Matt and Nadia - June 2019

Chasing light

It feels like an essential component of being English is to spend most of the year waiting for Summer, to then blink and miss it (or just to miss it because it actually never happened...). As a photographer this is especially frustrating - you need light to be on your side (and preferably for it to not be chucking it down with rain) to get your best shots. When I went to shoot Matt and Nadia last week it was absolutely pouring as I left my house on the journey from Nottingham to Leicester. Racking my brain for ideas of how we could salvage our outdoor shoot at Bradgate Park, I have to admit I was drawing a bit of a blank. Embracing the fact it didn't look much like summer, I decided to capture an autumn look and so got the first few shots in the abundance of fern that Bradgate is known for. The shots were fine, but not really what I wanted from the golden hour shoot. We decided to have a bit of a walk to change location and as I looked behind us, the cloud had just cleared and the sky looked amazing and golden. We weren't in a planned location but not wanting to miss the moment I chucked my coat on the floor and got Matt and Nadia to sit down (not sure if they thought I was a bit mad at this point?!) to capture the light.

We got about 5 minutes of amazing light before the sun went behind the hill and disappeared for the night. I was really happy with all of the photos, but my favourites have to be the ones that capture the golden light. So, if your shoot is planned on a wet or miserable day, the morals of this one are to persist, not let the rain scare you off, book your shoot to cover golden hour, and trust your photographer - even when she's making you sit in a muddy wet patch in a field!