xmlns:fb='http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml' Welcome to the blog of international award winning wedding photojournalist Ian MacMichael: October 2012

Tuesday 30 October 2012

New look for Autumn at 60 Hope Street..

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We recently shared some images and a video of work we did to showcase the newly refurbished downstairs at 60 Hope Street. Well, now the restaurant has had an update and we were asked to shoot some images of the new look. It is a great job and it looks fantastic!
Here are a few images and a short video....if you haven't eaten there for a while, or even ever, now wold be a great time to book a table and experience not only the newly refurbished restaurant, but also  the best food you have ever had....probably!


 

































Saturday 27 October 2012

Film rules.....no, really, it does!!

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A couple of weeks ago, we went for a stroll in the afternoon sunshine and, not surprisingly took cameras along. The difference was that instead of taking Nikon Pro DSLRs, we took film cameras...that's right, film! You know, where you have to take your time. Think about your composition and exposure. There is no way of "chimping" the screen on the back to see if was OK or not. That kind of camera!

We took a 35mm Nikon F4, regarded in it's day as one of the best ever film cameras and a Mamiya 645AFDII medium format film camera. The equivalent camera in medium format digital would cost maybe around £8000!

Firstly, and most importantly, we had a great time walking around in the sunshine, even if it was a little cold. What was a little difficult to get used to was the fact that you had to take your time, The difference in approach....Think about your shots. Is this frame worth me taking? What is this saying to me? Why should I photograph this? Is my exposure correct? Does the composition work?
You have to pay to get the film processed so you do have to try to make every shot count!

It reminded me, I guess, of what it felt like to shoot when I first had a camera, probably aged around 8. (A black plastic Kodak brownie with a big yellow button and 110 film cartridges...but that's a story for another time.....)

"Don't just throw your shots away, but stop and think!"

Then there is the excitement of waiting for the processing and getting the negatives back. It's been ages since I had some new negatives back from a lab!

Thanks to Steve at MPS imaging who did a great job for us with the processing and scanning. We got bitmap scans of the negatives done by Steve, which I then converted to TIFFs in Photoshop and then imported into Lightroom.

I wasn't sure what to expect when we got them back.....what if they are all blurred, or all over/ under exposed, what if they look terrible! Surely I can't be a real photographer if they aren't good?

I'm glad to say they looked fine,  I am really pleased with the results!

I have been working on some new presets for my editing workflow and the inspiration has been film. I have been trying to emulate the look of film in Lightroom...basically, making a digital image file look like a photograph.

For me, film has a quality that is hard to describe....the best I can do is say that it seems to me to have more soul. I don't know what it is and can't really put my finger on it...but i just love the look of film!

I know this may sound strange, but it's easy to become obsessed with sharpness of images, how much detail is there, if I zoom in on my computer, can I see the pores of the skin!

While all this is fine,  we can sometimes miss the point of a photograph...to portray a moment in time. To convey a feeling or an emotion. Being careful, considered even meticulous with the frames you expose.

To capture something forever, whether print or digital...to commit it film/ memory card. It matters what we do when we press the shutter, to us as photographers if no one else. When you are shooting a wedding, it matters hugely to 2 people and to many others too.

Using film, or using the same approach as if we were using film helps. We think about the shot for longer. We are more involved, more committed to it and that level of care matters and it shows. It's not good enough, for me anyway, to just blaze away at 4 frames per second, or whatever you can shoot at, and trust you have caught the moment somewhere in the frenzy.

So the challenge is to pair the convenience of digital with the soul of film. it's a work in progress!!

Shooting film at a wedding is probably impractical these days and expensive. I'm trying to combine the method of film...time, thought, emotion, care, with the convenience and "edit-ability" of digital.

Anyway, here are a few of the scanned images from the Mamiya medium format with 35mm f3.5 lens. The film used was Kodak Extar 100...There has been almost no/ editing of the images apart from black and white conversions. 















Friday 19 October 2012

Allison and Paul's wedding...

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Here are are a few more of our favorites from our wedding shoot a couple of weeks ago with Allison and Paul.....enjoy....






















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Welcome to new 2013 wedding clients

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We are delighted to welcome Phil and Nicola as our latest wedding clients for 2013. They were recommend to us by Duncan, from Calumet. Duncan has been a real help on many occasions with advice, gear and going the extra mile for us. We were really pleased he had recommended us to Phil and Nicola. Their day will be at The Racquet Club next year...we have shot a few weddings there and are now looking forward to another.....

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Welcome to new 2013 wedding clients Lucy and Jim...

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This welcome is a little overdue, sorry guys! Lucy got in touch after being recommended to us by one of our previous brides....they are getting married at Liverpool's awesome Hope Street Hotel...it promises to be a fab day and we are really looking forward to being a part of it....

Monday 15 October 2012

Allison and Paul wedding preview....

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Here is an image from Allison and Paul's lovely ceremony recently at St George's Hall....some more to follow at the end of the week....




Welcome to new 2013 wedding clients Paul and Amy..

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We are delighted to welcome Paul and Amy as our latest 2013 wedding clients. After some email contact we met up and we got along really well right away...we had a good laugh chatting about wedding plans and we were delighted when they got in touch afterwards to say they had decided to book us as their wedding photographers. Their wedding will be in Lowton and then on to the stunning Stanley House...

Friday 12 October 2012

Graeme and Helen's wedding....

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Delighted to be able to share a small selection of some of our favorite images from Graem and Helen's wedding. It really was a lovely and intimate day. Colin and the team at 60 Hope Street were, as usual, excellent.
It was a very relaxed day with their families and friends. We had a great time shooting some dramatic portraits of Graeme and Helen during a 30 minute walk around Hope Street.































Thanks for spending a few moments looking at our work and reading this. It would also be great if you could Tweet, like on Facebook or +1 this post using the buttons just below.  I've also got a Facebook business page too.

Please send me your email address here if you want me to keep you up to date with our work. I do not send spam email