Award Winners! (Again….)

Receiving our award from John Maddaford, Sales Manager of Guides for Brides. Photo by Weaver and Waters.

We were thrilled to receive a “Highly Commended” award at the Guides for Brides customer service award on March 27th 2024, at the Oxford Town Hall. It is the 5th award we have won in the Photography category, having been the overall winners in 2019 and 2020, “Highly Commended” in 2022 and 2024, and finalists in 2023.

The customer service award for Photography is always one of the most competitive categories in the Guides for Brides awards, as there are rather a lot of photographers out there! Unlike some other categories, such as venues, the Photography category is a single award, despite the large range of prices and approaches there are in wedding photography. So, receiving an another award is pretty special, especially when you consider that, unlike some other industry awards, these are based on real customer reviews and feedback.

A massive thanks to all of the lovely customers who left a 5 star review on our Guides for Brides page (here), and to everyone who made the event such a great night.

Using creative flash in our wedding photography

Or, if you are documentary wedding photographers, what’s with the flash photos?

Daisy and Aaron in the wedding pagoda at Sedgebrook Hall, Northampton

If you have read through our website, seen examples of our work, or even been at guest at one of the weddings, then you will know that we specialise in a style of wedding photography known as documentary wedding photography. That means that our approach on a wedding day is to tell the story of the day, with as little intervention from us as possible. A wedding is all about a couple spending their day with their family and friends, and having memories to last a lifetime - our job is to capture the moments that make this possible. Who was there, what happened, who did what, and so on. We pride ourselves in not getting in the way and being THAT annoying wedding photographer(s) who boss people around, shout at people and generally get in the way.

So, with that in mind, why is our Instagram feed full of posed flash photos of couples? Well, several reasons, as follows.

Charlotte and Ollie in the pagoda at Hillfields Farm, Upper Basildon, Near Reading

Firstly, whilst 95% of the images we deliver to our couples are reportage wedding photos, we of course recognise that couples will want to have a memorable photograph of themselves, to have on their wall for example. Using creative flash allows us to create images that couples would not be able to take on a mobile phone, for example. Balancing flash light with available light, adding coloured gels and using several flashes allows us to create stunning images that couples will treasure for a lifetime.

Abigail and Sean at Stratton Court Barn, Bicester. A gelled flash is being held by Sean

Secondly, although setting up creative flash wedding photographs can take a bit of time, the couple don’t need to be involved in this! Steve typically will set up the equipment and camera settings, whilst Sam carries on with our documentary photography. Only when the lighting is set up will Sam find the couple and ask them to, briefly, pose. It never takes more than 5 minutes for the couple in practice, often no more than a minute or two.

Hannah and Curtis at The Post Barn wedding venue, Newbury

Thirdly, creative flash wedding photography can make a wedding location look very different! Look at the image below; this was taken in the reception area of the Voco Oxford Thames Hotel, where we are recommended suppliers. Whilst the reception area is very nice, it is still, well, a hotel reception! However, using creative flash, and deliberately underexposure the for the ambient light (this photo was taken early evening, before dark) has created a totally different look to the reception area.

Claire and Dimitri in the reception of Voco Oxford Thames Hotel

Finally, despite the fact we have been photographing wedding for 14 years, we always seek to learn new skills. Learning and then applying creative flash for weddings has been both interesting and enjoyable. We have been greatly inspired by the incredible images in the Flashmasters group, run by our good friends Neil Redfern and Helen Williams. This is a fantastic and friendly community and a great place to learn new techniques.

So, if you are interested in documentary wedding photography, with a touch of creative flash wedding photography, we would love to hear from you.

Below are some more examples of our flash wedding photography.

Guides for Brides Customer Service Awards Nomination 2024

Happy New Year! Its 2024, and if you have recently got engaged, congratulations! This is the time of year that we plan our year ahead as wedding photographers; the wedding fairs we will be attending, any investments we need to make in new equipment, and, of course, looking ahead to the weddings we are photographing this year. At the time of writing we have 32 weddings booked this year, which is around our ideal number in terms of our business needs, but also allowing us to have weekends from time to time to spend with family; especially as we became grandparents in 2023!

Its also the time of year that Guides for Brides announce their wedding award nominations. Although there are many wedding directories and guides available, and seeming more appearing every year, Guides for Brides are the only one that we actively work with and advertise through. They have been in business since 1996, and we have always found them professional and ethical to work with - unlike some of the other so called wedding sites available in the UK! Their wedding fairs are always well run, and we have a high success rate of booking new weddings at them.

