Kind words from a very happy customer.

I got this lovely testimonial in an email from the couple who's wedding I photographed a few weeks ago:

Derek was absolutely fantastic from the moment we met him right up to the end of our wedding day. He was always on hand with advice and a help with anything we needed. He was so easy to get along with, he really did feel like one of the guests. His photos were amazing, they really captured those precious moments in time that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Thank you so much for your part in our special day". Matt and Emma Fediw They were married at the Bedford Swan Hotel on a very hot sunny day. It makes all the hard work worthwhile when you get comments like that.

Another competition winning entry

Derek has once again won first place in the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers Weekly Wedding Competition. This time the subject was Large Group Photos. The winning entry scored 39% of the members vote.

This competition is doubly important as each week there is a new subject and all the entries and voting is done by the society members. Additionally, all the winners for the weekly wedding competition will go through to a final vote for the favourite image of the year and the winner will receive a prize and be awarded, at the Annual Awards Night, the accolade of "Members Choice Wedding Photographer Of the Year".

Wedding Photographs and copyright

Who owns the copyright to my wedding photographs?

The question of copyright in regards to wedding photographs can be a bit confusing.
In fact its so confusing that I’m not even sure most photographers understand it. Read full article here from findaweddingphotographer.co.uk

If you have your wedding photographed by Derek Barrett Photography and purchase a disk of your images, you will be given a limited license to print the photos for your own use and can make copies for your friends and relatives. Any commercial use of the pictures, for example to give to your florist, cake designer, etc. for use in their brochures would have to be cleared by us and will be a separate contract for them.

Please note that it is also a breach of copyright to scan any prints supplied by a photographer, so don't take your prints to your local photo shop and ask them to copy them for you. They will also be liable under the copyright act if they do this, or allow you to do this on self service machines.

Local wedding photographer organises major photo shoot

Last Monday (11th May 2009) was an awesome day. Let me explain!

In the iconic Bletchley Park, the home of the codebreakers where the famous German Enigma code was broken in WWII there were assembled 12 models, umpteen wedding dresses, a team of make up and hair stylists, 2 vintage cars, florists and 6 eager professional wedding photographers there to create some awesome photography.

I put the day together to allow the photographers to practice some of their skills and try out new ideas that could not be attempted at a live wedding. All this in exchange for photographs for the sponsors of the event.

Thanks go to;
First Impressions Bridal of Newport Pagnell for the dresses and models
The Zest Group Bletchley Park for the use of the venue
Arcana of Crownhill for Hair and make up
Michaels Menswear of Stony Stratford for the grooms outfits
The Wedding-car co of Newton Longville for the two beautiful vintage cars
and Ruth’s Floral Design Studio of Wolverton for the flowers

And not forgetting the photographers;
Andrea Lane
Graeme Shiplee
Laura Cope
Sarah Vivienne
Bernie Raffe
and, of course, myself

I was amazed by the fact that everyone I approached accepted the opportunity without question. Of course the bonus of getting several thousand pounds worth of free photography might have helped. Thank you all for making the day so exhausting but very memorable.

Due to the sponsor's requirements, we cannot show you any of the pictures yet as they have to be vetted by them first, but I shall post some as soon as they are released.

We all went home very exhausted but elated at what had been achieved. I would like to repeat the exercise at a later date but with a more modern fashion shoot bias this time.

Emma and Matt's pre-wedding photo shoot at Arlesley.

I'm shooting the wedding of Emma and Matt at the Bedford Swan Hotel on the 24th May and organised some pre wedding photography with them last Saturday.

It was a nice sunny day and we went for a walk along the river at their home in Arlesey. They are a lovely couple and we had some fun time taking the pictures.

The idea of the session is two fold:
To get all of us used to each other, go over final pointers for the big day and to get them used to my style of photography, which is generally very informal and casual posing.

I enjoyed the time with then as they are both very relaxed and natural and hope that they will now be more relaxed about the photography on the big day. Couples have enough stress to contend with on the day without having to worry about what the photographer is going to be like.

I'm realy looking forward to photographing their wedding.