Guildford Surrey wedding photography
Deciding on who to hire for wedding photography for your special day is not the easiest task in the world – there are lots of different factors to take into account.
In my opinion, the most important thing about wedding photography is not how many pictures you get, what shape the album is, or even what style of images the photographer shoots – the key thing is that you should feel comfortable with having your photographer around.
You want to be able to relax and trust them to do their job while also making everyone feel at ease. My aim is always to make you feel relaxed and able to enjoy the day without worrying about how the photos will turn out or feeling pressured in any way.
My approach to wedding photos
My style is mostly to document what’s going on in an unobtrusive way. My clients often comment on how they hardly noticed I was there – but when they see their photos that I seemed to have been everywhere at once!
I’m constantly on the lookout for those little “moments” to tell the story of the day, as well as ensuring that the key events are captured.
I do shoot family group photos – usually we plan to get these done during the reception, before you have your wedding breakfast. The idea with these is to get them done in a swift and efficient manner, so that you have more time to chat to your guests. To help me with this, I ask you to give me a shortlist of required family groups a couple of weeks before the wedding. It’s also a good idea to have a family member, groomsman or bridesmaid on hand to help gather people for the next photo.
Photos just for you
Photos just for youI also like to do a quick private photo session with just the two of you at some point during the day.
It only takes about 20 minutes – we can normally find time during the cocktail hour, or perhaps at sunset.
This gives me a chance to get some flattering and romantic pictures of the two of you, and gives you a few moments’ breathing space away from the hustle and bustle for a short while.
You can see some examples of this in my Couples photo gallery.
Natural light and flash
Most of the time I shoot using “available light” – either daylight or the lighting in your ceremony location or reception venue.
However I do bring along my flashguns – there are times when the location lighting needs a bit of help.
Typically I use a touch of flash for the romantic shoot, and I set up a couple lights in the corners of the room for the speeches and dancing, so as to get clean light in what can often be a dark venue. Creative flash photography for the dancing is one of my trademarks.
Venue lights and DJ lighting can throw all sorts of crazy colours on your faces – so I add my own light to clean up the colour (without losing the atmosphere) and make you look amazing on the dancefloor!
For some examples of this, check out my Party Time photo gallery.
Guildford Surrey wedding photography – UK and worldwide
I’m based near Guildford, Surrey, about 30 miles SW of London, but am happy to travel anywhere in the UK – I also shoot destination weddings overseas.
Please have a wander around my website so you can see the kind of images that I make – check out the blog for recent weddings – and you may like to read the frequently asked questions page.
Pricing depends on the date and location and how many hours of coverage you need, but here’s my info page for some typical packages. All packages include digital files on disk, but I can also supply custom-made photo albums in a wide variety of styles and sizes.
If you’d like to know more, let’s have an informal chat so that I can find out what you have in mind for your wedding, and how I can help you.
Please call me on 01483 600412 or 07584 290590, or email me – chris@cjmann.com – and let’s set up a time and place to meet!