Thursday, February 4, 2010 Posted in Stuff
I am out of here for a few days, and off to Brighton for the first incarnation of MYVISION – a hardcore photojournalism workshop run by some of the most respected names in the business of shooting cutting edge documentary wedding photography. I was lucky enough to be chosen along with 19 other lambs to the slaughter for MyVision 2010 – the backbone of which is to undertake a two day assignment photographing…er…I’ll find out the morning of the shoot. It may be that my challenge is to shoot the inside of a ping pong ball in a narrative style for 48 hours, or spend two days on a maternity ward, or a jaunt with a grave digger perhaps. We shall see – all will be revealed on Monday morning.
Following our first day we will be subjected to a full on critique of our work until the early hours of the morning, with a view to going out and repeating the process the next day until we have completely nailed the assignment (a luxury you don’t get with a wedding of course, but a fantastic way to experiment and discover even better ways of getting great storytelling images). So 20 assignments being undertaken, 40 critiques, a full day of post production on Wednesday, culminating in an evening of slideshows, exhaustion, laughter and no doubt, some tears (and beers 
).
A huge amount of effort has been put in by the organisers, and we are all looking forward to it immensely. I am constantly striving to improve, and although I reign supreme as the worlds greatest living wedding photographer (yes, I know, but it’s true, you ask my mum) I am looking forward to being dumped unceremoniously outside my comfort zone, with no fluffy dresses, yummy cakes or confetti to be seen – for a 4 day photographic armageddon that will chuck me out the other end, hopefully even more capable than I was when I went in.
Hmm what kind of picture can I follow that with????
Well – how about some hastily assembled random favourite documentary images from the archive?
The Gherkin (hilariously nicknamed 30 St. Mary Axe, London EC3 by its denigrators) is a pretty amazing building into which to gain access, but if you are allowed up there to shoot pictures to your hearts content, The Gherkin is a dream. Wedding Photography has never been so much wide eyed fun.
Sarah & Crispin ordered a bright blue clearsky day and paid extra for the sunset which from the 39th floor of …30 St. Mary Axe (titter titter) was stunning. The service was also wonderful for many reasons. The enigmatic Rev. Ross of St. Olave Hart Street let me quietly get on with my job, access all areas, while he gave a memorable and heartwarming address. I was happy to help when he asked me to grab a glass of water for Sarah mid-service, but when I got to the kitchen I could only find a coffee mug. That wasn’t going to look too classy in the pictures, thought I, and persevered. So Sarah if you are wondering why I took so long, I was zooming around the church kitchen like the proverbial blue bottomed fly looking for a bridalesque glass – which I eventually found. Sarah’s throat suffered a tad more than it should have for my fussiness, I fear
A local wedding for me and a welcome rest from Christmas armchair living, as Natalie and Richard got married on December 29th, on what turned out to be another rather undry day. Luckily for me, and Richard, Natalie was another contender for the winner of Biggest Smile, Wettest Wedding Award - in fact if precipitation was on the x axis of the graph, and width of smile (mm) was on the y axis, the graph all but formed a perfect diagonal, upwards from bottom left. Good for her.
I am thankful to say that this year all my brides blessed with an undry wedding have been gorgeous and happy and have given not a hoot. That’s good. If it rains on your wedding day, remember there is nothing you can do about it, nobody up there hates you, and you don’t want your guests feeling sorry for you on your big day, so SMILE and ROLL WITH IT!
by Guy
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