Leila and Ross

One of the delights of being a wedding photographer is that no two weddings are alike. This year I have photographed weddings in churches, castles, hotels and gardens. I've photographed a pagan wedding, whilst my favourite this year has to be a Persian wedding ceremony.

Leila and Ross married at the Royal College of Physicians. They live in Manchester and Leila did an amazing job organising her wedding via e-mail with a couple of visits to Edinburgh. I was honoured to be chosen to photograph Leila's wedding as I'd never photographed such a ceremony. I did offer to try and find Leila a photographer with experience of Persian ceremonies but she liked my personality and enthusiasm, so booked me after we met at the Royal College.

An interesting aspect of this wedding was it all took place indoors. I had planned to do some group shots on the steps of the venue but Scottish Gas had dug up the street and plonked a huge road sign outside the venue. As it took place indoors I used very fast film to capture the ambience and bounce flash to add fill. Where there were candles I tried to minimise flash and use natural light to capture the mood of the venue. Some of the feedback from this wedding was how I had captured the ambience and wonderful interiors of this spectacular venue. Some of the brides favourites are shown below.

Knowing when to use flash and how to diffuse flash such that photographs do not appear to have been flashed is very important to me. Personally I dislike photographs were the subject has been blasted with flash and the background is all black. Recently I have been asked if I will give a presentation on flash photography for the local camera club. Hence you can meet me and hear about the flash techniques I use at the Kinross Church Centre next January. This will include practical demonstrations including the use of wireless flash.

Leila and Ross have just received all their album prints plus digital negatives of their wedding. I'd like wish them well and hope to photograph another wedding ceremony as colourful and dramatic as theirs in the future.