Wedding photographer Sheffield : the creative and personable Guy Duke.
To read on please follow this link: The Wedding Secret
As well as working as a wedding photographer in Sheffield I also work with local artists and performers as a photographer and web designer. I have recently completed a web build for a friend and client of mine Emily Rose Greenwood. Emily is a very talented circus performer with a massive range of skills all involving strength, agility and coordination that most of us don’t possess.
She had a collection of great images and a pretty cool logo so putting this all together was a really interesting project.
On top of the web build we recently did a photo shoot together. Emily is fairly heavily pregnant and wanted to get some shots of her expanding figure whilst she did some low level silks work. Silks are a long piece of material or pieces of material which are suspended from a frame and on which Emily performs acrobatic manoeuvres.
This is the web link – please have a look. emilyrosecircus.co.uk
On October 16th last year I did a wedding shoot at the venue mentioned above. The Hotel is set in 12 acres of beautiful woodland in a charming building all just one mile from the centre of Sheffield. Over the years the Kenwood Hall has experienced a number of name alterations and has changed ownership on several occasions. The oldest section of the building dates back to 1845, while the land on which the hotel is built can be traced back to the beginning of the 12th century. The hotel started out life as the home of George Wostenholm, a Sheffield cutlery manufacturer in 1845. Its most recent transformation came in the year 2007 when it was bought by the Principal Hayley group, and it was at this time it took on its most recent name – the Kenwood Hall.
Weddings are held in the old part of the hotel and provide great backdrops for photos. There is lovely detail in the ceilings and the bar area has some grand wooden cabinets. Outside there are the grounds with magnificent old trees and a lake. As this wedding was in Autumn there were leaves on the ground and it all looked stunning for the formal shots of the bride and groom.
The building itself also provides a good backdrop with arched doorways and heavy stonework. The couple chose to have fireworks in the evening and this too provided excellent material for me to produce some fantastic photographs. The staff at the hotel were very helpful to me and made my day more relaxed as well as catering for all the guests.
I would like to stress the importance of a high quality venue in order to receive high quality shots. It’s hard to create a great shot from an uninspiring venue. The time of year is also of great importance and Autumn is one of the better seasons.
I believe that for your wedding day it’s best to aim for a good mix of formal and reportage shots. Formal shots have their place as a reminder of the important family members who were present. They allow for a very structured and geometric composition where all the theories of photography can be incorporated. Angles and lines lead the viewer’s eye from one area to another, either into or out of the image. Sometimes the photographer can make the eye read left to right which is normal. At other times the photographer may reverse this. The formal shot as it is so structured lacks personality and will not capture any real resemblance of the subject’s natural look.
With the reportage portrait even when the composition is not as carefully produced the photographer can capture the moment and the real essence of the subject’s personality. Even slight soft focus or an element of motion are acceptable. For me these shots have the greatest intrigue as they are natural and the subject is not posing. Eyes looking away from the camera can produce beautiful or handsome results. In recent times wedding photography has become much more focused on reportage photography with much less traditional group work. This also means that the day is not as interrupted as it once was. The photographer can become part of the crowd, mingling and observing rather than directing and taking centre stage.
Below are two examples of a traditional wedding shot and a modern reportage shot.
Hi. I have just updated my sister website Guy Duke photography. Here you can view some of my other work which is related to suburban landscapes. I strive to create simple yet interesting images from subject mater that would usually be overlooked. I sell my work through my sister’s company ‘Give Art’. I also sell work through various galleries based in Sheffield.
The other section of this site consist of portraits. Many of these are from jobs I have done with Sheffield based performers. I undertake design projects for company promotion and occasionally work on web design.
last Friday evening (26th February) I photographed the opening of a new exhibition at the gallery in Ecclesall woods. A cold night didn’t bring many people to the dark woods. The artist on show was Simon Kent who sculpts wood. His work is quite sinister and I’m not sure it’s for all. Maybe those of a fragile nature might find it a bit dark and depressing. Very interesting photography material though.
The gallery itself is an amazing structure built by Hector and Cedric. Made entirely of wood it sits well in the woods. It has a very rustic feel to it and contains some great woodwork. If I could I’d buy it and live in it!
A friend of mine Matt Swift took this photo of me when we were working on a shoot together at Capita in Sheffield.
Duke’s weddings will be appearing at City Hall on Saturday 13th January as part of the BIG Valentine Market.
Please come along from 10am to meet Guy, view his work and browse his albums.