For a long time I have had a total respect for the art of Drag Queens.

From the makeup, dresses, shoes and hair. Drag Queens have always amazed me with their talents. Especially walking in heels, I still haven’t mastered that art. I had an opportunity to photograph 9 students that are drag performers. I wanted to do something a little different.

A photographer based in New York Called Leland Bobbe done a series of images called behind the drag. Which were amazing, I wanted to also create some form of before and after images but with my own twist.

Where to start

I stared off where I had each of them sitting in front of a plain white background without their makeup on. Each holding some drag paraphernalia.

So we had one holding gaffer tape which we all know drag Queens tuck their selves with. Some use it to Cinched their waste. Another had tights all queens need to have a good pair of tights right? another had a pallet of eye shadow and paint, others had lipstick and of course there was a wig.

The drag Queens, kings and bio Queens took approximately 2 hours each to get read for the after photo’s.

What Next

With their After photos I wanted to photograph them with other drag props. I wanted these to relate to them individually to show cast their talents. There were inflatable guitars, bitchcraft books. One made their own Costumes so I had made for them a giant sewing needle (video of needle being made here), which came out very well.

As well as these 9 students that took time out to help me with my project. I decided I wanted to get involved. So I had myself photographed in the before image, and they helped me glue my eyebrows and I applied my Own makeup.

I had a clear vision in my head of how I wanted to edit these images. for the after images I wanted to show the inclusion for all LGBTQ. I edited the after images with bright rainbow colours. As I was the one taking the images I felt it was good to edit all of the rainbow colours in my background.

My Equipment

The images were shot with a Sony At iii using a 55mm Sony lens. The lighting setup was two lights with strip boxes attached pointing directly onto the background. The key light was a 135mm Octabox directly above the subjects head, feathering the light off the side.

Do you want a session like this?

If you want to book a caricature session with me. please contact me for more information. these can also be incorporated into one of the fine art session packages if you wish.

So there is a lot of uncertainty with COVID 19 and we are all aware that weddings have changed a lot since the 23rd March 2020, When the UK went into lockdown. Weddings as we know them were unable to to take place for weeks/ Months unless you wanted an intimate wedding that was the bride, groom and two witnesses.

Since then we were allowed up to 30 guests at a wedding for a short time, this has now been reduced to 15 people. Although registrar’s, photographers and videographers were to be excluded from the numbers this is venue dependent.

More and more wedding couples are now looking at different options for their wedding day to accommodate these changes. Most wedding photographers are adapting to the changes and offering Micro Wedding Packages.

So you are wondering what is a Micro Wedding, these are also referred to as a Intimate weddings as well. These weddings are during the time of COVID 19 and are limited on the number of guests allowed, your photographer attends your day and takes images of your ceremony, group shots and couples shots. They normally cover between 2-3 hours.

Camera Crazy is offering to cover your wedding from as little as £350 for micro weddings in 2020 and 2021. I can also offer other package offers if you would like to book a wedding reception for a different year.

please scroll down to contact me about the services I offer.

Please click HERE to see my other Wedding photography packages.

If you are also looking for other wedding suppliers if you have not already done so, please check the lists within The Wedding Guide UK.com

Langtons House Weddings or is also called Langtons Registry Office.

As a Wedding photographer in Essex. I have had the pleasure of shooting many weddings in Langtons and its Landscaped Gardens. It holds a beautiful Ornamental Lake within the gardens.

Langtons is a popular wedding Venue in Hornchurch. With its Choice of 4 Rooms for your ceremony to take place in.

If you are considering booking your Wedding at Langtons please feel free to contact me or you can view more information on my Wedding Costs here 

See Below photos that have been shot at Langtons.

About Langtons House

Langtons House is a 18th century house and a grade II listed building. It has had a £2,000,000 grant to bring it back to it’s former glory. The gardens and the Lake are kept very well. if you are looking for car parking the main carpark people use is on Billet lane at the queens theater. However there is another carpark located on Keswick Ave.

Weddings at Langtons Registry Office

Langtons House Weddings can have 4 rooms for the wedding ceremonies to take place, these are the East room which is Duck-egg blue room. The West room which is a gold and cream coloured room, the orangery which is a glass build outbuilding and Langtons Hall.

Both the East and West rooms have Crystal chandeliers and luxurious soft furnishings. The grand hall has an oak finished bar and looks beautiful when it is all set up for the wedding breakfast.

Langtons now have a premium wedding package where for Sundays you can have exclusive hire of the House, I have photographed a wedding on the exclusive hire day and it is enjoyable and relaxing, however if your wedding reception is being held elsewhere then there would be no requirement for this exclusive hire.

Photographing at Langtons House.

