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An Autumn Wedding at South Farm {Lucy & Jonathan}

Jonathan and Lucy met on a cruise ship when they were both on family holidays and just barely teenagers.  Jonathan recalls Lucy stopping to watch him sing Whitney Houston’s “extremely well”, for a 13-year-old as Jonathan puts it.

They became fast friends exploring the cruise ship together but had trouble keeping contact in the days before Facebook and WhatsApp.  Years later, Jonathan found lucy’s number when he was preparing to move to London for drama school and now many years later, they now live in London with their dog, Mabel.

On the hunt for an eco-friendly wedding venue, they found South Farm. If you’re not familiar with South Farm, it’s a family-run venue that incredibly eco-friendly and even produces a lot of their own produce that’s served at weddings.  Between their farmhouse, barns and gardens, there’s loads of space to work with.  They also fell in love with the outdoor ceremony space that South Farm has.  And even though they were having an October wedding, they were determined to have their ceremony outside.

If some of the guests and wedding party look familiar, Jonathan is one of the creators of “The Play that Goes Wrong” and a collection of other plays as apart of Mischief Theatre, which has now been expanded to the “The Goes Wrong Show” which is now on BBC 1.  It was amazing to see how incredibly tight-knit the entire cast is and how absolutely hilarious they are in real life and I had an absolute blast shooting this wedding.

A big thank you to Lucy and Jonathan and everyone who was at the wedding for making me feel incredibly welcome and a part of the team.

 

confetti group shot at South Farm

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A Tower Bridge and Saint Pauls Sunrise Engagement Session {Danielle & Micheal}

Danielle and Micheal had spent a few years living in London and taking the chance really get to know the city and to travel around Europe. They now were planning on moving back to Canada, having packed up their life in London and found jobs back again back home.   They wanted to have a little momento of their life of London, and having a pre-wedding photoshoot was the perfect way to remember looking back at their time in the city, and have something to display back at their Canadian wedding and home that represented their time here.

We started off at Tower Bridge right after sunrise.  Even though it was a little bit cloudy, we still had perfectly empty streets to use as a backdrop for their engagement shoot. After we did a quick session at Tower Bridge, we popped into a black cab to head straight to the area around Saint Pauls to get a change of background.

I really loved shooting this session, not only were Danielle and Micheal fantastic to get to know, but they gave me a bit of a mini-challenge.  There was quite a height difference between Danielle and Micheal.  It was a great little exercise in finding different ways to bring them up to the same level for the photos.

 

“Hi Kari! 

Thank you so much for the photos and for all your hard work.  We absolutely love them and can’t stop looking at them!! We’re really glad we found such a great photographer to shoot our engagement session :)
Danielle and Mike”
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A Rock N’ Roll Wedding on a Kentucky Horse Farm {Ann Sydney & Blake}

I met Ann Sydney briefly about 13 years ago.  We didn’t go to the same university or live anywhere close to each other, but we do have a mutual friend.  I liked her immediately, and even though it took 13 years for our paths to cross again, we kept in touch through the magic of social media.

When Ann Sydney got in touch about me shooting her wedding in the States, I was really honoured.  Ann Sydney is a professional photographer herself focusing on street and music photography.  It’s always an honour to be asked by a fellow photographer to shoot their wedding, but even more so to be flown out to another country to do so.

So I flew out of London on Thursday, shot on both the Friday and Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky and then headed back to London on Monday to be back in the UK again for the next weekends wedding.  It was an incredibly brief trip, and I probably spent more hours on the plane than I did shooting the wedding, but it was really worth every minute of jet-lag.

Ann Sydney’s family run a horse farm just outside of Lexington, Kentucky.  This was the farm she was raised on, and the very land that she spent her days as a child running around barefoot with her cousins.  And even the porch she walked out on, to walk down the aisle was the porch of her childhood home.

As if this wedding didn’t already sound incredible already, I have yet to mention Blake.  Blakes a musician, and travels around the United States and the world performing.  They met at a show when Blake was playing with a mutual friend.  They talked briefly and then happened to meet again at the South by Southwest festival in Austin.  They went on their first date, and since then, the distance and the travelling couldn’t keep them apart.

