Leaving on a Red Bus
Another shot from the fabulous couple that emigrated to Australia
Another shot from the fabulous couple that emigrated to Australia
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Jan, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The Rivergarden Public house, Yarmouth Road in Norwich provided the setting for the wedding celebrations of Megan & Adam. The Bride & Groom were emigrating to Australia a few months after the wedding and wanted something very British to take with them, I guess you cant get more British than a big, bright, red London bus! oh and a pint of beer of course!Time
Thursday the 16th August and roughly 2pm found the Bride and Groom arriving at the Pub following a church ceremony; this was after I had stopped the traffic up the road at a pelican crossing for an 'Abbey road' type shot, thankfully the other road users were in a good mood, cheers and clapping put the couple in a fantastic natural high... anything was possible from here onLighting
Lighting, wow, I had the sun slightly behind the bus, fluffy white clouds with a hint of grey moving in provided some great natural overhead diffusion which mixed it up with more windows than you can shake a bus at. Taking a really low angle at the corner of the bus allowed the light reflections to lead your eye to the kiss, a little bit of increased exposure (+.7 step) just brought the skin tones out and lightened the roof above them creating a lovely frame around the couple. The low angle allowed me to lose the exit pole from appearing out of the Grooms head (although this was a useful prop for some of the other guests) and of course shielded the lens from the sun so I didn't blow out the sky thereby permitting me to get more definition in the clouds whilst having enough light to illuminate the couple.Equipment
Equipment, well apart from the fantastic couple and a MASSIVE red London bus, I am a Canon man with Canon lenses, although I do play with third party flashes. The image was taken on a Canon 1D Mark III at 1/160 second, ISO 400 gave me freedom against some shadows when coupled with a Canon EF17-40mm F4L lens, open at f/9 and shot at 17mm. 17mm is quite wide, and will often stretch people if too close to the frame, keeping the couple close to the centre allowed me keep them natural and slim whilst still capturing the bigger picture that only that gorgeous wide angle can do. The image was taken on my back, I'm glad I resisted the temptation to use a pop of flash, because it would have played havoc with the paintwork, glass and reflections, I suppose my eye saw the shot, instructed my brain and I captured the image before I had too much time to think, it just came together beautifully.Inspiration
What inspired me? Striving to be different, seeing the world from a different perspective, literally. Walking tall, we pace through life, often seeing only a small part of what surrounds us, and when we do, everything looks the same, oh look there is a bus, there goes a bus, did I see that or was it just my mind registering an object in my field of view. Everything is aimed at a certain height to catch our attention, but it becomes so common place do we truly see it? Think of the child, looking up at the world, seeing the majesty and size of things, the ground, foreground and sky, watch as their eyes widen, take in the beauty that they see all around them and see them then smile. As an adult I usually have a set cross section of the world, I see a different set perspective, walking roughly 1.8 metres tall I see similar things in similar places, but when get down to a child's view, the world is splendour, a world of convergence and perspective, the moments I see are those I have so long forgotten, when I then get up, brush off the grass and mud, I too have a smile like a child, I have seen. I guess we all have something to learn from children, looking up not down is not only humbling, believe me it can be so much more beautiful.Editing
Post processing, where the image can become art... The image was shot, as all my work in RAW, I use Capture One pro for the initial processing, I have Lightroom, I can, and sometimes do use it, but I believe Capture one just gives that little bit of an extra edge. The highlights and shadows have been brought out with their dynamic HDR, there was some global brightening a touch of sharpening (1D MkII is very soft), and then into Photoshop. A little bit of clean up, lose the odd bit of dust that has crept in, and then into Nik Silver Effects pro. The image was converted to black and white and the tones tinkered with. The Nik software allows you to really bring out some detail that you thought was missing with it's unique toolset, add to this the selective colour option to pull the colour back in to certain areas, and the image becomes a piece of art. A final saturation tickle in Photoshop leaves the image as postedIn my camera bag
My main bag... I have two Canon bodies, the 1D MkIII and the 5D MkIII, two lenses, the 17-40 and the amazing EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM. The bag is a Lowepro rucksack which means I can pack both cameras with lenses attached ready to shoot, there are 3 flashes, a Canon 550ex, A Nissin Di866 MkII and a Yongnuo TN565 EXII. I also do a lot of off camera flash with A Yongnuo YN622C-TX flash trigger and 3 receivers, modified by a couple of light benders. I use a multitude of ENELOOP pro batteries as these are superb for flash work, you can fire and very quickly your charged, ready for the next moment, I still carry 12 Duracell back-ups, just in case! Lexar memory cards capture the important data, both Compact flash and Secure digital (SD cards twice the capacity of the compact flash), this helps to minimise the loss of that important shot, gut wrenching when it happens, and you have no backup. I still have a couple of Sandisk cards, the Lexar a just a little bit faster at a lower price point. Third party gear has really come up in the world lately, and gives some serious competition to the big boys, I would recommend everyone to have a play with some of the alternatives and save yourself a packet.Feedback
Advice... Play Get a different perspective, get on the ground, get some height, change the way you look at the world, become the child, smile, see just how amazing ordinary looks when you look odd taking the shot. I went to London recently just to play, no agenda, having got out of the tube station I wondered around, to see what I could see. It is amazing how quickly you become invisible, not odd! At one point I was laying on the ground at a keep left bollard in the middle of the road with no raised eyebrows from the thousands of people crossing, I looked up and what a view, I can feel an architectural project coming on, from a worms eye view! Wedding photography can be very 'same old same', try and find those signature shots, break the mould, the habits, get your suit dirty laying in the grass, take the chance, because when it pays off it really pays off. Oh, just to update you, Megan and Adam, have been in Australia for a year, they arrived with just their luggage, each other, two beautiful smiles and a spirit to be different. They are now settled, enjoying a new perspective as well as each other, me, I just say thanks for inviting me to the opportunity of being able to capture some amazing moments... now on to the next one