On the beautiful grounds it you can capture some really beautiful images not just for weddings. Lovely family photos can be taken. There is a beautiful old tree in the middle of the gardens next to the lake. This is a go to place for a lot of photos to be taken. If the weather is raining it acts as a shelter, if the weather is bright sunshine the tree is perfect. Many people want bright sunny days for their Wedding however this is a nightmare for a Photographer. The best type of day for Wedding photos are nice and warm, little to no wind and thin cloud in the sky.

The reason for not wanting bright sunshine is because it can cause the photos to be over exposed and you will not see all the amazing detail in the wedding dress.

What Camera Equipment Can i Use

You can use almost anything to get good pictures in Langtons of your family. A bit of advice is get down low when you are taking photos. You want to have the Camera level with the belly when you are shooting, it makes for a nicer Photo. Always look for the right background. You do not want a busy background. When i have Photographed at Langtons I like shooting in the dark, I use several types of lighting equipment. My car boot is normally filled with lots of items as you never know what you may need at a wedding.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog, please feel free to leave a comment below. Thank You

Ultimate Wedding Guide 2020

Whilst we are all in the middle of this pandemic, I am working on creating more bookings for my Essex Wedding Photography Packages for 2021 & 2022. I am a photographer that is based at Southend-On-Sea, Essex and my studio is in Stratford, London. However for my weddings I travel anywhere within the UK and I also do destination weddings.

My Idea

I wanted to give my Brides an Ultimate guide for them to be able to go to one place and have a list of suppliers either Local to them or national, this will give them the best start with planning their Weddings to make it the best they can. The suppliers range from Wedding Flowers, Wedding Stationary and Even includes Wedding Butler Service.

As I started making this list there were some suppliers that had never would have thought of as being an option.

The Wedding List

I have listed everyone I currently have on my list and these are for all ranges of budgets. Even if I don’t have someone in your area there will be things in the list that will enable you to search for local to you.

Go to the list below, find the heading of what you are looking for on the left, when you click the heading a list of the suppliers will show up on the right with their location, click on the suppliers name and it will take you to their link, this may be a website, Facebook, Instagram or other social media platform.

If you are interested in booking a wedding photographer please click here for a link to my wedding session and pricing page

Making an Enquiry

if you make an enquiry with one of the suppliers on the list below please let them know that you found them through Camera Crazy’s Website.

I hope this post has helped for you to create your perfect Wedding Day.

If you are a supplier and would like to be added onto the list please email me info@cameracrazy.co.uk

If you are interested in booking a wedding photographer please click here for a link to my wedding session and pricing page

Note: All the above contacts are from networking groups and they should be fully researched prior to booking with them.

I really enjoy entering competitions and going to all the photography conventions. For a couple of reasons carrying out training and meeting people within the industry.

Entering The Competition

In January of 2020 I decided to go to the Societies of Wedding and Portrait Photographers. I entered into their 20×16 print competition.

I was hoping to get some really good feedback on my images and on ways to improve. They carry out live judging for two days covering a multiple of genres.

This year I entered into the creative portrait and the newborn category. I was unable to attend the live judging but one of my friends were able to attend and filmed it for me.

Scoring

You are required to get a score of 80 to get a merit, this is not an easy score to be able to achieve and it is marked on a list of technical items.

My creative images was the first to go up which was scored at 78, however one of the judge’s contested the score. She gave her reasons why, then all the judges voted for a second time after they made the reasons why they scored how they did.

The new score came in at 80 which I was pleased with.

I attended the convention on the Thursday evening. I got up on Friday and went down what other images that got through to the next round.

Photographer Finalist

As I was walking around I saw that my newborn image had a second rosette on it saying finalist.

I was confused at the time and I was quite unsure why I had received the second rosette.

I found someone I knew that was on the judging panel and he explained to me.

Once all the images had been judged. All the images that received a merit or higher would be re judged from scratch.

This meant that a different set of judges felt my image was at the standard to be nominated in the final.

The Award For Best Newborn Photographer

The awards night come along and they get to the newborn category. I won 3rd place which is an awesome achievement. I was up on stage with one of the best newborn photographers in the world Kelly Brown.

3 days later I am still in shock on how well my image done and I am very pleased with the image. Please see my Newborn Photography Packages here 

Let me know what you think about this image in the comments below.

The Equipment

 For anyone that would like to know what equipment was used, this image was shot using a Sony A7iii Camera, Using a Sony 24-70mm f2.8 Lens. My lighting was done with a Profoto B1X light, with a Rotalux Octabox 135cm light sharper. The baby was posed on a Perfect Posie bean bag and Heart Shaped bowl.

Thank you 

Gemma 

https://thesocieties.net/the-societies-photographer-of-the-year-2019/20-x-16-portrait-newborn-2020/