The show runs over 8 days and is a fantastic event with fabulous training opportunities. Over 14,000 photographers visited the show this year which was held at the Novotel Hotel in Hammersmith, London.

Due to a rather busy photography schedule I was only able to attend the show from the Wednesday through to the Saturday, but I managed to squeeze a ton of learning into those 4 days.

The culmination of the week is the Annual SWPP Awards Dinner held on the Sunday evening and hosted by TV personality Phillipa Forrester – sadly due to photography commitments I couldn’t attend this year – I did have some entries in the Final, but having viewed the stiff competition I thought I had zero chance of winning.

So imagine my surprise when I received a text message on Sunday night from one of my colleagues at the dinner letting me know that I had won an award! I was gobsmacked to say the least.

The award was “Members Choice Wedding Photographer of the Year” – this is a competition that runs throughout the year on the SWPP Members discussion forum. Each Week we are asked to put forward an image against a particular wedding theme and the membership then votes for the winning image each week. The winning images are then put forward for a final vote and the winner gets the title of Members Choice Wedding Photographer of the Year.

The SWPP is the fastest growing association for professional photographers and has 1000′s of members worldwide, so it is a fabulous honour to be given an award that was voted on by my fellow members and peers.

The winning image had just got into the final on the last week of the competition when members are asked to submit their “best” image of the year – that was an honour in itself to win that week, but to win the overall competition was totally unexpected.

So thanks to my fellow members and a HUGE thank you to our Wedding couple, Maria and Ewen Christie who were very patient with myself and Morag when we created this image on a very rainy and dark day in November under the Glasgow University Cloisters. Although I was the photographer, this image is all about the lighting and pose, so full credit has to go to Morag who setup the lighting and to Maria and Ewen who needed just a tiny bit of direction from us to pull this off.

From a technical standpoint the image was taken under very challenging conditions – it was indeed very very dark (it was raining at monsoon levels) and we had to expose at 1/30s f/2.8 and using ISO 6400. It is a testament to the power of the Nikon D700 cameras that I use that I was able to get this image at all. The lighting was from what little ambient daylight there was, and a single Lowell ID Video light, held expertly by Morag who was tucked in behind the left-hand pillar. The video light presents a warm tungsten colour balance and when we adjust this back on the computer we have to cool the light a bit to get correct skin tones – this then has the wonderful side-effect of cooling the ambient daylight colour and you then get that beautiful blue colour that you can see in the image. 6400 iso is a very high gain level to set your camera to, and for an image like this we would normally hope to be at just 200 iso – a higher iso level can cause a lot of digital noise in an image, however the Nikon handles it very well and what noise remains present can be further cleaned up during processing by the very powerful Lightroom 3 software that we use.

So, SWPP Members Choice Wedding Photographer of the Year 2010 – a culmination of a fantastic year! A big thank you from myself and Morag to all our 2010 couples for helping us make our job so much fun!

As we move into 2011 I thought I would take a look back at 2010 which was an exceptionally busy year for us.

We shot 44 weddings last year and we travelled as far north as Aberdeen and Eilean Donan and as far south as Kelso (we did Aberdeen and Kelso in one very tiring weekend LOL). Heading west we made it all the way down the Mull of Kintrye, and eastward we made it to the home of golf, St Andrews.  Among those weddings we had the fabulous privilege of photographing an Olympic Athlete ( Skeleton bobsleigher Iain Roberts) and a Wimbledon Doubles Champion (Tennis Player Jamie Murray).

To all our fantastic couples last year, thank you so much for allowing myself and Morag to be part of your special day.

We also worked with some superb Scottish Wedding Venues and some of the highlights for us were: Eilean Donan Castle; Glasgow University Chapel; St Salvador’s Chapel in St Andrews; the stunning Dalmunzie Castle in Glenshee; historic Balbirnie House in Fife; the five star Mar Hall on the banks of the Clyde Estuary; and the fabulous Stonefield Castle hidden away in a beautiful part of the Mull of Kintyre.

From a photographic point of view I invested in my craft and spent some quality training time in the company of Scotland’s own Trevor and Faye Yerbury and Yorkshire’s John Denton and I’m sure as a direct result I received a Licentiate Qualification from the Society of Wedding and Portrait Professionals (SWPP) and I also won 6 Gold Awards for my work and 9 Silver Awards in the SWPP’s International Competitions.  I was also recognised by my peers by twice winning a weekly competition voted on by fellow SWPP members.

We’ve had our weddings featured in “Best Scottish Weddings” magazine (thank you Jacqui and Chris) and “No 1″ magazine (thank you Jeff and Claire) and just this week I had a four page profile about my wedding photography appear in Pro Photo magazine – which is a monthly magazine targeted at fellow professional photographers – so that is a fabulous honour.

