Thanks

John

In order to be awarded one of these qualifications you have to travel down to the BIPP headquarters in Aylesbury to have your work scrutinised by five judges who decide whether your submission (or panel as it is known) is good enough to pass. Each panel concentrates on a particular subject area (weddings in my case) and consists of twenty images (10 from a single wedding and ten from other weddings) plus a Working Profile which is essentially a supporting document containing background information, a brief CV, commentary for each image and an indication of the order in which your selected images should be arranged.

Monday saw me up with the lark in order to travel down to the BIPP for my qualifications panel and although I was submitting my images for the Licentiate qualification and was told that I had passed on the day I had a lovely surprise the following morning when Chris Harper the Chief Executive called me to say that, following a further review of my images, they were going to actually award me the Associate qualification. To say I was surprised was an understatement!

Anyway I thought it would be nice to show you the images that I chose and also how they were laid out (whilst each image needs to stand alone on its merits, it’s equally important that when viewed as a whole the 20 images have a consistency to them both in look and layout). Thanks goes to all the couples featured in these pictures – I couldn’t have done it without you ;@)

Here’s the layout :

and here’s the individual images :

Single Wedding

Multiple Weddings :

I’ve recently set up a new website purely for my kids portrait work that can be found here … http://www.johnharrisportraits.co.uk

For all you Mums out there who’d like a great set of pictures of your little treasures drop me a line and we’ll schedule a time for you to come in to the studio.

On the day itself everything ran like clockwork. I arrived for the usual bridal preparation shots an hour or so before the wedding to photograph dress, flowers and some shots of Jo getting ready.

Flowergirl Gracie had not met me (or Jo) before but was more than happy to pose for some pictures

Jo and bridesmaid Rosie putting the finishing touches to Jo’s makeup

Jo before her big moment

Mike getting some help with his buttonhole

We all wait expectantly for the bridal party to appear

A couple of shots from the ceremony itself

Job done!

The whole wedding party

Grandad shares a laugh

Mid way through the afternoon we took a quick trip down to Elm Hill to get a few shots amongst the cobbles

Back at The Assembly House, Gracie was happy to pose for some more photos

Some shots before and during the speeches

Apparently one of Mike’s ex-girlfriends!

Oh dear – photos from Mike’s stag night get an airing!

www.johnharrisportraits.co.uk

I’d love to know what you think of it and constructive criticism is always welcome.

If there are any parents out there who’d like to arrange a photoshoot either in the studio or at a location of their choice then please get in touch.

Over the coming weeks and months you will see this gradually being rolled out across websites, blogs, stationery etc. I also have a new portraits website going live soon (more on this in a future posting) and updates in the pipeline to my main blog and wedding website to bring them more in to line with the look and feel of the new brand. Hope you like the new look.

Back in the latter part of last year Matt and Jess were married at a lovely little church in Chillesford Suffolk. Jess had told me that the service was to be at 4pm and would be entirely candlelit – technically challenging I thought! Armed with my Nikon D3s and some wide aperture prime lenses I headed off to meet up with Jess at her parent’s house. When I arrived all was calm and Jess and her sisters were tucking into a final meal before the big occasion (complete with champers of course).

I left the girls to their meal and began busying myself shooting Jess’ dress, jewellery, flowers and other items that she wanted to preserve a memory of

Jess gets ready

Chillesford church is a beautiful old traditional building. I arrived just as the sun was setting

All ready for the candles

Guests were treated to a nice hot chocolate on their arrival

By the time Jess arrived it was pretty much pitch black

Some shots from the ceremony. It really was incredibly dark in the church – the only light coming from a few large candles and some tea lights. Thankfully the Nikon D3s excels in low light but this was still quite a challenge as focusing was pretty tricky at times

Signing the register

Leaving as husband and wife

After the ceremony Matt and Jess remained in the church and we shot a few portraits using video light

Earlier in the day I had nipped down to the village hall where Matt and Jess were to hold their reception. There was just about enough light remaining to get some shots of the table decorations, all of which had been made by Matt & Jess

Some shots from the reception and speeches to finish with

Start of the shoot with natural light only

A grainy black and white conversion with some flash light to open up the shadows on the face

A nice spontaneous moment with a vintage feel

Just before lunch we headed to the skateboard area by the Festival Hall. The light was fantastic but unfortunately the skateboarders were nowhere to be seen and we soon got moved on by over-zealous security guards

This is taken outside the London Aquarium (where we managed to shoot for 20 mins or so before being moved on again!)

Here’s a shot taken at the same place but facing the river and shoes the difference a bit of flash makes to an image on a dull and overcast day

A final shot taken in an underpass using natural light only and processed in one of my favourite black and white conversions

John had managed to secure access to a disused tube station just off the embankment which was a fantastic location for some really atmospheric shots. Here are some of my favourites from the day with various processing styles (not all suitable for my normal wedding work but sometimes it’s fun just to play ;@)

Taken on the Embankment near Cleopatra’s Needle:

In the tube station:

Back at the hotel:

Huge thanks go to Viv our model for the day for being beautiful, professional and most importantly incredibly patient with us all.

I’ll have my laptop and phone with me, but with a packed program, email and phone responses may take a little longer than usual.

John