New Association
It’s been a long time in the making, but Phase Photography studio can now proudly announce that they are official members of the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait photographers)!

The SWPP is one of the worlds largest organisations for pro and aspiring photographers. Members receive a range of benefits to help them in their careers and businesses. Members have access to our photographic Forum, comprehensive listing on our web site, online photographic gallery, Professional Imagemaker magazine and a great deal more photo services.

So what does this mean to you?
We’re going to give our customers all the learning and experience we can, learnt through the SWPP! As we become even better photographers, you’ll receive even better photos and exceptional service from us. I know what you’re saying… “but you guys can’t get ant better!” Gee thanks, but I’m sure there are some nuggarts from stepping up our qualifications to the next level that we will pass on to you…. watch this space….

x FAYE x

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Although this time rather than promoting our fantastic wedding services to our glowing brides-to-be, we decided to head down the boudoir route!

But what has half naked women got to do with weddings!? I hear you ask??
Well what a perfect gift to give your lover the morning of the wedding than a sensual set of photographs of the gorgeous lady he or she is about to meet down the aisle?!

Our boudoir show offer ‘went down’ a storm! But if you missed out or was not at the show, you still have the chance to take advantage of our deal throughout October.

From now until the 31^st October you grab yourself your very own Boudoir Experience.

For only £30, you can visit us at our vintage style studio in Portslade for a champagne welcome, boudoir photoshoot PLUS a framed memento photograph to get you started. This is worth over £100!

Why not add a hair and makeover session to your shoot for an extra £20?!

For more details and for booking enquiries, please contact a member of the team on 01273 567927 or email us by clicking here.

We look forward to hearing from you soon x

Please use these links to view more examples of our boudoir photography, makeover photography and wedding photography

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Me at no exception and below are some of the entries that were judged on the night.

This year I was fortunate enough achieve an award for my press and PR image which is the a la cart spoon of glorious food.

Interestingly it was food photography that started my career as a photographer, so after years of photographing weddings and studio portraits it was great to see that I hadn’t lost my nack.

If you are looking for great product photography for your own business, please don’t hesitate in getting in touch.

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A very long but really fun day – I was nearly tempted to stay overnight and share the bunk beds!

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This seemed like a great idea though and certainly one I will try to convince my other half to consider when the time comes.

The Ladies used Brighton Pavilion to host their touching ceremony and took further advantage of the historic landmark for the backdrop to their group shots, and some romantic shots of Sharon and Stacey.

The celebrations carried on at the Thistle Hotel, for a fantastic meal, wine and some emotional speeches.

As the sun started to fall, I took my cameras and £4 with me to grab some racing shoots of the girls on the seafront Carousel, followed by some timeless photographs by the Pier.

Everyone was a little wobbly by the time I finished as they enjoyed the fruits offered by the off licence, I mean the Thistle.

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Below and a couple of images taken on the day in the 30 minute window I had. Then it was camera down and falling down the stairs.

Many congratulations (nearly) cousins Calley and Brett.

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Like what you see? Have a look at our other wedding galleries.

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This is a common view after all we turn up for a couple of hours and then go home so its easy money isn’t it. Well the time to actually take your photographs is just the tip of the iceberg albeit an important bit.
So let’s begin with the list of equipment needed. Check anywhere on the web and any professional wedding photographer will double up on their equipment or even triple it. For the sake of argument in this case lets just double up. So we need two digital SLR cameras. Lenses ranging from at least 24mm to 200mm and these will in all likelihood be fast and expensive lenses with a 2.8 aperture. Most will also have a wide angle lens in their too, two good flashes, memory cards, extra batteries and something to put it all in. That’s the bare minimum. Total cost = £4260 but don’t take my word for it go to any online camera dealer and add this stuff up for yourself and I was being conservative and not buying the main dealers own lenses. One camera alone can cost over £5000 check prices on the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III.

We now need a computer to process all our images on with a decent monitor. We will also need a colour calibrator to ensure our monitor colour is correct. I can build myself a decent desktop computer for £400, an average monitor will be £300 and the hardware to calibrate my monitor screen will be £135 for the Eye One Display 2. So that’s another £835.

Great so we have our bare essential equipment for a wedding. Now we need to find some customers. So we need a website, web hosting, advertising etc as well but let’s not even think about the cost of that.
So, the day of the wedding arrives. You spent a couple of hours the night before checking and cleaning your equipment, charging batteries checking the route to the venue checking to see if there has been any last minute changes to the day and your ready. Let’s not think about the day but let’s say it’s a whole day’s coverage from 10.00 AM for the bridal preparation to 8.30 PM to capture the first dance. So 10.5 hours of your time plus the 2 hours prep last night total so far 12.5 hours.
Time to go home but your job isn’t over yet so straight on the computer at home to backup the 16 Gb of pictures you have taken and then burn them to 4 or 5 DVDs to make sure they are safe. Another 1.5 hours and then to bed for a good sleep and boy will you need it.

