This post represents something of a temporary departure from my mainstay of documentary wedding photography.
The trend for a pre-wedding or engagement photography session has slowly made its way across the pond from our American cousins into the UK market. I do not advertise such a service and and I rarely get asked mainly because it does not represent how I work on a wedding day. By its very nature these shoots have to be more stylised and coerced, when I photograph weddings pictures are taken during the normal flow of the day, at my clients discretion I usually provide provide a select number of portraits of the bride and groom, but this takes about ten or twenty minutes, just enough to utilise the surroundings.
So I was slightly apprehensive when Anasatasia and Lawrence contacted me from their home in Hong Kong to organise a engagement shoot that was to last six hours including three changes of clothes, hair and make-up. The location was St Donats Castle, the home to Atlantic College, an international school which they both attended and where they first met. I tired to incorporate my normally shooting style into the day as much as possible, just placing the couple into a scene and letting them fall into a pose naturally and only directing when necessary. It was an interesting day and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. Anasataisa and Lawrence are to be married later this year back in Hong Kong and for that and the future, I wish them well.