year. I’ve shot a wonderful variety of weddings from countryside manors like Grafton Manor to inner city urban venues like the Chainstore on the banks of the Thames. I’ve been everywhere from local venues to Cambridgeshire, Kent and six trips into London. In August Lisa & John had a festival style wedding which included a mosh-pit in the evening as their party music was a little heavier than most weddings! I also shot my first Greek and Jewish weddings. Thank you to the brilliant Paul Rogers who generously invited me to shoot along side him back in May at a Jewish wedding in Oxfordshire. Two of my images from that wedding were selected for awards by This Is Reportage and Photographers Keep It Real.

A huge thank you to every one of my couples from 2018, you’ve all had amazing weddings which have been an absolute pleasure to capture.

I’ve selected 100 moments which I think are a good representation of 2018. This wasn’t an easy task. I’ve delivered thousands of images this year and cutting them down has been quite an undertaking. I’m not sure these are my ‘best’ as such, as that’s too subjective, but they are my favourites. All of them are real moments. No posing or staged shots.

There’s a little bit of everything in here from small moments to big moments, hugs, laughter, overly-enthusiastic dancing, silhouettes (which I’ve had a bit of a thing for this year) and the most bizarre sight I’ve ever seen at a wedding: a frog hoping away with a piece of confetti.

There’s even a picture in portrait orientation, which is unusual for me.

Some of the small moments are my favourite, like Alice taking a peak at arriving guests from the window of the bride prep room at The Redhouse Barn, Steph wiping away a tear during her and Ali’s ceremony at Sheene Mill, Ellen’s Dad watching her walk downstairs on her way out to the ceremony, the mothers of the Bride and Groom dancing arm in arm during the evening reception at my Leeds Castle wedding and a sight I’m probably never going to see again: a bridesmaid practising her walk down the aisle in the men’s toilets!

I think the thing which has surprised me the most is that 49 of the images are in black and white. I usually deliver about 20-30% black and white photographs in a typical wedding set, so they are represented here better than the colour images.

I looking forward to getting started on my 2019 weddings and I can’t wait to see what moments I’ll capture. There’s some exciting new venues to visit this year as well as some old favourites.

I hope you enjoy looking through my selection below.

The last image is my absolute favourite image from the year. It’s probably a little surprising at first glance, but I explain why I think it’s probably the most important picture I’ve taken in 2018 and underlines why I care about real moments more than staged photos.

AND FINALLY MY FAVOURITE PHOTOGRAPH FROM 2018…

This might not look like the kind image which would be a wedding photographers favourite image, but the story behind it is what makes it special, and underlines why I think capturing real moments is the most important part of a wedding photographer’s job and not spending time staging poses or taking time out shooting shoes or ring detail shots when something important might be happening.

I took this at Sorrel and Angelo’s wedding at Jackson’s Lane in North London back in August. In the centre is Sorrel’s dad, Alan. A few years ago Alan had an operation on his spine and there was a chance he would never walk again. But here he is on his daughters wedding day, in between his daughter and his wife, jumping enthusiastically to Song 2 by Blur.

One of the guests noticed I had taken a few images of Alan dancing and asked to see the image on the back of the camera. She explained about Alan’s operation and how special it was for him to be able to enjoy his daughter’s wedding day fully. Sorrel later told me “He loves Blur and has a Gary Fisher Wahoo bike, which he still rides – so as a family we always went a bit crazy to that song!” When I asked him about this he said “There’s only one way to dance to wahoo, you jump, what surprised me was how high!”

Is this the ‘best’ image I’ve taken this year? There’s many ways to judge an image, but it’s probably not. I can’t see it winning an award, but none of that matters. This is a moment which means something special and personal to the family and that’s the most import aspect of wedding photography. Reliving this moment in years to come is going to mean more to Sorrel than any heart-spaded group shot that took 20 minutes arrange, an elaborately staged portrait of her and Angelo or picture of the dress hanging from a tree.

You can see more of Sorrel & Angleo’s Greek wedding here.

If you’re getting married and would like your wedding captured in a documentary style to preserve those real and special moments like I have done for all my couples in 2018, please get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.