Wedding Photographer Jeff Ascough

Photo by Visuallens

Jeff Ascough has been a professional wedding photographer in the United Kingdom since 1989. He has covered over 1000 weddings with a documentary photography style. Ascough emphasizes capturing the moment without any prompting or interference and using available light. American Photo voted Ascough as one of the ten best wedding photographers in the world.

Advice for wedding photographers

The best thing to do is to practice with a model. Take images in different lighting conditions and see which give you the best images. That's how I started out. You should be looking for how the light molds the subject. Sometimes it's best to squint when looking at the light as this gives you a better indication of the light direction.

One of the differences that separates the talented pros from the rest in photography, is the photographer's ability to see light direction and quality. Try to second-guess what is going to happen. It might sound weird, but I have almost a sixth sense when it comes to photographing. I can see the image in my mind's eye before it happens. I suspect this is a result of many years of experience, though, rather than any special ability.

I know how and when to position myself for an image even before I bring the camera up to my eye. Once I'm looking through the view finder, I refine the framing and decide on what to leave in and what to leave out of the image. I then wait for the desired moment to happen. If all hell is breaking loose around me, e.g., the dancing at the reception, I'll go with my instincts and react to things happening. This manner of photographing is more haphazard though, and my success rate is a lot lower.

It's important to be as unobtrusive while photographing weddings. That said, you can be unobtrusive while less than three feet from the subject. It's all about how you behave when photographing. If you permanently have a camera up to your eye, firing off hundreds of images, the client is going to be very aware of you. Also, hiding in the shadows can be more intrusive than standing close to your subject, because odd behavior is noticeable. If you simply have the camera down at your side and just quietly observe, they will relax and start to ignore you.

Unobtrusiveness doesn't mean you can't be seen. That's a mistake many people make. For many clients, unobtrusiveness means that you are letting them get on with their special day without making them stop for photographs.

Photo contrast between Beijing and Chengde

Blue Skies of Chengde

Story and picture by Visuallens

A family friend of mine returned from a holiday trip to China told me that Chengde is a place that attracted them most compared to Beijing and Tianchen the package tour they took recently. I agree with their views.

This bring back my memory to the holiday trip I made with my family …

It took about four to five hour drive on the expressway across the mountainous region north of Beijing, and we arrived at a city called Chengde. It is a small plain surrounded by the Yanshan range.

And coming in from a noisy, dusty and congested Beijing, we would feel immediately the pleasant contrast in Chengde with its serenity, slow pace, blue skies and cooling mountain air. It is no wonder why the emperors in Qing Dynasty liked to spend their holiday in this city Chengde.

Chengde boasts of the biggest imperial palace garden called Bishu Shanchuang at the foot of Yanshan, which is twice the size of the Yihe Yuan summer palace in Beijing. The long name in Chinese simply means “a mountain resort to escape from the summer heat”

Those pine tree that line the pathways and decorate the open space have aged to become even more majestic now.One can almost hear the strains of pipa and gucheng floating through the courts and gardens.

As tourists, me and my family took some pictures during this China tour and also covered Beijing and Chengde . All the pictures were taken with a Canon Powershot S60 compact camera as I was advised by doctor not to carry heavy camera bag because of my neck problem.

More pictures can be seen in Pictorial

Noisy and dusty Beijing

Shooting towards the light

“Never shoot towards the light.” We’ve probably all heard this old photography “rule,” but, for now, let’s treat it more as a general guideline. If you want to shoot some photos that really pop, that really jump out and grab you—shoot towards the light.

Silhouettes are photos where your subject is dark against a bright background. Using a sunrise or sunset as the backdrop for your subject can give stunning results—your subject becomes a bold black figure against a canvas of bright and vivid colour.

When you use a bright and cloud filled sky as your background, your subject often doesn’t come out pure black, but comes across as dark and moody against a brooding sky.