Great Fosters Wedding

I’ve been a Nikon man since the start of my photography days. As I child I remember seeing an advert and wanting to be just like the guy that featured in it - handsome, big smile, with a lovely Nikon camera in his hand. As an adult I thankfully managed to hit one of those benchmarks, and I couldn’t have been happier.

Once in the photography world, and with my shiny new Nikon by my side, I was initiated into that most famous of photography debates - the Nikon / Canon Face-Off. It was a battle I never really understood - both were DSLR’s, both big and somewhat bulky, both competing for the greater amount of megapixels and higher ISO range. They were essentially identical cameras so it would have taken something extraordinary to turn my head.

And then something extraordinary did happen: a camera came out that managed to bring the fun back into my photography. I thought I was already having loads of fun, but clearly I wasn’t! I can’t tell you how much more enjoyable it is to do a 10 hour photography stint with a camera - in this instance the Fuji X-T2 - that is significantly smaller, lighter and quieter than what I’d been using for years. It was a change I initially feared - as a Nikon man I’ve had years of doing things a certain way, and of knowing how to approach a situation with a camera I felt completely comfortable and in sync with.

But those ‘positives’ can quite easily become negatives. Auto-pilot can cause a creative malaise, and it’s important to innovate and mix things up every now and again - I didn’t truly appreciate this until I moved to Fuji. I can’t tell you how weird that feels to say, as I could never see how changing camera system could change the way you shoot and approach a situation (mainly because the alternative camera system, i.e. Canon, was so similar to what I’d been using for years!). But it has, and I definitely feel liberated as a result.

I just want to touch base on this quickly, otherwise I’m sure I’ll be sounded out as a massive Fuji Fan Boy, but having a viewfinder that is completely electronic is just a massive game-changer for me. To *instantly* see what the exposure and aperture depth of field is in camera, is just incomparable to what I’ve been used to. There are negatives of course - notably battery life and image quality at higher ISOs - but for raw documentary photography, this is as good as it gets at the minute, though I have been hearing amazing things about the Sony a9.

So I thought I’d share a wedding where I shot completely on the Fuji X-T2 for the duration of it. The following all took place at Natalie + Ben’s wedding at Great Fosters, in Surrey. Despite being an absolutely gorgeous, high-flying couple, they manage to remain refreshingly ego-free and completely down-to-earth. We had an engagement shoot a few months before, and I got to hear all about how they met, notably in primary school (!) and how a chance meeting brought them back together years later. I’ve got to say how amazing it was to see their faces as they gave their vows - there was a real ‘we’re actually doing this!’ about it all, and I couldn’t have been happier for them.