Would you believe that we actually photograph people who aren’t getting married too?! Yep, it isn’t all about the National Wedding Show you know!

Lauren is described by her mum as “a natural poser”, which is why one of our bespoke fashion shoots was the ideal solution when she was stuck for ideas for a birthday present!

All of our fashion shoots are shot on location and for Lauren we decided to shoot on London’s South Bank as it fitted perfectly with her savvy style.

We spent an awesome day picking locations (and changing outfits!) to get some amazing shots. Lauren was brilliant fun to shoot, being a natural poser she was great in front of the camera and had loads of fun looking like a celebrity for all of the passing tourists!

We all had such a fantastic day in London, there was lots of fun, smiles and plenty of laughs and best of all we got an absolutely stunning collection of shots for Lauren.

There is a selection below for you guys to check out and we’d love to hear your comments.

~ more on our fashion shoots ~

Our fashion shoots follow exactly the same format as a magazine photo shoot, making it not only unique but a truly special and memorable experience that gives a very different set of images that are as far removed from ‘run of the mill’ as it is possible to get.

If you would like to have a chat about your own fashion day then give us a call or email us at: hello@dbl-exp.co.uk

Thanks guys!

~ nick ~

So today I was surfing the waves of the web and I came across a wicked article by Krystal Wynn on bridepop.com, the link to the article is below but here is a slightly abridged version for you to peruse.. Enjoy!

~ 3 Reasons to Hire a Professional Photographer~

When planning a wedding everyone is looking to save money and while a saving of £500 seems like a great thing in the immediate term, whether you spend it now or later doesn’t really matter. However what will matter are the memories from your wedding day and how well they are captured.

It may seem like an attractive offer to use an amateur, after all they are almost always cheaper and they seem to know what they are doing right? Well in a word, no. This may sound like a blatant smear campaign coming from professional photographers but having been amateurs ourselves I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I would not have wanted to shoot a wedding at that stage of my career. There is too much at stake: loss of precious memories, friendships, money and reputation…. it just isn’t worth the risk.

So here are 3 good reasons for hiring a professional:

~ uno ~ Professionals have all of the gear:

Forget the cameras, lenses, flashes and all of the other shiny toys, because realistically anyone can buy those at the local jessops.

It’s the mind behind the machine that counts more. Professionals know how to get a good shot and know when to get them. They can read a situation and follow the flow of the day so they can capture all of the special moments. Professionals will also be able to work with whatever situations crop up, that includes having back up and contingency plans in place for any unplanned eventualities.

~ dos ~ Professionals have the Time they need

A wedding is a big deal. It’s eight or more hard-core hours of shooting with very little time to collect your thoughts and figure out what to do next. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. In an eight-hour wedding, your photographer will capture anywhere from 1500 to 2500 images. That is a huge number. Have you ever gone on holiday and taken that many photos? It’s a lot of photographs to deal with. And while you probably didn’t do much with the photos from your vacation, your photographer will need to meticulously comb through all the photographs one by one, removing the duds and tweaking and processing the rest.

For an amateur with established workflow to keep him organized and on-track (and motivated, I must add. Trust me, it’s hard!), it probably will be a long time before you see your wedding photos.  Three to four months might be optimistic. After all, they have jobs, families and lives to attend to. A professional, on the other hand, has an established workflow, will have budgeted his time, and will be able to deliver your photographs in their best condition, and in a timely manner.

~ tres ~ Professionals have plenty of Experience

Your wedding day will be a complex event with a lot of moving parts. Your photographer, while capturing images of you and your spouse getting ready, will have to find time to snatch shots of the details—like your rings, dress, shoes, jewelry and decorations. When you have finished getting ready, he’ll have to shift gears immediately into the ceremony where he’ll need to remember where he can and can’t go without disrupting the ceremony and distracting the guests who are trying to focus on the commitment you’re making. Then, almost instantly, he’ll  have to arrange and pose a big collection of people he doesn’t know and who aren’t accustomed to being photographed and really just want to party. And, he’ll need to do it in the 50 or so minutes available. When that’s over, he’ll have to change gears again to shoot in a variety of shifting light situations where the ‘auto’ mode on the camera is woefully inadequate.

