OMG I don't freaking believe this!

An Exception · 8 Sep 2014 at 23:24

Italian Fashion designer (works in New York) wants me to photograph her wedding in Milan next year.
I tell her with a heavy heart that I'm booked for a wedding the day before. Seriously

She asks the following...
"Oh no! I guess that would be too tight. It would be horrible if you missed your plane or something.
Well that's a shame! I know this might sound weird, but would you recommend somebody else that works in Europe?
Living in New York I have no contacts with European photographers Somebody with a great sense of story telling, a unique eye, and a fascination for nostalgia. If you don't, I understand.
Thanks!"
I reply..
"I don’t really follow/know many other photographers.
I don’t know what your budget is, but if I was going to book a photographer it would be Ross Harvey, although there may be a good chance he’s already booked as he’s AMAZING."
I get back..
"Hey Rhys,

I just checked his website and as much as his photography is quite incredible, the colors are too loud and it's just too digital and bright

I have been photographing since I was a kid, and I still use film, and I like grain (or the idea of it), softer tones and a discrete eye that will capture the intimacy of that special day, I need somebody that will notice the same details than I would, That's why I like your photos so much and I feel like an idiot for not emailing you earlier.

I will investigate about back ups and other people, but I would be very very happy to have you, as long as you promise not to miss your flight! The wedding will be at 5pm, and I will need you to start documenting things around noon-1pm. Which gives you a bit of time if you get in the night before.

Let me know!"

Now I know 999 in 1000 would easily choose RH to shoot their wedding over me, but still.. that put a smile on my face.

Raymond Lin · 8 Sep 2014 at 23:36

That's a shame, would be cool to shoot in Italy, destination weddings are great!

And that's not true that you don't follow or know many other photographers

An Exception said:
I get inspiration and ideas from allot of photographers, Ross Harvey, Marshal Grey etc. etc.

hehe

Yes, I remember some weird things.

p.s. Jonas Peterson. Even someone RH looks up to.

http://jonaspeterson.com/

I guess you could make it, depending on where the wedding is, what time is the flight, it would be a very close shave. Even if you don't sleep, there is the thing about need another set of cards and battery since you won't be able to go back home to back up or time to recharge.

Had to turn down many weddings because of double booking, they are never good ! I want to shoot them all

mr tommo · 8 Sep 2014 at 23:49

That's awesome mate! Bet your glad you never paid any attention to the posts about the grain

Did you find out how she found you?

Like the two of you have said above, Jonas Peterson and Ross Harvey are the two go to people for my inspiration. Can't even imagine how good you must feel! I feel a price increase coming on....haha

An Exception · 8 Sep 2014 at 23:53

Raymond Lin said:
That's a shame, would be cool to shoot in Italy, destination weddings are great!

And that's not true that you don't follow or know many other photographers

hehe

Yes, I remember some weird things.

p.s. Jonas Peterson. Even someone RH looks up to.

http://jonaspeterson.com/

I guess you could make it, depending on where the wedding is, what time is the flight, it would be a very close shave. Even if you don't sleep, there is the thing about need another set of cards and battery since you won't be able to go back home to back up or time to recharge.

Had to turn down many weddings because of double booking, they are never good ! I want to shoot them all

You are right, that wasn't true. I guess I felt better losing a wedding to someone I considered to be the best. I guess your memory isn't so bad either!

Having looked at Jonas, I still think RH has the edge in terms of creative composition. Jonas however seems to be a master of emotion (of course with great composition also), and his pictures have a certain 'feeling'.

I'll plan it all out tomorrow and skype her. What I'll do is buy double the batteries and memory cards. I shoot SD + CF and have the images saved to both cards. I might get my brother or something to drive me so he can take a set of cards back with him for safe keeping.
Luckily the wedding is only around 19 miles from Birmingham airport.

Been waiting a while for some destination weddings, nearly had one for south of France not long ago as well.

An Exception · 9 Sep 2014 at 00:00

mr tommo said:
That's awesome mate! Bet your glad you never paid any attention to the posts about the grain

It did make me lol, then I read that.

mr tommo said:
Did you find out how she found you?

Pinterest of all places. I guess someone else must have posted one of my pictures as I don't post anything there.

mr tommo said:
Can't even imagine how good you must feel! I feel a price increase coming on....haha

I won't be increasing my prices yet until I reach my quota of weddings for 2015.
Unfortunately this year I haven't been featured on the main wedding blogs as the B&G's preferred not to. Have some weddings I really like still to process though, and B&G's are particularly keen to be published on RMW, LMD, Boho etc.

It really does make a big difference to the No. of people trying to book you. It's also a good way to visit a variety of venues.

mr tommo · 9 Sep 2014 at 00:20

An Exception said:
It did make me lol, then I read that.

