Hi Steemers,

Beautiful wedding in Wales

September 17th 2016

After my previous post about doing a budget wedding here, I was fortunate to attend another wedding, this time at Llyn Gwynant Campsite, Nantgwynant in North Wales.

The Venue

Llyn Gwynant Campsite, Nantgwynant in North Wales.
This photo is a composite taken from my D750, 28-300 lens. I think around 4 or 5 images.

After arriving at the venue late on the Friday evening in the dark, I was shocked to open the flap of my shared tent and see the most beautiful landscape. The campsite made a natural bowl with a lake to the bottom end and mountains surrounding 2 sides of the campsite.

The tree mapped out for the ceremony.
F/10 D800 16mm ISO 1600 1/400

As this was my first full wedding as the photographer (at my friends last wedding I took pictures then joined in with the festivities.)The main worry for me is getting a pic with all the guests in, and after some scouting, I had picked a place where I could stand above the wedding group elevated on the road.

Wedding group shot.

Groomsmen getting ready?

Bride Heading to the Ceremony

The ceremony.

The end of the ceremony.
I saturated this pic to fit in with the colourful theme of the wedding. What I love about this pic is the coloured round bokeh in front of the bride which are in fact bubbles.

The happy couple after the ceremony.

After the ceremony we headed down to the lake which was very scenic.

Wedding couple by the lake

Wedding couple by the lake 2

*Artistic Shots / Details

Always nice to get plenty of details from the wedding also, and easy to forget if you are focused solely on the Bride and Groom. Of course I have many other pics of the various groups from the wedding, and for this blog I have just selected some of the more interesting pics. I know that I still have a lot of improving to be done, but certainly found that a wedding can be a photographer's dream, with plenty of opportunities for amazing pics, colour and emotion.

What I learnt as a Wedding Photographer.

Firstly, it's really difficult organising the group pics. I had a planned list for after the wedding, and it kinda worked, apart from my help getting a bit tipsy. Getting everyone together for the group pic was a nightmare, and took lots of shouting and coaxing.
The ceremony was good, but really tough using a fixed prime lens. Hopefully worth it though.
There are pictures and moments to be captured all day long, and you certainly won't get all of them.
Obviously the bride and groom will want certain pics in a standard wedding, and I think I captured most of them, except for a close up of the rings, and also the bride getting ready (the cottage was a fair distance away, and I was told not to worry about it).
For paid clients you will need a list of these pics, and have to make sure that you get them.
Maybe the most important thing is to enjoy the spectacle, and just get in the moment, and enjoy it :)

Note
I did this wedding for free as I had agreed to this (my suggestion) a few months ago. My friends provided some food, a tent and some expenses, so I was happy. I enjoyed the day, and managed to put my camera down and join in with the festivities later on.

Technical and equipment

(skip this if you like )

I used a NikonD750 for the majority for the majority of the shots, along with a Sigma 50mm GSM art.
The wide tree shot was taken with my D800 and the 16-35 Nikon lens, and the group pic with a Nikon 28-300.
They've been edited in Photoshop CS using camera raw, along with some liberal application of Nik Collection (mainly Analogue EfeX Pro 2 (Now free!)

This was an easy wedding to do due to the Bride and Groom being photogenic, nice weather and the venue.
I found I had to run around a lot due to the fixed prime lens, and would maybe prefer a 24-70. or possibly a 70-200 lens, but the 70-200* would be difficult for any group photos. I did take my 28-300*, but I have some issues with this lens at the moment. Also I probably would have had a zoom lens on my D800 at the ready, but my D800 was being used to film the ceremony, so this possibility was ruled out.

*All Nikon lenses, but there are usually Canon or other manufacturers lenses available equivalents.