The Guides for Brides awards are Customer Satisfaction awards. Unlike some awards, where suppliers pay to be considered and on the short list, the Guides for Brides awards are 100% based on real customer reviews and feedback; either from reviews left on a suppliers listing on the Guides for Brides website, or on Google. Although we are Oxfordshire wedding photographers, these awards are UK wide. For this reason, we were delighted therefore to find out recently that, for the 7th year running, we have been shortlisted to the photographers section of their customer service awards. We have been fortunate to have won the Guides for Brides customer service awards twice previous, in 2019 and 2020, as well as being finalists or highly commended in the remaining years we have been nominated. The fact that these awards are from our customers reviews make them extra special!

Us being presented with the 2019 award by Judy Mansfield, of Cherish Ceremonies

We will find out later in January if we have made the final short list, and an invitation to the awards dinner, which this year will be at Oxford Town Hall in March. Fingers crossed we get their for the eighth year running! And to all our lovely customers that have have reviewed us - THANK YOU. It means the world to us!

2022 Update

News and update from Sam and Steve

Well, it is 2022 and a very belated Happy New Year to all our customers, customers to be and our friends in the wedding industry! 2021 was our busiest ever year for wedding photography, especially as we had to effectively cover two years worth of weddings in one season! Of course, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had lots of postponed weddings to cover from 2020; our big thanks to all our lovely couples for working with us to smoothly transfer their postponed wedding to a new date. It was GREAT to be photographing weddings again! As the year went on, restrictions eased, and number of guests allowed went from 15, to 30 and then eventually no limit.

It was great to be able to photograph dancing at weddings later in 2021. This is from Lydia and Lewis wedding at Cotswolds Hotel and Spa in October 2021

2021 saw us photograph at some new (to us) venues, such as Dorchester Abbey, Whittlebury Hall, Horewood House and Bedales School. And of course, we got to go to back to some of the places we know so well, including Lains Barn, Dovecote Events Adderbury, Bodleian Library, Lincoln College and Keble College, Oxford, Manor Farm Barn, Cotswolds Hotel and Spa, Bicester Hotel Golf and Spa, Tythe Barn Launton, and several church weddings followed by marquee receptions.

Holly and Emma’s lovely wedding at the Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford from August 2021

2021 was also our first full year of using Sony cameras and lenses. After 4 years of using Fujifilm cameras, it was a big change for us to move to Sony, and one that we debated for a long time before finally doing so. In the end, we believed that the larger sensors of the Sony cameras would be better for us in low light situations, and the Sony autofocus technology was superior. We were right in both cases! We feel that the both the quality and consistency of our work went up another level as a result of our change of equipment. We will write a separate article shortly on our 2022 choices for cameras, lenses and other equipment, for the photographers reading this.

2022 will, assuming all goes as plan, be another busy year for us, with 41 weddings currently in our diary. This is more than we normally aim for; however we still have a number of postponed weddings to photograph, rescheduled from 2020. We will be shooting more video than before; our “video-lite” package where we provide a basic videography service in addition to our photography has proved to be a popular option for this years couples (more details here). We also plan to continue with our popular podcast, The Sam and Steve Podcast, although we will now bring out a new episode typically every two or three weeks - don’t forget, if you are a local wedding supplier, we would love to have you on the show!

We are delighted to have once more made the finals of the Guides for Brides Customer Service Awards. This is a tremendous honour, especially as it is based on 5 star reviews on our Guides for Brides page. We were truly humbled to win this prestigious award last year, and the year before; acheiving a “hat-trick” would be a dream come true! We will know more at the awards dinner at Oxford Town Hall on March 9th.

Our 2022 Guides for Brides Customer Services Award Finalist confirmation

Our wedding season fully kicks off in late March, and at this time we are busy with pre-wedding shoots (don’t forget to book yours in) and wedding fairs. Wedding fairs are usually good sources of enquiries for us, and we typically book at least three weddings from each event.

Jack and Kate from their pre wedding shoot last month. We photograph their wedding in April 2022

Finally, looking forward into 2023, we already have a good level of bookings and active enquiries. We plan to go back to our more normal 25 to 30 weddings maximum in 2023 so if you are thinking of booking us, don’t delay to get in touch! You can do so by clicking on the button below.

Take care, peace and stay safe everyone.

Sam and Steve

Guides for Brides Customer Service Award Winners for 2020!

Sam and Steve win award for the 2nd year running!

We were thrilled and delighted to find out on Thursday April 15th that we had won the Guides for Brides Customer Service Award for Photography for 2020, having previously won the same award in 2019.

At a virtual award ceremony, broadcast live over YouTube from Blenheim Palace, (due to the Pandemic), Nikita Thorne, The Marketing Manager announced the three judges had decided that, based on customer feedback and our reviews, that we had won. The customer service award for Photography is one of the most contested awards, based on the sheer number wedding photographers, and the excellent service provided by the finalists for this category.

