Kingscote Barn Wedding Photography by London Wedding Photographer Mat Quake. This is a very early sneak peek at a few photographs taken at Karen and Craig’s wedding held at Kingscote Barn, Tetbury. If I have never photographed at a wedding venue before then I always do lots of research, searching for the best locations to photograph the bride and groom. The first step is to have a look at what other photographers have done, so I can quickly establish what not to do. Not for any other reason than wanting to do something a bit different with the environment. Have a look at these four, very differently, executed images.

It’s unusual for me to place myself so far away from the bride and groom but I wanted the first image we did together to have a sense of scale. I also hadn’t seen any other photographer take advantage of this backdrop, seen from the barn’s garden, in this way. Exposing as much of the road in view as possible was important to me in this shot because I wanted to emphasise their journey. The farm at the top of the frame was actually quite poignant too because Craig has a keen interest in dairy farms and farming.  Same image below, in colour, with a blur effect executed in Photoshop, providing a completely different feel to the photograph.

Moving further up the road we find an open plane near the entrance to Kingscote Barn. I was instantly drawn to this tree when I first visited the barn the day before. With gray clouds hovering above and rain imminent I decided to make good use of this one spot for a few different frames. I deliberately wanted the tree bang in the centre of the frame, strong and dominant, symbolising strength, endurance and longevity.

Something a bit more posed, with Craig & Karen looking off to the distant horizon. I am mixing off camera flash with ambient light here so I can control the level of light in the clouds. The filters I have used in photoshop were designed to add warmth to the photograph and a hint of contemporary vintage. The tree plays a ‘symbolising’ role here too, and also helps to frame them on the right of the image.

I like this type of composition, leading the viewer into the context of the image using, as per this example, the stone wall. It’s simple, been done a thousand times by endless photogrpahers, but that’s because it’s pleasing to the eye. We can see the farm in the distance from the earlier shots, which I deliberately kept in frame so as to help tell the story (they didn’t walk all that way, Henry took us – my Golf, aptly named by my two year old daughter). By asking Karen to hold just before they kissed and through using an angle that helps show her closed eye and mouth, the connection between them becomes much more romantic.