The Reeds Hotel

We would be foolish to suggest that the Reeds Hotel hasn’t had its problems in the past. It has, and anyone who reads the local papers will know all about them. So why, when I claim to show only the very best local venues around here, do I feature The Reeds on the blog?

Simple. The problems they had are in the past and the future looks rosy. The treatment of couples on their wedding day has not been affected and, in the more than capable hands of Hilary, will not be affected in the future.

I know I’m getting to sound repetitive when I recommend venues because of the service you receive, but it really does make the difference between an enjoyable and a disappointing experience. The front-of-house co-ordinator is simply vital. So I’ve praised Emma at Branston Hall, Judith at Hemswell Court, Andy at The Barn – and now it’s the turn of Hilary at The Reeds. She is simply superb! She’s calm, efficient, organised and, above all, just plain nice-to-know. We’ve never yet done a wedding where Hilary’s been in charge where there’s even a hint of anything going wrong or where couples have told us afterwards that they have had anything other than praise for every aspect of their time spent at The Reeds. And after all, it’s not what we think, but what couples think that matters here.

For those of you who don’t know the venue already, it’s placed in an idyllic setting amongst the Reed marshes of The Humber. The grounds themselves are relatively modest but the views are fantastic and there are superb photo-opportunities here whatever the weather. If you’re getting married in the North of Lincolnshire or along the North bank of the Humber then this must be high on your list of possible venues.

Lisa and Oliver

We’ve covered some fantastic weddings in 2008. The couples have been superb, the guests have been great, the venues accomodating – and the weather appalling! I doubt whether we’ve covered more than 5 or 6 where there has been no rain. Fewer still where it has been both dry and warm. Probably only two or three where it has been dry, warm and without an annoying wind to whip the veil like an angry snake around the bride’s neck.

But this was one of them! The Indian summer we’d all been hoping for came and went within a few balmy days, but Oliver and Lisa had their wedding right in the middle of it all. And it was perfect for their venue. Newstead Priory is a beautiful venue when the sun is shining and guests are able to make use of the extensive grounds. Whilst the more sedate (and sensible) were able to sit out in the warm autumn sunshine of the old orchard, the more energetic chose to play football and cricket to work off the extra calories supplied by their fish and chips supper. This was a wedding which Lisa and Oliver had planned from the start to be stress-free and laid back. More and more of our clients are rejecting the whole conveyor belt approach of the ‘traditional’ wedding whereby the object of the day seems to be to bore the guests as much as possible.

And so again this was a lovely, flowing wedding where people could relax, socialise and enjoy the ambience. Just what Oliver and Lisa had wanted.

The rest of the pictures will appear on the main website just as soon as the couple have seen them.

Another photo-revolution for Aurora

Something that we take huge pride in at Aurora is that we are always keen to try out new techniques, learn new skills and lead the way that others will follow in a few years’ time. We were the first photographers in Lincolnshire to offer reportage photography, one of the very first in the U.K. to introduce coffeetable or storybook albums, the first in the area to be fully digital etc etc.

And now the photographic world is about to turn again. And we will be at the forefront of developments once more. I am incredibly excited by the new products we hope to be able to unleash within the next twelve months. I want to shout from the rooftops what we’re planning to do; I could go into an orgasmic frenzy about the potential we can see to provide our clients with a range of products to surpass anything even we are offering now.

But of course I can’t. It’s so frustrating but it’s a fact that about a third of all visitors to Aurora Studio’s website are other photographers. One Saturday in June this year we had no fewer than 173 hits on our site directly traceable to other photographers. Every time we post a picture which shows an unusual perspective of a venue or a different, more exciting pose, we know that at the very next wedding fair we attend there will be at least one other photographer exhibiting there with a copy of ‘our’ picture.

Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery but it still irritates! And it does inhibit. It sometimes stops us showing what we want to and in this case it definitely is stopping us saying what we want to say about the changes we have in store.

But let’s just say that new technology is coming ( we have it already on pre-order and believe we’ll be the first in the U.K. to get it) which will change the way we take pictures, the way we work with our cameras and ultimately the way we view pictures. Wedding albums will have to undergo another metamophosis to meet the potential of the new technology and the wedding photographic industry will once again be thrown into turmoil. As with the advent of the digital era there will be winners and losers. Those who refuse to acquire new skillsets; those who fail to be inspired by the huge potential of the changes on the horizon will surely fall.

But for those of us leading the way, and those of you looking to the future rather than to the past- these are exciting times indeed!

Kirby Blythe

2007 was the year of the nightmare hairdresser for Aurora Studio. Bride after bride was made late by her hairdresser. Bride after bride was completely stressed out because of the mess she knew her hair was looking and bride after bride found that even if it started out looking good her hair soon became a bedraggled, limp mass obscuring her vision. We came across some simply appalling hairdressers that year!

And then we photographed a client who hired Kirby! Kirby, we’ve since discovered, was U.K. student hairdresser of the year in 2004 and runner-up in 2005. She used her £20,000 prizemoney to train alongside some of the top professionals in the country and her skills in colouring and styling have been displayed in model photoshoots across the country. Training, dedication, experience – it all shows. She is simply brilliant!!!

Kirby specialises in bridal hair; she knows what works and what doesn’t; she works quickly and skilfully to your time schedule and she NEVER makes you late. But she does make you look fantastic. We’ve worked with her several times now and whenever we discover our bride has hired her we breathe a sigh of relief because we know that the bride will look gorgeous, that she will be relaxed and that she will stay looking good for the rest of the day.

Kirby travels anywhere in the country and often works alongside an equally talented make-up artist whom she recommends. They are a formidable combination and one we recommend absolutely and unreservedly. Oh, there’s one thing that I’ve not mentioned but that I should. It’s vital. Not only is Kirby hugely talented and skilled – she is also really, really nice!

Kirby can be contacted  on 07958284721 or by email: kirbyblythe@hotmail.co.uk

www.bedressedbywhispers.co.uk/kirby.html

Choosing a Wedding Photographer part 5a

I’ve just re-googled ‘wedding photographers lincolnshire’ for the u.k and found Aurora Studio to be just 1 of the 168,000 listed there. Mind-blowing for me and totally confusing for anyone looking for a wedding photographer. This series of articles is intended to help you sort the wheat from the chaff and narrow your selection down a little bit. Earlier articles have dealt more with style and presentation: Now I intend to deal briefly with the obvious signs which distinguish between the technical skills of photographers. As you make your selection of photographers look closely at their work and see if you can spot technical skills ( or lack of them) which I outline in this and subsequent articles.

Part A – Coping with more difficult lighting

Have a look at this and decide whether you think it’s a good picture or bad.

The setting is attractive, the pose classic, the picture’s been sepia toned in keeping with the timeless feel and the dress nicely arranged. But it’s a bad picture, obviously. The groom’s face in particular is in almost complete shadow and parts of his jacket and some of his hair merges into the background. The photographer lacked the necessary skills to add sufficient light to their faces to allow their features to be seen and to separate them from the background. This is a REALLY common fault and one to watch out for. It’s not normally as obvious as this but usually the poor technical skills are shown in the form of lack of light on the face.

So how about this?

Here the lighting situation is roughly similar to the first image. With the strong sunshine in the background the bride’s face would have appeared almost as a silhouette if this had been taken on a poorer camera. But this was taken by a photographer with enough skill to realize he needed to add light. So he switched his camera’s flash gun on and let the professional cameras computing power decide how much light he needed. The result is a picture that still is not of professional quality. Look at her dress – the detail is burnt out to featureless white and her facial skin looks ludicrously pale. Too much light has been added and the poor girl looks positively anaemic.

A skilled photographer would have had the experience and the knowledge to produce a picture which is infinitely more pleasing on the eye and flattering to the girl:

Look at the next photo also and imagine the hash a poorer photographer would have made of it had he or she either not added enough light or had added too much:

Here the additional light – coming from any one of a variety of sources available to the skilled photographer, has just allowed us to see the detailed swirling creases of the dress and the lower elements of the bouquet. Without it the girl would have been a silhouette: too much light would have made her appear as a stark, white sheet. This is a beautiful picture which most brides would love to have. It is a picture which is a hallmark of a skilled, professional photographer and not one which poorer photographers could create.

The Lincoln Hotel

O.K., I’ve got to admit I’ve been tardy about mentioning The Lincoln Hotel. In fact I’ve been unfairly reluctant to cover them. And it’s my fault, not theirs.