There are countless things that could go differently than expected. What if the DJ brings some dance floor lighting effects? The professional photographer knows how to make his equipment meet the challenge. An amateur might not. What about a guest with a camera fighting for your attention too? The professional knows how to handle them gracefully without sacrificing the images you’ve paid him to create. What if the wedding planner hasn’t warned him that you’re about to cut the cake? The professional will be ready and forceful enough to wedge through the crowd to catch it in time. As an amateur, I had a great deal of difficulty with that sort of situation.  As a professional, I’m not at all shy about it.

But the topic of experience goes even farther. The professional will be all over the place, capturing images of a huge array of people. If the amateur photographer is a friend, other friends of his probably will be at your wedding also. Most amateurs will be drawn to spend a lot of the time in the company of, or near, the people they know.  This often results in a huge number of photographs of a few particular people, and the loss of other images that may be more important to you. Even if the professional you hire is a friend, his experience will keep him on track, not distracted by guests he knows.

Additionally, professionals will see their attendance at your wedding as a service to you. Some amateurs may not. If the amateur sees himself as a guest, rather than as a vendor adding to your total wedding experience, you may end up without some images you wished you had. The amateur photographer might also be unacquainted with important wedding vendor etiquette. This could range from very minor things, too much bigger problems (Though it’s far from typical, as a child, I attended a wedding where an amateur photographer, a friend the bride thought was ready for the challenge, became intoxicated and there were no usable images! Snapshots by other guests are all that she has.) The professional, on the other hand, fully understands why he is there and he will act accordingly.

You may not have considered these things, but the professional has.

~ in conclusion ~

There are lots of ways and places to save money on your wedding. But don’t risk losing something you’re going to cherish for the rest of your life. Save on the cake, or the flowers, or the decorations, or the food—the things that will be gone the very next day and forgotten in a week by almost all of your guests. But trust the important, life long things to a professional who fully grasps the importance of the job.

Every professional was once an amateur with a lot to learn. If making mistakes is key to learning, you don’t want your wedding day being the classroom.  Instead, if you have a friend who wishes to build a portfolio or get into the game, ask your professional photographer to allow him to shoot as well. With a little coordination between your professional photographer and your amateur friend, you can rest easy knowing the photography is under control and you can feel good about giving your friend a chance to gain experience he might not otherwise get.

After all, friendships are important and you don’t want something like bad images, or worse, no images, destroying them. Hire a professional, and set you mind at ease.  On this matter, anyway.

Article from bridepop.com at:

http://bridepop.com/advice/professional-for-wedding-photography/

We had so many entries and we thank you all for taking part – it really was a pleasure to talk to you all and we are now delighted to say that the draw has taken place and we are incredibly pleased to introduce our lucky couple:

Jonny and Gina!

Let me guess… you want to know more about this lovely couple and I hate to disappoint so here you are (in their own words):

How did they meet?:

Jonny and I first met on 12^th July 2008 at the wedding of my older cousin.  The music was loud, the conversation happy and the dancing was somewhat ‘interesting’. Jonny’s attempt to woo me was to dance unashameably to the unknown jazz music playing in the background ~ Gina

It was with the aid of my ‘lads’ from south Wales, that I set about trying to make the dance floor more friendly in the hope that she would join in with the dance. In customary fashion, the moves I chose to use were not the type in any dance manual, but… to make it seem more acceptable I set about persuading others to copy my ‘shapes’. ~ Jonny

I myself was unsure how to adapt to such music, however, as the evening progressed his confidence and ability to remain carefree began to rub off on me. At first, I thought the strange dancing was a ploy to get more people up onto the dance floor, however, I have since realised that actually this is how he dances…

So, the evening went on without us speaking…just watching from afar! As the bride and groom left, the crowd off guests remained chatting. There happened to be a lull in conversation so I decided to introduce myself, with no more intent than a friendly conversation. Little did I know that the crazy dancer I saw a few hours ago was in fact a charming, friendly guy who managed to get me talking about ice cream…the love of it we had in common (well that’s a start I guess!)

