Our next stop on this tour of some of my weddings from 2017 takes us to The Matara Centre, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire. If you’ve never been before, now’s your chance to have a look around; it’s a completely and utterly fantastic venue.
As a photographer one learns to have an eye for little details whenever they appear. The Matara Centre is a complete dream for little details. The grounds are stunning enough already, but to add to this the place is littered with features upon features. I could spend hours walking around photographing the venue, let alone shooting a wedding there!
The Matara Centre, Gloucestershire | Wedding Photography
Kat and Darren’s wedding day was a blast from start to finish. It’s quite common for me to be asked to photograph bridal preparation at the start of the day, but it’s also not uncommon to be asked to start shortly before the ceremony. I started a short while before the ceremony for Kat and Darren’s wedding beginning with some ‘establishing’ shots of the venue. I took a few photographs of the guests arriving and the bride herself by which time the ceremony was getting underway.
The Matara Centre has a wonderfully photogenic cloistered courtyard where many of their ceremonies take place. This was the case for this wedding and I was fortunate to be allowed to photograph from the front of the ceremony. This is something worth bearing in mind however; not all registrars allow the photographer to be at the front of the ceremony, as is also the case with some vicars. It’s worth double checking with them in advance. Although I like to be as unobtrusive as possible this position usually makes for the best photograph opportunities.
“…looking out for those special moments that make each wedding unique”
After a relaxed but moving ceremony we moved on to a few group shots and some general reportage photographs of guests enjoying themselves leading up to the wedding breakfast and speeches. One of The Matara Centre’s biggest selling points (aside from the cloistered courtyard and copious amounts of intricate detail) is the Hilarium, a stunning dome-roofed room often used for the wedding breakfast or on occasion the ceremony. Kat and Darren had their wedding breakfast and reception here, which made for some fantastic photographs with the wall of fairy lights as a great backdrop.
The speeches wrapped up and I went back to some more ‘people watching’ photography, looking out for those special moments that make each wedding unique. Shortly after this the band took to the stage and the guest danced the rest of the night away, rounding off this thoroughly enjoyable Summer wedding.
I hope you enjoy looking through this selection of photographs from the day. All pictures are supplied to my clients in colour and some are also converted to black and white. In short, wherever you see a black and white picture here a colour version was given to the couple too.
If you have any questions about my photography or would like to enquire about your own wedding please don’t hesitate to write me a message on my Contact page.
Camera Notes
This wedding at The Matara Centre was shot entirely using the Fujifilm X-Pro 2 (I carry 3 bodies of this camera at weddings) with one focal length on each camera; 16mm, 23mm and 56mm. Since around May 2016 this has been my set-up for all weddings, which I’ve found suits my style perfectly. I do wish that the X-Pro 2 had a tilt screen to make some of the lower angles a bit easier to manage but either way it’s a fantastic camera. The Fujifilm X-T2 is an equally impressive bit of kit and that camera does include a tilt screen, but the form factor and hybrid viewfinder of the X-Pro 2 make it right for me. By the evening at most weddings I’m either using available light or using the 16mm with the EF-X20 flash on a TTL cable. In the event of using flash I typically aim to drag the shutter, often shooting at a shutter speed of around 1/20, ISO at about 8,000, with the flash on 1/16th power. I tend to zone focus for this too, so I’ll often use an aperture of f/8, or sometimes f/11. This method generally allows me to focus on the dance floor action as much as possible.
Cameras: Fujifilm X-Pro 2 (3 bodies)
Lenses: 16mm f/1.4 | 23mm f/1.4 | 56mm f/1.2
Flash: EF-X20 (used in the evening)
