Have you ever wondered which combinations of Churches and Reception halls in St Andrews is the most popular for the weddings? The answer is St Salvator chapel and the Lower College Hall. Dating back to 15th century, these magnificent medieval buildings located at the heart of St Andrews where is called St Salvator’s Quad.
The bride and groom this time, were St Andrews graduates, Sandy and William from Kent.
This shot was produced after the dinner before the fist dance started. I asked the couple if they do not mind to leave their guests for 2 minutes and they accepted it. We rushed from the reception hall (the building in the background) to the spot that I had in mind. I positioned myself on some stairs to have an elevated point of view and managed to take not more than 5 shots. The shot was produced using my trusty Nikon D2Xs attacked with an ultra wide angle lens (you’d want to show as much of the surroundings as it is possible. wouldn’t you?). The trick to add that little extra is the lighting here. I have a Nikon SB-900 on a flash bracket on my camera and zoomed the flash to its narrowest beam of light which is 200. This will only illuminate the couple and the rest of the seen will remain in darkness. I also deliberately underexpose the scene by nearly 2 stops in order to make it look darker and add drama to the image. The final image then was converted into B&W using Aperture.
The shot above was produced seconds after the previous one. As the couple were walking back to join their guests, I asked them to stop for me for a second and here is the result. The technical info is similar to the previous image, only this time, I had the flash on its wide coverage instead of its narrow beam which was used for the other image.
This final image was actually taken before the other two shots, after the ceremony and during the champagne receptions. As the weather was so good (which is a rare thing in this part of the world) we decided to disappear briefly for a quick shoot to incorporate the beautiful skyline of St Andrews as our backdrop to our shoot. The shot was taken as we had done with our shoot and the couple were walking back to the car. I call their name and they turned toward me with the most beautiful genuine smile and expression. The shot was produced using my Nikon D3 with a 70-200f2.8 lens wide open at f2.8.
We were very happy to work with the talented Sandra of SC Makeup Artistry in Dundee. Sandra did a fantastic job of hair and makeup for Sandy and her bridal party. You can find Sandra through her website here.
To see more photos from this wedding, please click here, the password is the bride’s maiden name.