2014 Kent Wedding Awards Finalist

My website: David Fenwick Photography

I've just found out that I've made it through to the finals of the 2014 Kent Wedding Awards which is very pleasing indeed. The 'wedding photographer of the year' category is ridiculously competitive though. This year there are 18 finalists and they're all exceptionally able. Sensibly, this year the organisers are also going to award a silver medal too - Highly Commended Photographer. The awards ceremony is on the 13th November. Winning such a competitive category two years in a row is exceptionally unlikely but I shall be attending the ceremony nonetheless with crossed fingers!

I've shot so many weddings this summer that I've barely been able to keep up-to-date with my work. Alas, I've not had the time to update my blog with a selection of images from each wedding but I hope to be able to start doing this again soon.

For highlights from recent weddings please check out my Facebook page.

Kent Wedding Photographer of the Year 2013

My website: David Fenwick Photography

I'm very pleased to announce that I won the Kent Wedding Photographer of the Year category at the 2013 Kent Wedding Awards last night. Thankfully winners were not allowed to give speeches.

The judges' citation for my award read:

An exceptional number of high standard submissions were received for this popular category, but judges were particularly impressed by David’s stunning portfolio of photos which stood out as being almost alive in their quality. Albums told a story of the day from start to finish using really natural, relaxed images. All criteria were met or exceeded.

Apparently the Kent Wedding Photographer category was so hotly contested this year that they're thinking about introducing another category for photographers next year to relieve the pressure - so I'm exceptionally proud to have received this award.

For highlights from recent weddings please check out my Facebook page.

Maidstone Wedding Gallery

My website: David Fenwick Photography

As my online wedding portfolio grows ever larger I'm always looking for new ways to organise and present my work. It's obviously useful for both clients and myself!

I've been gathering wedding galleries into collections organised by venue for many years but I've now started creating pages for Kent's major towns and their surroundings. The first to be completed is for Maidstone and can be viewed here: weddings in Maidstone

Not a bad selection of venues! More to follow.

For highlights from recent weddings please check out my Facebook page.

Custom domain publishing

Blogger no longer supports ftp blog publishing so I've created a custom domain on my website to host my blog.

http://www.davidfenwick.co.uk/blog/ has been transferred to http://blog.davidfenwick.co.uk/

All posts have been automatically updated to redirect.

If any readers encounter any issues I'd be most grateful if you could contact me and let me know!

My website: Kent wedding photographers

Lympne Castle Website

Lympne Castle have just updated their website and now feature a couple of my HDR images on the homepage and include me in their list of preferred suppliers. It's one of my favourite venues in Kent and I shall be photographing there twice this December.

My website: Kent wedding photographers

How hard is it to photograph a wedding?

My website: Wedding Photographers in Kent

For further photography-related information check out my tips for photographers.

The story of a West Yorkshire-based wedding photographer taken to court for the poor quality of his work has been making headlines this week. The groom amusingly described him as "the Don Quixote of wedding photography – he just doesn’t believe that he can’t do it."

I'd be inclined to agree with the assertion that "he can't do it" on the basis of the photos published online from the wedding. I'm intrigued to know on what evidence they booked him in the first place.

This sorry tale inspired the following article which is worth a read together with the comments that follow it: How hard is it to photograph a wedding?

My website: Kent wedding photographers

Finding your way around my blog

I've been blogging for 6 months now and, having reached almost 150 posts, it was getting difficult even for me to find previous material. I therefore decided this morning to re-classify all the posts in such a way as to accomodate the needs of the different sets of people who regularly read my blog - some are potential clients, others want to know only about the technical side of photography.

This classification system is visible under the title 'Labels' on the right hand sidebar. Getting this to display was not a trivial exercise as I'm using a classic Blogger template and publishing via FTP to my own website. Many thanks to phydeaux3 for the HTML script, though unfortunately it's not possible to display the number of posts under each heading.

Feedback: comments from previous clients - weddings and other.

General: photography related issues.

Kit: equipment reviews and tips.

Personal: family and personal projects.

Portraits: both people and places.

Technical: photography tips and educational material.

Weddings: samples from my wedding portfolio.

I hope this makes it easier for my readers.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Wedding Photography - minimising risk

Having written yesterday about what I'd do in the event of illness I thought that today I'd tackle the other main threat to the wedding photographer - equipment failure.

I've yet to experience total failure of any of my equipment but there's a chance that it will happen eventually in spite of all the precautions I take. The question is, how does an experienced wedding photographer minimise the risk of this happening and then reduce the impact of failure?

1. The most obvious answer is to have spares of everything. I currently take 3 camera bodies, 6 lenses, 16x 4Gb memory cards and a huge number of spare batteries.

2. All my equipment is well-maintained and serviced. At the first sign of any problem the item is dispatched to Canon UK in Borehamwood to be serviced.