We need to get the wedding proofs to the happy couple and as you have taken all the pictures in RAW you will need to convert them to jpeg and reduce them in size. You’ll probably want to check exposure and white balance etc. So how long for this bit. With 1000 pictures, easily a couple of hours or more and then we need to burn the whole lot onto CD and get it to the couple. Cost off this depends if you post it or take it by hand. But it costs time and money.
Two weeks later the couple call you again to let you know what a wonderful job you have done and they have decided they want 56 of the photographs. Now at this point I can only talk about myself but I like to go through and process each picture as a separate project. I then look at each one and decide if it would look good in black and white or sepia. Add some digital effects, crop here, crop there so on and so forth. It takes me from 25 to 40+ hours to complete that work. I don’t like to rush but prefer to take my time.

So the happy couple get their final proofs and they love them. The wedding album is the next biggest cost for photographers. I am assuming the couple just want a nice traditional wedding album with their pictures mounted in it. If they wanted a Queensbury Album I would have to site down using different software and design the pages. How long this takes can very hugely. But in this case we just need to get the picture ready for printing. Where you have your picture printed depends on what you do to them next. I have to assign a specific custom profile, set the DPI correctly and finally sharpen them for printing. More time and then upload them to the printers ftp server. That takes 2 to 3 hours but I can leave the computer to do that.

Three days later and the prints arrive looking just perfect. I now just have to place 56 photographs into a wedding album. Measure each page etc and then finally mount the photograph in place, 56 times! That’s another 3 to 4 very long hours. Deliver to the bride and groom, job done, easy.

Total cost of equipment to do this wedding = £5095
Total time invested in wedding = 56 working hours

So how much is that worth? Remember to factor in the costs of printing, albums (quality albums are very costly but high quality), mounts, postal charges; fuel and insurance have to be factored in by the photographer. If the cost sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

The post Why is Wedding Photography so expensive? appeared first on Phase Photography.

Forward this flyer to your friends family and colleagues, if they book their photography with us, you will receive £50 cash as a way of saying thank you.

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Not only was Claire and Justin a treat for any photographer for good looks, but they were good fun, quirky and oh my days, so in love! With a surfing and beach theme for the day, from a wave style cake, to cockle shell name places and dashing blue flowers and bridesmaid dresses, I was in my element.

In a 1980’s convertible BMW, Claire arrived at the Hangleton Manor in Hove to meet her dashing groom-to-be waiting down the aisle. The ceremony was short, sweat and heartfelt and the celebrations long and fruitful.

I knew how excited Claire was about taking the photos and as I was fresh from training with Fellow Master Photographer, Simon John I was prepared with reflectors, manual flash, a few new techniques and contemporary poses. Below are just a couple of examples of photographs taken on the day.

Wishing Claire and Justin all the best for their future, looking forward to seeing you at the viewing.

A big thank you to all the staff at Hangleton Mannor for accommodating me and for being so friendly and helpful to me and all the guests.

Hangleton Mannor
Hangleton Valley Dr
Hove, East Sussex BN3 8AN
01273 413 266

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We came away from the day buzzing with ideas and couldn’t wait to get back to the studio to put into practice all our newly earned tips and techniques.

It would take too long to tell you about the awards Hampshire based Simon has won and his achievements during his 25 years working as a professional photographer (you can visit www.simonjohn.co.uk for that), but what I can tell you is that Simon is a Fellow of the Master Photographers Association and the British Institute of Professional Photographers! For those of you who think that’s a lot of long names, it’s basically the highest qualification you can achieve as a professional photographer. Oh ok and he did win UK Wedding Photographer of the Year!!!

So off we trotted around the beautiful surroundings of Somerton Court in Somerton, with 15 other enthusiastic delegates – some more enthusiastic that others but it was great to meet some new faces!!

The main points I will be taking away with me, is how professional photographers MUST work together to keep the profession alive, and to differentiate ourselves from the ammeter/enthusiasts who do weddings ‘shoot to CD’ for £300. Photography its self does mean ‘painting with light’ a skill which cannot be taught over night and to be mastered takes time, experience, knowledge and investment. So any photographers reading this blog, lets RAISE OUR GAME! Get onto the available training courses offered by the professional bodies (MPA, BIPP, SWPP) and justify why we charge what we do! But not only that but to raise or game in a field we all love… photography at its best, and creating memories for our clients that will last until their grandchildren are old.

Below are some of the shots that were taken on the day by me and my colleague Claire.

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