Lauren and Gav's wedding....

.....at the Old Hall in Washington, followed by the Chilton Club, somewhere between Durham and Sunderland....

Emerson Photography providing very stylish reportage wedding photography in the North East.  Please do visit my wedding photography gallery and do feel free to get in touch for an informal, friendly chat about your wedding plans!
 Another glorious day in the North East - perfect for a wedding.  Wedding photography provides the most amazing opportunities for creativity - the creative freedom is almost unparalelled and it's this flexibility which keeps me in love with my job!

When I arrived at Lauren's Mum's house on Friday morning I did briefly wonder if I had the right day - the sense of calm was a little unnerving!  Lauren was busy getting squeezed into her beautiful dress upstairs;



Bridal preparation photographs, Ashbrooke, Sunderland, by Emerson Photography


There were plenty of mirrors so I let my mirror fetish have free rein - it's not big or clever but I do like the effect!



Wedding photography in Sunderland by Emerson Photography.  Bride reflected in mirror with Champagne.




Bride reflected in mirror whilst preparing, but Jamie Emerson.


Fast forward to the ceremony at Washington Old Hall - this was a new venue to me and I truly hope I get back there soon.  Tardis-like, the hall looks quaint, small and olde worldy on the outside but the inside is pretty cavernous.  The interior is less than perfect from a photography point of view due to the tiny windows but the groomed, ornamental gardens more than make up for this.

Wedding photography at the Old Hall in Washington

Groom waiting for bride at Washington Old Hall on his wedding day.

Gav the groom and his two best men - looking very chipper chaps!

The ceremony involved lighting a candle with tapers.  Fortunately no accidents of the dripping hot wax kind occurred...

Photograph of wedding and candles at Washington Old Hall, Sunderland.

The group shots were fun - had someone had more than their fair share of champagne perhaps?

Relaxed, fun wedding photographs at The Old Hall, Washington, by Emerson Photography.

And after a suitable gap to allow for some mingling, I commandeered the happy couple for a few romantic shots - I really wanted to make the most of the fantastic gardens.  One off-camera strobe was used 'bare-bulb' - the sun was pretty harsh so my brolly stayed in its bag.

Summer wedding photography, Washington Old Hall gardens.

Again, just one off camera flashgun in the next two shots;

Strobist style, dramatic wedding portraiture in Sunderland, by Jamie Emerson.

Both Lauren and Gav were great sports and I shamelessly posed them all over the place - glad I bullied them now!  Couldn't resist the ivy in the shot below....

Ivy and bride at Washington Old Hall.

Running out of time now, so will fast forward again, all the way to the first dance.  Here were a couple who know the meaning of practice - what a first dance it was!  A few lessons had been taken here I suspect.  No let up for Lauren though as the DJ gave Dad little choice but to come up for a dance - he didn't seem to mind though!

A lovely day with a crowd of lovely people - so good to shoot a new, massively picturesque venue too!

How to choose your wedding photographer

Emerson photography, wedding photographer based near Sunderland, Durham, Newcastle and covering the North East, providing unobtrusive, candid, modern photographs of your wedding day.

Intrigue and Industry Insider knowledge!!

Wedding photographers are a varied bunch – some good, some less so, as in all walks of life.  Hiring a wedding photographer is something which most of us will do only once. We’ve never done it before – what should we be looking for?  What questions should we be asking?  I got married myself last October (2009) and realised that for anyone outside of the ‘wedding industry’, choosing a photographer is a bit of a challenge. So I thought it would be helpful to put together a quick checklis.  Nothing didactic or over the top - just a few, hopefully salient pointers...


• How long has the photographer been in business for? There are a huge number of new start businesses out there – statistics tell us that although things are better than they used to be for new enterprises, at least one third of start-ups are still going bust within the first two years. So today’s entrepreneurial wedding photographer may have gone back to his day job after the recession loosens its grip. Don’t lose your deposit to tomorrow’s telesales guy. Lack of experience usually shows up pretty quickly too.

