So who is my favourite Wedding photographer? Well 6 months or so ago I didn't think I had a favourite wedding photographer as I knew nobody with the same views and approach as myself.

Then one night I decided to google the top ten wedding photographers in the world. This came up with mostly photographers who still really didn't do it for me! One stood out amongst them and I no longer felt like Charlton Heston in the film The Omega Man. I was not alone in the world and there was another photographer with the same views as myself.

Even better I could see someone who I felt was better than me. This may seem a funny thing to be happy about, but I think everyone needs heroes and I have had nobody's wedding work to look at and say I WISH I TOOK THAT!

I remember years ago when my friend Marcus Doyle and I would take photo's right at the beginning of our interest in photography and there was that little bit of competition between us.

It was healthy, and I think way back then it made us both strive to capture better images. As I've said before our Photography careers took completely different paths over time. But we both loved photography the instant we both picked up my fathers camera's and started messing about with them.

Because Marcus and my work went into two completely different directions I can now admire his work and love it without wishing I had taken it. His Landscape photography in my opinion is amazing. I just love looking at his images because they hold such real natural beauty that he has captured from something he has seen that nobody else could have.

I think there is so much of Marcus's heart that goes into his images and he has stayed true to himself by not conforming to the horrible clinical look that is so popular now in his field.

He also shoots on film only which I envy greatly! It would be stupid of me to shoot my wedding work on film as digital has now surpassed 35mm film camera's for my line of work. For landscape though I believe film is still king and when you think Marcus uses 10x8 format and has exposures that could last more than an hour, digital comes no where near. Even at low iso's there would be so much noise from the long exposure's that his images would be ruined! I doubt this problem will be solved for a good few years. For me however using shorter exposures and with iso's up to 6400 and fast canon L lenses, I can acomplish much more than I did with film for my weddings. But I miss the stinky darkroom and printing my own work so much at times. To be honest,if I shot just portraits,landscape,still life or anything else I would return to film for certain. I loved the days where my photo's were just for me and I could take my time in the darkroom to hand print my masterpiece. Even the early weddings I did were entirely hand printed by me. And those fibre based prints were so beautiful!
The fact Marcus still uses film and keeps things real is a true credit to him.
I will continue this tomorrow along with revealing my favourite wedding photographer!