And We’re Live

After an agonising wait, my full portfolio site is now live! You can see it at www.pippabennett.com for now here’s a sneak preview of the design of my homepage – enjoy!

Weddings Weddings Weddings – and some blog love

After covertly visiting some of the best Autumn Wedding fairs this month I have been gathering more ideas about what products I want to offer in my Wedding Photography packages. I have seen some photographers with some albums that don’t feel or look special. My business plan is making everything as straightforward and easy for the client as possible. Weddings are stressful enough as it is. I want getting beautiful, personal photos to be a calm, no-brainer for the stressed out bride. That is why my pricing plan will be a simple 3 tier scheme with quality products to display your unique photos that will be taken with real understanding of what makes your wedding so special.

I am enamoured with the wedding blogs like Rock And Roll Bride and Love My Dress and I really want to hopefully produce photographs and a service to my clients that they will respect and enjoy blogging about. My wedding photography aims to be candid and full of life. Hopefully I will be able to attract some clients who are happy with taking some artistic risks with the photography too. For this I am taking note of Lisa Devlin’s article in last month’s Pro Photo magazine on how, whilst slightly risky, it is important to design every aspect of your business not just to appeal to clients, but to appeal to the kind of clients you want to work with. I have to gear my business towards the clients I want. Whilst I can take any and every client on to make money, I need a certain type of client to help build a reputation artistically. I also need to be careful as to which photos make it into my portfolio and what feel my website has.

The ongoing saga of my website is, at last, coming to an end. It has perplexed and troubled me and I’m sure I’ll always be messing with it, but after having a very strong idea for the homepage of the site I couldn’t compromise on it.

It has also become apparent to me that the products you offer have to be at the core of the wedding package. You can’t offer any old album, but at the same time the price of the really beautiful handmade albums can be about £400+ a piece and so you have to make sure you are able to draw the right clients for the products you’re offering. I have agonised over what to offer. I know I am turned off instantly by photographers offering too many choices – it gets too confusing. People are already overwhelmed with decisions for their wedding and so Im trying to keep it a bit simpler. One slightly cheaper album option (but still incredibly well made and bespoke) from Folio for my midrange package and the beautiful Queensberry albums for my deluxe option. Clients will still have the choices these two companies offer in album design but I feel that these are the albums I am proud for my work to be featured in and are companies I know I can trust. Ultimately Wedding Photographers, whilst having patrons and being hired to do a job, are still artists, and so I think it is important to care about the end product. Not just the service.

Finger’s crossed the site will be live in the next fortnight!

Summer Elegance

As promised, I can finally show you some of the best shots from the most recent wedding, and my last wedding of a fantastic summer season. Sandy and Ragnar’s nuptials were a very traditional and elegant affair held near Ross on Wye with the ceremony taking place at Pengethley Manor.

This wedding was stylish but with a simple elegance to it that needed no pomp or ceremony. The bride was in a white, beaded, simple gown that had a hint of Edwardian styling with small buttons down the back.

The reception was held at the bride’s family’s home with free flowing champagne and dancing well into the night!

The First Dance

This was also the first wedding where I took a second photographer with me which was really great fun and exciting to have someone to collaborate with. The photographer was the very talented Chelsea Hopkins. Hopefully I will have a link to her photos from the day shortly. For now, I am looking forward to some winter weddings and finally rebuilding my website!

One Week, Two Nominations

It’s been a bit of an unsusual week here. I am very excited to announce that I have been nominated for 2 awards. Firstly, best photoblog in the Wales blog awards for my blog A Girl Called Ba, and secondly in the Welsh National Wedding Awards for best Wedding Photographer (that last bit might be a bit obvious but thought it worth putting in case suspicion of moonlighting arose).

This is really an honour as my business is only in its fledgling days but definitely encouraging to know there is support for me already as I am trying to develop a uniquely friendly, professional and bespoke approach to my Wedding Photography.

Please show your support and click on the logo below and vote for me and any other fantastic Wedding services you know about in Wales!