• Do you like the photographer’s work? This may seem blindingly obvious, but when we’re on a budget (and we usually are!) price is always going to be an issue. It’s very tempting to take third, fourth or even tenth choice of photographer so we can afford an extra bottle of wine on each table at the reception. Without getting all corny and schmaltzy about it, your photos will still be there when the wine is long gone (along with the food, the flowers and after the dress has been ebayed!).

• Does your photographer have insurance? Most photographers are classed as ‘sole traders’. They are lonely little one man bands, ploughing their picturesque furrows through the landscapes of their clients’ lives…. Or something… Fact is, we work alone – what happens if I get hit by a bus the day before your wedding? Hopefully it’ll never happen (hasn’t yet, touch wood!) but if it does, your photographer should be fully insured so at the very least you’ll recover all your money. Secondly, your photographer should have a very solid network of other wedding photographers to step into the breach if a disaster does occur.

• Ask to see a whole wedding. This old chestnut crops up all the time in bridal forums, but for a good reason. If you go to a bridal show, or have a photographer come to see you, there’s a good chance he / she will have a few huge prints of their best work, and usually a sample album or two. Make sure you’re seeing a full day’s coverage so you can make an informed decision about style and content – some albums are a collage of a photographer’s best work.

• Why can’t my uncle take the pictures? He’s got some amazing pictures on Flickr and his camera cost hundreds of pounds! Well, he can. And he may make an excellent job of it too. For some couples, a family member or close friend with a camera is just the ticket – free / cheap photography, carried out by someone you can relax with and are close to. But I wouldn’t recommend it…… They are known within the industry as ‘Uncle Bobs’ – talented (sometimes!) amateurs with an eye for a nice landscape or portrait. A working pro will have several backup solutions in case (for when) things go wrong; two or three cameras, lenses and flashguns, a system in place to make sure the day flows whilst making absolutely certain the couple get the photos they want - a good few years experience helps here….



Finally, although I could go on for hours, (!) just look at the pictures again. They’re what count – not the price, not the fancy talk, not the flashy website. It’s all about the photographs.

Wedding Faves from 2009

Emerson Photography's Wedding Photo Favourites from 2009

Well, this time of the year is usually pretty quiet - less so this year what with family commitments and an exciting new line of work taking photos of various horrible injuries for a lawyer's firm (sorry, no pics...).

So in a spare moment, I thought it'd be nice to have a quick flick through my hard drives and pick out, say, a dozen of my favourite photos from this year's weddings.  Hmmmm - the first cull got me down to about 30, and after an hour of staring at the screen, I've managed to whittle it down to under 20, picked in fairly random fashion.....  If you have a minute, please do have a look, and as ever, if you want to see any of the pics at a decent size, just click on them.

Hallelujah!!

Ah hahahaha!  Well, I thought so.....

More comedy moments....

Aaaaaw - look at those eyes!

Newcastle fans, please look away now!

Moments like this prove that formals don't have to be dull and stuffy.  Even better, the groom got poo-ed on by a large pigeon seconds later - how lucky is that?  Actually, not so lucky for me, as I had to Photoshop it out on every photo thereafter :-)

A quiet moment at the edge of the dancefloor - Damn, I'm sneaky!

Weddings are B-O-R-I-N-G when you're a kid....

Fireworks and snow, WAHEY!  What a fantastic end to a fantastic year of photographing fantastic weddings .  Have I said fantastic enough times yet?

Another Skye Trip!

Please click on any of the pics to see them at a decent size!

Just realised how long it's been since I updated this! Lots of beautiful weddings which I absolutely will get around to posting here......

In the meantime, I've just returned from visiting my parents in Struan, Skye, . Managed to squeeze the bike in this time - always wanted to take it, but somehow there's never been enough room, what with dogs, luggage and the wife :-)

I really fancied doing Glen Sligichan, but was told that a lot of the river crossings would be impassable, due to the huge amount of recent rain. Didn't really fancy cycling hub-deep through a bog, so turned my attention to Glen Brittle, and the Forest of Brittle instead.

I parked up at Carbost and cycled up the road a few miles (and I do mean UP!) to the start of the forest track.  Then realised I'd left the map in the car and had to go back for it.  Grand.

