Manor Hill House is a contemporary Worcestershire countryside wedding venue on the outskirts of Bromsgrove. Originally designed as a family home, the venue has now been hosting weddings for a number of years with great success.
Manor Hill House, being deep in the countryside is surrounded by open fields, and a small stile at the back of the venue leads to the great, wide outdoors. Understandably it might be difficult to get a bride in a full wedding gown up and over a stile, but this is where the venue has been clever - the crossbars slide out, and it's much, much easier getting from the venue into the field.
The weather for Chelsea and John's wedding was patchy cloud, and when the sun was out it was really bright, which can sometimes be difficult to work with (as a photographer I try to avoid having harsh shadows cast across people's faces - having the light behind people is a much more flattering approach.) You might have heard a wedding photographer in the past saying that they wished for a bit of cloud cover, and now you know why! The great thing with overcast days for wedding photography is that you can take photos in any direction, not worrying about where the sun is coming from. On the downside, you don't get that lovely golden light at the end of the day, and the skies for any couple's photos are really boring.
We had been in the top field for around 10 minutes, already taking some lovely photos, but the super-bright sun was really making things tricky. With the shots that I wanted in the bag, we started making our way back to the venue. Just as I'd put my camera away and was about to return to Chelsea to help her with the dress, the sun dipped behind a small cloud, presenting a wonderful moment of opportunity - the bride and groom were in the shade (which is awesome for wedding photography) but we still had that big-sky effect that you get with patchy cloud. I switched to my 35mm lens, having been shooting most of the couple's portraits with an 85mm, and captured a few frames before the sun came back out.
Location: Manor Hill House Weddings.
Keywords: Photographer-directed image (128).