The grey, grey mist....

A warm wedding welcome

Holme Pierrepont Hall, Nottingham at 2:41pm, December 22nd 2006.

The Hall.

In those days I would meet the couple at the venue, rather than start my day when they did and photograph everything, as I do now.  I knew this shoot wouldn't be an easy one from the beginning due to the time and the date- three days before Christmas day, in the middle of the afternoon isn't the most ideal situation for the perfect wedding photographs, but, forewarned is forearmed, as they say....


I arrived at Holme Pierrepont Hall in good time, as usual, to be greeted by- fog. Someone had tied balloons to the gateposts but they flapped sadly in a low breeze and looked so forlorn! I stopped the car and quickly took a few images before continuing to the venue.

Inside.

 The fog never really lifted and the daylight continued to fade with little resistance from the sun. Fortunately, the family that still live in part of the Hall had made the place look magnificent and festive, with lovely traditional decorations tastefully placed around the place and a few table lamps to lend a cosy glow. 

A VERY dark room

The rest of the day went without a hitch, apart from the fact that the ceremony room was very dark! I managed to use a high speed setting on my camera that produced focused, but very grainy images- there were old canvas paintings in the room and the owners had banned flash photography! The next day I bought software that could smooth out the graininess from images- I was still using it until recently when I bought my present Fuji cameras that excel in low light situations.

Lighting the way.

My one regret with this wedding was that we couldn't go out to use the fabulous gardens for any shots, but we managed to group people around the large Christmas tree and I maxed out the flashguns to fill the high ceilinged room we were in.

We had a great day- I learned a lot about using available light to illuminate a shot as well as how to carry a large tripod around without knocking valuable items off small occasional tables- and when the couple saw the 'balloons in the fog' image, they had me put it on a canvas print to hang in their new home!