The trouble is I still make the mental connection with the old and infamous Eastgate Hotel. This was a place which, like one or two other nicely located venues in the Lincoln area, we simply refused to cover as wedding photographers. The service was poor, the staff surly, the food barely edible etc etc.

We had heard that with new management, new staff and an injection of capital to improve the decor things were on the up recently. And this year we have experienced it first hand. Quite simply the venue is transformed.

I’ve commented in several of my other articles about how the main thing that matters on your wedding day is how you are treated. If you’re just another room occupant, just a fraction of a week’s income, just someone to be fed and then got rid of, then you’re not having a wedding, you’re involved in ritual self-sacrifice! And there are places – frightenly lots of them- who treat couples almost as minor irritations at best to be ignored, but often to be quickly and ignominiously dispatched. The Lincoln Hotel is NOT one of these.

We’ve now photographed at some 500 weddings. We’ve covered venues from the poshest hotels such as The Ritz to more modest village halls; we’ve photographed weddings where the overall expense goes well into six figures, at others where photography by Aurora Studio easily topped the priority of expenses; we’ve seen guest lists of 500 or guest lists as exclusive as 11. And you know what conclusions we’ve come to as to what makes a successful wedding? It’s choosing the right mix of people who are determined to make your day happy. That goes for the guests, of course. It goes for choosing the photographer and for all the other wedding vendors who can either treat you as cash cows or as lovely people for whom they want to give their utmost. But above all it goes for the Reception venue staff. A poorly motivated and disinterested team can ruin the best of weddings.  A good team will make an otherwise average wedding exceptional.

And that’s what The Lincoln Hotel now has. Marlen, the wedding co-ordinator, is simply superb. She is warm, friendly, always smiling and generally unflappable. But behind that she is cool, organised and efficient. Nothing ever just happens in life – it is made to happen. And Marlen is the sort of person to ensure that it does. As a Bride-to Be herself she’s  acutely aware of  people’s concerns and potential anxieties about their wedding arrangements. She’s assembled a team behind her who are simply lovely people with exactly the right balance of warmth, friendliness and professionalism you need to be properly looked after on your wedding day.

So, yes, I can talk about the fantastic location of the hotel with its views across to the cathedral. I can talk about the photo-opportunities in and around the hotel. or the quality of the decor. Or its food. Or its surprisingly competitive prices and extent of the acomodation it can offer for your guests. But somehow I don’t want to. These are all plus points for The Lincoln Hotel. But for me the real reason why you should consider this closely as a possible wedding venue is the welcome and the service you will receive there. Don’t be put off by The Eastgate’s unfortunate past. This is not the Eastgate. It is a new hotel with a very different outlook and a deservedly bright future.

Wedding Fairs

We’ve had quite a few telephone enquiries recently asking if we’re exhibiting at any forthcoming wedding fairs. To be honest we try to keep these to a minimum. Most of our bookings come through word of mouth and referrals from venues so we don’t really need to attend wedding fairs. However, we do feel loyalty to venues we respect and recommend so we do attend their Fairs. On the positive side also, it does give prospective clients the opportunity to assess the standard of our work against that of our competitors and to get a feel for what we do before coming to the studio for a chat.

So these are the Wedding Fairs we plan to attend:

Sept 14, 08 – Hemswell Court Wedding Fair

Sept 20, 08 – The Lincoln Hotel Wedding Fair

Oct 26, 08 – Market Rasen Racecourse Wedding Fair

Jan 11, 09 – Normanby Hall Wedding Fair

Jan 18, 09 – Forest Pines Wedding Fair

Jan 25, 09 – Branston Hall Wedding Fair

Feb 22, 09 – The Reeds Hotel Wedding Fair

Erica and Nick

Wow. Where we do we start with this wedding? We’ve been waiting until they both saw the pics before posting about it on the blog but we’ve found it hard to restrain ourselves. We’re lucky in that our photography is always over-subscribed and we have to turn away about 100 weddings each year. This means that we only photograph couples with whom we feel we can relate fully and so produce our very best work. So we always like all our clients and always enjoy their weddings. But there are some weddings – two or three a year – where the venue is right, the weather is right, the couple turn out to be even nicer than we dared hoped for and the guests themselves all contribute to a fantastic atmosphere.

