Stunning North London Wedding – St Peter’s Church Wedding
Belsize Park Wedding St Peter’s Church – North London Wedding Photographer
I came across this wedding while looking through an old hard drive and felt the need for a re-visit, also since I haven’t blogged the wedding in it’s entirety before. This wedding photography was absolutely special to me and stands out as one of the most beautiful and personal wedding ceremonies last year. This stunning north London wedding always make me smile when looking at, as I hope it does for the wedding couple and their family as well. Mary and Oliver comes from families of musicians who naturally took a great part of the wedding ceremony which was completely tailored to our bride and groom, with choir music, an orchestra and several wedding speeches from the bride and groom as well as family members. St Stephen’s church near Belsize Park is not practising religious ceremonies any longer but is open for civil ceremonies, which gives couples a chance to say their vows in this beautiful building.
Mary and Oliver opted for a “First Look” and met outside the church before the ceremony, while all the wedding guests had taken their seats. I was there to capture the moment and I am totally in love with the image of the couple peeping into the church to catch a glimpse of their family! The orchestra of family and friends played while the couple made their way down the isle together. The centre stage was decorated with flowers and the church lit up by purple lights which added an extra pop to the wedding images.
The wedding couple had a friend conducting the ceremony and introducing the speakers. As happens when the family meet for such an happy occasion, you also remember the people who couldn’t be there and are greatly missed. I must say I had a tear in my eye when hearing the bride’s speech in the church and I made sure to be as quiet and respectable as possible so that I wouldn’t disturb the precious moment. I always want my wedding photography to bring back memories of the day for the couple and stand out as the first heirloom for the newly formed family.
More images to come from this lovely wedding!
St Stephen’s Church North London – Wedding Photographer North London – Civil Wedding Ceremony In Church – Romantic Wedding Photography – Wedding Photography London
Photoshop Creative Magazine Publication
Photoshop Creative Magazine Publication
Woke up yesterday to a severe cold – bad – and news that I have been published (again!) in Photoshop Creative magazine – brilliant. I was contacted ages ago about being featured in the magazine and sent the images off, but thought nothing happened. And then a friend of mine opens up her copy in the morning and who’s face does she see but mine! Here’s a link to the post I wrote about the last feature I had in Photoshop Creative: Creative Retouch Feature.
I’d love to do more creative retouch and photo manipulations, but right now I am so busy with shoots and weddings (and new marketing ideas), I just never seem to have the time. I’ve talked to Photoshop Creative about writing tutorials for them which would be amazingly fun, I just have to make sure I have proper time for it!
The magazine is on sale now and can be found in WHSmith and similar. It’s also for sale abroad (!) I found one in Pressbyran in Sweden last year when I was first published.
A while ago I had a photo shoot with the lovely Hotcake Kitty, a super talented burlesque dancer, and yesterday she shared the news that she was published in the Lincolnshire Echo along with the images from the shoot. I love seeing my images in print, as they are intended! See the whole shoot with Hotcake Kitty here: Hotcake Kitty Burlesque Shoot and More Burlesque Fashion with Hotcake Kitty. Now I’m off to cure myself with tea and honey, so I’ll be fit enough to meet a couple tonight about their wedding this year!
Cecelina Photography Youtube Channel + My New Canon Lens
Youtube Channel + Canon 70-200mm L f2.8 USM
Did you know that I have a Youtube channel? If not, find it here: Cecelina Photography On Youtube. Right now there are only one video up there, made by my intern Anja a couple of weeks ago. Have a look and let me know what you think! It’s a short sequence from when we edited a shoot sitting in Starbucks and drinking vanilla latte (yummy). She filmed me when I was taking client calls and doing some work on my blog. A little insight into my world!
What makes me happy the week that just passed:
- Meeting a lovely bridal couple getting married this year in December at one of my favourite places in London
- Photographing a 1-year-old’s birthday party at the Four Seasons hotel (stunning girl, stunning venue).
- My new Canon 70-200mm L f2.8 USM lens (I had a chance to try it out this weekend, it is AMAZING!)
- My new Gary Fong diffuser (I’ve wanted one for ages now it seems, since I hired one for a winter wedding last year)
- My new Canon Speedlite 270ex II (which allows me to create super cool back lit shots as I can have two flashes firing at the same time)
- Looking forward to a couple shoot and another bridal meeting next week!
Should I Book A Professional Wedding Photographer?
Should I Book A Professional Wedding Photographer? – Tips For Wedding Couples
Even though I have never got the question asked directly to me, I know many couples that are considering the importance of hiring a professional wedding photographer or simply let a friend do it for free? As a pro wedding photographer I am of course biased but I hope I can shed some light and direction on the matter in this post. I thought I’d share some tips for wedding couples as I know many engaged are planning their wedding planning right now.