Pinterest of all places. I guess someone else must have posted one of my pictures as I don't post anything there.

I won't be increasing my prices yet until I reach my quota of weddings for 2015.
Unfortunately this year I haven't been featured on the main wedding blogs as the B&G's preferred not to. Have some weddings I really like still to process though, and B&G's are particularly keen to be published on RMW, LMD, Boho etc.

It really does make a big difference to the No. of people trying to book you. It's also a good way to visit a variety of venues.

The wife is always telling me I should be on Pinterest, I had a look and deemed it a pointless fad. Guess I'll have to go back on that soon...

(Ross is on the cover of the wedding special of photo professional this month btw - not much of a read but still some interesting stuff in there)

Raymond Lin · 9 Sep 2014 at 00:21

An Exception said:
You are right, that wasn't true. I guess I felt better losing a wedding to someone I considered to be the best. I guess your memory isn't so bad either!

Having looked at Jonas, I still think RH has the edge in terms of creative composition. Jonas however seems to be a master of emotion (of course with great composition also), and his pictures have a certain 'feeling'.

I'll plan it all out tomorrow and skype her. What I'll do is buy double the batteries and memory cards. I shoot SD + CF and have the images saved to both cards. I might get my brother or something to drive me so he can take a set of cards back with him for safe keeping.
Luckily the wedding is only around 19 miles from Birmingham airport.

Been waiting a while for some destination weddings, nearly had one for south of France not long ago as well.

There are lots of things you need to find out before you speak to her.

i.e. there is only so far ahead you can book flights so you need to find out before you can say yes. The latest you leave the wedding the night before (you can't be leaving that earlier than you normally do), allow time for customs, check in, the flight time has to timed almost perfectly to allow enough time for sleeping, the travel from airport to hotel where you will be staying, the travel from the hotel you are staying to the bride in the morning. The cost of buying new set of cards and batteries (less of a concern personally speaking, it would be worth it). Rest will be really important, you want to be at the top of your game. One shot at it !

There are lots to consider and plan, if all of the above are a 100% yes then go for it and good luck !

p.s. the wedding I shot in France last year I had to cancel an enquiry for the day before, I asked the bride to check out RH too lol He thanked me for the enq but unfortunately they booked someone else.

Raymond Lin · 9 Sep 2014 at 00:22

mr tommo said:
The wife is always telling me I should be on Pinterest, I had a look and deemed it a pointless fad. Guess I'll have to go back on that soon...

(Ross is on the cover of the wedding special of photo professional this month btw - not much of a read but still some interesting stuff in there)

He posted that on his Facebook page last week, its high enough res JUST make out all the text as well !

mr tommo · 9 Sep 2014 at 00:33

Yeah that's where I saw it, bought the mag yesterday as had an hour to kill in between meetings. Something's about blogging and marketing too but not had a proper read of them yet.

An Exception · 9 Sep 2014 at 00:46

Raymond Lin said:
There are lots of things you need to find out before you speak to her.

i.e. there is only so far ahead you can book flights, the latest you leave the wedding the night before (you can't be leaving that earlier than you normally do), allow time for customs, check in, the flight time has to timed almost perfectly to allow enough time for sleeping, the travel from airport to hotel where you will be staying, the travel from the hotel you are staying to the bride in the morning. The cost of buying new set of cards and batteries (less of a concern personally speaking, it would be worth it). Rest will be really important, you want to be at the top of your game. One shot at it !

There are lots to consider and plan, and good luck !

Yes, lot's to consider. I'll think about it in more detail tomorrow, but so far I'm scheduled to finish the wedding the day before at 8.30pm.
Birmingham Airport is 30 minutes away. Flight time 2:10hrs. (not sure about checkin checkout times, perhaps you have an idea of these?). Wedding is in Milan, so will try to fly into Milan airport. I'll book a Hotel/B&B as close to Venue as possible. Will take a sleeping tablet on the plane to ensure some sleep when I get to hotel. Don't have to start work until 1pm, so can have a lay in until 11am or so.

I don't have any weddings in March so I may take a Holiday in Milan as a test run. Then I can check out the venue, and learn the lay of the land.
It wasn't long ago I didn't know how to get to and around London Lol.

Raymond Lin · 9 Sep 2014 at 00:55

An Exception said:
Yes, lot's to consider. I'll think about it in more detail tomorrow, but so far I'm scheduled to finish the wedding the day before at 8.30pm.
Birmingham Airport is 30 minutes away. Flight time 2:10hrs. (not sure about checkin checkout times, perhaps you have an idea of these?). Wedding is in Milan, so will try to fly into Milan airport. I'll book a Hotel/B&B as close to Venue as possible. Will take a sleeping tablet on the plane to ensure some sleep when I get to hotel. Don't have to start work until 1pm, so can have a lay in until 11am or so.

