Wedding Tip for a Super Stylish Groom

Want a great way to make your groom look that bit extra special on your wedding day? Then try this. Have him tie his tie with an Eldredge Knot. Or if you are having a Christian wedding ceremony you could go with the Trinity Knot.

Yes, they are tricky but well worth the effort to do something a with a little extra style. If your groom doesn’t normally ever wear a tie, just get him to learn this knot and forget about the rest.

Here it is:

And make sure to tell your wedding photographer not to miss grabbing some photos of the tie.

Stylish wedding photography tips

Modern Wedding Photography Tips With a Blast From the Past

A topic I keep coming back to is making sure you have a stylish wedding. This stems from the fact that when I photograph a wedding, I’m not shooting for the couple getting married. I’m the wedding photographer for their children, grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. For generations yet to come. I want those future generations yet to be born to sit down with the wedding album (yes, album – not just images on disc – but that’s a while other blog post topic) and while looking through the album, get a feeling for what it was like to be at their ancestors wedding.

I want those photographs to make the viewer proud of their ancestors. To respect their elders and have a slight sense of reverence. The problem is that I worry some couples are getting caught up in having a super trendy wedding, making sure that they are being cool and decorating in the latest way. Being on the cutting edge of fashion can be great, but everyone needs to realise that just as a super sharp edge goes dull quickly, so too does fashion. Cutting edge fashion of today is likely to be the embarrassing acid washed high waisted pants of tomorrow.

My mother just emailed me the wedding photo below. It’s my parents on their wedding day with my great grandmother. They look fantastic. They look timeless. They could have been photographed yesterday. This wedding photo makes me proud.

Dad’s suit is exceptional – check out that pocket square. He wore a tie pin. He made an effort. Grooms, respect your bride. Make an effort.
Mum’s dress is stunning. In a modern wedding world populated by very similar dresses, this is a breath of fresh air. It has sleeves. Long sleeves. And her bouquet is tiny by modern standards but beautiful. It’s gardenias. Imagine the fragrance of a gardenia bouquet.
Old Nan also looks wonderful. Wearing hats to weddings is a trend I’d like to see revived. And handkerchiefs. Dabbing at tears with a lace embroidered hanky is infinitely more stylish than grabbing a crushed tissue.

Everything is perfect and timeless. Except for the gloves. You never see gloves at weddings anymore. Can’t see that coming back into fashion any time soon.

Stylish wedding photography tips

That really is a nice suit. I wonder if he’s still got it. I reckon that would fit me nicely. Mum … I know you’re reading this. Does Dad still have the suit?

Paris photographer

Travel Photography Tip. How to Get Great Images From Your Holidays

As I travelled around Paris I constantly encountered enormous groups of tourists armed with the latest high end camera gear. Unfortunately for them, I can pretty much guarantee that their images are terrible and they would have been better off buying some postcards and sticking to taking photographs on their telephones.

In order to get photos better than that of the average tourists you need to do something the average tourist won’t do. You need to beat them to the punch and get up early. Really early. Really, really early. If you want great photos you’ll need to be ready to shoot before the sun comes up. Sunrise in Paris tomorrow is at 5.53am.

You’ll get great light and you’ll get the rarest of things in Paris. No crowds.

And you will be done with plenty of time to put the camera down and enjoy the sights. You’ll be first in line for the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Musee Dorsay, everything. The queues for the usual sights don’t normally start building until 8am (but by 8.10am they are already enormous) and opening times tend to be 9am or 9.30am.

Here’s an image I made of Notre Dame Cathedral with only a few cleaners around. Bliss.

Paris photographer