3. Memory cards have to be treated with particular respect. I always feel more relaxed when I've downloaded their contents to my computer after a wedding. I buy only top quality SanDisk memory cards and replace them regularly. I typically use 8 during a wedding which means I only store 100 photos on each card - much less of an impact if any develops a fault (although I have all the relevant recovery software required to extract the contents from the card if one does). I could buy a 32 Gb card and use only that for a wedding but the well-known phrase involving eggs and baskets springs to mind.

As I stated yesterday, nothing in life is certain, but with the precautions outlined above the chances of equipment failure ruining a wedding shoot are minimised.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Wedding Photographer Kent

A pertinent question to ask a potential wedding photographer is, "What happens if you're ill?"

My response to this is:

1. I'd need to be really ill before considering the following options.

2. I belong to a network of Kent-based wedding photographers (seven currently in the group but growing all the time) who are prepared to cover for each other in the event of an emergency. Although it's impossible to guarantee coverage, the chances of all seven being booked on the same day are small. If that were the case, the chances that one of them couldn't pop along to your wedding for a couple of hours to give at least some professional coverage is smaller still.

3. I am fully insured for professional indemnity just in case the worst comes to the worst. I would also arrange a free family photoshoot to provide you with some beautiful portraiture.

Nothing in life is certain but a professional wedding photographer should be taking as many steps as possible to mitigate against the unexpected.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer

This weekend is my first wedding-free weekend for 3 months! Time to recharge the batteries and catch up with some photographic literature. I've got 'Hollywood Portraits: Classic Shots and How to Take Them' by Roger Hicks & Christopher Nisperos and 'Best Business Practices for Photographers' by John Harrington to read. Stimulating stuff - I hope!

I've just placed my pre-order for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Camera World, who are offering it with the new BG-E6 battery grip and an 8Gb Sandisk Extreme III compact flash card thrown in. It should be in stock on November 30th. I've got plenty of weddings booked in December and January so I'm looking forward to entering the ISO stratosphere as I venture beyond 3200 for the first time. I'll still be creating a custom noise profile for my new camera for use with NeatImage though.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

The Canon Rumour Mill

You'll find many websites claiming to have inside knowledge regarding future Canon releases (here's a link to Canon Rumors if you want to indulge) and some even go so far as to create new images of the equipment using Photoshop! It obviously appeals to the male-brain obssession with new kit, and reflects a healthy level of enthusiasm, but, as I'm sure most people do, you need to treat it all with a huge amount of scepticism - any insiders found leaking intellectual property information from Canon would quickly be shown the door.

Still, it is quite fun to speculate what the future of digital photography could hold. Imagine if digital sensors could capture the tonal range of the human eye and you didn't need to concern yourself with the concept of exposure, or have knowledge about the situations in which cameras struggle. This would make photography more accessible to everyone and remove the importance of specialised technical knowledge. It would move the emphasis to the 'art' of photography - surely a good thing?

Check out my photography here: Kent photographer

In praise of Blogger

What a great webtool Blogger is. Really easy to use but packed with functionality - they'll even host your blog for you if you don't have a website. Particularly useful as the blog becomes more extensive (I've now posted 62 articles over 2 months) is the search box in the top left-hand corner of the screen - this allows you to scan all of the posts on this site. If you've got something to share get yourself a blog!

Google offer lots of free utilities with fantastic functionality - Webmaster tools and Analytics complete my top three. I just hope they continue to be free and that Google isin't creating an army of dependent users!

Check out my photography here: Kent photographer

Insurance for professional photographers

This post is not very exciting but very important. If you're going to charge clients for work and attend events professionally make sure you have adequate insurance for:

1. Your kit - you can't keep your eye on it all of the time.

2. Public liability - in case somebody trips over your camera bag and breaks a leg.

3. Professional indemnity - in case your clients are so unhappy with your work they decide to litigate, or you have a catastrophic technical failure.

It's expensive but it gives you considerable peace of mind. I have mine with AUA insurance.

Check out my work here: Kent photographer

Photographer's Rights

Just read an article at BBC Online regarding photographer's rights. With public anxiety over terrorism and paedophilia on the increase, more and more photographers are finding themselves challenged when pursuing their hobby in public. A motion has been tabled in the Commons and a petition started on the Number 10 e-petition site to raise awareness of this issue. In principle the more militant amongst the photographic community could carry a card in their camera bag stating:

You are reminded that under UK law, there are no restrictions on taking photographs in a public place or on photography of individuals, whether they are adults or minors. There is no right to privacy in a public place, although photographers are of course subject to the usual libel laws in the same way as any other citizen and should observe them. Equipment or film may not be confiscated, or images deleted by any person or officer unlesss a warrant for such action is issued. Any attempt without a warrant is considered assault under UK law.

However, further reading made me realise that a key caveat is determining whether you are in a 'public place' or a 'place to which the public has access'. Many parks, for example, owned by local authorities fall under the latter category, and as such, entry comes with terms and conditions - such as permission being required to take photographs. If you're asked to desist from taking photos of your own children by an officious park attendant, it appears that the law may not be on your side after all.