Wedding Photography by Silver Photography

Friday, 27 January 2012

My New Studio Matted Album

For quite some time now I have wanted to introduce a more affordable matted album to the line-up of packages I offer to my clients as, over the last couple of years, I have noticed a definite swing towards the slightly more classic look that matted albums can provide. Well, I finally found a break between shooting and editing weddings and have managed to put one together to be included in my new price list.

Firstly, for those who don't know, I use the term 'matted' to describe the way the photographs are presented within the album itself. The photographs are displayed behind a piece of thick card (called a matt or overlay) which in turn has an aperture cut into it to effectively frame the pictures. Each photograph has its own aperture and there can be several of these per page. You can read little bit more about this here.

The other matted albums I have always offered, the Bespoke Matted albums, are very beautifully constructed and offer a huge range of customising options, but sadly have been out of the price range for some clients. This is where the new Studio Matted albums fit in. They are made by the same Australian company that produce all of my albums, Jorgensen, and are constructed to their usual exacting high standards but they differ in just a couple of small details.

The differences between the Studio Matted albums and the Bespoke Matted albums are that the Studio albums are always square and have either a black or a white cover. The cover and overall size of the album is 12"x12" and the largest size photograph that will be inside is a generous 10"x10". The albums come in different capacities of 30 and 40 pages, holding 50 and 70 photographs respectively, and can be upgraded by adding 10 pages at a time up to a maximum of 60 pages in total.

The sample album I have produced here has a black cover with black pages but, to make it a little more interesting, I have used white matts (the card overlays that sit on top of the photographs). The album can also come with black matts.

As with all of the albums I use they are designed specifically for you and will fit your choices of photographs perfectly. You will be asked, some time after the wedding, to choose the pictures you want included in the album. I then take that information to produce a layout, based on your image choices, and show it to you online. You can then make changes if you need to. This design process ensures that the album is only produced when you are completely satisfied with the way it looks.

Useful Links:
What is the Difference between a Matted and a Storybook Album?
Wedding Packages
Studio Storybook Style Album
Gallery showing the differences between all of the albums I offer.

Lee and Aitor's Wedding at the Brig o' Doon Hotel in Alloway.

My last wedding of 2011 was a great way to finish the year for me and proved just how nice a wedding in the middle of the winter can be. The day didn't start so well, for me at least, as I found myself battling westwards along the A77 in blizzard conditions the day after hurricane Bawbag had swept through the country. I was having serious doubts about continuing but as soon as I approached the coast at Ayr the snow stopped and the sun came out. Incidentally, there was originally a good chance that the wedding was going to be held a day earlier, on the day of the hurricane itself, so that was a stroke of luck!

I was on my way to the Brigodoon Hotel in Alloway for another friend's wedding - this time it was fellow Spanish nightclass attendee Lee and her Basque partner Aitor. As I mentioned in my last post, I do try and avoid covering the weddings of friends but Lee is so lovely that I knew the day would be a great one and I didn't want to pass it by. She arranged a lovely meal for me too!

I have, over the years, photographed many weddings at the Brigodoon but it was almost exactly a year since my list visit and I was struck with this incredible sense of deja vu when I arrived and found fabulous make-up artist Ainsley working in exactly the same room, in exactly the same position as when I last met her.

Lee's beautiful dress, and I seem to recall, the bridesmaid's dresses and the mother of the bride's too, were all handmade by Elspeth Kerr and were all absolutely fantastic, as you can clearly see! Once everybody was ready we all went downstairs for a wonderful multi-national ceremony. The service was a straightforward civil ceremony but with a few extra additions. The vows were translated into Basque, by Aitor's brother and best man, for all of Aitor's family that had travelled up from Spain to freeze in Scotland. There were a couple of readings and also a surprise song about the day, sung in Basque by one of Lee and Aitor's guests.

We couldn't pass by the opportunity to go outside for a few quick pictures as it was about the only dry, sunny day we'd had for weeks so out we went - it was hardly warm, I'll admit, but it was lovely all the same and gave us the chance to take some lovely pictures in the fading winter light. I started with a group shot of all of the guests, taken from the balcony, and then did a few family shots before taking the happy bride and groom up onto the famous bridge for a few more shots. A rainbow even appeared just to add a bit of kitsch to the day.

I was assured that this is traditional in the Basque part of Spain...

After photographing the speeches against the crazy, slightly distracting, floral prints of the curtains (why do hotels always have curtains like this - what's wrong with plain fabric?) the room was changed around and the evening entertainments began. To get everybody warmed up the first part of the evening was a disco with a retro vibe (I thought this was excellent and the DJ, Divine, definitely deserves a mention). Following the disco was a traditional Scottish ceilidh performed by Jiggered and, as you'll see from the photographs, the Basque contingent certainly enjoyed a bit of Scottish tradition.