Wedding Photographer Manchester and Cheshire
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Wedding Photography Manchester and Cheshire
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Headshot Photographer Manchester
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I have a program running called “Pixtrakk” that looks for duplicated pictures from my website across the internet. Almost every month I get hits from this picture of Hooky from another news or music site using this image.
Now, I’m sure you are thinking that, wow Craige you must be raking it in, but I’m afraid I agreed to a one-off payment for this picture in advance from Hookys team. This means that multiple uses are not covered by multiple payments.
The main reason this image gained the promotion it got was because of Peter Hooks promotional machine, so as a lowly photographer in Manchester I can’t complain. It would have been nice to have had a name check on all those publications but that’s why I’m writing a BLOG article to try and retrieve some credit.
Photography is a fantastic mistress cruel and very rarely kind, but when she is generous it’s a pure pleasure to be part of the process. Photographs are similar to children, you first create them, you help them grow and develop and then you send them into the world. Sometimes with a debt attached but most of the time with a willingness that they succeed in the world.
I am sure some of my images will be published long after I die, I hope that someone makes more money than I did.
Regards
Craige Barker (Photographer)
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To create the perfect wedding picture, You need:
1, Beautiful Bride
2, Handsome Groom (optional)
3, Amazing Surroundings
4, Stunning Sunset
5, Small Boy Hiding Behind wedding couple!
Dress by Cheadle Bride, Photography Craige Barker
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Another shot from a wedding at Sandhole Wedding Barn. I was sooooo lucky to get this sunset. I love wedding photography, you get such amazing opportunities. This looks more like Africa than November in Cheshire.
Craige Barker - Wedding Photographer Manchester and Cheshire
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A few years ago while taking wedding photos at Quarry Bank Mill. I had asked them to remove one of the windows in their grade 1 listed building for me to take a picture. The staff at Quarry Bank Mill were great and they had maintenance men available on the day to assist. The picture was great and The Mill used it for a while for all the wedding promotions. It was on all the banners outside the venue and on promotional merchandise for them.
I keep getting asked why they stopped using the picture for their weddings so thought I would create this post to explain.
I believe that the following year a young couple who had booked their wedding wanted to replicate the picture and asked Quarry Bank Mill to help. They had the same maintenance staff available and the window was duly removed. As the couple prepared for the photo to be taken a very drunk Best Man decided that the open aperture was too much to resist and through himself through and onto the ledge. He then decided to hang off the ledge swinging his legs from side to side like a drunk pendulum on a grandfather clock. The staff at the Mill then did all they could to pull him in and replace the window.
Since then because of health and safety concerns they have not allowed anyone else to copy My Picture. This is great as no one can replicate but sad as well as I lost another marketing avenue. Let's look for another.
Here is the original story....
https://www.craigebarker.com/blog/2013/8/getting-stylish-at-styal-mill
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This Friday I’m covering a wedding in Madrid. I love these destination weddings, I get a little trip away while taking some amazing shots. I’m in the city centre so I’m going to do some tourist stuff. Has anybody got any suggestions on areas to visit. Yes the above picture is not Madrid but its the only one I had :)
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I have been looking for a decent USB stick to give to couples following a wedding. A USB in box is a nice idea but very expensive. I recently saw these small bottles with the USB in the cork. I put all the pictures on the USB stick then print some small pictures to put in the bottle. I love the Idea of a bottle full of memories as the whole day is in the bottle ready for the bride to view. First ones are going out today.
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"Extreme Cake Makers Wedding in Portmeirion"
Video
A few weeks ago I was asked to be part of Michelle and Adam's wedding in Portmeirion in North Wales. Portmeirion is an amazing backdrop to a wedding with the architecture and history from William Clough Ellis. Its almost impossible to take a bad wedding picture in Portmerion. If you just turned around with your eyes shut and pressed the button it would be amazing. Now add to that the Beautiful Bride and handsome groom of Michelle and Adam and I have had an amazing number of pictures to edit.
As part of the day Channel 4’s “Extreme Cake Makers” were there as they had made the couples wedding cake. It was modelled on the pair with their lovely dog Puddles and the amazing little Mini.
I have put on a video clip where anyone who knows me will see the back of my head and me trying to get out of shot with a pink tie on.
It was a great day and I can't wait for another wedding in Portmeirion.