It’s not all been hard work though – in between all that Morag and I also managed to spend a total of 6 fabulous weeks at our villa in Florida and we thoroughly enjoyed a fantastic (though very windy) two weeks in Crete – the highlight of which was a day trip to the stunning island of Santorini.  Despite my youthful years I was also very proud to become a Grandfather for the third time with the birth of my Granddaughter Bronté. 2010 was a fantastic year for us and hopefully it was for you too.

A look forward to 2011

Moving into 2011 we have another busy year ahead of us. We already have 33 weddings booked and over the next few weeks, which are the busiest time of year for enquiries I anticipate that number will rise sharply.  Again we will be far-travelled from our home near Stirling, with weddings all over Scotland, into the North of England and our first International Wedding.

Again I am always looking to improve the quality of my work and I have further training planned with a trip to the Annual SWPP Convention in London next week including a full day’s training working with a model in an abandoned London Underground station with the fabulous John Denton. That day should be fun.  I am also working on Associateship qualification with the SWPP which is extremely difficult to achieve, but I’ve marked it down as one of my New Year’s resolutions.

When I was spending a few weeks in Florida I worked on developing my photographic processing to make it much more “film-like”. Whilst digital photography offers fantastic benefits, I miss the look and feel of the film photography that I grew up on. Film had a certain look and digital tends to have a very clinical feel to it.  I’m delighted to have completed that process and now have a style of processing that emulates the look of the fabulous colour film Kodak Porta NC and the Black and White look of Kodak Plus-X, two fantastic film stocks that are perfect for portrait and wedding work.

So have a truly wonderful 2011, especially if you are getting married this year – here are our 2010 weddings presented in a short video and I’ve also uploaded a couple of photos showing my new film-like processing. (N.B. These images were taken on a training workship with John Denton a few months back and feature the stunning model Fredau Hoekstra)

Colour “Film-like” processing example emulating Kodak Porta NC filmstock

Black and White “film-like” processing example emulating Kodak Plus-X filmstock

You can view our full wedding photography portfolio here.  If you would like to discuss the possibility of us photographing your own wedding, please contact us using the “Contact” menu above or give us a call on 01259 210299 or 07887 835431 – we’d love to hear from you.

Lastly, please don’t be shy and leave us a comment below – we love to hear your feedback. If you are on Facebook we’d be delighted if you could click the “Like” button at the bottom of this article and we’d love you to “Like” our Facebook page for our photography which can be found at http://www.facebook.com/alanhutchisonphotography – Many thanks!

Gean House is located on the Eastern fringe of Alloa off the B9096 Tullibody to Alloa road.   The stunning mansion house was constructed in 1912 as a wedding gift for his son by a member of the famous Patons family, owners of many of the local woollen mills in the area at that time.

The Gean simply oozes with character with its huge fireplaces, warm wooden panelling and its distinctive Edwardian architecture.

The Wedding Fayre kicks off at 11am and runs on until 4pm. There is a bridal fashion show at 1:30pm and last year it was standing room only – so please arrive early to make sure you get a good seat.  Entry to the Wedding Fayre is free of charge.

Come visit our stand and you could win a lovely bottle of champagne and you may also leave with a nice little gift.

We will also be launching our exciting new album range so please be sure to stop by our stand and say hello.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

In the meantime I will leave you with this photograph I took at Gean House just this past weekend, featuring the lovely Fiona Bruce wearing a Watters gown supplied by Ivory Whites in Perth and jewellery by Gioia Mia.

For me this image captures The Gean’s warmth and character – I hope you agree.

P.S. Okay, you may not know here Gean House is?  Here’s a Google maps link to Gean House.

P.P.S.  Like the above photograph and want to see more – please view our portfolio

1. Take the creative mind of a certain Mr John Denton (photographer extraordinaire)
2. Roll one wooden floor to an even thickness
3. Add one attractive model (thank you Ms Ashleigh Hewitt)
4. Garnish with some recycled Christmas Fairy Lights
5. Lastly sprinkle some digital processing to taste

This is a quick shot I took at John Denton’s mini Lighting Workshop that I organised at Stirling Camera Club on Wednesday night.

John very kindly drove all the way up from Yorkshire to present a mini workshop on lighting techniques to the members of the club.  John presented an extremely enjoyable evening and it was a real pleasure to meet him.

Coincidentally this shot reminds me that I don’t have any time to lie down at the moment as it’s all go.  I’m currently finishing off Joyce and Doug’s photographs from their recent wedding at Broomhall Castle in Menstrie. On Saturday Morag and I head off along the River Forth to Orocco Pier in South Queensferry for Nicola and Paul’s wedding.