I have to say, Ann Sydney and Blakes family really welcomed me with open arms and I did really fill like not only a guest of the wedding but a family member as well.  Being able to spend the weekend with such a fantastic group of people was really a reminder of why I love this job so much.

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A Spring Wedding at the Tythe Barn {Lizzie & David}

On a beautiful, warm sunny day in May last year, David and Lizzie had their wedding.

Just down the road from Lizzie’s parents home was the church they were married. So once Lizzie was dressed and ready, she walked down the little back lane to the ceremony.  The church service and the marriage ceremony was really important to Lizzie and David and even made sure their vicar from their local London church was able to come out to Oxford to be apart of the celebration.

After the wedding, I stole Lizzie and David for a quick few minutes of photos in the meadow close to their church, and then afterwards everyone headed to the Tythe Barn near Bicester for the rest of the wedding day.

I’ve had the pleasure of photographing the Tythe Barn plenty of times over the last few years, and I’m never tired of it.  It’s a really lovely venue run by an incredible team that is really passionate.   The Tythe Barn really stands out with their beautiful wisteria-covered walkway in their courtyard that comes into bloom every spring.

Everything about this wedding was so much fun to photograph, not only was it a beautiful and sunny day, with a stunning backdrop, but Lizzie and David and all their friends and family were fantastic to get to know throughout the day.   I felt like Lizzie and I were kindred sports with our love of a good spreadsheet, and I definitely enjoyed David’s enjoyment of owning his own ducks.

Thanks again for having me!

 

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The Case for the Sunrise Photo Sessions

bride and groom on london's tower bridge at sunriseIt’s a Tuesday morning, and I’m catching the first train from my house into central London.

I’m not a morning person. Honestly, I’d rather have a lie-in until 9 AM than be on a 5:30 AM train. But I do this because I firmly believe in the perks of having a sunrise photo session with my clients.

In the photography world, the term “magic hour” is thrown around a lot.  Essentially it’s the time that the sun is lower in the sky and it creates more dramatic and golden light. It happens both in the morning and in the evening. It’s a much more flattering light than when it’s completely overhead.  It can create a beautiful backlight or a dramatic front light, and it’s by far my favourite type of light to work with.

But the golden hour isn’t the only reason to get up early in the morning, but it’s the empty streets.   London can get incredibly busy, especially around some of the prominent landmarks.

Tower Bridge, in particular, is one area that works best at sunrise.  The rest of the day, the bridge is full of both commuters and tourists, filling out the walkways and feeling overrun.  But first thing in the morning, the only other people you might run into are some morning joggers.  The bridge feels empty and looks beautiful.  So even if we don’t get any of that stunning morning light, the empty pathways make it worth the early morning.

Here’s another angle of tower bridge that is also typically quite busy in the middle of the day, but first thing in the morning, it feels peaceful.

a couple reading together during their engagement session in london

But it’s not only Tower Bridge that can be worth the early morning.  Some of London’s iconic train stations become insanely busy as the day moves on.  Here’s a shot from Stuart and Ashley’s morning shoot at Saint Pancreas Station. As one of the busiest train stations in the UK, this entrance would generally have a lot of people and cars in the background, but first thing in the morning, it’s perfectly quiet.

bride and groom in londons saint pancras station

Even on the streets, London is more photogenic at sunrise.  Here’s a couple of frames from the morning of Catherine and Micheals wedding a few years ago.

I know that I’m also asking a lot from my clients to make the sunrise photoshoot happen.  While I can show up in the morning without putting a lot of thought into my look, since I’m behind the camera, but I know my clients want to look their best, which takes extra time.   If you’re worried about the getting ready process, there are some hair and makeup artists (which I’m happy to recommend) that are willing to do the early morning.  And it’s worth the effort to pre-book a taxi to our starting point, as finding something on the street at that time of morning may be impossible.

So if you’re not put off by the idea of getting dressed up and heading out an ungodly hour, why not give a sunrise session a go?

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