our life lately...

So what happens when we don't have weddings to shoot?

Happy Birthday Petey Pete...

Your first birthday as my husband... I love you stupid amounts...

Look what we got...... :)

Our gorgeous friends were amazing on our wedding day. Everyone helped out enormously and happily accepted roles of DJ, celebrant, hall stylist etc and a few others pitched in in their own little ways without us even asking.. for example.. where did the smoke machine even come from???
One of these peeps was Tom Slee who came along with his video camera and filmed THE. WHOLE. NIGHT. Like all of it... even filmed himself buying a drink.. that's just how much he filmed. So here is a couple of minutes.. it's the surprise bit too and makes me soooooo happy every time I watch it...


Our surprise Wedding! from Emma Case on Vimeo.

So, so happy........

cute little wedding video..

My husband Pete made this little video on his iPhone at Ian and Jo's woodland wedding... I don't know about you but I think it's rather cute.. :)

Ian & Jo - Wedding in the Woods from Pete Smyth on Vimeo.

mr and mrs smyth...

On Saturday 19th March me and Petey Pete got married. I still can't actually believe it. Our piccies are being blogged on Rock 'n Roll Bride today and Kat asked me if I wanted to add a few quotes... hmmmmm... I tried to keep it brief but maybe having to keep it as a surprise means that I'm now gagging to get it all out... so I have.... (you might need a cuppa... or a duvet...)

Me and Pete had been happily engaged for about 3 years...but any time we talked about getting married we ended up arguing…. we knew that we wanted something that reflected us but we'd start talking about who to invite, table plans etc and we were quickly getting fed up... the question 'Why are we doing it if it's such hard work?' usually stopped any further discussion. Also we were shooting amazing and creative weddings pretty much every week so all of our concentration was on other people's days... which was great but it meant that it was quite hard deciding on how 'we' wanted to do it... and without copying all of my couples who have flippin' fantastic weddings!

In January a good friend of ours Anthony came round and we chatted about my 30th birthday party… Anthony joked that we could get married in the afternoon and have a party on the night… we all joked about it even mentioning a 50’s prom theme based on the ‘Enchantment Under the Sea Dance’ from Back to the Future and then when Anthony left we started to talk about it seriously and we weren't arguing! But we wanted it to be a surprise. We get asked when we’re getting married a lot and people would then say how amazing it’s gonna be (because of all the gorgeous weddings we luckily get to shoot) so I started to feel a bit of pressure. I also didn’t want to be going on about ‘our’ wedding all the time... I kind of just wanted to get on with it without the fuss.... a little bit like being behind the camera I suppose...

The very next day we booked the Registry Office. Our close friend Zoe Wragg worked there, so it was lovely to think that she would be part of our day. All we needed now was a party venue.. I searched all over Birmingham and this was actually the hardest part of the whole thing... we were looking for a school hall type venue to match the 50’s prom theme, but we were running out of ideas... then we happened upon the Rowheath Pavilion in Bournville, a local community hall literally 5 mins from our house and we had no idea it existed! It was PERFECT! And better still available on my birthday! We booked it straight away! The theme also meant that I didn't have to think too much about a colour scheme.. it was sorted for me.. aqua colours and coral from the original poster for the dance in the film. Done.

For the day time we wanted to keep it very personal and intimate with a brief legal service, and we both loved the idea of a barge cruise with a meal (Birmingham has more canals than Venice don't you know!). We found Away2Dine a locally based floating restaurant and booked them for a wedding lunch cruise which picked us up from right outside the Registry and took us to Bournville! It also meant that we were then restricted to 24 people in all for the day. This was the hardest thing but we really wanted to have the evening as our real ceremony and wanted to be able to talk to people in the day properly without feeling under pressure to get round and talk to 60 people! The ceremony started at 1:30pm and we'd decided to have a first look beforehand and some photos in our local park. I honestly cannot recommend a first look enough. Me and Pete were able to see each other and take it all in properly. It was really emotional. And you get to talk about how you both look and how excited you are... we felt like such a little team making our way to the Registry.

This polaroid below has to be the funniest thing I've ever seen... how small are Pate's parents on the left!?! We literally laughed all Sunday at this picture. It just keeps giving...



When we arrived we were about to go in when Pete shouted 'Fuck!' and started jumping up and down... he'd forgotten the rings!! He must have completely shit himself but actually it made the ceremony really nice.. we borrowed rings from friends and through the ceremony there was lots of laughing!

When we came out the canal boat was waiting for us... we chugged along on the cruise in beautiful sunshine and enjoyed a gorgeous 3 course meal, even stopping for a photo shoot on the way! We passed by our own street at one point, to see a beautiful surprise banner that one of our neighbours had made to congratulate us! It was such a lovely surprise and most of us (well, the girls) on the boat had tears in our eyes!

Initially, when we started organising the day I wasn't going to have any bridesmaids or flowers but as we were planning we ended up saying Joanna, Beccie and my Sister Jodie were bridesmaids so then we thought we maybe should get some flowers and Pete had asked his friend Matt to be Best Man but we let everyone wear what they wanted so nothing really matched but we didn't care... we were just so excited about marrying each other. I did have a little wobble on the Thursday about name places on the boat which I'm totally keeping. I did also make a spreadsheet.

At 5pm we all disembarked and phase two of ‘Surpise Wedding’ began. We headed to the Rowheath Pavillion to dress the room for the 30th Birthday – 1950’s Enchantment Under the Sea Dance! We had Pom Poms, Crepe Paper Streamers, locally sourced balloons, a huge banner made by Rob (one of our friends) and the most mind blowing ‘1950’s Under the Sea’ themed cake table from Vickie at Boutique Baking Company! We hired a PA system, asked a close friend to DJ, another close friend, Joe to be the minister and we were ready! A quick change into our prom (throw people off the scent) outfits and a slick of brylcreme and we were set.

At 7pm guests started to arrive and it was so lovely to see everyone had made such an effort with their outfits! We then had the most horrendous hour talking to people, waiting for the right time to do the ‘announcement’… watching Pete turn a pale grey colour as we waited was quite amusing! He was petrified!

At around 8 o clock I snuck off and got changed back into my Wedding dress and waited with my dad and my bridesmaids. We could hear in the hall our friend Joe get on the microphone and ask the crowd to gather at the front of the hall and then he split them down the middle, creating an aisle. Our DJ Rob then started to play Hide n’ Seek by Imogen Heap. At this point the bridesmaids made their entrance carrying their bouquet’s one by one and the whole room just started to scream! Me and my Dad followed and all I could see was everyone crying…. :)

Joe then performed a short ceremony where we had a brief exchanging of our personal vows (again more tears!) some short speeches and a surreal best man speech containing liberal use of photoshop and extra large heads!

We then danced our first dance to ‘Home’ by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s and halfway through everyone joined us and we were swamped by hugs from everyone!…

The rest of the evening was filled with the longest Photo booth I’ve ever seen (I think it was some sort of release for all the photographers there!) and lots of dancing (and sweating in Pete’s case) until the party finished at 11.30pm. At which point we all headed to the HMV Institute, an Indie club in town where we were given our very own party section in the Karaoke Room! A late night curry at 4am and we were done… our very own 1950’s Prom with Surprise Wedding day was complete…. and it was perfect.

We honestly couldn’t have asked for anything better. The whole day was so full of love and emotion and laughter and sunshine. We have such amazing friends and family who were so helpful and supportive and the surprise element just blew us both away. The whole reason behind the surprise in the first place was that we wanted a ceremony where we could get emotional if we wanted to and guests were free to woop if they wanted to… and woop they did!

Oh… and everyone on the barge got an egg cup each… (well I had to get them in somewhere)

We also got to work with the most amazing people who made the day even more special and we honestly don’t know how to say thank you enough. The whole day was beautifully captured by the amazing talents of Steve Gerrard Photography, Joanna Brown Photography (both such good friends of ours) and the Cine8 film company.... they kicked absolute ass.

There's more photos and a full supplier list on Rock 'n Roll Bride today (who was there til the very end in the curry house!)... it's the weirdest thing being in the photographs instead of taking them and writing about my wedding instead of one of my couples... but it's the absolute bestest being married. I'd recommend it to everyone.... :)

Emma & Pete from cine8 on Vimeo.

My only regret for the whole day is not ordering the £450 balloon octopus for the hall... for a second I was tempted... g.u.t.t.e.d.
Oh and I'm still keeping Case for my photography but will be Mrs Smyth for everything else...yey! :)
All images/polaroids by Joanna Brown Photography
Poster by Thomas Jackson

I married my boy...

... and it was the absolute bestest.

Me and my boy...

I love him.... I love him with all my heart. We've been together 5 years... today. Sod Valentines Day, I like this day a lot better..
Five years ago today... I found Pete on Myspace.. yep.. Myspace.

(images by the wonderful Featherlove)

I was living in Birmingham and only knew my flatmate... I was in between Acting jobs and saw that Pete lived in Brum and had pretty much the same taste in music... and he looked fit in his photo...so I sent him a message and he replied. We got chatting and he gave me tips on where were the good places to go and we realised we'd been in the same pub on New Years Eve too but never saw each other! We then exchanged numbers and Pete had played it cool saying if you fancy catching up some time then give us a text... great....HUGE ball in my court. So on that Thursday I knew he was in town and I text him (cue wandering around town for a few hours trying to keep busy waiting for a reply). He text back saying that he was meeting some mates and I was more than welcome to join them.. oh christ... have to walk in to a pub on my own, not 100% sure what he looks like and he's with his mates.. also I'd found something to fill some time that afternoon which was actually giving blood (sounds random but I'd tried to go the day before and it was closed) ...so passing out was another concern.

