Wedding Photographer London, Surrey and beyond

After my recent collection o images from Katie and Jamies wedding at Clandon Park, I have now prepared a slideshow which is set to their choice of music. You can still see the original post at www.energyphotographic.co.uk/?p=8816

I have also received the nicest email from them which is below.

Hi Sean,

We hope you are well and had a good easter! We just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for our amazing wedding photos. They are totally exceptional and fully capture the whole day start to finish! Seriously amazing!!!!!!!!! You have been incredibly easy to work with and v helpful! The images are TRULY outstanding and we have had soooo many amazing comments from our friends and family about them! I can’t believe that some of them (daffodil field ones!) are me!!! They look like they are from a magazine!!!! Ha ha.  Thank you also for getting the blog and slideshow up so quickly!!!!!! That is a lovely treat after the wedding.

Anyway we know that soon you will become a hugely famous wedding photographer so we are glad we got you now before you get booked up years ahead!!!!

See you again one day,

Katie & Jamie

Clandon Park Wedding Photography

As I specialise in photographing weddings, I sometimes work with other wedding professionals to provide them with images that they use in magazines, competitions, websites, etc. Hector and I have talked about this shoot for a couple of years and it was great that everything came together. He is an award winning hairdresser and works with a lot sof brides across London and the South East. Earlier this week and with permission from a church in Mortlake, we spent a sunny afternoon capturing lots of images. I dont often have a lot of time for bridal portraits on a wedding day so it was great to ave a bit more of a play with flashes and other light sources. I always think that shoots like this bring original ideas into what I create at weddings. These are the editorial images. I also shot a range of images of just the hair which will be used in hairdressing competitions.

Here is a selection of shots. At the bottom is some info for the camera geeks out there. Feel free to leave a comment if you like.

All hair and make up by Hector, Make up by Consuela and styling by Philomena - www.hectorsglobalhair.co.uk

For those of you that are curious about how these were shot:

Equipment Used:

Canon 5D mark 2 – Canon 50mm 1.2 (mainly at f2) – Canon 24mm 1.4 (only on one or two images) – Canon 24-70 2.8 IS – Pocket Wizards TT1 and TT5 and an Lastolite Ezybox with the main diffuser removed – plus one or two Canon 580ex ii speedlights

We shot all the images between 3 and 7pm with intermittent sunshine and clouds (which was fun!). I metered everything and shot in manual. I love to shoot at f2 but that did go to f2.8 and f4 to ensure the hair stayed in focus. The speedlights were triggered by the TT1 and TT5 systems and I think there were only a couple of misfires all day. I calibrated the white balance using custom white balance and an expodisc to assist in calibration. The flashes were generally at 45 degrees and above the models eye line to give a more flattering transition from light to shade on the face. The last shots in the evening were using two speedlights. The back one was without any modifier and the front had the Ezybox.  Editing as always is fairly minimal. I like to get it as right in camera as I can. Shot in RAW, I took the contrast to Jpeg levels or higher (65% plus) added vignettes of varying levels and softened the skin. Most images will have had a maximum of 3 minutes spent on them. The majority of the editing was managed in Lightroom with one or two exceptions where I took the images into Photoshop mainly to remove my light stand in one image and to create the sun flair in another.

Feel free to ask any questions below and I will try to answer them as quickly as possible.

I am often made to feel very welcome at weddings. Its a great part of my job to share in someones special day. From the first time I met Lou and Phil, they couldn’t have been more welcoming and I knew that this would lead to a great wedding. Louisa put so much effort into the day. She even had a variety of pairs of shoes for the wedding. Everyone was so relaxed on the day apart from the all the kids who never seemed to tire! The preparation continued throughout  with lovely little details such as the handmade table settings and the personalised boxes of M&M’s for everyone. The atmosphere went up a gear in the evening once the dancing and the photobooth started. It looked like they were set up for a fantastic night when I left them.

The WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) is an international network of vigorously vetted professional wedding photographers whose work is regularly judged by award-winning photojournalists (including many Pulitzer Prize-winners) and news photo editors.  The WPJA is dedicated to upholding the highest standards in creative wedding photojournalism while promoting best business practices.

I am very proud to be a member of the WPJA as its very hard to get into. I am now absolutely thrilled to have won a category in their most recent awards! The entrants for these awards is HUGE. Thousands and thousands of photographers from all over the world enter their images. Previously I won 13th place and was delighted but now to have won a category is fantastic. The category was for wedding speeches. This is one of my favourite parts of a wedding as the emotion, tears and laughter are often heightened. Below is the image that won taken from the WPJA site.

The judges comment reads:  Photographer did a nice job lining up the bride to the speaker. I like the way the speaker’s body takes up most of the frame. You can see and feel the bride’s embarrassment.

Wedding Photojournalist Association – Award Winning Photograph

Wedding Photojournalist Association – Winning Photograph by Sean Gannon – Energy Photographic

Almost 3 years ago, I first met Katie & Jamie when I photographed her sisters wedding. They met when they played the lead roles in Starlight Express (hence the cake topper). Both are super talented with Jamie currently starring in the Lion King in the West End. Katie has a stunning voice and sang at her sisters wedding. A lovely favour that Lucy returned at this wedding.  The ceremony was one of the most emotional and one of the most laughter filled I have photographed.

As you can see, Clandon House is a great venue and I am very thankful to Katie for walking through the field of daffodils in her wedding shoes to get the image with the house in the background. The effort in the small details of the wedding were huge. Katie made their table plan and there were signs everywhere you looked. Their names were even in lights across the ceiling. One last surprise was that Katie had organised a surprise dance for Jamie just after their first dance. No one had practised together and learnt it from watching YouTube! In case you are curious, the masks at the end are of Jamie when he played Grimbo in Grange Hill.

I hope you enjoy the images below. Please feel free to put any comments in the box at the bottom.

Wedding Venue – Clandon Park - www.clandonpark.co.uk

Wedding Hair & Make Up – Nina at NK Hair & Beauty – www.nkhairandbeauty.co.uk

Flowers by Bridal Flowers Direct - bridalflowersdirect.com

Wedding Photographs by Sean Gannon – www.energyphotographic.co.uk