Three new ISPWP Awards in the Summer 2017 Contest!

I was elated to pick up three more ISPWP awards in the latest contest! I really feel like ISPWP are among the most credible and sought after awards in the wedding photography world, competing against insanely talented photographers from all over the world means each win feels like a massive achievement. So to now have 29 awards in total from ISPWP makes me super proud. Here are my three latest winners with the story behind each photo.

Wedding Venue or Location Category – Saloni and Rishabh

I was with Saloni and Rishabh for three days in Dubai at the beginning of this year for their crazy wedding. There weren’t many spaces in the timeline to make portraits so I knew when I got the chance I had to skip any warm up and go straight for the hero shots.

There was actually a whole other team of photographers also capturing their celebrations as well as me (the lovely Rushi, Regan, Bhavna and Keerthi from One Fine Day in India) and once Saloni and Rishabh were ready for their welcome party, they wanted some portraits in the hotel lobby. This isn’t just any hotel lobby at the amazing Waldorf Astoria Ras-al-Khaimah, so I wanted to do it justice and create something unusual and dramatic. While the One Fine Day team took a few portraits I jogged around trying to look for something different to what they were doing, and by the time they had finished I had found my composition and set up my lights, then it was just a case of asking Saloni and Rishabh to stand in the right spots and get them looking and feeling comfortable before running back upstairs to take the shot! I wanted something dramatic and abstract and I was super happy with the end result! Then I had to hot foot it down to the beach front ready for them to make their grand entrance to their guests!

See more of Saloni and Rishabh’s Dubai wedding here.

Bride and Groom Portraits Category – Hanna and Mark

Once Hanna and Mark arrived at Skala Taverna in Lindos on the Greek island of Rhodes they were ushered straight in for dinner as it was a meat based barbecue and their food was ready and waiting for them. So I only had the time it took for their 25 guests to take their seats to make a few portraits. It was dusk and the light was fading fast but I knew how important creative portraits were to this pair and I was determined to make something special in the five minutes we had! ran around the beach and rocks looking for angles and compositions to make something interesting. This was one of a series of photos I took and definitely my favourite, with the wind blowing Hanna’s dress just enough to reveal that she’s (totally coincidentally) standing in exactly the same way as Mark with a triangle shape between their legs. And these two love triangles so it just seemed to all come together when it needed to. It reminds me of a quote I have on the wall in my office:

“You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
What mood is that?
Last-minute panic.”
Bill Watterson

See more of Hanna and Mark’s Greece wedding here.

Humour Category – Charlotte and Tom

There’s some irony to the fact this photo won an award in the humour category because Charlotte most definitely didn’t find it very funny at the time and I questioned whether I should even shoot because I knew how worried/stressed she was. But something deep down told me it would all be fine, she’d get her veil back and she’d eventually laugh about it and want to see the photos that went with the story she’d inevitably tell! And I was right (I love my instincts) and I was so glad I had photos of it all. A very tall guest with a very long umbrella was eventually able to hook down the veil and Charlotte was able to walk down the aisle to meet Tom who was none the wiser about the drama outside!

See more of Charlotte and Tom’s Micklefield Hall wedding here.