One final post about opportunities to hone your photographic skills. I’m looking at the potential of the good old family event!

Many family events, weddings, anniversaries and such, have official photographers. These guys are there to get the ‘reference’ photos, the really quality stuff that will (or should) last a lifetime. But while the official photographer is working hard you too can be capturing the ’spirit’ of the event, often with more success by using what are called ‘candids’! These are a great way of extending your photographic range, of photographic people and of giving relatives and close friends great presents.

First up are some photographs taken at a wedding in Brasil. This was a big affair with a team of excellent official photographers. They did a great job but I still had time to take some very different shots.

Here is the groom’s father clutching the marriage certificate in disbelief!

The bride and groom — she’s a latin! Everyone wanted a copy of this shot!

One Brasilian and one Irish relative — universal communication!

These are certainly shots that the official photographer wouldn’t have got.

This one is from another family event. These two guys are doing a dance which is meant to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic (don’t ask ..). Again there was an official photographer but he’d already left!

The following sequence are from another wedding. They follow the fortunes of a rather cute bridesmaid who stole everyone’s heart at the wedding.

Photobooks

These days my family tend to ask me whether I’m bringing my camera when they invite me to these things. The reason? Well, it’s not just the photos. I tend to put these together in a photobook and give them to the family members. These are fantastic things.

Both Kodak and Apple (and others) allow you to upload photographs to a website, choose a book style template and then to create bespoke pages. These can come in both softback and hardback covers. They are great presents. They tend to stay on the mantelpieces of relatives and, I notice, are always displayed prominently! I guess these are probably looked at more often than the official albums.

All kinds of company’s now offer these services. Simply put ‘create a photo book’ into Google and look at the many options.

Photobooks are also great ways of capturing all kinds of other shots. I’ve used them for work presentations and also to create my own simple coffee table books.

Famaily events and photobooks. These really do help you extend your photographic skills. And they give pleasure to others at the same time!