On Sunday we have three client meetings and then a visit to the stunning Balbirnie House in Markinch to chat through final arrangements for an upcoming Civil Partnership.

Next weekend we will be at Gean House in Alloa working with a local model on a bridal photoshoot. We’ll be experimenting with some new lighting equipment recommended by Gordon MacGowan during his SWPP Convention Masterclass.

Then its back to editing and preparing some new sample albums just in time for an upcoming Wedding Fayre also at Gean House on the 21st of March.  Oh, and a little trip up to the Winter Gardens and Palm Court Hotel in Aberdeen on the 20th for Sharleene and Barry’s wedding.

Keep an eye open for some sneak peak images from Nicola and Paul’s wedding early next week.

Like what you see? Want to see more? Please take a minute to view our portfolio.

Want to get in touch? Please click on the Contact menu at the top of the page.

Thanks for visiting.

The convention is a mix of trade show and educational seminars and we had a very busy weekend trying to absorb as much information as possible.

Morag focused on the product side of things whilst I tried to rub shoulders with some of the best photographers in the business and glean as much information from them as I could.  Morag picked up on a number of potential new products for us and we’ll be investigating these further in the next few months.

I attended a number of seminars and the stand-outs for me were the seminar with Gordon MacGowan and the practical workshop I did with Trevor and Faye Yerbury. Together they represent the very cream of Scottish (and UK) Wedding Photography so it was a great opportunity for me to learn from the masters.

Gordon’s seminar focused on the fine details to look for when posing couples for their bridal portraits – as I’m primarily a photojournalist I was interested in gaining any tips I could to improve the more artistic side of my photography. Gordon is very down to earth and even describes himself as the “Gordon Ramsay of Wedding Photography”, so it was a very entertaining seminar.

Sunday morning I spent in the company of the very charismatic Trevor and Faye Yerbury – the Yerbury’s are almost a Scottish institution, with the family photography business dating back to the 1800′s.  You might think that a company with such a history may be steeped in the more traditional side of photography, well how wrong you would be – Trevor and Faye’s work is at the very cutting edge and they provide great inspiration.

The workshop I attended was entitled “Shoot in the City” and focused on the scenario of working with a couple to take their bridal portraits in a strange city with little preparation – Trevor focused on how to rapidly seek out interesting backgrounds and how to quickly interact with the couple to get some real passion in the images. Trevor and Faye’s photographs are simply works of art, so it was a real joy to get some insight into how they work.

The shot on the right is from that workshop and features the delightful models Nicola Johnston and Steven Duffy. As well as being models, they are both trained actors, so they very quickly adopted their roles as the “newly-wed couple”.  Trevor and Faye directed the models and setup the shot for us, so I take no credit for how stunning this shot turned out – but I have learned how to look for similar setups in the future – so watch out for the occasional bit of “artistic” rather than “photojournalistic” work from me in the future.

The SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Professionals) runs a national competion each month over a range of different categories.  The Gold Award winning images will go forward to the SWPP’s Annual competition to be held at their Convention in London during January.

I was particularly delighted to note that one of the Gold’s was in the category for Wedding Photojournalism which is my chosen discipline of wedding photography.

According to the SWPP’s judging criteria, images awarded Gold are deemed to be “images of the highest standard”.  The images are also showcased in the Society’s monthly magazine, Professional Imagemaker.

The Wedding Photojournalism image was from Dean and Nina’s recent wedding and is entitled “Three Layers of Love”.

The other winning Gold image was for some personal work of mine and this was in the Travel Category.

Both images are particular favourites of mine so it was great to see that the judges agreed.

I also won a further two silver awards in the portrait categories and another silver for my landscape work.

So all in all a nice way to start the weekend!

The unhappy couple, Marc and Sylvia Day, took photographer Gareth Bowers to court for £1450 in compensation for breach of contract.   The photographer, has quite rightly since been removed as a member of the SWPP.

It would appear Bowers offered a combined photography and video package and the video clip that the couple produced in evidence to the court was like something out of Fawlty Towers.

The example photographs were truly dreadful and it was clearly an open and shut case.

If any couple needed a reminder on the importance of selecting the right photographer this was it – the couple’s wedding day was ruined.

To help avoid situations like this, we recently produced a list of questions to ask any prospective photographer – this recent case highlights the reasons why you need to properly interview your photographer before engaging them to photograph the most important day of your life.

Meet the photographer face to face.

Check out their images in detail.

Ask to see the photographs from a complete wedding, not just their “selected” portfolio.

Don’t let this happen to you!