I have known Susan all her life. Her family and my family have been close friends for as long as I can remember, so I was absolutely delighted when she asked my to be the photographer for her and Gary's wedding in Orkney.
I was born and bread in Orkney before moving away to go to university, so I was very excited at the prospect of going 'home' to shoot a wedding. My favourite place growing up was (and still is) Birsay. It is a parish on the north west corner of Mainland Orkney and because of this you often get the most amazing sunsets.
This was going to be the perfect spot for their engagement shoot as the wedding reception was going to be held in the nearby village hall.
We met on a crisp April evening about 30 minutes before the sun was due to set. As always, I like to start my engagement shoots with some simple walking shots. These are very simple and easy images to take and really help the couple relax into the shoot, as more often than not I find that at least one of them may feel a little awkward getting there photo taken. This really does help set them at ease.
We then took a wee walk further around the coast to make sure we could capture the sun setting behind the Brough of Birsay as it looked like we were going to get a cracking sunset. We timed it perfectly and had the most amazing orange light as the sun went down. We ran through some basic posing and took a mixture of natural light and flash shots to get the lovely mix of images below. They were both absolutely brilliant in front of the camera (even though they were initially a light apprehensive about getting there photo taken) and did an amazing job.
A special mention to my lighting assistant on this shoot, my daughter Erin. Who was a great help and without her, my lights would of been blown off the cliff and into the sea. Here she is in action crouched down nice and low as to make it easier to photoshop her out later.
