Stuart Wood

I continue to shoot weddings all over the UK and internationally and they are all memorable. I am proud to say that I continue to give my very best to every single one of them. After all, isn’t that why I am there?

Touching, Luxury, Editorial, Chique, Passionate

I have so many awards and achievements that I have attained over the years. Shooting my first Radio Times cover was a very proud moment. One particular personal project that springs to mind was my Six Six Forty Four portraits of D Day veterans that was completed for the 75th Anniversary. This became a major exhibition that was proudly shown at the National Memorial Arboretum, The D Day Exhibition at The Portsmouth Museum alongside portraits from the Royal Collection and the National Army Museum. The accompanying book which raised a lot of money for charity, has now been accessioned permanently to the British Library. The curator of the British Library thought the book of portraits and personal stories was far too important to not be int he national Library. All of that from a crazy idea that grew into something very important.

Factor in some time, if only for a few minutes, so that you can be alone together on your wedding day. Everyone will want a piece of you both on the day and this will continue throughout your day. And it goes so quickly too. Have a few minutes together away from it all. I promise you that you will remember it.

I love it when fathers get emotional when seeing their stunning daughters in their wedding dress for the first time. There is something very ‘British’ about men not crying. What utter rubbish! I have seen the toughest men weep like babies when first glimpsing their girl ready to leave and get married. I once photographed a man who sobbed when he saw his lovely daughter and he wrote to me later to thank me and told me they were the most beautiful pictures that he had ever had taken of him. Weddings should be about happiness and heightened emotions and I want that recorded beautifully.

While I always take the ‘safe’ pictures that mothers want for the mantelpiece, my vast experience at shooting people all over the world for major magazine and tv campaigns and now luxury weddings means that I want much more than a mere ‘likeness’ of my couples. Known for connecting with people swiftly and relaxing them too, I love to take our pictures to places that they never thought possible. I have literally had my couples and sometimes even their close family in tears when they see what we have achieved together and capturing such special moments together. So my coverage includes both a documentary style of securing the elements of the day as they happen that I need to record, plus using all my experience to create my signature high end editorial style portraits of my couples. This is all achieved throughout the day. I never want to turn my couple’s wedding day into a photo shoot and unless we have no other choice (usually because of weather issues) I will never take them away from their celebrations for more than a few minutes at a time.

Apart from the traditional images of walking down the aisle, cutting the cake etc, I always encourage that we explore the venue throughout the day and secure those special contemporary couple images and be creative with this too. This is where my extensive experience comes in and my specialty high end lighting techniques shine (no pun intended) I always pack my own lighting and my assistants are fully trained to use the kit. It is not unusual for my assistant to be prone on the floor directly behind my couple to add a subtle backlight.

I was once shot a wedding at a 5 star deluxe hotel in Switzerland and asked to get an evening ‘spectacular’ to finish the album off nicely. While the wedding breakfast was in full swing and I was not missing anything important, I used this time to source the perfect location. The beautiful arched window that I wanted to pose my couple in had some annoying bright reflections from the hotel’s own street lights and exactly where they would be standing too! I went to the reception and asked to speak to the manager. When he turned up I politely asked if it was possible to lose the lighting for a few minutes and showed him the problem by producing a test picture on the back of my camera. He smiled and said that he had never been asked that before and then reached for the telephone to instruct his engineer to go to the offending lamp and temporarily disconnect the wires. So all this preparation was done while my couple and their guests were enjoying themselves and when we were finally ready, they only had to stand at the window for a couple of minutes before I sent them back to their wedding celebrations. When those special pictures are happening, something in me takes over and only the ‘Mona Lisa’ will do for my lovely couples. Once in Santorini we were experiencing the most perfect sunset over the sea. I wanted my couple backlit against this amazing canvas that would only last a few minutes. The videographer volunteered to hold my camera on the tripod as I moved in swiftly to fine tune every detail of the lighting and pose. It was all done within 2-3 minutes and the perfect photograph was captured. When I thanked the videographer he said how amazed he was watching how I work. He then asked me how many times did I think I had moved in to adjust the detail. Being totally absorbed in getting the picture I suggested about five times in those 2-3 minutes. No, he said because he had counted them. No less than sixteen times I had gone in and adjusted every detail, which even I had absolutely no idea of! Not much will ever stop me getting the very best for my couples !

I plan for every contingency. I always have studio lighting on hand if I need to shoot indoors. If the weather is really bad then we shoot the groups inside the venue. On such days I will be watching the weather very closely and if there is even the briefest of breaks in the rain, I will have a location ready and prepped so that we get at least some exterior pictures. I once did a wedding on the south coast during a gale! The hotel had a lovely wooden jetty and between the rain and despite the wind being so loud they could not hear me, the bride and groom stood right at the end of the jetty in the gale with Mother Nature providing ultimate drama. Fabulous image!

Always loved those mysterious black boxes whose merest and almost imperceptible click would produce such magical results. The aura that seemed to surround them utterly fascinated me as a child. Still does! I have always kept my father’s original camera that was taken with us on those holidays. I always avidly read photography magazines, despite back then being totally confused about this new language discussing apertures, f stops, shutter speeds etc. When I left school and started work, I saved hard to get my first real camera and when I bought it I would sit with it in my hands at night while watching tv and simply covet this marvel. From that moment on and I suppose until the very end, developed (again, no pun intended) an intense love affair that permeates every single cell of my being. People are often surprised by my passion and enthusiasm when I am taking pictures. This passion not only never wanes, but only grows. I do love my job and am so proud to be a photographer. Giving up my career as a budding supermarket manager thirty years ago (my then manager thought I was mad and I agreed that I might be) I left to attend a full time photography course at Salisbury College of Art. Came out with a distinction after three years and a fire in my belly and winning Photography Student of the Year at the Photographers Gallery in London. While at college as a student and knowing I was a people photographer , I contacted 250 celebrities to take their picture and secured 25 of them. As a result of this I was commissioned by a national magazine while still a student and moved into magazines and tv photography. Over the years since leaving college, I have shot major commissions for the magazines and tv companies all over the UK and worldwide. I am a Fellow for the BIPP and SWPP. I write regular columns for blogs and magazines and I regularly teach and hold workshops in the UK and internationally on my specialty lighting and people photography skills. I am also an ambassador for Elinchrom lights.