All this in a week when I was just starting to get my head round going to my first wedding show – the National Wedding Show at the NEC in October. Now I am going to add Cardiff to my rounds on the same weekend at The Welsh National Wedding Fayre, Oct 9th, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff – I will see you all there to mingle and schmooze, rack up some votes and talk to you all about the photography I do and how I can help capture the emotion and energy of your special day.

Apps and Advertising

This week my Tuesday Teaser is all about an incredibly useful FREE Wedding planning app I discovered called Wedding UK. For iphone and ipad, Wedding UK tells you all you need about the wedding related service providers in a certain area – either going your current location or the location of your wedding.

You can browse florists, musicians, dress designers, car companies, and of course – photographers – that are local to you or your wedding (or both). As well as putting you in touch with all the vendors and providers, it then helps you chart the messy, maddening planning process in the lead up to the big day itself – the guest list, seating plan, budget – nothing is left out and is all accessible all the time, wherever you are, on your iphone and ipad.

Obviously, as a wedding photographer this little app offers something very new and exciting in terms of reaching new prospective clients. It’s an interesting way of advertising that allows customers to ‘discover’ you. I loved the app from the first time I used it and signed up straight away. Advertising or becoming listed in the app was incredibly reasonably priced and the listing is extensive, clean and really gives you a chance to sell yourself in a novel way. You are represented in the list of vendors with a name, location and logo image. Then your main page displays a smaller photo with your contact details and a description of you and your work. The icing on the cake, which lots of advertising outlets or options don’t offer and what is unique to being on and iOS device, is you are then able to provide 3 further images for the customer to browse. Below are the screen shots of my own listing in the app.

Menu Page

Listing by Area

Main Listings Page

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

The guys at Wedding UK are great to work with and offer fantastic support in getting your listing perfect. Advertising and promotion is not yet something I have looked into extensively for my fledgling business as I rely largely on word of mouth and like being able to create a name for myself without having to shove that name in people’s faces. I also want to find new and exciting ways of communicating with prospective clients – be that collaborative photography projects with dress designers, or making the most of new technology, and the sheer dominance Apple have as a brand, as Wedding UK have done.

You can download Wedding UK for iOS for free HERE

So, What’s Next?

So, I hear you ask, why such a lengthy absence? I have been busy squirrelling, well not really squirrelling, more like snapping away, to finish my postgraduate diploma. I have now completed it (check out the certificate) and I am excited to be back in some other reality where I can return to building my new business venture (Pippa Bennett Photography) and taking photos of things that inspire me… well, at least that inspire me a bit more than some of my recent modules!

What’s next? First things first is an overdue overhaul of my website. I’ve decided (after going with uk2net for hosting) to go with Zenfolio’s recently long awaited service that combines their backend supply of ordering systems with a better front of house interface. They offer extremely competitive rates. Is easy to use? Well, I’ll have to keep you posted on that one.

Next comes expansion. First will be preparation… getting my CD packaging and promotional material ready. I have some exciting ideas of how I will be supplying the photos to my wedding clients too which I will share with you in the coming weeks. From designing beautiful packaging and media solutions for my clients that make each step of the process of planning your wedding photography feel luxurious.

Wedding Fayres I imagine will be inevitable and so a stand will need to be designed for those too which I again have imagined in my mind in quite elaborate detail. I have been lucky so far to get most of my business through word of mouth and I feel that really does keep a certain integrity to the business. That said I am hoping to harbour some productive relationships with local dress/hair/make up vendors too work towards a cooperative of wedding vendors who all benefit promotionally from the exercise. Get in touch if you feel you would like to be such a person!

I am also secretly, well, not so secretly, toying with the idea of holding my first exhibition. Someone approached me a a while ago asking if they could exhibit some of my live music photography. For some reason this had never occurred to me before. I had assumed live music images were only of interest to the band themselves, their management, and a few fans. But I have been doing some research and it seems that because of the way photography can convey the passion and intimacy or otherwise of a live music experience, that they could really work well in an exhibition atmosphere. The only question is what kind of venue or setting would work best. Again answers on a postcard please.

