Southdown Studio - Studios - Brighton

As Sue said in her rather ungenerous and unkind "revenge" review, she knew from the outset she'd be getting an assistant, not me, and I gave her the opportunity to select another wedding photographer instead at that early stage. Sadly, I was let down by the assistant who was going to cover the wedding, with only just over a week to go. Andrew stepped into the breach, met with Sue and Jon in person at their home, giving them ample opportunity to go over how they wanted the event covered.

We always warn couples getting married in church to speak to their clergy beforehand and to ensure that the photographer's way is cleared. However in this case Andrew was prevented from standing near the couple, despite Jon's own father being the clergy in question, leaving the balcony at the rear of the church the only place to go in order to get good shots without getting in the way. Despite the distance, Andrew managed to get shots of, for example, Sue giving Jon his ring, which are sharp at 100% magnification whereupon both bride and groom fill 80-90% of the screen.

Lighting conditions inside churches are always difficult. I spent a week editing Andrew's photos, and we felt that the warm lighting was a feature worth keeping. If Sue disagreed, she only had to say, and I would have made the necessary changes. In fact she has the raw originals together with all my edits, and with her knowledge of Photoshop (she's a graphic designer) she could make the appropriate colour temperature adjustment herself in seconds. The vast majority of the photos taken inside the church are sharp enough for printing at most sizes up to around 12"x8", and cover the entire ceremony.

Technical errors were made by Andrew, as indeed even I make technical errors shooting live action, but the vast majority were correctable at the editing stage, and were indeed corrected. As for the elements Sue feels are missing, the 288 selected photos from a total of 306 images captured in the three-hour booking, cover arrival at church, entrance, full ceremony, signing the register (live and posed), exit from the church, photos outside the church (formal/posed and informal reportage), meeting and greeting friends & family, kids running around enjoying themselves, closeups of the ring, and full coverage of the picnic at Box Hill.

Anybody who would like to see the photos would be welcome - I'd include one or two shots here but Freeindex doesn't allow it; what you will see is a very different body of work to the one that I, or indeed any other wedding photographer would have produced, but one which stands as a very competent and worthy coverage of a modest wedding, as always in less than ideal circumstances. They're far from mere snapshots, and if these had been my wedding photos, I should be very pleased that my wedding had been covered in such a sensitive and competent way.