Wedding Fireworks Devon
Wedding Fireworks Devon
Fireworks can be a spectacular way to end your wedding. Often kept as a surprise for the wedding guests and even on occasion a total surprise for the bride. In this article, I will share my thoughts and experience of photographing Wedding fireworks in Devon and across the South West over the last 19 years.
Preparation is key when photographing fireworks
When photographing a wedding here in Devon and fireworks are planned, I always search out the venue manager and the person in charge of the fireworks. I need to know things like, who knows about the fireworks, as I said before it’s often a surprise and I do not want to ruin that. The time they will be set off and for how long. This is important as it will give me an idea to how quick I have to work. With a quick display I will take all the photographs from the same place but if time allows, I may decide to change the camera view point. Where will they be set off from roughly how high will they go and where will the crowd be standing. All of these things are important when photographing fireworks.
The Bride and Groom
The last thing to consider is the bride and groom. If at all possible ,I try to have them in the photograph with the fireworks. By speaking to the firework company I can find out where I can place them whilst staying within the safety boundaries. This all ensures the happy couple get a spectacular photograph of them and their wedding guests.
This last photo is a little unusual in that it was actually brighter than it looks. In fact, it was so bright the bride said don't worry if you can not get any photo's. Well, I do like like a challenge so I positioned the guests and ask them to wrap their arms around each other as I thought that would look nice in the photo. Now it was not very dark at all, It was in the summer and the licence for the fireworks stipulated the latest time they could be set off. This is why it was so bright and a real challenge to photograph. I had to set my camera to underexpose the sky dramatically to make it dark enough to ensure the fireworks would show up. I then fired off every flash I own at the guests to eliminate them. Without the flash, they would have been nothing more than a silhouette. The photo came out great and was a real surprise for my bride and groom.