To begin, I need to state again that this is my personal views on wedding photography and you will of course do exactly what you like with your wedding coverage. I am not saying that your friend with the really nice camera can’t take photos and I appreciate that many brides and grooms don’t have the budget to hire a professional wedding photographer.
The Value Of The Image
To start off, I think the art of photography is a little bit misunderstood by a lot of people and that the value of images have decreased since the technology have become so accessible to so many. I shoot weddings today where some of the guests have the same camera as I do! The art of photography used to be a profession where you had to have a lot of expensive equipment (a dark room) and a fair amount of skills (auto-mode-and-Youtube-tutorial-what?). The digital technology have changed the industry and made photography more accessible to everyone. And we do love it!
Also, in “the good old days” clients to photographers received a physical piece of art in contrast to a digital file. Think of it like this: You go shopping, enter a store, go straight to the counter and put down a large sum of money, leave the store and are promised a digital proof of your shopping in six or twelve months. You would feel a bit cheated, wouldn’t you? And I think the reason why is that we are so used to digital images now, to create them ourselves, that we don’t appreciate the effort, artistic value and time and money spend on creating them.
As many couples only see the amount of work a wedding photographer do on the 10-12 hours they are shooting on the wedding day, they might get the impression that the photographer works for a very high hourly rate! I can show the short version of a few points that are included in my average work load from a wedding (I’ll keep it fairly brief for it is quite tedious even to write it!):
- Initial email with wedding couple to discuss their wedding, availability and quotes
- Meeting with bride and groom to talk about coverage, finalise details, see my portfolio and wedding agreement
- Plan and execute pre wedding shoot/engagement session, at location chosen by the couple
- Edit engagement shoot, send out images/print, possibly visit venue for test shots
- Wedding day coverage (roughly 10-13 hours for a full day wedding collection)
- Editing/ preparing of images, slideshows, photo books, postage (usually takes up to a week including proofing of books)
- Preparing blog posts, online magazine features, social media like Facebook and Twitter
- Marketing campaigns, wedding vendor contacts (and so the cycle begins again)
But Uncle Bob Has A Great Camera!
I think every wedding photographer has heard it: “I love your images, you must have a great camera!”. I usually smile and say that yes, I really do. But would you look at an oil painting, admire its composition, technique and expression and then walk up to the artist and compliment them on how good their brushes are?
As a professional photographer on a wedding day you will have to possess more than technical photography skills and to know how to manoeuvre a camera… You need to be able to deal with weather (come rain or strong sunshine) and moments that never will repeat themselves (you can’t re-create the first kiss). You will have to make sure you respect the amount of effort a wedding couple and their friends have put into every little detail of the wedding day and you have to make sure you capture that. You will have to make uncomfortable people look relaxed in front of the camera, be silent like a ninja during the ceremony, take charge and be heard when you need to line up 200 people for a group photo (and make everyone smile and look at you at the same time), deal with dark churches where you can’t use flash, narrow hallways, emotional brides, shy bridesmaids and other kinds of disasters that can potentially happen to you (all while carrying around heavy equipment and making sure you are always smiling and professional. If I then turn to the wedding couples out there: Would you really want to leave all this responsibility in the hands of uncle Bob?
Why Being A Wedding Photographer Is The Greatest Job In The World
After all this tirade (sorry, I don’t mean to rant!), how do I then motivate myself being a central London wedding photographer? Simply because it is the best job in the world! Despite all the hard work, there is nothing that compares to seeing people giving each other the ultimate promise of love. There’s nothing as good as creating stunning images of a bride who never liked being photographed or capturing moments on the wedding day that the bride and groom never saw happen. To tell the story of the wedding day in bright, happy and stylish images in a candid way, so that all feelings are natural and genuine. The only thing I regret with my job is not to be able to see the faces of my wedding couples when they see their images for the first time, which is why I am so happy for all the beautiful emails and feedback I get from them.
I Am Still Not Convinced That I Need A Professional Wedding Photographer…
That’s alright! My intention was never to convince you, just to shed some light on the matter from a wedding photographer’s perspective. After all, I am a wedding photographer myself, so I won’t be able to give you an objective view. I would recommend you to read this story that I found on the brilliant wedding blog Rocknrollbride, from a bride who decided that booking a pro wedding photographer wasn’t for her (and gave me inspiration to write this post). Read the post here: Should I book a professional wedding photographer? (In the wise words from Mrs X).
And don’t forget to check out my wedding photography website: WeddingsByCecelina!