And that was how it was for us at Erica and Nick’s wedding at The Reeds Hotel. In Victorian novels weather like theirs used to be described as ‘brooding’ with ranks of low, threatening cloud always on the edge of dropping a deluge of rain but not quite doing it. For some venues this would have been a disaster but, frankly, wedding photography at The Reeds Hotel is easy whatever the weather. Look at Erica and Nick’s Romantic pictures on our main website and you’ll see what we mean. When it drizzled a bit we went inside and did some super phots of the two of them lit by Reeds moody lighting.  But then we went on to the banks of the Humber and simply enjoyed ourselves. Those dark clouds photographed beautifully. They looked moody and mean whilst Nick’s choice of wedding suit allowed us to separate him beautifully from the background. See what we mean about things just coming together perfectly at some weddings? Had he been wearing traditional black or grey he would have merged with all that darkness and the pictures would have lost impact. Or if he and Erica had been less relaxed then the pictures would have had to be more traditional and stuffy. But look at them! It was like photographing two professional models out there! They had fun, we had fun and the pictures look fabulous!

But then everything was fabulous about this wedding. The guests were a delight and as the wine flowed the atmosphere during the meal developed superbly. The choice of room was perfect – not too small to cramp people but intimate enough for the conversations and laughter to flow as freely as the drink. And the speeches just rounded things off superbly. In the 500 or so weddings I’ve covered I’ve never heard ( or seen) a speech quite like that delivered by Erica’s Dad. Simply brilliant! And Hilary, the wedding co-ordinator at Reeds, assures me that they’ve finally got rid of the smell of the dead fish (you had to be there to appreciate what I’m talking about) so all’s well for everybody.

Here are just a few of the pics – the others are all in the weddings section of the main website.

Website Woes (continued)

At last I’m starting to feel confident that the problems with had with our website are almost over. I’ll not bore you with the details but 18 months of sheer frustration and anger – resulting in our prosecution of our former website company – have left me feeling pretty cynical about the web design industry.

Our new web company, Metanym, seem to stand head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to business ethics and client-satisfaction. We need a website which can demonstrate that the work we do and the way we do it is different from our competitors. So our website has to be that bit different; that bit smoother; that bit more professional.

Well, it’s been a struggle but we’re getting there. The main website now is just as smooth and efficient as we would hope for, with both flash and non- flash versions to suit different computers. But our ordering system has had -ahem- ‘issues’. Clients wishing to purchase on-line have needed a PHd in quantum physics to work out its intricacies and idiosyncrasies. And for those who have succeeded there was alwys the possibility of a web crash at the final stages of ordering. Not good. And not what people expect from Aurora Studio.

But all is now solved. or will be shortly. Changes are in being made which should – probably by the end of September – make ordering a whole lot more pleasant, rewarding – and ultimately successful – business for everyone. Fingers crossed!!

Judith and Ken

Wedding photography in the Lincoln area can be frustrating. We have a love/hate relationship with reception venues in Lincolnshire. We hate the fact that there are so few good ones but love it that those which are good are REALLY good and always consistent. Hemswell Court is one of our favourites. Quite simply, nothing ever goes wrong! In the past we’ve covered weddings here which at lesser venues would have been spoilt by their unforeseen problems but the Hemswell staff have taken everything in their stride, made the necessary changes and given the couple a wedding they’ll remember for all the right reasons.

So Judith and Ken’s wedding must have been a doddle for them. No-one was late/ill/too emotional or too inebriated to cause problems. Plenty of time had been built in to the day to ensure a lovely atmosphere was able to develop amongst the guests well before the wedding breakfast started and the couple were able to get just the right balance between spending time socializing and having photographs taken.

And even the weather became kind to them. It was a typical Paul Hudson weather forecast ( i.e. wrong) with the promise of a fine start but with showers developing So in reality it was a miserable wet start but drying up as the afternoon progressed. So it was great. No photography at church, of course, because of the rain but then we were able to take advantage of the improving weather in the beautiful grounds of Hemswell to capture everything that Judith and Ken would have wished for.

Oh – and I’ve got to mention the Best Man’s speech. We’ve heard some superb speeches this years, and this was one of the better ones. It was personal, witty, timed perfectly and conveyed just the right balance of irreverent humour and respect. Very skilled and very enjoyable.

Pictures will, of course, be available for all to see once Ken and Judith are back from France but just in case they’re able to access the web from where they’re staying, here are a few samples.

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