Original subtitles

As the boys change into their suits, I

wasted no time but to take some beautiful

shots of Erina.

I asked her to arch her back, point

her toe and bend her knee and lift

her arms backwards to really get that veil

blowing in the breeze and also emphasise her

beautiful shape.

That lighting really chisels her features.

I mean, she's got some beautiful cheekbones and

beautiful jawline and here I was just asking

her to play with her veil and adjust

it very gently and then culminating in this

next photograph where I just lifted her face

right up and of course now the sun

went away but we've just got this beautiful

shape and again I asked her to lean

her chest forward, arch her back and chin

right up and it made for a very

dramatic picture with negative space.

I find when you want to pose a

bride with both hands up in the air

holding a veil, often it'll hide her face

so it's important that you actually lift up

the hand that's furthest away from the camera

and drop the hand that's closest and then

it allows for again a very beautiful shot

and a very nice flow with your eye

going from top left to diagonally right.

Now I'm just getting a little bit gritty.

I've probably already got a gorgeous spread in

the wedding album but she's just looking too

amazing so I just get her to lean

forward and play with her dress a little

bit more and then we have some more

shots coming up.

This one again, I've just shifted the negative

space to the left hand side if in

case perhaps this becomes a larger picture in

a wedding album and I feel like the

energy should be pushed a little bit of

a different way and then I thought just

for something softer that she would actually just

bring her veil over her shoulders and again

do you see how I've always got her

chin upwards a little bit to take advantage

of that beautiful light and then just a

little soft giggle to finish off with.

I was looking at all those beautiful rock

pools right beside the bride and I thought

I have to go down there and take

advantage of it so I got Erina really

close to one of those pools there and

dare I say it, I had to lie

down and almost kill myself to get my

lens as close to the reflection as possible

then I was going to add some off

-camera flashing, underexpose the sky and get a

really dramatic shot.

Have a look.

How's her back?

No, no worries mate, don't worry about it,

it's okay.

Alright ready, hold it, hold it, one, two,

three.

The key to this kind of shot is

getting the ambience right first so what I

did was I first exposed for the sky,

just literally took a photo of the sky,

loved the look of it then I added

my flash off-camera, TTL and got a

beautiful shot and then we got a couple

more shots to complete the spread in the

wedding album.

I had to do a horizontal one because

it was just so dramatic I thought this

could be something amazing they could put on

their wall and a bit of negative space

in case I use this across a spread

in the wedding album.

It's also very important for me to photograph

the groom individually as well because this shot

might actually go with the bride individually on

her own as well.

While I was there I thought I'd do

some shots with the bridal party as well

so I had this idea of perhaps getting

the bridal party all together in the background

and having the bride and groom in the

foreground.

The lighting is changing so quickly it's always

important for me to look at the light,

expose correctly because I could expose for the

sun and all of a sudden it could

be overcast and then vice versa.

So I'm struggling here a little bit but

just trying my best.

I'm here to focus on the bride and

groom and have the bridal party just playing

around but it's important that no groomsman or

bridesmaid actually hide behind the other otherwise the

lighting will be uneven but we get a

really cute shot.

I get the bridal party to just have

some fun and make the bride and groom

laugh and we get a really beautiful shot.

Then for something different I just thought I'd

focus on the bridal party and have the

bride and groom out of focus in the

foreground.

Often when sometimes you're not feeling that great

and you can't get the bride and groom

in the mood just use the bridal party

and it's so much easier.

Often when I do take bridal party shots

I'll always add it with a girl shot

and a guy shot to complete the spread

in the wedding album.

So here I'm just positioning them correctly.

I find that with these kinds of shots

that you have to overlap the suits a

little bit or leave an obvious gap.

But here I'm actually making this shot look

like I'm a second photographer because I've actually

posed them for the camera then just changed

my angle and then just took the shot

there as well.

So here I want something that little bit

forward.

I'm getting the groom to come in the

foreground there of course making sure that I

can still see the boys in the background.

So as you can see I've offered a

little bit of a part with the boys

there.

Focus on the groom.

All the suits are overlapping but it gives

the groom a bit of importance, a bit

of strength there in the shot.

Then just a bit of repositioning.

I got the boys to make the groom

laugh and have a bit of fun and

then we get a cool different shot of

the groom as well.

So a bit of a horizontal shot, something

fun.

Got the boys to look at the girls

and again we're just creating that beautiful energy

and that mix between everybody.

So here what I'm doing is I'm actually

getting all the girls to point their toe

towards me and then shifting their weight backwards.

It really gives them a slender appearance.

As you can see what I'm doing is

I'm just asking them to play with the

veil a little bit, play with the dresses

there, the material and I'm backlighting them just

to offer a bit of a difference.

They're all looking away and again I'm giving

each girl something different to do just to

break the monotony of something that's just too

traditional.