I walked in and stood at the bar, called my mate, saw him walk past (he didn't have his glasses on so wasn't sure it was me) and then plucked up the courage to go over... luckily his mates consisted of another couple so I sat down and we got chatting... we then went to another pub and chatted some more.. we then headed to a club (a pretty dead one) and chatted some more.. then Pete stopped chatting, stared at me for quite a long time (to the point where I actually asked if he was ok) and then he kissed me... all together now... 'Ahhhhhh'... we have been inseparable ever since.
Pete actually sent me a message (via Myspace) two days after we met and I feel the exact same way about the last five years...

Happy Anniversary Baby!!

We heart sharing...

I have just had the best 5 days I think I've ever had. I've just been to Cornwall with my girls... Joanna Brown, Debs Ivelja and Anna Hardy. We are four photographers who have come together to help, support, encourage and inspire each other to become better photographers and to become better at running our little businesses too. We are called 'From our hearts' and we will be launching our own little blog soon to share our experiences, our thoughts, our likes, our inspirations and also encouraging others to do the same. I'm quite excited.
Recently I've had quite a few emails from other photographers who are maybe just starting out with questions that I asked a lot when I first started (and still ask!) and coming back from our trip I thought how lucky I am to have the support network I have around me. So with this in mind I thought I'd start doing a few posts answering some of those questions. NB I under no circumstances think I know what I'm talking about but I am happy to just write down how I did/do things, what felt right, what I don't think worked and maybe a little bit of it might be useful... :)

What equipment do you use most (lenses/lighting/camera)?
When I first started I had a Nikon D40. This got me started and I would take lots of pictures of Pete, my family, friend's children, my feet... anything really... I had the kit lens (18-105mm) and I remember buying the cheapest 50mm lens and just being so over the moon. I then bought myself a Nikon D90 and a few more lenses and used this camera up until about June/July of last year. It was then that I moved over to Canon (for quite a few reasons) and got myself a Canon 5D MkII which I now have with a 24-70mm, the 35mm 1.4 and the 85mm 1.2... with this I have a speedlight and that's about it with regards to lighting. I don't use any reflectors or off camera flash... it's pretty much just me and the camera.
I'm really pleased that I did start off with cameras that were lower models as I felt like I really had to work at getting the shots, not that having the Mk II makes it easy, but there are obvious benefits by having better equipment. I feel I really appreciate the step up (I still can't believe it's my camera) and also my new lenses are frickin' amazing... (You suddenly realise you can talk about lenses for quite a while instead of shoes... although I could talk about shoes too..)

Pete's band... it was great practice to direct and try things out...

How did you go about getting yourself out there and how do you just keep on booking?
I must admit I do think it was a lot to do with right place, right time with this one. When I shot my friends', Ruth and Dan's wedding back in October 2009 it was a vintage style wedding which was kind of new at the time. Pete had also proposed the Christmas before (when he bought me my first camera) so I'd been mooching on the internet (with no definite date in mind) for wedding stuff and photographers. I was typing in 'alternative' and 'vintage' as me and Pete would probably class our taste for things such as clothes, music etc as that but I couldn't find anything. What I did find tho was the most amazing wedding photography... from America. I found most of this through Rock 'n Roll Bride so when I had edited Ruth and Dan's wedding I sent it to Kat to see if she would feature it. She did and all of a sudden I was getting a lot of enquiries. There seemed to be a lot of couples out there, like us, who were after something a bit different. At this point I had no idea if i could do it, how much to charge, how to run a business... so I had to just do what felt right. I charged a very low amount to begin with and this has both helped and hindered me in equal measures! It was great as couples had no problem booking me as I was cheap but it was bad because I pretty much filled 18 months with weddings for not a lot of money so in terms of exposure it was fantastic but in terms of our bank balance it was a real struggle. That's the one major thing I've found difficult which I'll write a separate post on another time :)

This is the second picture I took with my camera and right after this photo was taken Pete proposed...


Ruth and Dan's wedding..

I read “about you” on your blog; do you mean to tell me you’ve had no formal training in photography?? I'm officially baffled.
What advice can you give a self-taught, struggling/aspiring wedding photographer such as myself for getting established and becoming successful in this field?
I'm not sure if anyone specifically needs 'formal' training... I have learnt a lot myself but I've also learnt a hell of a lot from Steve Gerrard. I have second shot with him, worked with him in his studio and I can honestly say that I don't think I could ever repay him for what he has given me. I would say to anyone wanting to learn = second shoot! But be the best second shooter you can be. I was hungry to learn so wanted to make it as easy as possible for Steve to have me with him... you want to be as useful as you can and I promise you you will learn a ton. I also learn a lot from people like the girls... we've all started at the same time so we can bounce ideas, talk through problems, ask for advice... I think a support network is great. Oh and flickr.. there is an amazing community on there ready to give... but just make sure you're giving too :)

Another great thing is the social networking side of things... Twitter, Facebook are the obvious ones... get chatting, get commenting, get organising get togethers, offer a shoot, style your own shoot.. put out there what you want to be coming to you... if I'm looking for an alternative photographer and I click on your blog/website.. am I seeing an alternative photographer. It needs to be obvious.

