About Us - Ian & Kitty Wright Wedding Photography, Exeter, Devon

The Two of Us .....

There are two of us - self evident, but very important. Two pairs of eyes can capture the spontaneous flow of a wedding with much greater effectiveness than one photographer who is inevitably focused on organising groups and/or is preoccupied with the bride and groom. We can be in different places at the same time - and often are. See our Recent Weddings section for complete wedding collections or the Gallery or Highlights sections for portfolios. For a quick guide to the central features of our photography see Why Choose Us? for Ten Key Features of our photography.

Style....the best of traditional and modern

Our approach is to produce both fly-on-the-wall images that tell the story of the wedding day and 'images of record' (groups, portraits, details of the venue(s), significant moments - like the signing of the register etc). The styles merge because we try and make our group shots relaxed and informal. With a background in travel and 'street photography' we would summarise our style and approach as 'documentary' or 'reportage' as opposed to the 'fashion shoot' style adopted by some contemporary photographers. We prefer to make images of the natural course of events - see our Guide to Wedding Photography.

Our albums and album design service also combines the traditional and contemporary. We use the very best materials available in the world - notably the Jorgensen range from Australia. We are increasingly using beautiful Italian leather albums from Circa as an integral part of our packages - at unbelievable prices too. We create the twenty-first century versions of albums - DVD slideshows and hardback wedding 'coffee table' books.

Efficiency

Wedding photography should record the event, not become an event. While photographs are extremely important as an enduring record of the day, the taking of ‘formal’ photographs should be done as quickly and efficiently as possible so that the process does not become intrusive, nor interrupt the natural flow of the day. Careful planning is required between the wedding couple and the photographer because the photographs need to be integrated smoothly into the stages of the wedding day event.

Collaboration

Each wedding is different - each couple have their own style and personality which will be reflected in the ‘brief’ given to us. The quality of our photography reflects the time we spend in preparation - we always discuss each wedding in depth, we pre-view the wedding and reception venues with the couple and we discuss the ceremony with the clergy or officials to ensure that shots of the ceremony can be taken at everyone’s convenience.

Experience

We have vast practical experience of weddings (approaching 300 in total since we began in 2000) and have taken photographs of everything from a ‘hippy’ wedding to a Hindu wedding to the most formal ‘top hat and tails’ wedding. We have photographed ‘celebrity’ weddings (like that of political broadcasters Jeremy and Rachel Vine) and we have worked at virtually all the major wedding venues and churches in the Exeter, East and West Devon areas. In recent times we have photographed about 40 weddings each calendar year in the 7 months we are in the UK. With the expansion of our travel and documentary work, we plan to undertake no more than 25-30 weddings each year beginning in 2008.

Digital Photography and Design

Contemporary wedding photography is as much about design and the creative use of computers and software as it is about photographic technique. We use sophisticated digital cameras - the 16.7 million megapixel Canon 1DS Mark 2, the 10 million magapixel ID mark 3 (the fastest digital SLR in existence), the 12.8 million megapixel Canon 5D and the Canon 40D- and prepare images using Photoshop and a range of specialised plug-ins. Any image can be produced in colour or black and white (or both). Sepia and soft-focus images give a traditional feel that some couples like - perhaps for a handful of prints - while 'cross-processed' and high contrast images are the height of modernism. Our montages are very popular while some clients prefer simple 'straight' images that speak for themselves. We have our own preferences in style - which will be clearly seen in the Gallery - but we work closely with clients to produce a range of images suitable for each unique and special occasion.

Choice

We commonly take over 1,000 images at a typical summer wedding and it takes around 10 hours work to select, edit and prepare the final images for printing and display on the website. A small selection of images in each package are 'artistic' design creations in Photoshop, including a ‘front piece’ for your collection with the names of the Bride and Groom, the date etc. Our Creative Packages are based on the supply of between 200 and 500 images and a visit to the Recent Weddings section of the site will show that our clients usually have over 400 images - and often over 600 - to choose from.

Professionalism

We very much enjoy wedding photography and it is one of many fields we work in (see travel photography, below). Photography is an art and a craft and Ian became an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society in September 2006 after exhibiting a panel of his travel photographs of Nepal. He also has City and Guilds Distinctions in many fields of photography, including portraiture, exhibition printing, black and white photography, colour photography and landscape photography. In September 2005, Ian underwent a transition from his long-time career teaching Politics - which he combined with part-time professional photography - to being a full-time photographer working primarily in the fields of weddings, portraiture, and travel (see below). He retains an interest in politics and directs courses in Washington DC each year for UK students of American politics. Much of his travel and documentary work stems from a continuing interest in developmental and environmental poltics. Over the last five years or so, Kitty has progressed from ‘backroom’ help to take up the camera herself, and we find that a second camera adds an enormous amount to our coverage of the informal and spontaneous aspects of a wedding.

Documentary, Travel, Social and Commercial Photography

We bring to wedding photography a wider experience of photography. With an academic background in government, politics and modern history, Ian is very interested in documentary and social photography and we have travelled widely, for example to take photographs of presidential campaigns in the USA and of social change in China and Russia. Ian went to Nepal in 2006 to photograph for the development agency Voluntary Service Overseas and we spent a month in Cuba early in 2007.

Ian is now the company photographer for a large travel company specialising in cultural tours and also works extensively on a freelance basis. In the last 4 years, we have photographed in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, New York, Washington, Boston and New England, Naples, Moscow, St Petersburg, rural Russia, Berlin, Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Venice, Stockholm, Sicily, Cairo, Istanbul, Austria, Greece, the French, Italian and Swiss Alps, Nepal, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Thailand, Cuba, Lisbon, Israel and Palestine. Ian lived in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem in the autumn of 2007. A companion website www.ianwrighttravel.co.uk went online at the beginning of 2007 - this covers our travel and documentary photography.