Then horizontal with a bit of negative space

and again I'm trying to emulate perhaps a

similar feel that I had with the guys

in case I'm going to marry these shots

up together as well.

Then we have the girls looking at the

boys and having some fun and I'm not

too sure what the boys did but it

made the girls laugh.

There we go, we got the reaction and

there's the shot, just gorgeous.

It's important with this kind of image that

we get the girls leaning forward but not

having their chins up too high because if

the sun behind them hit their foreheads or

the top of their noses it just looked

a little bit weird.

So it's important that again you keep that

image nice and tight, crop it up nice

and close and we don't get too many

blown out highlights.

Because I'm thinking about the wedding album on

the day itself I thought I might do

a shot of the bride in the foreground

with the girls in the background to marry

it up to the one of the boys

beforehand.

So here we see them having some fun,

we've got the bride leaning forward in a

moment and then we've got the girls giggling

in the background as well.

Always makes for a bit of a fun

shot and just breaks the monotony of all

the girls being all together all the time.

And then we just got a bit of

a different reaction for this second shot there

as well and just sort of shows you

pretty much where I'm standing but the girls

were looking at one of the boys which

I told to move off and then the

bride was looking at the groom.

So often you just create different stories by

randomly choosing something different.

When I photograph family shots I always look

for quite an even pocket of light.

I don't want to be too creative with

my lighting when I'm introducing say 4, 5,

6, 7 people then it starts to get

a little bit tougher to shoot.

Although the lighting here is quite beautiful there

is a direction of light as we can

see but a lot of my shots with

my family are all very intimate.

They're leaning forward, their chins are up and

we get a sense of their intimacy rather

than just a very straight shot where it

almost looks like they're standing in front of

a firing squad as we've often seen in

years gone by.

But these I find just sell so much

better.

And randomly I might just choose a person

within a family group and say everyone look

at the sister, have some fun, woohoo!

And this is how this shot was taken

for example.

Often the family or anyone for example, anyone's

energy will reflect your energy.

Often, sometimes you might get that by chance

and the family or friends or bridal party

might be having a good time without you

but if they're not, sometimes they'll be waiting

for your direction and if you are not

inclined to have some fun and bring that

out of them then it'll make for a

very boring coverage.

So even though these being family shots I

like to think for what they are they're

quite lovely, they're intimate, they're fun they're complimentary

because they're cropped nice and tight and again

everyone's leaning forward with their chins up and

so on.

Very often as well I will literally get

all my family to pause and then I

will change my angle and shoot in a

very different direction.

So it almost makes me look like I'm

actually two photographers I'm two photographers shooting exactly

the same scene but all I do is

I freeze the motion, change my angle and

then bang knowing that perhaps in the context

of a wedding album things can change quite

dramatically.

I make sure I do every combination, the

bride and groom with the sisters the bride

and groom with the family, the mums, the

dads every combination because obviously I want to

sell these pictures.

So the more combinations I have then perhaps

arguably I'm going to sell to the right

person.

Then after the family shots were taken I

thought you know what I've got a bit

of time here let's have some fun and

I got the bride and groom interacting the

wind was blowing and then we got the

rest of the family just having some fun

as well.

Because we're looking at a very small family

group I did probably even more combinations than

I'm used to because this is it, this

is both immediate families from both sides of

the bride and groom.

Then they had some champagne, although this looks

like a photojournalistic shot I set it up

to appear that way, I got the bride

in the background then I asked the groom

to pour the wine and then we had

some fun then we got them walking down

the hill there and then interacting and then

that beautiful backlight hitting the bride and groom

as well.

And again this looks spontaneous but I did

set this up and often if you set

it up too perfectly it won't look real

so you often have to break it to

look that way and I asked the bride

and groom to just mingle and squeeze nice

and close together and the bridal party to

have some fun and it can work quite

well.

And then just a closer up shot to

finish off with but how many spreads have

we sold there in those sequence of images?

It's all about the finished product, always think

about the end product in mind.

Here I'm looking for light, this location is

amazing but light is the most important thing

and here I pose them in a way

where I get that beautiful backlight hitting their

heads which separates them from the background.

And then you'll see me do a couple

of different crops so although that could very

easily be the spread in a wedding album

for example I'm just throwing in a couple

of differences but I'm not shooting too many

I'm only shooting three or four shots in

this particular scene to satisfy a spread.

I love the way their faces are actually

just sitting together in almost like a puzzle

formation, just love that.

Even the hood couldn't stop the flair so

often you'll have to hold the camera with

one hand and then just hide the sun

with the other.

We have a fashionable bride and with my

85mm 1.2 lens I'm focusing on the

bride's eyes and then everything is completely out

of focus as well, I just love this

look.

Then I thought while I'm there, because I'm

focusing on the bride here I need the

groom to have a chance to shine here

so I ask the bride to politely leave

and I focus on the groom's eyeball and

have everything out of focus, literally even his

nose is out of focus but it provides

a beautiful depth and it's a very complimentary

way of shooting.

