Katie & James's Wedding

I'm a bit late getting round to blogging this one, but here goes anyway.

Katie and James were married last October in the Norton Grange Hotel in Manchester.

This was my first time using the new HMC-151 video camera. I also used one of my older standard definition cameras tripod mounted at the front during the ceremony. The 151 was fantastic, despite a wedding guest managing to trip over it during the ceremony. 

The camera records 1080p or 720p onto SD cards, this is great as the cards can hold 90mins of footage (or more at lower bit-rates) which is ideal for long ceremonies etc. Unlike many previous HD video cameras it is also excellent in low light conditions (e.g. discos/churches) making it ideal for this sort of job.

Katie & James - Wedding Highlights from Stuart Mottershead on Vimeo.

New Wedding Photography Blog

Check out Sarah's new wedding photography blog.

Kristina & Gareth's Wedding - Thornton Hall Hotel

Thornton Hall is one of the most popular wedding locations on the Wirral. The gardens are fantastic, set in a lovely rural location, and the staff always seem to to in total control of what is happening.

On my most recent visit this January, I was filming the wedding for Kristina & Gareth, whilst Sarah McDonnell was photographing the event. I've included some of Sarah's photographs from the day (check out www.sarahmcdonnell.co.uk for more examples of Sarah's wedding photography).

This was the first wedding film that I've made exclusively in HD. I have to say that the improvement in image quality is amazing, not just in the detail, but also in the colour of the image and its ability to be manipulated during editing.

You can see the highlights from the wedding film below:

Kristina & Gareth - Wedding Highlights from Stuart Mottershead on Vimeo.

New Lens

We've made an addition to our photography kit. Not normally something people would be excited about, but we think this one is ideal for portrait shots. It's a prime lens with a very wide aperture, this enables us to blur out the background and foreground so that the subject really stands out.

Here's an example:

Web Galleries & Online Ordering of Prints

Happy New Year,

Looks like 2009 is going to be very interesting with the credit crunch and recession etc. Because of this, we've been thinking about the best way in which we can help our clients by making wedding photography as affordable as possible, without affecting quality.

We've recently started using a company in the US called SmugMug to host our client's wedding photographs online. This has several advantages. Firstly, it's a secure place to store the photographs external to our own system, so if there is a catastrophe, the photographs will still be there intact. Secondly, it allows guests as well as the bride and groom to view the photographs (the gallery can be password protected on request), wherever they live. Best of all, it is possible to order prints directly from SmugMug as and when you like. We have tried this out already and we were very impressed with the results.

We have kept the prices as low as possible, starting at about $0.38, and there are a huge range of print options available to you. Many photographers charge several pounds for a single print so this is really very different to what you'll see anywhere else.

The web gallery is built in to all of our wedding photography packages which start at just £599.

Regards,

Stuart & Sarah

Quick update

It's a while since my last blog as we've been very busy with weddings, editing and upgrading our video cameras. We are now using HD cameras which give a far superior image to the standard definition cameras we had previously. 

Our new workhorse is the Panasonic HMC-151E which films in full HD 1080p and can record for 3 hours continuously onto SD cards. This is a true Professional grade HD camera and has only recently been released by Panasonic. It is very similar to the famous HVX-200 camera which has been used to make many full scale Hollywood movies due to its 'film look'. The camera has a great ability to capture images in low light conditions, making it ideal for use in churches or for filming the first dance (without needing the lights turned up)!

We have got a lot of great ideas about how we intend to use our new HD cameras and provide exciting new products and services to our clients in 2009. Possibilities include having your wedding video on high definition Blu Ray disk, or online in HD for friends and family to view. We are also considering offering an option for a same day edit where we present a highlights video of the wedding ceremony at the evening reception using a projector.

We will be trailing some of these options over the next couple of months before rolling them out on the main website. In the mean time, feel free to ask if you are interested in any of these.

This is our latest wedding video highlights from Brian & Joanne's wedding in June at St. Mary's Church in West Derby, Liverpool. The music is by Desiree and is called Kissing You.


Joanne & Brian - Wedding Highlights from Stuart Mottershead on Vimeo.