A Gilded Priory - Fashion Photography

A Spring Summer 2013 shoot on a freezing January day. My lasting memory from this day will always be just how cold it was - top marks to the team and especially our model Julia for keeping going. For the photographers amongst you I kept things very quick and simple. The majority of shots were taken with the 70-200 - it was essential for us to keep moving! Most of the images were lit with a single head with a beauty dish - although I also used a transluscent shower curtain for some of the images to recreate window light.

Many thanks to  all of the team and especially to Liz at St Augustine's Priory.

Model: Julia Ja - Leni's Model Management Make-up: Lucy Moat - Maid-up Makeup Artistry Hair: Tasha Shields Styling: Chhimmi Dholkar Gurung Location: StAugustine's Priory Bpe

Abandoned House - Stephanie

 

And in colour

Credits Hair and Make-up - Tasha Shields - Made-Up Makeup Artistry Model - Stephanie Peek

Emma and Daniel | Pre-wedding Whitstable Castle.

Emma and Daniel are getting married son at Leeds Castle. To keep to the Castle theme we decicded to do their pre-wedding shoot at Whitstable Castle.  

Lucy and Tom | Cooling Castle Rochester

Cooling Castle Rochester . A trip to the fantastic Cooling Castle Barn for Lucy and Tom's amazing wedding. Cooling Castle is an amazingly popular wedding venue and you can see why. Set in beautiful Kent countryside amongst the ruins of a Castle it is a photographers dream.

Lucy and Tom were a delight to work with and we wish them all the very best for their life together.

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Photography by Kent Wedding Photographer - Alan Langley

I offer special rates for Cooling Castle Wedding Photography

Selena and Nick, pre-wedding shoot Kingsdown beach.

A few shots from Selena and Nick's pre-wedding shoot on a blustery Kingsdown beach. I am really looking forward to their wedding at the Marquis in June.  

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The Elements - Earth - Catherine | Kent Photographers

This is the second of a series of three shoots using the elements – earth, wind and fire as themes. Today’s make up was by by Lucy Moat from Maid-Up Makeup Artistry , styling Kathy Smith from Maid-Up Photography.  Our beautiful model this time was Catherine Heydon. The outside shots were taken on location at Pines Calyx

Want to be a wedding photographer?

I get loads of correspondence from photographers looking to to get into wedding photography. I try to reply to all messages but often I don't have time to reply properly and my responses may seem a little short. So I thought that I would write a generic response. Wedding photography is great fun and a rewarding way to make a living - well it may look that way. The reality is somewhat different. It is fun but just do some basic maths and work out how many weddings you would need to do a year to earn a half decent wage. Then add a few costs to this equation maybe some camera gear, insurance etc and do the sum again. You will quickly realise that you are going to be doing a lot of weddings just to pay the bills. Not a problem I hear you say until you realise how many others out there have the same plan you are really going to have to fight to book those weddings. Anyway, if you are still reading I will assume I haven't put you off yet!!

So you may not want to do it full time, perhaps just to fund your hobby or to help out a friend. What do you need to photograph a wedding?

Obviously a good camera, a couple of fast lenses, a flash, plenty of memory cards and batteries. If only it were so simple - you do need this as a minimum and you also need back-ups of everything. Equipment breaks, fails, gets dropped - it happens, you need contingency. You can hire gear or borrow from a friend but you will need it.

OK so you have the gear - you now need to know how to use it, relying on your cameras auto functions will not get you through. As a wedding photographer you have to cope with extremes in fast moving circumstances. You will go from the dark of a Church to bright full August sunshine in a matter of seconds and you need to know what to do to ensure you are always ready for the shot. Talking of dark churches, try this little experiment. Get your camera, pull all of the binds or curtains in the room you are in and see how you get on. No, you can't use your flash - what would you do? This may seem like a stupid example but we are often in situations like this and have to get the pictures.

I could go on and on with difficult examples, dark is a problem but so is midday summer sun. Picture the scene, you are taking the big group shot of 100+ people, the hot, bright sun is overhead making everybody squint and you have a bride in a white dress. Are you confident you can nail the exposure and get the shot while everyone is looking at you .... no pressure :-)

So you are home from your first wedding - what do you do when the PC corrupts your memory card? What is your back up routine - where are you going to store all of these images? Just some other things to think through.

Photographically weddings are not a soft option - mess up a portrait shoot and you can do it again we don't get second chances

You are confident in your abilities and are looking for help to gain experience in wedding photography. There are more resources than ever before, join some Flickr groups - check out Creative Live, follow blogs of the respected photographers. Once you have done all of there are plenty of people out there who will be pleased to help you .... But and it is a big but - you need to demonstrate that you have reached a certain level or at least doing something to get there. Doing something like 100 strangers, a 50/50 or a 365 project also demonstrates commitment and shows that nothing is going to stop you taking pictures.

If you contact me or other photographers we want you to be able to show us your recent work - it doesn't matter if it is on a blog or Flickr or even Facebook. It also helps if you know a little about the photographer you are contacting. Stand out from the crowd - show us why you are different and people will help.

Stacey | Kent Fashion Photography

A small selection of images from Stacey's shoot - it was absolutely freezing!! Many thanks to Chhimmi Gurung for the fantastic make-up.  

Robbie - Actor Headshots | Kent Photographers

We are often asked to do headshots, here are a few we did recently for Robbie. If you are looking for head shots then give us a call to discuss your specific requirements.