The pic at the top is right at the start of a nine mile circular route through the Forest of Brittle.  Not exactly hard core, but enough to whet the appetite.  Good variation in terrain and lots of routes to choose from.  Pretty hilly too, so warmed the muscles up nicely.

_

_

Unfortunately, the route I chose led to the situation above - after a good three minute steep descent, the track was completely blocked by felled trees.  Great big fir trees at that.  No getting through them, but determination will out, and I managed to scramble above them and make my way along the treeline - even managed a few pedals!!  On the other side, three forestry workers stood with their mouths open as I attempted to climb down a muddy cliff with my bike on my back, using felled trees to hold on to.

One joker quipped, "Did ye no' see the signs?  Ye'll hae to go back"..  Ho ho, how I laughed.

_

After flailing about in the forest for a while, I popped out right at the start of the trail which leads up to the fantastically named, 'Fairy Pools' - a series of pools and waterfalls overlooked by the massive bulk of the Cuillins.  The sun came out and I knew I'd have to take the trail or forever feel like a total woose.  The pic above ^ ^ shows the start of the ascent.  It was a ratio of about 20% riding to 80% pushing / carrying all the way to the top of the pass - around 360 feet (height, not distance!!).

_

Looking back down into Glen Brittle from Bealach a Mhaim ^ ^  The going was pretty rough - lots of unrideable rocky sections and some hoppable drainage channels.

_

The start of the descent ^ ^  I had to force myself to get off the bike to take a pic - this was the most fun I've had on a bike in years!!  Who needs trail centres?!  The same features which were unrideable on the way up the other side suddenly flowed under the tyres - the faster I went, the easier it got!

Stopped to take a quick 5 shots for stitching into a panorama later....  Shortly after this, had my one and miraculously only fall.  A crazy dog was bounding up the hill towards me with its anxious owners bellowing at it to stop.  Because I was watching the dog, I lost my line, and took a header off a three foot drop.  No lasting damage and the dog was fine too.

_

Final shot of the day - I was glad to see the hotel nestled in the glen below.  Would have stopped for a pint, but had a 14 Km uphill road bash back to the car at Carbost - some of the hardest riding ever - I was pretty shattered.....

_

Katy and alan

Hot on the heels of Lynne and Brian's traditional English wedding, comes Alan and Katy's Scottish wedding, held at Pollockshields Burgh Hall, Glasgow.

Alan is an old friend of mine and it was one of those weddings where it's hard to decide if you're a guest or a wedding photographer! This confusion was made worse by the fact that many of the guests were also old friends - it was a fantastic day in a great venue, surrounded by the best folk you could ever want to be wedding guests.

At the start of the day, best man Sean proves he knows what he's doing.

Katy got herself ready at the rather spectacular Mal Maison, helped by her bridesmaids.

Match day traffic didn't stop Katy from getting to the venue on time (but it nearly gave the photographer a heart attack when his sat-nav guided him into the world's biggest traffic jam!)

.

Yes, she is on her way.....

You might not be able to tell, but the chap on the right hand side has on a tartan tie, so he was allowed into the 'kilt shot'.

Katy looked absolutely radiant, and the bridesmaids and flower girl seemed to have scrubbed up quite nicely too!

Straight after the best man's speech. The speeches were done in a refreshingly laid back way, and all were excellent. The emotion shown on Alan's face says it all.

Right, time to relax.

Alan and Katy had found a cracking celidgh band - they were so good that someone managed to dance their shoes to pieces - nobody claimed the shoe-heel found on the dance floor.....

The joys of rear synch / slow flash again.

Frosty grass and a midnight run!

These last two were taken towards the end of the night - the DJ was really going for it, and so were the guests! I kind of felt I'd done my job at this point, so was having fun with some 'experimental' stuff. Both of these were shot using a Sigma 10-20mm lens (super wide angle) and 'narrow flash'. This involves manually zooming the flash head into the body of the flash to achieve a 'spotlight' effect.

All in all, a great day was had - huge thanks to Alan and Katy for trusting me to shoot their wedding. It's always an honour when a couple ask you to capture their day, and especially so when the request comes from good friends.