Last Saturday was the occasion of a wedding reception for a couple who were recently married abroad and had a party back home at Milnrow Cricket Club.
Arriving early to allow a good pre-plan for photos, I was met with a small clubhouse, with a very small car park, no garden area, all fences covered with sponsor advertising hoardings, and daylight fading fast with the bride and groom due to arrive around 7:45 with the sun already below the horizon.
The only real photo location, the cricket pitch, was rather waterlogged due to heavy rain for most of the day, even though the sun had come out late afternoon and provided a lovely sky, which was about to fade as we waited for the lovely couple to arrive, and rendered the pitch rather too wet to ask the families and couple to venture out for photos.
A major feature of the sodden pitch, was a rather large puddle just outside the clubhouse, which prompted an interesting little idea to get a special photo from the rather sparse possibilities. A few test shots done, and the idea was fully birthed.
Just to add to the mix, I had brought along a couple of LED video lights I had bought for a very good price from Ebay, in preparation for a wedding later in the year with a bride who suffers from NEAD (Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder), where I will be unable to use flash at all, as it may trigger a non-epileptic seizure, removing all memories of the day up until that point. The idea being to give them a road test.
As it happened, this was the perfect choice, as they allowed me to do some family group shots in the dark, with a two-light set-up, which was perfect for some great night-time couple shots as well.
Here's the scene just before daylight departed, to show the location. I also pre-plotted a safe route through the puddles to lead the couple along to keep them dry.
Tags: Wedding photography Rochdale near Manchester, actually at Milnrow. NEAD non epileptic attack disorder to avoid seizures, with no flash used.