Professional Wedding Photographer London – Wedding Photography Tips – Advice For Wedding Couples – Central London Wedding Photographer
London Portrait Photographer – South Bank Portrait Session
South Bank Portrait Photography – A Borough Market Portrait Session
We set out on a winter day in London with a classic South Bank portrait session in mind, alleyways around Borough Market, bridges and cafes along the river Thames. I knew this lady would be great in front of the camera, but I didn’t realise the images would come out with a bit of a fashion edge! That is one of the best reasons why I love photographing people and why being a London portrait photographer is such a fantastic thing. What I bring to the portrait session is technical knowledge of my camera and light, posing and making my subject relax, but something that’s forgotten among a lot of photographers (and what makes great portrait photographers really great) is the way a personality is showing through in a photograph. The most important thing when creating a beautiful portrait image is not your composition or exposure, it’s the way you make your model feel and catching the moment where they are themselves (amongst nerves and posing). This is also the reason why even though I have an image in mind before a portrait shoot, sometimes you just have to let that go when the person in front of your camera is relaxed enough and enjoying themselves enough to bring in their personality to the shot.
We started of by taking some relaxed and smily images by the South Bank here in London and then went on to a few other locations (including this cool looking brick wall that came out looking even more great in the photos. The sun was really warm and shining bright, so I put Rixy in a relaxed position against the wall, gave her a bit of a brief (sometimes giving the model a story or character helps them forget they are in front of a scary camera and naturally they slip into their own person after a while), and used a reflector to throw back some light on her face. Early spring or late summer images have that magic light that I love and Oh, I can’t wait for summer and all the fantastic shoots I have planned! There will be weddings, portrait shoots and even children’s parties…
Remember to check out my Facebook page Cecelina Photography On Facebook as I sometimes have offers exclusively for my Facebook fans (If you scroll down to Valentines, you’ll find an offer I still have a few days left for). Email me on info@cecelinaphotography.com to book!
Portrait Photographer London – South Bank Portraits – Photography Tutorial Lighting – London Fashion Portraits
Portrait Photographer London – South Bank Borough Market Shoot
Borough Market Portrait Session London – London Portrait Photographer
Although up in the Norwegian mountains, I haven’t forgot about the blog! My access to internet is very limited right now, so sorry for the delays to your emails. Woke up to a nice surprise today, three wedding enquiries for 2012… It really is nice being on holiday with the promise of an exciting time at work when you get home! For now, here’s a little post about a portrait shoot I did a couple of weeks ago:
I really enjoy being a London Portrait Photographer, not only because I love London and photography, but also because if the diversity of people there are here and all the different people get the chance to photograph in a London portrait session. Here are some of the images from Rixy’s portrait shoot South Bank, near Borough Market and London Bridge. We had beautiful sunshine all day (I’m starting to obsess about back lit portraits, so expect more of that when spring is here), and the south bank is just a perfect spot for relaxed shots, although it can be a bit busy sometimes.
We started of with natural portraits that were not too posed. Everyone I photograph for a portrait session like this, especially in such a crowded area as Borough Market, are nervous and hesitant at first. Most people don’t enjoy being in front of the camera and have a poor perception of what they look like in photographs. Its always different when working with a professional portrait photographer! My job as the photographer is not just to capture your personality in beautiful images, it’s also to make you have a great time during the photo session and to make you relax. Don’t know how to pose naturally or do you tense up when knowing your photo is taken? The photographer should help you with that!
I absolutely love this ice cream stand as a backdrop for photos, you could almost pretend you were on a beach (in central London though)
The left image was the very first image I took, hasn’t she got the most stunning blue eyes?!
Although we went for quite a relaxed, natural and happy style, the images sometimes has a little bit of a fashion edge, due to Rixy’s own personality that I though wold show up very good in a fashion portrait session.
Shooting underneath a bridge is a nice way of getting a very colourful image. Anyone who’d be able to name this particular bridge in London for me?
More great images from this portrait photographer photo session to come (and of course I have saved the best for last)…
Professional Portrait Photographer – London Portrait Session – South Bank Photography Portraits – Fashion Portraits London
The Corner Theatre – Photography Fashion Look Book – Part II
London T-shirt Designer The Corner Theatre – Fashion Look Book Collaboration
Welcome to see the second part of the fashion look book shoot for The Corner Theatre. Thank you to the venue United Six Studio’s, make up artist Vibeke Dahl, and our models Jenny and Emma. You can see the first batch of images in this post: Corner Theatre Fashion Look Book and if I manage to learn how to attach video to posts I will show you the behind the scenes video I shot on set…
I have some pretty cool projects coming up, but it’s all to fresh for me to spill the beans just yet. I can tell you though that it is another collaboration with The Corner Theatre aimed at all you photography enthusiasts out there…
I’m also in the process of re-buildning my website (and have been the last two years at least!). My problem is that I can’t completely make up mind and stick to a concept for my brand, Cecelina Photography. I know what I want it to mean to people, my clients, but how to fully convey that in a visual way? I am also a fast consumer if images (do a shoot, be overly excited over the images, loose interest in the images, move on to the next shoot) so one day I feel like doing a grungy and cool street wear shoot and the next day I want to do a vintage bridal shoot with pastel colours. I find this to be one of the most difficult thing for a photographer – to create your own style – and then stick to it!