I don't have any weddings in March so I may take a Holiday in Milan as a test run. Then I can check out the venue, and learn the lay of the land.
It wasn't long ago I didn't know how to get to and around London Lol.

you will need to be at the airport 2 hours before your flight, 90min would be the tightest i do it. It's not so much you get on the plane, its also your luggage.

I've not been to Milan for holiday but have to Rome and Florence, Milan is not that pretty as a holiday destination ! It's very industrial so I gather...anyway, the flight time is around 2 hours. You also need to find out if Birmingham flies to Milan if which air line, and what time those air line flies. Your choice of flights are quite limited if you are limited to just Birmingham, as opposed to any of the London Airports.

Allow for 30min from landing to departure of the airport. You can get a taxi to your B&B, again, you will be arriving LATE, i mean really late, so that means a hotel with a 24 hours front desk, or a B&B that offers that.

p.s. give yourself time to spare, you say you will leave at 8:30pm (not sure how you do it, I've never left before 12am!) but say if their speeches run late and first dance don't start until 10pm then are you going to leave for your flight and miss their first dance?

Lets say you leave at 9pm, that means getting to the airport for 9:30, flight at 11pm, land at 1am. If you can be in your bed by 3am I would say you are doing well. The chance of say a flight from Birmingham leaving at 11pm going direct to Milan would be slim. I just checked, for this weekend, the last flight out of Birmingham is 16:50pm, and the first one is 06:45am. So you could in theory make it if you catch the 6:45am flight...but it means sleeping in the airport hotel the night before and up at around 4-5am to get to the airport for the flight. There is however no contingencies.

So need to find out, all the locations for both weddings, flights, look up trip advisor for hotel in Milan, look in Google map for distances. And have contingencies. Like what if your flight is cancelled, what time is the next one for example.

An Exception · 9 Sep 2014 at 01:11

Raymond Lin said:
p.s. give yourself time to spare, you say you will leave at 8:30pm (not sure how you do it, I've never left before 12am!) but say if their speeches run late and first dance don't start until 10pm then are you going to leave for your flight and miss their first dance?

Thank for the rest of the info.

Regarding 8:30. I'm contracted for 10hrs, and B&G have asked me to stay until 8:30.
When I stay late at a wedding, it's just my own choice.
I have just got in touch with a school friend who asked me a while ago if he could tag along at one of my weddings (he's a keen amateur with a 5d3 and decent glass). I might pay him to second shoot with me, in order for me to make sure I can leave on time if the wedding runs behind. He could always stay a while after I leave.

Now to check out flight times...

Raymond Lin · 9 Sep 2014 at 01:17

Use Skyscanner for flights.

An Exception · 9 Sep 2014 at 02:04

Hmm no flights in the evening it seems. The only thing that might be a possibility is an early flight in the morning of the wedding. It seems there are not any options to book that far out though (at least not without stops). but there seems to be allot of flights at the weekends from 6:45am from Birmingham, to land at 10'ish in Milan.

I might reluctantly just have to turn this down.

mr tommo · 9 Sep 2014 at 09:19

Not sure which direction you are 30 mins from Birmingham from, but East Midlands airport may be an option to you. It's just off the M1 at Junction 23. Quite a few budget airlines fly from there.

Russinating · 9 Sep 2014 at 09:28

I've worked with Ross Harvey and wouldn't rate.

If she's still looking for recommendations then Ann-Kathrin Koch works across Europe (almost entirely) and she shoots on film.

mr tommo · 9 Sep 2014 at 09:42

Russinating said:
I've worked with Ross Harvey and wouldn't rate.

In what way did he disappoint?

Russinating · 9 Sep 2014 at 11:52

Nice enough chap and good photos, but, yeah... public forum and all

.

Rojin · 9 Sep 2014 at 16:14

Aargh what a nightmare, such a shame it clashed

Would RH consider a different PP approach, or does he have a style he sticks to?

9designs2 · 9 Sep 2014 at 20:24

If you can't make I'd suggest they look at Jim Wileman, we got married last week and he did ours. Can't say I like RH pictures anyway having just looked at the webpage.
Jim is based in North Devon, where we travelled to for our wedding, really nice guy, fantastic to work with, we've seen the first few pictures and they look good, so the rest should be great.
He focuses on the couple and getting those natural personal moments.

Flying into the Milan you'll end up on Ryan air or Easy jet, no chance to sleep on the plane. Careful the airport isn't miles out of the city, there are about three airports from memory, they get called Milan but aren't always close.
I use to fly often as I lived/work in Turin for a couple of years and sometimes used Milan airports.