The weather was near perfect my meeting today with Sarah & Kal - just the right amount of cloud in the sky and a slight breeze (much better than rain, high winds or a clear high contrast sky).
We had a quick chat about how the wedding plans were coming along, discussing the schedule for their Big Day next April, before going for a quick 30-40 minute pre-wedding shoot around the Tees Barrage and the Infinity Bridge.
The main aims of a pre-wedding shoot are to give the couple a taste for how the wedding portraits will go, as well as giving me a feel for how easy it will be to get the "safe" couple shots and how much I'll be able to "direct" them into the more creative shots...not that I haven't shot weddings without a pre-wedding shoot, it's just that they are few and far between - usually attributed to a short-notice booking where it just isn't feasible to schedule one in.
It also helps build the photographer-client relationship; rather than booking me 18 months before the wedding and not seeing or hearing from me again until the wedding day itself.
By taking a few hours out of their busy lives, it shows the couples commitment towards their wedding photos, and as a thank you I provide a disc of all the photos from the pre-wedding shoot for them to do with as they wish; an image from the shoot is also mounted for guests to sign on the Big Day (acting a little like a guest book).
Sarah & Kal started the shoot (as all couples do) feeling a little nervous about being photographed, but quickly got into the spirit of the shoot and I managed to catch some really natural shots of them - find the overall shoot effortless, which I hope they did too.
Their little boy, Coen, also tagged along and managed to get a mini shoot of his own.
