Damien.

I have recently had major discussions within a members forum here in Australia on this very subject.

The majority want to follow the ‘trash’ fad. I reckon it’s a bit disrespectful, so it’s great to see the ‘cherish’ concept.
Thanks

This quote caught my eye:

“we get husbands and boyfriends involved too.”

The cynic in me was very amused until I saw your mention of proms and such… Thanks, as always, for sharing the great ideas.

Cheers!

I wish you every good fortune with it.

Thanks for the heads up on the Ranger kit. I must try a beauty dish on my Bron kit. I use a silver brolly because it is less bulky but I think you are right about the quality of light. I would never go near an umbrella in the studio. Your lighting quality speaks for itself.

The one advantage that the Bron kit has is the two outputs on the pack have switchable power ratios. I’d love to be able to control the flash power at the camera though. The Bron remote has the up and down buttons but they don’t seem to do anything on the Mobil. It might just be that I need a firmware upgrade. Anyway thanks for the heads up on the Ranger kit.

Cheers, Damien.

Thanks for your kind words. I strive to never overlook the opportunity to shoot beauty. Trash is about shock and attitude and works very well indeed for some. Cherish is about beauty and romance. Let’s make this work too.

Damien.

You are right of course. Nothing is new in photography, it just gets reinvented. Over the past 10 years or so I have seen many bridal portraits enter wedding competitions that were taken days or weeks after the wedding when there was more time available and less worry for the care of the dress. These shoots have often been more relaxed affairs tending towards a trash the dress shoot and mostly shot at an exterior location.

The Cherish difference is that it is largely an interior shoot in a fabulous location with a make up artist / hair stylist involved and more sophisticated lighting set ups.

The business angle that I’ve not discussed in this piece involves the wedding venue hotel offering weekend stays with a shoot package. The couple arrive on the Friday night, have a romantic dinner, have a Cherish shoot on the Saturday morning (before that days wedding couple get back from the church) and have a viewing session at the hotel on the Sunday morning before the couple check out. Hotels love it because it sells weekend rooms and Friday night dinners. We love it because we have free use of the shoot location, the make up happens in the clients bedroom, there are no bad weather problems because we shoot interiors and we get use of a swanky meeting room for the viewing, all at no cost.

There are bound to have been a few photographers who have offered this kind of service but it has not yet been mainstream in the UK. Once you get clients asking for Cherish shoots by name it becomes a recognised genre. Like boudoir, trash the dress, urban and pregnancy. These are all genres that get asked for without the photographer having to push it.

The Australians shoot this kind of picture on the wedding day itself. They often have several hours in the afternoon for a dedicated couple shot where the dress is kept in good condition. I’ve always been envious of this fabulous picture making opportunity and rather than try and change the wedding culture here in the UK it seems more sensible to create demand in other ways.

Damien.

post wedding shoots have been going on for decades.

The Elinchrom Ranger kit is fantastic with the wireless control you have if you need to up or down the lighting. The only thing as with most big flash kits is the size and to do by yourself is cumbersome without assistance. Lately I have been using a beauty dish/bowl on the front as it produces a better quality of light than a brolly or softbox it can provide nice directional lighting which is soft and does not have the extreme hardness that standard reflectors offer. It’s great when you also need some curling of your light scource on say a wall behind your subject. I believe they used these dishes back in the old days on Hollywood films.
Mark

Great stuff, I checked out the You Tube videos and they look like you had a great time. It’s interesting to note that you were using big flash and really giving the shoot the quality of light it deserves. This kind of image could look so naff if done badly and yours really set the standard. I couldnt help thinking the bride in the scrap yard must surely be a model.

Thanks for your generous and useful contribution. There are great opportunities out there at the moment for those of us willing to put in the effort.

It looks like you were using Elinchrom Ranger? Do you like the kit?

Cheers,

Damien.