The latest work from internationally acclaimed wedding photographer and wedding photojournalist Jeff Ascough, covering Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Liverpool, Cumbria, West Yorkshire, and the whole of the North West.

New workshop dates announced

 Following on from the success of my workshop in March, and the weekly requests for me to hold another, I am pleased to announce a two day workshop for October 2012. The first workshop was oversubscribed and sold out inside of three weeks. We had 28 people on a reserve list, so places for this one are sure to go fast!!

The seminar will be held at Manchester Airport allowing easy access to the hotel for photographers flying in from overseas, and for people coming from different parts of the UK.

The workshop was announced last Thursday and as of today (Tuesday 8th May) it is already 30% full Friday 11th May we are 50% full. If you are interested in attending, then all the details can be found here.

Image of the week 49

It’s the first dance that takes centre stage for the second week in a row. This image is the opposite of last week’s although they were taken at roughly the same point during the day. One of the reasons why I shoot in the style that I do is precisely for moments like these - no two weddings are the same and no two sets of pictures are the same. 

image of the week 47

“Sharpness is a bourgeois concept” - Henri Cartier-Bresson

I believe that photography is at a crossroads; on the one hand we have DSLR cameras and lenses which are able to resolve incredible detail and on the other we have phone cameras with filters that blur, soften and degrade images in the name of ‘art’.

image of the week 46

Looking back over the past year on this blog, I’ve noticed that I haven’t really highlighted what could be described as one of the most important part of the wedding day. A marriage doesn’t become a legal entity until the registers have been signed, and yet this is one of the moments during the day that is usually restricted to a posed picture of the couple with a blank register.

image of the week 45

This week’s image is a study in patience and looking for the right picture no matter how simple the subject matter is. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts in this series, my preferred approach to shooting details is to photograph them as part of a real life sequence rather than staging them for the camera, but this isn’t always the easiest option.

image of the week 44

The words ‘Wedding Photojournalism’ seem to be on every wedding photographer’s website these days. For me, a wedding photojournalist is someone that treats the wedding day as an event to be photographed quietly and sympathetically without attracting attention and without directing or prompting the people at the wedding. The images should tell a story - that is the whole point. But within that story should be good composition and light and a photograph that evokes an emotional response from the viewer.

image of the week 43

At this time of year I look back over the previous wedding season and decide on pictures for my website portfolio. Part of the process involves going through each wedding and shortlisting groups of images which I feel would make an interesting addition to the website. Going over the images I was struck by how pictures suddenly take on new life once they are viewed weeks or months after taking them. The late, great Garry Winogrand always left his images for months or even years before looking at them as it removed his eye from the circumstances around the picture. I guess it gave him a new unhindered perspective on the picture. 

image of the week 42

If you haven’t already heard, the new Canon Eos 5D Mark III camera has been unveiled today, and for the past two weeks I have been field testing it for them. This is the most anticipated camera for the past five years and I’m really honoured and excited to be involved with it. I have a full review of the camera on the photographers section of this blog.

image of the week 41

 

I love to just sit and observe people at a wedding, the different types of body language, the way people interact with each other and so on. It’s fascinating to me, and I’m sure that if I had never been a professional photographer I would have ended up studying psychology. People make some of the best photographs, but to get these images a photographer has to be patient and pay attention to everything that is happening around them.

image of the week 40

 

 

This past week I read a very interesting thread that was posted on an internet forum. It was about low light wedding photography and the use of flash. The basic theme running through the thread was the notion that you can’t shoot in low light without flash and call yourself a pro wedding photographer, and those that choose not to use flash do so because they don’t understand how to use it. I always seem to be mentioned in these threads as the pro that never uses flash for my photojournalistic wedding work, which is ok as I don’t have an issue with that, but inevitably there is always someone who tries to undermine what I do because it isn’t what they do. One poster on the thread bizarrely suggested that I actually pick and choose my clients and venues so that I ensure that I don’t get bad lighting!!! 

Image of the week 39

My job can be so glamorous sometimes!! Freezing cold late December afternoons with icy rain pouring from the skies and light dropping faster than an Italian football manager’s career in England. Battling with rain on the lenses, umbrellas obscuring the pictures, and numbness in fingers and toes. Welcome to my world :)