Exciting things to come for sure! My new website will reflect more of my personality and incorporate my wedding photography with the fashion in a way I haven’t seen any other photographer do yet anywhere on the web. If only the week had 9 days instead of 7…!
All images in this post have been shot with Canon 5D Mark II + Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L USM as well as one soft box from Elinchrome.
T-shirt Designer Fashion Shoot – Tee Designs Look Book – The Corner Theatre Designer
The Corner Theatre – Fashion Look Book Photographer
London Fashion Look Book – The Corner Theatre
I’ll let you have a look at this fashion look book in a minute, but first I got to say: Ah, I can’t wait for the weekend! Not because I feel the stress of work (you rarely do that when your job also is your hobby), but rather for the fact that on Saturday I will go skiing for the first time in over 10 years! I have mentally prepared to look like a fool in the slopes and I feel quite calm now that I have realised I probably will fall and injure myself – why worry about the inevitable? A proper update to follow that, but now to the good stuff – my fashion look book shoot collaboration with London designer The Corner Theatre .
This is only the first part of the images we shot in a studio in central London, Piccadilly Circus. The Corner Theatre is a cool up-and-coming brand with iconic prints with quite a playful approach. I especially like the way they can be worn in a stylish fashion outfit (like the images below) or with a pair of jeans! Make sure you also check out their Facebook page: The Corner Theatre On Facebook, like it and be updated with new cool designs. They do both men’s and women’s tees, though we only shot female models, so don’t miss out on that on their website. I’m really happy with the photos I must say, that wall paper is just mesmerising… For you photography nerds (like me) you can see that I’ve magnified the effect of the pattern by shooting from a low angle. Enjoy!
The Corner Theatre Fashion Lookbook – London Fashion Photography
Eight Ball Design T-shirt – Look Books London
Fashion-able Fashion Look Book For The Corner Theatre
UK Look Book Photographers
Behind The Scenes Tee Shoot – The Corner Theatre
Behind The Scenes Images Fashion Shoot
Behind the scenes images from the mini fashion shoot from yesterday! We shot in the club/restaurant called Grace on Picadilly and though we only were there for a couple of hours, we managed to get some pretty cool stuff on camera! As excited as I become when photographing, I have already edited all the images, but will keep them to myself for a day or two just to tease (must give you an incentive to come back, right?).
The collaboration was between the club, the creative people on set and the T-shirt designer The Corner Theatre. I was lucky enough to have my intern on set (on her last day!), but was sad to say goodbye now that she’s going home to Sweden. I’ve realised how much easier everything is having an assistant. I might try to find someone permanently…
I also filmed a bit on my Canon 5D Mark II and have made a little behind the scenes video. Don’t know if I will actually put it online as my film editing skills are not coming close to my still photography editing. Could be embarrassing..? It’s fun to discover the full potential of your camera though.
Photography Assistant London – Make Up Artists London – Fashion Photography Shoots – The Corner Theatre
The Intern at Cecelina Photography
The Photography Intern At Cecelina Photography
I’d like to take a moment to introduce my intern who have been staying with me for one week already. Her name is Anja and have travelled to London from Sweden to spend some time with me and learning about my business. She wasn’t a great fan of being photographed, but I snapped some quick shots when we were out on a portrait shoot last Friday. And doesn’t she look gorgeous! Below is a little description and some words from herself about the internship!
“My name is Anja Falck and I’m an eighteen-year-old girl from Stockholm, Sweden. I live at home with my mom, dad and my two little sisters. This fall, I started my senior year at the high school Young Business Creatives where I attend the Business Creative program. It is a specially designed social and economic program with focus on entrepreneurship, business and media. I chose this school for its focus on innovation and I believe that this program suits me very well because I’m a very ambitious. We work a lot with projects but also do individual tasks and the balance between these suits me well because I’m good at working both with others and by myself. I’m very innovative and creative. I like to see solutions both to problems and situations that provides a more effective work and/or completion. In addition I feel that this school provides a good insight of what the world of work has to offer and I really feel urged to give myself into. My spare time I spend with friends, otherwise I study, practice football and other sports. I love to always have something to do.
I have plans to move to London sometime in the future and saw my internship as an opportunity and a step in the right direction. My interest in photography has always existed and grown over time. Therefore, I think that my internship at Cecelina Photography is a great way to get an insight into what it is like working as a self emloyed photographer.” – Anja
At the portrait shoot where Anja shot video with my Canon 5D Mark II. Looking forward to showing you the result! (Editing video is fun!)
Cecelina Photography 