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Today I took delivery of a new photo toy ready for this weekends weddings. I can wait to try this out later on with guests. It seems to be better with the speed light already. though my poor wife Debbie has had to suffer me in the face with it.
The amazing thing is is folds down to nothing so its coming with me to Madrid next month. Its difficult getting good light modifiers on the flight with you or they don't do the job anyway. I think this could be a big boost. I will possibly end up losing it.
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I’ve been working with Cheadle Bride, photographing dresses that weren’t supplied with shots by the manufacturer, so that brides have a clear idea of the styles and ranges the shop provides, before they even turn up! Every bride wants to look perfect but individual and the exquisite quality and extensive range at Cheadle Bride will enable her to find the dress of her dreams, with all the accessories she’ll need to add those necessary finishing touches.
When I walk our dog, Biscuit, I often take her through Seven Sisters field, a walk along the stream from the March Hare towards Bramhall Hall. It’s such a beautiful area and I’ve wanted to use it for a photo shoot for a while now. I was given the opportunity when Cheadle Brides lent me a fabulous dress and I asked Vanessa Elden to model it for me.
As you’ll see, Vanessa is a beautiful woman with stunning bone structure, including what I’ve told her is a “crazy jaw line”! She is also game for anything and was willing to not only sit on a bridge, allowing the dress to be displayed to stunning effect, and be photographed in the field, for a more classic pose, but actually donned a wet suit so I could take photos of her in the stream!
At her suggestion, we created an Ophelia* moment, which is breathtakingly beautiful, ethereal and quite spectacular, and throughout the whole shoot, regardless of how wet she was and how heavy the dress became from the water, she managed to maintain her poise and elegance, and unwavering good humour. Thanks Vanessa,
You will find Cheadle Bride at 148 Turves Road, Cheadle Hulme. I’ll be doing more work with them in the future and I hope to be photographing more of their lovely brides in the coming year.
*From Hamlet. Don’t try it at home!
For more shots and out takes http://www.craigebarker.com/cheadlebrideriver
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Our first wedding photography for this year was at the beautiful Ansty Hall in Coventry, a 17th century country house with its own church in the grounds. I was looking forward to this assignment as I had met with Rachel and Dominic a couple of months before for a pre-shoot and could see what a fabulous background and setting we would have.
On the day, Angela O’Neill who is my 2nd Photographer was with me and her style really helped on getting the right shots. At Craige Barker Photography, my intention is to capture the emotion of the event and this is made more possible by having a second photographer, to secure those moments the main photographer might miss, through being elsewhere. In this way we have a more complete memory of the day, with posed and candid shots adding an extra element. To me, this is what modern wedding photography is about, giving the bride and groom a full sense of what happened throughout their day and a reminder of the small details that may otherwise go unnoticed.
It was great fun to work with Rachel, her Mum and the bridesmaids as they got Rachel ready for her big day – and what a fabulous job they did. Rachel was radiant and beautiful and I even managed to capture her in a more pensive moment, before the ceremony began, reflecting on the big step she was about to take. Dominic and the groomsmen took a slightly different approach to their pre-wedding preparations, and simply straightened each other’s buttonholes!
In the church, the Vicar set the tone of the day with his enthusiastic welcome to the wedding party. The ceremony was up-beat and cheerful – as a wedding should be – and what a beautiful place to be married. The stained glass windows in the church were worth photographing on their own, and they added an enchanting background to the photos of the marriage itself. In one photo, you can see Angela taking another photo of the happy couple from a different angle to myself, illustrating the value of this photography partnership.
Once the ceremony was over, it was a short walk across the grounds from the church to the reception. Despite the wedding being held in Coventry, both families have a Liverpudlian background, and thus a determination to have fun, which was written all over their faces on the walk back!
It was a glorious day and I was proud to take the photographs. When the last Champagne cork has popped, the five layers of the cake have been eaten, the wedding dress stored safely with the silver shoes and the last of the bouquet flowers pressed, Rachel and Dominic will have a wedding album to forever remind them of their happy day. That’s what wedding photography is all about.
A few weeks ago I was asked by my friend, Naomi Timperley, to meet up with a guy she had met with a great idea. I met with Rob Illidge at the studio on Oldham Street to discuss his plans. He didn’t want to give too much away but I knew it was about photography.
We met and he explained his idea, it’s not totally new but he believes the first business of it’s kind in the UK. His company, Captured Proposals, are assisting couples in creating great proposal situations and ensuring that the proposal is captured in a candid or paparazzi style of photography.
I already capture weddings so doing proposals seemed like a natural inclusion in my work. I said yes and we have been working towards our first shoots.
Our first customer was Imtiaz and Anisa, I've known Imtiaz for years and he called me to discuss a proposal and wedding shoot, not knowing about Rob’s idea. He and Rob discussed some ideas and they decided on The Hilton hotel Manchester.
The shoot was in Cloud 23 in the Hilton. I did a recce two days before to see what the lighting would be like at 6 o'clock. It was very dark but I thought with the camera equipment we had we should be able to pull it off. We reserved a table for the proposal couple and the table for ourselves, I was joined by Angela a photographer who has helped me on other wedding shoots.
Obviously we couldn't use flash because that would make us standout. We had to capture the amazing view at the same time of the couple proposing which made all the lighting problems a bigger issue.
On the actual night of the proposal I waited in reception and attempted to capture shots from the stairs ensuring that the Anisa didn't see me. I have not been so excited about a shoot for a long time. I thought she was going to see me but the environment helped to produce a natural cover.
Angela was waiting upstairs for the couple to exit the lift and she took over until I got upstairs.
We continued snapping away upstairs and were amazed at how easy it is to pretend your shooting around and not be detected.
Anyway, Imtiaz went down on one knee to propose and totally blocked the shot. I was trying to shoot around him but he kept covering the shot, I still think that even with these issues we managed to Capture the Proposal correctly. She said yes and there was a small cheer around the bar.
We are now planning the wedding photography.
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Quarry Bank mill is a stunning location for a wedding so I was delighted when I discovered that I would be photographing Robyn and Simon’s wedding there.
The estate offers a huge range of magnificent photo opportunities which we discovered when we went for a pre-shoot a few weeks before the wedding. The great thing about doing a pre-shoot is that it gives you a great feel for the venue and ideas for potential shots; and a place like Quarry Bank Mill has so much to offer from intimate portraits in their gardens to dramatic vista shots in front of the watermill.
We had a great day exploring the place and posing for pictures, but we were still missing that big ‘album shot’. As we were standing facing Styal Mill admiring the architecture and all the windows on the building we had a ‘light bulb’ moment. We could take a huge wide-angle picture of the Robyn and Simon posing in the middle window of the mill. The only problem was that the windows didn’t open enough to be able to see them properly.
Styal Mill were incredibly accommodating – not only did they agree for us to do it, but they also offered to remove the entire window on the wedding day so we could get the perfect shot! As the big day approached I was worried that they might change their mind or decide it wasn’t safe, but as promised they supplied a joiner who took out the window so we could get this amazing image. The only thing that Robyn and Simon had to worry about was not getting vertigo whilst they posed.
Now the Quarry Bank Mill have asked to use this image on their website and literature. Check out their website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/quarry-bank-mill/
Saturday’s wedding fair at Manchester Town Hall was a superb event. The place was packed with couples checking out the vintage buses, exhibitors, sampling buffet food and or course watching Melanie James’ catwalk show, which I also had the pleasure of photographing.
The audience were treated to an hour-long show where she showcased 38 of her stunning designs. Every single one was incredible; they’re all hand-made vintage wedding dresses with accessories to die for. The dresses combined with Zowie Pointing’s Hairdessing work and Emmelia Clarke's Makeup work made it a killer show.
Of course no ‘wedding day’ is complete without a hitch, luckily when the string quartet were delayed for the first catwalk session Vintage78 DJs stepped in with his decks. The models sashaying down the run way to the likes of Ella Fitzgerald suited the style of the dresses perfectly.
If photographing the catwalk wasn’t enough, I was also give special permission to photograph the dresses in parts of the Town Hall that wedding photographers don’t normally get to access. Usually at a wedding there isn’t time to do this, so I took full advantage of going behind the scenes and scouting out new and exciting backdrops for the next wedding. I can’t imagine many other wedding photographers in Manchester getting to do that before!
All in all it was a brilliant day. The eight models did a great job with so many dress and were professional throughout, Zowie’s make up was impeccable, but of course Melanie’s dresses absolutely stole the day.
On the days when I’m not being a wedding photographer you will often find me doing baby shoots around Manchester. This Sunday eight-month-old Keelan was brought in by his mum for a series of photos to help him become a baby model.
Photographing babies and toddlers is always an energetic shoot because they love to wriggle around so you have to be on your toes for that perfect snap before they crawl away, cry or fall asleep. But Keelan was an absolute delight to photograph and is probably one of the best-behaved babies I’ve worked with – he’s handsome, loved the camera and never stopped smiling – everything you want in a baby model.
The saying goes never work with children or animals but Keelan was definitely an exception to the rule. If you’d like to work with Keelan and his mum, contact me through twitter @craigeb.
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This Saturday Manchester Town Hall is opening its doors for its first wedding fair of 2013. But this time I won’t be there as a wedding photography exhibitor, instead I’m going to be on the catwalk photographing their main event – the bridal fashion show. Taking centre stage in the Great Hall is bespoke wedding dress designer Melanie James who will be showcasing her collection and unveiling an exclusive new design. As a Manchester wedding photographer this is definitely an early highlight of the year - I’ll be shooting stunning vintage dresses in one of Manchester city centre’s most atmospheric venues. You don’t have to be a wedding photographer to appreciate the amazing setting!
Even though it’s a catwalk-show it’s still going to have that wedding feel because I’ll also be behind the scenes shooting the models as they get ready with Melanie James and make-up artist Zowie Pointing.
Having had a sneak-preview of some of the dresses, it’s without doubt an event not to be missed, so much so that they’re putting on two catwalk sessions – the first at 12pm and second at 3pm.
But if you can’t make it I’ll be putting up a selection of photographs from the event on my blog afterwards.
The Wedding Fair is on from 10am-4pm, entrance is free and there’s no need to book or have tickets. For more information go to, Manchester Town Hall Wedding Fair.
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Can't Wait for the Wedding Fair this week at Manchester Town Hall. further details later this week.
http://www.manchester.gov.uk/townhall/info/5/weddings_and_civil_partnerships/21/wedding_fairs
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Wedding Photographers from the Manchester area got together at Belle Epoque in Knutsford to photograph some of the latest dresses on the market and swap and share photography tips.
The models are either photographers themselves or were partners to other members of the team.
Great day had by all and special thanks to the Belle Epoque for their hospitality.
Visit the website at:
http://www.thebelleepoque.com/
Further pictures at http://www.craigebarker.com/weddingphotomanchester
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Here are a few pictures from last weekends wedding at the fantastic Gorton Monastery in Manchester. I do love this venue as it has all the ceremony of a cathedral but is relaxed as it's civil and the little bit of decay helps with the pictures. I love being a wedding photographer in Manchester when you get amazing venues like this. Thank you Steph and Paul for letting me be part of the day. Howard Wing the singer and compere was amazing and made the day for everybody.
We were going to go to the venue Davenport Green Hall for the pre shoot but there had been some confusion and it was raining so we decided to stay in the studio.
They are a lovely couple and a pleasure to shoot for I hope these few images show the type of people they are.
Eva Editing my pictures now I so busy, work girl work.
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In the end we had enough sunshine as if in the Tuscany Hills. What an Amazing day thank you Asha and Mickey for letting me be part of it. Love Craige |
Erik Johansson: Impossible photography
These shots are great, I know lots of photoshop but they still look amazing
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The wedding of Robyn and Simon at Quarry Bank Mill and the Style Estate was always going to be wonderful being set in the Cheshire countryside with it's own gardens and the church in the fields a short walk away. Stone bridges cross the river that scrapes past the building that at one time used it's power to make material for the empire.
The one thing we did notice while doing the pre-shoot was the amount of windows and how great it would have been to take a short of the Bride and Groom on the day through one of them. When we went into the Mill we found that the windows were screwed into the frame and they couldn't be opened. After we left the mill I made a couple of telephone calls with staff to ask if we could remove a window to take shots and they said they would do what they could.
After the wedding when we got back to the mill they had a member of the Maintenance team waiting to remove the window so we could get the shot. Its an amazing picture and in this day and age we could have done the same in photoshop. I think the knowledge we did it and gave the nearly gave the bride vertigo standing in the window is more than worth it.