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Shooting Wedding workshop in Stone Court Hotel, Gloucester

By greg - Posted on 15 February 2011

I was lucky enough to be invited along as an 'expert' for the Shooting Weddings with Damien and Julie Lovegrove workshop. This was the first time I'd met damien in person after quite a few twitter conversations.

I also got the chance to look at some of the images for Damien's upcoming fine art book (Launch soon), some fabulous images there too.

Anyway onto the wedding workshop, it was great to see Damien in action and his teaching style is brilliant, full of enthusiasm and really focused on taking your skills forwards and making you stand out from the every growing wedding photography crowd.

I'll not bore you with a full breakdown of the course (you can see the full itinery on the link above), but, it's nicely structured with a real focus on the practical stuff. Everyone gets personal tuition no matter what their level, so you need not worry if you're not a seasoned veteran, though even if you are you'll pick up some tips and this course will give you the kick you need to take your photography and creativity to the next level.

Julie Lovegrove is the other part of the team and her teaching style compliments Damiens brilliantly (hope the hand gets better soon!). Julie is much more natural light than Damien, and she took the attendees through some great ways to shoot the bridal preparations whilst Damien covered the groom. Some great stuff in this bit too, together with some fab tips on how to achieve those stunning images that will sell time after time no matter what the location.

There is also a section dedicated to shooting at the church and ceremony, with again some really original ideas on how to get some ace wedding that will make you stand out from your peers and give you the edge with some brilliant angles (I'll not elaborate on this any more you'll just have to go on the course to find out :) )

In the afternoon we shot some Bride and Groom portraits, again with a mix of flash and natural light and some really useful ideas to help you make the most of any location making your images stand out and how to direct the bride and groom, and what to look for lighting wise.

It was also great to meet Marko who does the post production work, top fella and great to see him work on the images from the day.

The day ends up with a slideshow of the images taken that Marko has done some very quick edits on, and then a chance for any questions. Top day!

So I guess the question would be would I recommend this course to fellow photographers? and if so who would I recommend it to?

The answer is of course I would :)
I'd recommend this for pretty much every photographer who not only photographs weddings, but, also peolpe, as it's all about the light. Sure a lot of it focused on the wedding and certain parts that only happen at a wedding, but, a lot of this is also applicable for shooting portraits (though damien also runs a good few portrait courses that will no doubt be even better for this purpose! - If I end up on one of there I'll of course let you all know how it is - hint hint damien :))

Here are some images shot by Damien and Julie with many thanks to them both for their hospitality and good humour on the day!

the groom getting ready