I also think showing who you are plays a big part too. I said from the start that I'm going to be myself, be completely honest and shoot how I want to shoot. People like to read about Pete, Maximo, if I'm worried, doing well... they feel like they are on this journey with me and people are then proud to see you achieve things. I especially like to feel like that about my couples too.. they are MY couples and I am THEIR photographer.. I'm with them on their journey and they're with me on mine.

MAXIMO!!!

What programs/effects/actions do you use for processing your photos?
The dreaded question! All photographers I think get asked this and some like to share and some don't which is perfectly understandable! I think I found my style through a bit of both... frantically typing in to google things like 'Sarah Rhoads actions processing style how' and reading loads of forums and tutorials. But I also had lots of fun, when I found out what actions were, playing around with them to find what I liked. It's all well and good knowing how Jonas Peterson edits his photos but you want to be you so maybe take elements of what you like and then make it your own.
At the moment I have both Totally rad Actions and then most of Oeil Photography's actions too. I've found little recipes that I like and mix some together to create the look I want. I enjoyed this process and feel it's an important part of finding out who you are as a photographer so I would say go have some fun with it! The Totally Rad Recipes is also a good resource to find out what actions make images look a certain way.
Do you usually bring a second shooter/assistant with you to weddings?
I have used a second shooter on occasion but it depends on the wedding. To be honest I think I'm at a point where I could do with another photographer at some parts of the day (e.g to shoot the boys getting ready) but on the whole I can do it on my own. I also don't want to end up with double the amount of images to go through when it comes to editing so as a second shooter myself I tend not to shoot for the sake of it. I want to fill the gaps that they can't get, also shoot from a completely different angle... those are the images they need rather than another 20 of the same thing. I usually bring Pete to weddings for the other stuff (Pete doesn't shoot) such as finding good spots, carrying stuff, downloading cards setting the photo booth up... having another pair of hands can be really useful for all of that!
What is your pricing like?
Think I'm going to tackle this question in a separate post!
I noticed that you post new photos quicker than I can say peter piper! How do you get them done so fast? What is your turn around time for your clients?
Ha! Do I? I always worry that I'm ridiculously slow! I really don't think I can advise anyone on my editing workflow as this is something that I'm tackling this year. I did spend last year constantly at my computer trying to keep up with the shooting and it's something that I'm looking in to for this year as I really want a good work/life balance which is something that I found really difficult last year. It will happen tho :) At the moment my turn around is anything from 2 weeks to 5 weeks max but that's usually mid season.
I also noticed you do not have a website; only a blogger site (as do I). Obviously this has not been an obstacle in your path to success, but do you provide online galleries for your clients or just discs of their finished photos?
When I started it wasn't a business, just a personal blog so it did the job for me perfectly. As it grew and became a job people kept saying 'Ohhh you should have a website' and I always knew i would one day but I wanted it to be right. I have found that last year was my 'establishing myself' year. I found out how I worked, who I was as a photographer, who my couples were and only now do I feel able to put it all in a website. I also find it hard to give the creative reigns to someone else so spent a lot of time researching and have come full circle and have started to design it myself. The website is coming but obviously because of work load I'm having to do it between editing etc but I'm really enjoying the process. I wasn't actually going to show anyone until it was finished but it feels quite natural to stick in a little sneak peek of what it's going to look like... I absolutely love it :)


Your photos seem to have that candid, natural feel that I love. Do you pose your clients much or are you just that good at capturing the moment?
When I started I didn't direct very much at all... I thought that to get the candid, natural feel I should just let them do whatever they wanted and hope it was what I wanted. Now I direct a lot more. Couples want to trust you and actually want to be directed... when a camera gets pointed at you it can be quite scary so I might give them a little bit of direction and then let them be free with it. I've also learnt to laugh with them but have my camera up. I used to miss loads as we'd all be laughing and I'd stop taking pictures... that's the BEST time! They're relaxed, they're genuinely laughing and not thinking about the camera! I also have a few of my favourite poses that I like to use... I do find myself saying 'Just look deadpan' quite a lot....
And finally, what is your shoe size?
Size 6 and sometimes a 7... :)

Not sure if any of this is useful! If there are any other questions that you fancy me rambling on about then feel free to add them to the comments or email them over... info@emmacasephotography.co.uk