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Writer's pictureLily Newman

Assisting a wedding photographer in London

Robert Shack replied to me about assisting him at a wedding at The Dorchester in London. Of course I said yes because I want to get as much experience as possible and because I don't know what type of photographer I want to be so getting this experience would be really beneficial for me.

The wedding was a Jewish wedding, most Jewish weddings normally happen on a Sunday because this is when most go to pray and when everyone has the day off work. This wedding was no exception, it was on Sunday 24th February.


The itinerary of the day:

11am: I met Rob outside The Dorchester where he showed me to the base room where we were keeping all the equipment for the day. I was very overwhelmed with where I was as I walked through The Dorchester because it's full of people from a completely different walk of life to me. While we were in the room Rob spoke through the equipment we would be using and where we would be shooting throughout the day as we weren't just shooting at the hotel.


12pm: We went up to the brides suite where I met the bride. Rob asked me to get any photos of people walking in and out of the rooms and to show the getting ready process of the immediate wedding party. Meanwhile Rob was getting pictures of the bride getting her hair and makeup done. We then did a lingerie shoot for the bride as she requested this little shoot as part of the photographs that she wanted. We had to shut the door of the bedroom as they didn't want her dad to see the dress before the bride was ready as that was another set of images. This shoot was when I did my first part of assisting. We hung the dress from the ceiling and had the bride lying on the bed. I stood on a chair and held an LED light above the bride so that the lighting was right for Rob, if the lighting wasn't right then he would tell me to turn the power up or down on the light. The bride then got into her dress and we moved her into the lounge. I went and got her dad and Rob captured the moment that he saw his daughter in her wedding dress for the first time. Rob had originally said he wanted me to get pictures of her reaction seeing her dad but in the end he didn't want those shots. We then did family shots and bridesmaids shots and did the same reaction photos. We then took the bride out of the suite and did some photos of her on her own. I needed to come and help Rob with the LED light again.


4pm: We got a taxi over to the synagogue before the bride and groom arrived so that we could get pictures of them both arriving in their cars. The groom arrived first so we asked him to come inside so we could get a couple of portraits of him inside the church. We then came back outside and got pictures of the bridesmaids arriving and waited for Gemma the bride to arrive. Before the bride arrived Rob had asked me to get some images of the bride coming out the car possibly from the wing mirror of the car but I wasn't able to go that so I just got images of her coming out the car from a different angle to Rob. The bride then got taken into a separate room with the bridesmaids where I followed them and just constantly took pictures of the bride and the bridesmaids.

In Jewish weddings they let the groom into the room where they give the bride away and then the ceremony starts. Rob had asked me to get one specific shot of the bridesmaids looking back at the bride. Luckily I got it because otherwise Rob would have been disappointed that I didn't get it.


5:30pm: We made our way back to the hotel and set up a set of Elinchrom lights for the formal family shots. All the family shots and the bride and groom shots had to be shot by 7pm as the sit down meal started then so we were on a tight time scale. The first lot of photos were easier because everyone was in the room but once the first photos were done most people started to leave the room so we had to go and hunt for them which wasted little bit of time. I didn't take any photos during this shoot I just helped Rob with whatever he needed help with. When we got to the bigger family shots we needed to clear the room and put chairs out which was something that I needed to help Rob with. We then moved rooms and I watched while Rob took the final formal shots of the bride and groom on their own. I then unfortunately had to leave to catch my train home as it was a Sunday so I needed to be at uni the next morning.


What I thought of the day: The whole day to me was so overwhelming. I've never been to a wedding like that before. I was speechless and I still am. It was just a very different experience to what I've experienced before. It was very different to how I imagined it but I think that wedding is just very different to any other but it has made me realise I couldn't be a wedding photographer full time. I would be more than happy to help and assist again and I have already been in touch with Rob about helping again and he's replied. He said that if he has more than one job on he will be on one job and Lee, his other assistant would be at the other so he would need help so he would be in touch.


Some of Rob's shots from the day (sourced from his Instagram https://www.instagram.com/robert_shack_photography/?hl=en)


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