Sarah and Matt

The wedding season is now in full swing, and I'm going to be very busy over the next couple of months, juggling wedding shoots, and preparing photographic prints for my gallery  www.saltmarshandsamphire.co.uk in Wells-next-the-Sea, on the North Norfolk coast.

My latest wedding shoot was at the beautiful Craigmar country house, deep in the Yorkshire Dales, where I was photographing Sarah and Matt's big day. A beautiful venue with lovely gardens, providing many delightful photo opportunities for me as a photographer. A quick scout around, revealed potentially two lovely places to capture intimate portraits of the bride and groom, but the weather forecast for the day was lousy. Heavy, driving rain and cold. However, the gods must have been looking down on us, as it remained fine all day, and the sun even popped it's head out during the wedding ceremony. 

The vows

The ceremony was an emotional affair, and it was nice that the weather was good enough for the ceremony to be held outside.

A moment alone

A moment alone, unposed. I had a split second to capture this image before I was spotted.

Just married

While Julian, the other photographer was setting up a shot, I caught this lovely embrace.

confetti

Lovely expressions during the confetti shot.

The Arch

This was one of the setup shots I had envisaged while looking around the grounds earlier in the day. The arch frames the couple beautifully, and the flowers add a lovely splash of colour. They were deep in conversation while embracing, and I called their names. The result is a natural pose. 

Love on the bridge

The second of the potential shots I had spied earlier in the day. The bridge was the perfect place for the couple to stand, and I simply asked for them to ignore me and spend a moment reflecting on their beautiful ceremony. Shooting through a lovely bank of blue Irises, injected some gorgeous colour into the image. 

The first dance

The first dance is always great fun, and sometimes a real challenge to capture. It was really dark in 'Cruck barn', at the Craven Arms, situated in Appletreewick. It was a case of trying to keep the mood and ambience of the place, whilst illuminating the couple and guests enough, so that they could be seen clearly. Luckily the walls of the barn were white, so firing the flash directly behind me onto the wall, resulted in light scattering throughout the room, lighting it enough to produce a lovely image. The movement in the dress is a nice touch, and the couples expressions are lovely. You can spy Julian to the right of the image, but because there were so many people in the shot, he goes almost unnoticed.   

I am so busy with the gallery in Norfolk, that Julian now runs the wedding site, although we both photograph the couples big day. We have been photographing weddings together since 2011, and I think we make a good team, having a deep understanding of what the other is doing. You can check out the wedding website by clicking the link. www.candgphotography.org    

Portraits of dad

Following on from my last post, where I share some black and white images taken on my Nikon FM3a, I thought I would post two more photographs, this time, portraits of my dad. They were taken at roughly the same time, in similar conditions, across two evenings. I wasn't really trying to do anything overly technical, just show the difference between a digital image, and a film image. The settings weren't the same on both cameras, a Nikon Fm3A and Fuji X-T1, but were close enough, I think, to be able to compare the results.

The X-T1 used a Fujinon 35mm F1.4, shot wide open at F1.4, ISO 200, (although ISO 400 would have produced an image pretty much as noise free). The Nikon used a Nikkor 50MM F1.8, shot at about F2.0, with Ilford HP5 Plus 400.

As you can see, and no real surprise really, the Fuji portrait is a great deal cleaner. The image was converted to black and white using Silver Efex pro, and levels adjusted to taste. What is rather astonishing about the Fujinon 35mm, is that it's razor sharp wide open, I think more so than any other lens I've shot with. Paired with the X-T1, it really is a powerful combination.

The Nikon film image, naturally, with a 400 ISO speed Ilford film, isn't quite as sharp, and is far more grainy than the Fuji. But that would be to miss the point as to why you would be shooting with film in the first place. The negative was scanned using my Plustek Opticfilm 8100 with Ilford HP5 Plus setting selected. It is interesting to note that the film image looks quite warm on default scanner settings. Of course, this can be altered to taste during scanner setup if preferred . What you soon come to realise when using film, is that it has a certain feel, it can evoke memory, allow the mind to wander, in a way that digital rarely does. It can create mood, elicit emotion, and used in the right situation, is still hard to beat.

Which do I prefer? Well, both really. As far as I'm concerned each has a place in my camera bag. 

Fuji X-T1 with Fujinon 35mm F1.4

Nikon FM3a with Nikkor 50mm F1.8

Nikon FM3a with Ilford Delta and HP5 plus film

You may remember sometime ago, I purchased a rather lovely Nikon FM3a... you can read about it here. http://brettgardnerphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/ooh-you-little-beauty.html

At the time, I was a little bit scared to run a film through it, as the camera was brand new, and quite honestly, a thing of beauty. It sat there, on the shelf, with my other film cameras, which were all being used on a regular basis. I thought, 'this is stupid Brett', you've just got to bite the bullet and try it out.' So I loaded a film into it, Ilford Delta 400, and got shooting. 

As you would expect, it works like a dream. Tactile and solid, it's a pleasure to hold and shoot with, and it just gets on with the job. In the modern era, where digital cameras have dominated for some years, it's nice to see film starting to make a bit of a comeback, and the FM3a would make a great choice, if you are thinking of giving film a go. I use all my film cameras, not only for pleasure, but also for work. Either at a wedding, or to produce a moody black and white landscape print, film still has a place in my bag, and, I'm sure, it will continue to do so, long into the future.      

The beautiful Nikon FM3a

Controls

Scarborough view.  Ilford Delta 400

Staithe Street. Ilford Delta 400

Thornham.  Ilford Delta 400 

Shopping. Ilford Delta 400

Windmill near Burnham Overy Staithe. Ilford  Delta 400

Big head. Ilford HP5 Plus

Sunset over the Pontoon

Sunset over the Pontoon

Fuji X-T1 with Fujinon 18-55mm F2.8-F4

Male Adder closeup!

Male Adder

A beautiful male adder came to check out the front of my camera, and I was lucky enough to quickly capture this image. I adore snakes, my dream job growing up was to become a herpetologist. But photographing them is the next best thing!

Filanda and Friends

Filanda and Friends

Taken as dusk was turning to night, the conditions at Wells quay were just perfect for a bit of photography. No wind and a high tide allowed for some wonderful reflections in the water, the backdrop of Wells town illuminated by the many street lights dotted along the front.

Fuji X-T1 with Fujinon 18-55mm F2.8-F4.