I would like to end this forward looking post by bidding goodbye to the fantastic Big Cardiff Little Cardiff exhibition that ran from April 14th – July 22nd 2011. It was a beautiful collaborative affair from the brain of Dan Green and you can look back on it here. I wish more cities were lucky enough to have people with his dedication to create such a tribute to the people of the city and its artists. Wroth a mention also is Spiller’s work wit the exhibition to curate the Spiller’s saturday sessions. They were a fabulous antidote to Saturday hustle and bustle of city life and the musicians chosen were perfect. I would, however, like to remind everyone who enjoyed these sessions that Cardiff Central Library put on similar events on Saturday lunchtimes with similarly stellar artists and performers and if you find yourself missing some saturday afternoon delight, then that/s the place you might just find it.

My full wedding service will be up and running by the winter for gorgeous Narnia like winter brides. I am also planning a collaboration and working with an incredibly talented asian wedding planner and offering huge variety of options to satisfy even the most headstrong brides.

Including:
* Overseas services
* New media ways of presenting images – ipad friendly formats, online proofing for clients, personalised USB sticks.
* A forward thinking green wedding package that will work with those trying to have eco friendly nuptials!
* A knowledgable Asian wedding service.
*Full engagement to wedding packages. Whether that includes engagement shoots, mehndi nights, boudoir photos. All my wedding photography includes the ‘getting ready’ shots of the bride which I feel add some texture to the wedding photos as they are so fragile and unposed, all the nerves of the big day flowing from the shots.

Ultimately with all this talk of ‘packages’ and, I offer a bespoke service. Each wedding and couple are unique and have different demands and requests of their images from their big day and I reflect that in my approach to every client. The packages might be standard on the website but don’t be afraid to ask for anything you would like to see.

This is all looking ahead, which is of course exciting. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself. For now I will leave you with an example from my latest work from festivals recently. As always you can see more at my Flickr stream

The Streets playing Lounge on The Farm Festival

Nos Da!

Rashida and Zeeshan’s Winter Wonderland

In February this year I was invited to photograph the beautiful, impeccably-styled wedding of Rashida and Zeeshan Mahmood.

The Beautiful Newlyweds

I was so excited as I has the opportunity to shoot both Rashida’s mehndi and the nikah itself.

The Mehndi night passed in a swirl of jubilant dancing, and I loved how the bride’s sisters took it upon themselves to entertain her!

It was only in the early hours of the morning that Rashida started to wonder how she’d ever sleep with all the henna on her hands, let alone get out of her mesmerising light green sari!

This Muslim nikah took place at the surprisingly elegant, lavishly decorated venue of Barry Memorial Hall. Not a single element of the styling of the theatre had been overlooked

Barry is a place condemned by it’s decaying grandure and remnants of once being a thriving british resort – link to my Barry project. Oh, and of course, theres the small matter of Gavin & Stacey! So to discover this old theatre which stood resolute against the less desirable elements of the town was an unexpected treat. I once did a photojournalist feature on Barry & ‘urban decay’. You can see the photos here.

Every detail of the beautiful setting and ceremony was meticulously planned, and it was really cute when Rashida’s happy anxiety to come to sit by Zeeshan on the stage became visible, and her compulsion to check and re-check her make-up unstoppable!

Last minute touch-ups!

After many formal, posed portraits of all the family together, the bride, groom and I went to take some more personal shots on our own. It was lovely to see them relax a bit, both so visibly happy to be married to each other, and very much in love.

We definitely timed the shoot perfectly. When we went back to the hall it was time to cut and for the two families to share the cake. Not pointing any fingers, but this got a bit messy!

Sharing the Cake

The most poignant ritual was when the time came for Rashida & Zeeshan to leave the wedding as a married couple. Traditionally the bride would be leaving her family to live with the groom and his family, perhaps hundreds of miles away, and so this is historically an emotionally charged moment of the wedding, where joy for the new union of two families mingles with sadness of the bride’s family not knowing when they might see their daughter/sister the next time.

A Tearful Departure

The day was lavish, elegant, and full of smiles and such a feeling of warmth as the two families were brought together and were so obviously happy to now be part of one larger family.

All images Copyright Pippa Bennett 2011