Last weekend I joined these fine folk, Lucy & Stewart, for their pre-wedding meeting & practice photoshoot!

I was particularly excited about this one as it was at Swinton Park, near Masham in the Yorkshire Dales.

I’ve never photographed here before and it’s a grand old place indeed!

The crisp winter afternoon and last few leaves clinging to the trees made everything start to feel a bit ‘bonfire nighty’

Convenient really, because these two are actually getting married on November 5th!

Once we’d got through the admin over a cafetiere & a few pistachio shortbreads, we were ready to brave the cold!
I find pre-wedding shoots super important because:

a) I can familiarise myself with a venue & scout out portrait shoot locations (especially useful when I’ve not shot somewhere before)b) I can get a couple used to being photographed (lets face it, it’s a bit of a daunting experience, and I like to show my couples it can be fun and I’ll make them look great however weird it feels!).  Plus, having been through it already makes the portrait shoot faster on the big day; meaning more mingling and bubbles for the couple!c) I can pap their shoes and satisfy my foot fetish!

Not really – but if a couple come in funky shoes, I know there’s personality & fun there!

It’s all about relaxing into it and having a bit of a laugh.I’m more about the natural ones than the staged actionWhile we were stomping round the gardens, we almost babbed ourselves when we nearly ran into this creepy dude hanging from a tree.

Man looked a bit like Joseph Merreck.

Apparently there was a ghost walk going on, and we spotted loads of random bodies hidden all over the grounds!I like this sequence.  They’re generally the three instructions I give couples; look at each other, look at me & have a smooch!

The hard bit is trying to capture their spirit & love in between those instructions…

Down by Swinton Park’s oxbow lake swans were swimming and deer a roaming!

Spotted a nide of pheasants mincing about too!  (Thank you Google for answering: ‘What are a group of pheasant called?)

So we did a few snaps down there.

On November 5th they’re going to have fireworks go off over the lake!On the way round to a bit of a secret garden, I liked this little wall we found to have a cuddle next to.Stew you look great, but it’s all about the red shoes, red scarf combo.So it was really good to catch up with these two again after so long, and it was ace to have a good mission round Swinton Park!

I’ll be posting a few pics from their wedding on this here blog  on the Monday after their wedding, so if you’d like to see their highlights, watch this (cyber)space!

Bring on Bonfire Night!

If you enjoyed this post, check out these similar posts: