Media City is a new venue for me as a wedding photographer. Damson Restaurant is one of the new eateries which has popped up in this fast growing area of Manchester and this was their first wedding reception. I also work as a freelance TV editor at Media City so to be a photographer there was really cool and made me look at the area in a totally different way.
The day began at Kate’s mum’s house in the South of the city and I was working along side the amazingly talented Philip White who was shooting the video for Kate and Simon. Kate was getting ready for the wedding with her bridesmaids, mum, dad and grandmother. It was a great atmosphere in the house, very relaxed with no signs of stress or tension which can quite often happen on the morning of a wedding.
Simon was waiting for Kate at Chorlton Methodist Church which is just around the corner from Kate’s mum’s house. This is an area of Manchester that I used to live in so today’s wedding was really like working from home! Chorlton is a leafy suburb in South Manchester with plenty of cool bars and restaurants, it’s also one of the most expensive parts of Manchester to live in! That’s why I’ve moved to Stretford, much more reasonable house prices.
The forecast was for rain all day so we did really well to avoid it until Kate and Simon got in the car after their matrimonial ceremony and then the heavens opened and it threw it down, like proper torrential rain which stopped as soon as we got to Media City! Perfect timing! We managed to do a few outside portraits and a couple of groups but Kate and Simon wanted a very natural set of photos so we kept these to the bare minimum and I spent the vast majority of the day shooting purely documentary photography which I really love and enjoy. It is quite a dark venue in places so my cameras had to be at their best and I shot most of the day with my prime lenses wide open to get as much of the available light as possible. For the evening dancefloor shots I set up two speedlights on stands beside the DJ pointed at the dancefloor. With a small aperture of f18 I achieved the classic starburst dancefloor shots that are quite popular today and the dancefloor action was spot on for some great photographs. Have a look below at some of my favourites from the day.
Media City Photographer – Damson Restaurant Wedding by Johnboy Wilson
