What qualifications/experience do you have?

That's a great question in this era when there seem to be so many photographers around!

I am a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, gaining that distinction over 25 years ago.  I proudly serve on one of the Society's Distinction panels, adjudicating on worldwide applicants for their Associateships and Fellowships.  It is a great honour to be involved at this level of photography.

In addition to that I am highly regarded as a judge for clubs and exhibitions and have a long record of lecturing and teaching photography.

I have more than 35 years of experience, gained through a huge variety of exposure in many aspects of photography through work with all types of film, darkroom and camera types from SLRs to medium format and large format view cameras.  All this experience is invaluable even in today's digital world and is regularly drawn upon in assignments.

Do we get the digital files?

Yes you get all the final images on disk as medium resolution files (normally about 1920px longest edge).  These are fine for displaying on your TV, laptop etc, plus good for prints  up to about 7x5".
High resolution files are available for a modest additional charge.

We absolutely love your black & white work, do we get both colour and black & white pictures or how do you decide which?

That's great!  I am a big fan of black & white too, learning the skills in a traditional darkroom over many years to the highest standards.  My work has been awarded gold medals at international salons and I have also been Ilford Black & White Printer of the Year.  Whereas your wedding will be photographed digitally all this knowledge is still applicable to generating the best possible pictures for you.

Some pictures work better in colour, some suit black & white.  If I have only supplied you with a black & white file then there will be no colour version available, in some cases you may get both versions.  During the album design process we may convert some additional pictures to black & white as we do not mix both colour and monochrome on the same album spread, preferring each double page spread to just contain colour or just monochrome pictures.

How do we book?

To book we need a fully signed contract form and a deposit payment.  Only on confirmation of receipt of both of these is your date guaranteed.  Sometimes people ask us to pencil them in for a date, please do note that we operate on a basis of the first to give us a contract and deposit secures the date.

What if it rains on our wedding day?

Please don't worry about this! Some of our most photogenic weddings have taken place in awful weather! Just have a smile and a laugh and enjoy a wonderful day, whatever the weather.

Where do you work?

I am based in Guernsey and generally work throughout the Channel Islands, UK and France.  However I will also undertake commissions elsewhere, please enquire so we can discuss this.

I notice that you post weddings on your blog, what if we do not want our pictures to be seen publicly?

That is absolutely no problem with me!  Whereas I don't do too many celebrity weddings, other people can have all sorts of reasons why they wish their pictures to remain private.  I am more than happy to respect this.  Obviously if everyone requested this I wouldn't have any pictures to show you of what to expect from our work!  Your online gallery of wedding pictures is also automatically password protected by default.

Do you take family group shots?  You say your style is natural and documentary and I was told that this type of photographer doesn't shoot family groups.

Of course I do!  These are some of the most important pictures of your wedding, providing a precious record of the people nearest and dearest to you.  I ensure that the group shots are done in an efficient manner and to this I will ask you to provide a list beforehand. I would also advise to please assign a couple of people to round up those required in good time so that we can deal with these pictures as quickly as possible.  This avoids keeping people from their champagne and celebrations! 

By being a photojournalistic service, I believe I cover the day more effectively.  I also work very hard to capture as many happy, candid pictures of people as I can in addition to the family groups, ensuring you have pictures showing the true character of those at your wedding.  Have a look at our sample albums to see how I will cover the people at your wedding.

Do you have a price list?

Yes, please contact us with your details so we can get back to you with a copy of our price list and brochure.

Can we see all the files that you took?

After your wedding I carefully select the final files which then go to be fully edited.  Some pictures may show people with closed eyes, tongues out, be obvious duplicates, out of focus and so on.  Such pictures are not selected and are not kept.  Rest assured that all usable pictures are delivered to you, I do not try to keep things to a minimum number.  It is also important to point out that all selected files are properly edited, not just those used for the album; this is by far the most time consuming part of my work regarding your wedding, but well worth it for the quality of pictures you will receive.

How many pictures can we expect?

This varies with each wedding and is very dependent on factors like how many people there are, the weather, how active the dancing is, even how good a time people appear to be having!  But as a rough guide you can probably expect around 500 files from a typical wedding, some will have a fair few more.

Do we have to feed you during our wedding?

Yes please!  I am fairly resilient, but if I am working for a full day for you then I tend to work better if I do have something to eat and drink during the day.  The best time for this is when you are eating yourselves as that is the time people are least photogenic.  I do not have to be seated with your guests or given the same menu, though I prefer not to be too far away as you never know what may happen and I don't want to miss anything.

A wedding magazine article suggested I give my photographer a list of pictures to take. Can I give you a list?

I would prefer if you didn't, as I will try and photograph as much as I can during your day. I cover the day very effectively due to my photojournalistic style without needing a list of pictures; if I had to follow the list I feel it would compromise our coverage.  Please let me know if there is anything specific that you are after, as I am very happy to discuss this with you. Also do understand that a wedding is generally an uncontrolled event and it is not always possible to take a specific shot.  For family group shots please do make a list, but if you could assign a couple of people to round up the relevant guests to make sure that all are present and all your groups are photographed.

Can I have the RAW files?

Sorry, the most time consuming part of photographing your wedding is processing and editing the files.  A RAW file is not suitable for use as it is, we will supply you with fully edited JPEG files.

How long do you keep our pictures after the wedding?

As long as physically possible. We do not have a policy of deleting client files after a certain length of time. It is strongly recommended that you also backup any files that we have given you.

What happens if your camera stops working at our wedding?  Do you have a spare camera?

Please be assured that I always have two cameras with me plus at least one spare.  All the cameras I use are top professional models that also take twin memory cards so I can backup files to the second card as I shoot. I also have a good variety of lenses with backups for those as well.

Once I get home after your wedding I ensure all your files are uploaded and various backups started before I try and get some sleep.

Your price list is for a full day, do you do shorter weddings?

Yes, please get in touch to that we can discuss your plans to find out exactly what you're after.

We really want you to photograph our wedding, but our budget is limited.  Can you give us a discount?

Please get in touch so we can discuss if there is a way to work within your budget, for example reduced hours of coverage.  

I really believe that I offer great value for the price, we are happy to tailor our coverage to your requirements.

We are really excited to see our pictures.  How long do we have to wait to see what you have taken?

A small preview of some of your wedding pictures will be supplied within about a week of your wedding, with a blog if that is okay with you.  To have your full gallery ready will require more time, selecting and editing all your pictures to the standards that we work to is very time-consuming.  We do endeavour to process your pictures as fast as we can, however please do appreciate that during very busy periods you may have to wait a few weeks to see your full gallery.

If you wish to have an image or two for use on social media immediately after your wedding please let me know, I will certainly try to do this for you.

Can you do a same-day slideshow to display at our wedding of some of the photographs that you have taken that day?

I feel it is more important to try and capture as much as we can during your wedding than to spend time on the day putting the slideshow together.

Oh no, it’s a great shame you are already booked on our date.  Can you recommend anyone else?

Why not try our daughter Rosemary?  She has helped us out at various weddings for several years and has photographed some by herself.  Here's a link to her website:- https://www.rosemarydespres.com/

We are so impressed by your wedding albums!  We had someone else photograph our wedding, can you put their pictures in an album for us?

If you got married abroad and couldn’t use us for your wedding photography, then please get in touch to see what we can do for you.

How long do we have to wait for our wedding album?

Each book is custom-designed specially around your pictures, so as such this is a demanding process.  During peak times it may not be possible to fit in album designs, but I always try to do these as soon as possible.  Once on order, these specially made books generally take around 6 to 8 weeks to be delivered. They are well worth waiting for!