Wedding photography at Taunton Cricket Ground

Why did you choose Moment Photography

Ben

"I think when you get married; along with the dress and the day, one of the most important things is getting the right photographer. I've known Ross (he's a good friend of mine), I've known him for a long time, and I've seen Moment Photography grow and his business grow, and it's really exciting to have the opportunity to have a friend of yours actually photograph your wedding. I think that has given us huge opportunities in the day to actually feel relaxed and to have time in front of the camera where you don't feel threatened, where we can just enjoy the day and have a good friend around us, wouldn't you say?"

Jo

"Yeah, and I didn't know Ross that well before I married Ben, but I knew that I would feel totally confident with him being a big part of our day. A a person who hates having their photograph taken, I felt really relaxed knowing that Ross was going to be there and I'd seen him do the wedding for a friend of ours a few months previously to our wedding, and he just was so un-intrusive and confident, but without being bossy and loud in terms of interaction with the guests and things. So I was quite confident and relaxed with him doing our day for us as well."

Ben

"And I think having seen Ross' work in the past, it's such an important part of the memories of your day, having the right photographs, and seeing him in the past and how he works, actually really influenced what we were going to do. It would have been very easy to search through hundreds of people and try and get the right person, and yet we had the right person on the doorstep and that was Moment Photography and Ross."

What was it like being photographed by Moment Photography?

Jo

"Um, I think, the first thing I'd say is I felt really relaxed all day being photographed by Ross, and it was quite reassuring knowing he was there just organising things, and chivvying people along and kind of making there day run smoothly. But before that Ross was so helpful in terms of helping us to plan the day. We met with him to discuss the photos we wanted, and the hopes for our photos I guess, but in doing that he actually helped us to make some really wise choices about how the day flowed and what we did when, with which people etc."

Ben

"Yeah the timings of things is really important, and I think we hadn't quite taken that on board, so that was really helpful."

Jo

"Yeah definitely, and I think on reflection now I would say that finding a wedding photographer is about finding someone who will listen to what you would like, but also help mould your ideas to what's realistically feasible for your day. I think previously I'd attended quite a lot of weddings where the photographers had been quite forceful with their ideas and perhaps just had a certain way of doing things, whereas I just felt Ross was very flexible and was really happy to listen to our ideas."

Ben

"And I think that flexibility completely showed on the day. We got married in the summer and it was beautifully sunny the days before and the days after. Unfortunately on our wedding day; grey clouds lots of rain; it chucked it down with rain, and so we'd kind of planned a lot of photos just outside the church and around the church, and there's no way we could have got anyone out there. So we had to very quickly adapt and have some photographs indoors. And what was nice about that was Ross very, very quickly set up all the equipment inside, very quickly organised who he wanted to have where, and where we were going to take the photos. It was almost as if we'd planned to have the photos inside, it made no difference at all really and it could have been chaos, and it wasn't."

Jo

"And I'd also say that Ross has got a real sense of fun with his photos as well; he's quite happy to play around and do some crazy things and just try things out, and I think both of us had that sense and just wanted to have some slightly random photos, not your kind of classic ones. Ross was totally up for doing that, which was great."

Ben

"And I think um; I mean I mentioned the weather before, but one of the nice things again was that after the wedding we had some great photos there. We really wanted some outdoor photos, and it just wasn't possible on the day, so we met up with Ross and had a chat about doing that at a different time. So a few weeks afterwards, after we'd come back from our honeymoon we got all dressed up again, which was great fun."

Jo

"I had my hair done again, I got another bouquet."

Ben

"And we went off and we had some photos in some unusual places that we absolutely couldn't have done on the wedding day. That was such great fun; I think it's something I'd recommend to anyone really; have a second chance to get dressed up. But what was nice about that was that it was a really relaxed time, and there wasn't that pressure of running back and having to be photographed with all the people at the reception, and Ross just made that such a great time; really relaxing. We got some great shots from that as well. I think that is something that, not that I'd want to do it again, but I'd definitely do again."

What do you think of the results?

Jo

"I think overall we love our wedding photos, we're really happy with the results, which is great. But to be specific; one thing that I really, really loved was that the day after the wedding Ross already sent us some pictures. Two or three different shots from the day, and it was really nice to go away on honeymoon having seen a couple of our pictures without having this kind of, oh I wonder what they look like. It was really nice to see some of our nice professional shots before we started seeing lots of poor quality shots hanging around on facebook etc."

Ben

"I think that's exactly it, I think until you see a professional doing a professional job with photographs, you don't realise the difference that actually having someone that knows what they are doing can make a huge difference to the outcome. Exactly that, you see some really nice shots of friends and different things happening, that people take, and then you compare them against what come through from Moment Photography and you go WOW did we really look like that, that can't be real?

And I think we had some really lovely shots of our first dance, and I think when you see some people taking some snapshots, they kind of almost look black and white and grainy and horrible and there's nothing there. Whereas actually the shots that came back from Ross, it almost looked like, well it looked like we were dancing and we almost were. It just looked alive, and that was amazing, so great results."

Jo

"And I think Ross worked really hard all day to take photos of things that were happening that we didn't see, so he captured some really lovely fun moments that otherwise we never would have seen. And captured some of the personalities of some of our guests that were there really well."

Ben

"So I think that overall the results were far better than what we could expect, and we already expected something to be pretty good, so yeah I think we were pretty pleased."

Jo

"And the turnaround time that Ross did for us was brilliant, so we got back from our honeymoon and our photos were ready, and we were away for a week so.... Again, comparing that with photographers that have worked for other friends at their weddings, the turnaround time can often be a lot longer. So if you want your photos quickly you know that Ross will deliver that."

What would you say to anyone thinking of using Moment Photography?

Ben

"What do I think of Moment Photography? I think if I had to recommend Moment Photography, the things I could say are that, it's a really professional outfit, and I think the results we got were fantastic, they were exactly what we wanted. I think that the day was run, from a photography point of view, really professionally, but really relaxed. I think we had a really enjoyable day, it wasn't intrusive. And I think that we had really good value for the time that Ross was with us. He started the day with us and spent all day all through to the reception. And I think that just caught the essence of our whole day, and for us I think that was really important. It sounds strange to say for us that actually the photographs weren't important, it was about getting married and being married and what our vows meant for us. But having said that, Ross managed to capture the whole day and kind of caught that feeling for us, so I think we've got a perfect memory now in photograph form of what we want to remember. I think that's great."

Jo

"Yeah and I think if you were considering hiring Ross, meet up with him, chat with him, because he'll be only too happy to listen to your ideas and I think you'll really easily get an idea about whether he fits with your picture for your day. And I think if he fits within your bracket in terms of budget for photography then you'll make a good decision in choosing to have him take photos of you on your big day."

Ben

"So would we recommend Moment Photography? Absolutely."