It's always important to involve the bridal party

as well not to just leave them idle

for an hour or so.

So here I've got the bridal party together,

they had some champagne so I thought you

know what, the lighting is quite soft in

that particular way let's get them having some

fun with the champagne, pour in the bottle

and of course we get a bit of

a glimpse of the water in the background

as well.

Although I've done quite a few shots of

the bridal party they've all been a little

bit edgy, a bit more creative, nothing too

traditional.

So every single wedding I will make sure

that at least before I finish I do

a traditional shot.

Now here you see me posing the girls

I get them all to point their toe

towards me, bend their knee and push their

hips away and then come nice and close

to the bride and groom.

I shoot from a taller angle as you

can see here which is quite complimentary which

as a group would be better for them

and it works beautifully.

And also after this you'll see me doing

shots of the girls and the guys again

nothing too fancy, something traditional in case the

parents or the family or even they want

them.

The ones beforehand, the foreground background, the dramatic

sky they're the ones the couple are going

to want.

So here you see me actually posing the

girls and even though I'm actually quite far

away they copy what I do, point their

toe, bend their knee, go nice and close

and I crop nice and tightly there and

it looks beautiful.

I don't really care how cool or groovy

the couple are or the bridal party I

will always do these traditional shots and here

you see me doing the one with the

boys nothing fancy, the groom in the middle,

pretty casual as well so they're not really

too formally posed, they've got a nice smile

on their faces which is great.

And then I do a traditional shot of

the bride and groom full length in case

the parents want to enlarge something and again

it's nothing too creative, you can see the

beautiful detail on the dress and here you'll

see me doing a close up of the

bride and groom as well for those traditionalists

that want that.

I thought I might try a different shot

with the bride and groom with the bride

holding her shoes over the groom's shoulder and

then a series of close ups that could

easily make a spread in a wedding album.

I only took a few shots in this

particular scene, all I need is a couple

of shots to feature in the spread of

a wedding album.

So it could very certainly be those two

previous horizontal shots in the wedding album or

a horizontal and a vertical.

I've taken a couple, only a couple of

minutes and I'm done.

The breeze started to blow the veil so

I changed my direction to take advantage of

that direction.

I focus on the bride and the groom,

recompose to allow for a bit of movement

of the veil and there's the shot.

Just got a really cool shot of the

groom and focusing on him rather than always

the bride.

I had my assistant just help the wind

a little bit, help the veil just fly

up and I got the groom starting to

kiss the bride's neck and of course the

wind now takes the veil, gorgeous, recompose, shoot

and there's the shot.

I put

back my 85mm 1.2 lens on and

I just went on a bit of a

higher position there and I thought if I

just focus on the bride's face and have

everything else out of focus in the background

that beautiful shallow depth is just going to

look so luxurious.

That slight part in the lips of the

bride really gives that photo a sensual feeling

and then I whispered something, well I actually

said something cheeky to the bride and she

just pretty much acknowledged what I said.

I really think I've sold that spread in

the wedding album with those two shots.

I'm just getting a little bit greedy and

I thought I'd just have some fun with

them here and just offer a third look

into the mix.

Now while I was there, in that rock

formation there was a little bit of a

curved rock that almost reminded me of a

wave.

So I placed the bride and groom within

that curve.

You see it between me and the couple,

don't you?

So I focused on the bride and groom,

1.2, got them giggling and that wave

there just frames them and really brings your

focus and attention to the bride and groom.

And then just something a bit more serious,

a bit cool, something quite fashionable in case

they just would offer a little bit of

a difference there for the bride and groom,

a bit of a choice.

While I was there I thought I'd bring

the bridal party back into the mix so

I thought, look, get nice and close, a

bit of a different angle, cuddle up nice

and tight, wide angle lens, nothing too fancy

but a nice beautiful saleable shot for the

bride and groom and the bridal party.

As I was walking back to the car

I noticed this beautiful quality of light reflecting

onto this brick wall.

So I posed my bride and groom, it

was very windy so it seemed like the

obvious choice to play with the veil again

and then we got a couple of cute

little shots to finish off our location shoot.

One shot would have done me no good.

Again, I can't emphasise enough that we have

to shoot for the wedding album.

So I did a couple of different expressions

here, having some fun and I'm raising my

voice, you know what I'm like.

Really, you just have to bring it out

of the couple, they're not just going to

perform for you.

As we walk back to the Stretch Hummer,

I saw a beautiful quality of light hitting

the car so I got my bride and

groom really close to the window there and

got this gorgeous reflection of their faces.

We're running out of time but I made

sure that I got a shot of inside

the Hummer so I opened up one door

to let some light in, exposed to that

beautiful highlight in their faces and we got

this shot.

Then just before we left, the groom had

a cigar so I thought why not, let's

get the guys looking outside and a cool

shot of the groom just blowing out some

smoke there.