So without further ado, let’s kick things off with:

• Hello World: Social Networking for Photographers
  Think blogs, Tweets and social media are a waste of time? Then think again, say the BJP.
• The new Canon 60D
  Dribble.
• Canon 5D Mark II USB Drive
  Crazy isn’t it? Next thing you know they’ll be knocking out coffee mugs in the shape of Canon lenses. Oh.
• ProPhotoNut
  Damien Lovegrove’s excellent blog and photographic resource. He de man.
• Sony release the A55
  Sony’s new offering with a translucent mirror and 10FPS. Nifty.

I thought I’d detail my experiences here, for anyone thinking of shooting their first wedding – hopefully this will outline some of the things to look out and prepare  for, as well as any pitfalls that may arise during the day.

Prepare, prepare and prepare some more

I really can’t emphasise this enough. Two people have entrusted you to capture their special day – it doesn’t matter whether they’re paying you a small fortune to do so, or whether it’s a favour to help them out at the last minute. Either way, their expectations will be high, and they’ll be counting on you to capture some wonderful images of the day.

I met with Nigel and Carmen a month before the big day. Ideally I’d have met them a few months before that, but time being of the essence meant that I had around four to five weeks to prepare, which was just about enough time. We discussed timings, including:

• What time was Carmen arriving?
• When would Nigel arrive?
• What time was the service?
• What time was the reception commencing?
• Was flash photography allowed during the service?
• What group photographs would they like?
• What photos would they consider “essential” (picture of the dress / shoes / cake etc)

And lots of other questions to boot – the more info you can garner at this stage the better.

Learn how to use your equipment

A bit of a no-brainer this one, but the last thing you want to happen while the bride is walking down the aisle is trying to figure out how to change the aperture or ISO.

For example, I bought a Nissin flash unit to help out with the shots during the speeches, and had relatively little experience regarding how to use it. I’d taken some shots using studio lighting, but a small flash unit is a different kettle of fish. For example, would I shoot using manual flash or E-TTL? How would I balance ambient light and flash to obtain a natural looking exposure? So I bought a copy of On-Camera Flash Techniques for Wedding and Portrait Photography and devoured the information within it, while taking various test shots over the next couple of weeks until I felt comfortable using it.

I also hired a Canon 5D Mkii and a couple of Canon lenses (24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8 IS, both wonderful and flipping heavy lenses…!) The 5D has a different menu system to my 400D, so I spent a couple of days using it, ensuring I knew exactly how to quickly change the aperture, ISO and shutter speed at a moments notice.

Scout the venue

This is something I didn’t have time to do unfortunately, but something that I thoroughly recommend. It’s incredibly helpful to know where everything is taking place, especially as a lot of wedding venues tend to be fairly dim places and lacking in natural light.

For example, Nigel and Carmen were married underneath one of the towers at Leez Priory, and although it was a beautiful location it was lacking in natural light (okay, not strictly true – there was plenty of natural light, but they were facing away from it). As it was, I had to make a snap decision to bump the ISO up to ensure a fast enough shutter speed. Not a massive decision the grand scheme of things, but something extra to think about when you’re under a lot of pressure.

Take food and drink

I was lucky enough to attend the wedding as a guest, although I have to admit I didn’t really feel like one due to the pressure of capturing the wedding. Saying that, I ate with everyone else during the reception, but foolishly didn’t take any water with me (a huge thanks to Steve and Kirstean for buying me a couple of orange juices during the day…lifesavers!) It was a hot day, I was on my feet for pretty much ten hours, and those two lenses were heavy. Take some liquids at least.

Overall, the experience was an amazing one, but I haven’t felt that knackered for a long time. Wedding photography is hard but ultimately rewarding, especially processing the images and discovering that a fair few of them were pretty good after all. If you’re thinking of shooting your first wedding, prepare all you can – meet the couple, look at the venue, know your equipment inside out and most of all stay calm during the day. I had a few moments of panic and there are things I’d do differently next time (try and relax a bit more would have been nice), but once the clients see the shots and are thrilled with them, it makes it all worthwhile.

Anyway, it’s a lovely piece of glass, and heavy with a diameter of 77mm (nice cheap filters then…hmmm….) Here are some test shots from a recent outing…mmm, lovely creaminess…

Here are some photographers whose work has particularly moved me of late:

• David Gutierrez

Living in London means that there’s always something interesting to photograph, and David’s portfolio is chock-full of superb shots. I’ve always loved night photography, and it looks like he’s used a super-wide lens and a Gorillapod or similar (unless he likes laying down on the ground a lot…whatever floats your boat, baby…)

• Gary Newman

No, not Gary Numan…jeez. I’m a sucker for a long exposure shot (especially during the day, when the results can be surreal), and Gary’s work doesn’t disappoint. I first noticed him on Flickr via his Hammersmith Bridge shot, and if I can nail a shot as good as that one day, I’ll be a happy man.

• Donald Cameron

Another long exposure specialist, Donald’s also an expert wordsmith too, often accompanying his fabulous photographs with moving poetry and songs.

• Frank Waechter

I’m also a sucker for architectural photography (as you may have guessed), and Frank’s work contains a multitude of fascinating angles and compositions, alongside some funky post-processing work.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these artists work, and I’ll be posting some more inspiration posts soon.

Last week I treated myself to the rather saucy Sigma 50mm 1.4 lens, as well as a Nissin Di622 flash unit. Being the control freak that I am, I wanted to ensure that I was attaining correct exposure using the flash unit, so I’ve probably read about 50 articles over the last few days dealing with mixing ambient light with flash.

Now my head really hurts.

Basically I’m shooting in manual mode, setting the flash to TTL metering, taking a meter reading for the ambient light, under / overexposing the ambient light via aperture / shutter speed / ISO, and then taking the shot (hoping the flash will correctly expose the subject now that the ambient exposure has been set).

My head still hurts.

However, I shall continue to absorb as much information as possible to understand this subject, and hopefully some beautifully exposed pictures will appear on this blog very soon.

Meanwhile, these people seem to know what they’re doing:

• Balancing flash and ambient exposure – where do you even start?
• Balance
• Balancing Flash/Ambient Indoors
• Dragging the shutter

As you’ve probably guessed, I thoroughly recommend WordPress not just for a blogging platform, but for a Content Management System too – there are a number of photography templates out there (free and commercial), and gallery plugins are in abundance to help you manage your images.

After a trawl of the interweb, here are some of the best photography themes that I’ve found:

Aperture by WooThemes

Aperture WordPress Theme

Photo + by themeforest

Photo + WordPress Theme

Modern 3 Business Dark by themeforest

Modern Business Dark - recognise it...?!

ProPhoto Blogs

ProPhoto Blogs - a collection of WordPress themes

Gallery by wpzoom

Gallery WordPress Theme

Raceclan by web2feel

Raceclan WordPress theme

The screenshot is of Paul Healey’s site msport-images.com, and the original theme can be found here.

I hope you find something you like, and if you’d like any help setting up and installing a WordPress theme, please contact me.

The Beast

Paul’s an excellent motorsport photographer (the above lens is his weapon of choice), so pop on over and check out his excellent work.