After 5 minutes of general chit-chat he was whisked away by one of his, now, ‘best men’, of course I told him I would look him up on Facebook but secretly I hoped he would look me up first… ~ Gina

I thought she was so beautiful I couldn’t risk her not finding me, so, the first thing I did when arriving home was to add her. ~ Jonny

After various conversations via Facebook chat he ‘happened’ to be coming down my way later that month and asked if I wanted to meet up, I agreed and suggested a coffee. As it happened we ended up at Warwick castle for the whole day including a picnic lunch by the river, a meal out and a film back at mine with lots of chocolate…the perfect date in my eyes! This was the first of many happy events and after 2 weeks of getting to know each other, excitement and romance we were official and have never looked back! ~ Gina

So what about the Proposal?

It was our last night in California and it was utterly incredible, never to be forgotten. After a gorgeous meal and ice cream on Manhattan Beach, Jonny dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him. My eyes widened and began to fill up as he showed me a beautiful diamond solitaire…and of course I said yes! We are madly in love and cannot wait to begin our lives together. ~ Gina

“Thank you ‘Double Exposure’ for making us the happiest couple in the world on our wedding day by doing our photography. We cannot wait to work with you to capture our story so we may look back with fond memories and love.” ~ Jonny & Gina

And where’s the big day taking place?

At Birtsmorton Court in Malvern, Worcestershire ~ if you haven’t checked this place out guys then you should, it’s stunning! It is a beautiful medieval moated manor house set in gorgeous grounds – an absolutely perfect dream location!

We had so many awesome entries to the competition and really did speak to some lovely couples so we’re sorry to those of you that we are sure are disappointed, but we are super excited about being part of Jonny and Gina’s amazing day in September.

Congratulations Guys, we can’t wait to capture your special day!

~Nick~

I hope this is helpful, as always if you have any queries or questions then give me a call on 07852 908672 or Craig on 07984 805445 or of course send us a mail to

hello@dbl-exp.co.uk

Nick here – Since our website is still being quite temperamental I thought it might be a nice idea to post the album layouts from our sample albums we had out on the day to remind you what you saw, as the show can be a total information overload.

I hope this is helpful, as always if you have any queries or questions then give me a call on 07852 908672 or Craig on 07984 805445 or of course send us a mail to

hello@dbl-exp.co.uk

Album 2 coming in a moment

We are really sorry to all of the lovely people from the National Wedding Show who have tried to visit us. We are working to get it back online asap, but in the meantime I thought I would post some of our favourite images up here to serve as a reminder to why you all gave us such lovely feedback at the weekend.

If you have expressed an interest in the site then we will send you a notification via email when all is up and running again.

Enjoy the photos and if you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to contact Nick or Craig on hello@dbl-exp.co.uk, or Nick on 07852 908672 and Craig on 07984 805445.

Thanks Guys!

Missenden Abbey is one of our favourite local wedding venues to photograph weddings. It is very stylish and traditional with beautiful grounds that provide beautiful light all year around. It certainly was the most perfect, stunning backdrop for the lovely Adrienne and Andrew to celebrate their day – everyone had lots of fun…and we managed to capture some of the guests making the most of the awesome croquet lawn. A super awesome and fun filled Wedding…enjoy!

Nick

But right now we would love to hear your comments on the new logo! Here it is:

And don’t forget to keep an eye on this space, so you are the first to see our brand new website launch, coming in the next few days! Very Exciting!

Speak to you soon guys!

Nick

You can check our Registration on the Data Protection Register by contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office.  Our current registration (which a company must renew each year) is valid until 22 November 2011, and is recorded under the Registration number Z2456781.  You always have the option to opt out of any marketing material (not that we send out much!) – just let us know at any time.

Do please note that all imagery on the website is owned by Double Exposure Photography Limited, and we retain all copyright rights.  Please do not copy images or text without prior explicit consent from the directors.

Please get in touch with us if you’d like any further information or if we can help in any way!