It goes without saying how thrilled we are to have won this award for the 2nd year running! We try our best to delight all our customers, and we are humbled that our customers voted for us again to win this prestigious award.

Sadly, due to the pandemic we weren’t there to receive the award in person. If you want to see the ceremony recording on YouTube, you can see it here (we are about 34 minutes in).

We recorded this short video to say thanks to all of our lovely customers

April 2020: Locked down at home

Update from Sam and Steve during the Covid-19 health crisis

It goes without saying that March and April 2020 have been pretty extraordinary. Like everyone else in the UK, we are in “Lock Down” at home ; in our case, at our house in Bicester. Its just Sam and I, and our two spaniels Poppy and Billy. Our 5 kids are grown up and have left home so, apart from the regular video calls on Zoom, we haven’t seen them in 6 weeks. From a wedding photography perspective, everything is on pause. We shot our last wedding on March 1st (soon to be on the blog); Daisy and Luke at one of our favourite venues, Cotswolds Hotel and Spa, Chipping Norton. We had our last wedding fair on March 15th at the lovely Manor Farm Barn, just before the lock down was announced.

An image from Daisy and Luke’s wedding in March at Cotswolds Hotel and Spa

Since then, we have been working hard with our 2020 couples with weddings from March through to July to reschedule. As this is over 20 weddings, trying to find alternative dates for later in 2020 (fingers crossed) or 2021) has been quite a challenge! We are pleased that we have been able to reschedule all but one of these weddings.

As this period would normally be one of our busiest, it would also, naturally, have been a our business receives a lot of revenue. Not surprisingly, wedding photography is a seasonal business, with 80% of our revenue coming in 6 months. So, like all wedding suppliers in these unprecidented time, cash is a little tight for us right now. As we are directors of a small limited company, we aren’t eligible for any of the government support schemes (for example, for self employed people). However, we do manage cash carefully, so, assuming we get back to some kind of normality later this year, we will get through this tough period.

As we were the 2019 Guides for Brides Award Winners for Photography, we were naturally delighted to have been named finalists for the 2020 awards. The awards dinner should have been in April, but have now been postponed until October. Whilst its a shame of course that it has been (understandly) postponed, it does mean we get to stay the current award winners a little longer!

Judy Mansfield, Cherish Celebrants presenting Sam and Steve with the 2019 Guides for Brides Photography Award. Photo by Nigel Chapman Photography

We paused our regular podcast, the Sam and Steve Podcast, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we wanted to focus our efforts on helping couples with rescheduled weddings. Secondly, it didn’t seem right to do our normal show with other wedding suppliers who of course are also focusing on their customers, and their own business survival. However, the show will be coming back soon, with a slightly different feel and focus. Make sure you subscribe! (It is available on Apple, Google, Spotify, Breaker and most other well known apps).

Cover image for the Sam and Steve Podcast. Taken at the 2019 Birmingham Christmas Market

We will also resume regular updates and posts to this website! We are planning a new site and have been working closely with the fantastic Grizzly Bear Designs in Manchester on a brand new site and branding. This was scheduled to go live in May, hence us not updating our current site. However, whilst we will still be going ahead with the new site, we have paused the work on this, due to the need to manage our cashflow carefully with all the postponements. We hope to resume this in a couple of months. So, until then, we will be launching a new feature “Why I love this Picture”. This will be a regular posting of some of our favourite images we have taken over the last 7 years, with a little background to the photo and why we like it so much. Don’t forget to check it out!

Most importantly, we wish all of you a safe and healthy time in this situation. If any of our bride and grooms to be have any questions regarding their wedding plans in this difficult time just call or email us at any time. We are here to help.

Take care, stay safe and stay well everyone.

Steve

Steve Vaughan Wedding Photographer of the Year!

Steve wins the 2019 Loxley Colour and Photography News Wedding Photographer of the Year Competition

Steve of Sam and Steve Photography with his Wedding Photographer of the Year photo at Loxley Colour With Sam and Jacqueline Hanratty of Loxley Colour.

We were thrilled to find out at the end of 2019 that Steve has won the Loxley Colour and Photography News Wedding Photographer of the Year competition, with his image from Harriet and Chris’s wedding at the Perch Oxford. Steve had already won one of the monthly rounds, on Reportage, earlier in the year with this photo, as we announced back in the Autumn. In November he was asked to join some other other monthly competition winners for a dinner in Glasgow and it was then he found out his image was the overall winner.

Loxley Colour is a leading professional print and album producer, and for 30 years they have been providing professional photographers with the highest quality printed materials. We are pleased to be working with Loxley in 2020 for all of our albums and prints for our customers.

Due to the print deadlines of Photography News, the other main sponsor of the awards, we weren’t able to announce that Steve had won the overall Wedding Photographer of the Year until early January. Keeping it quiet was not easy! Steve and Sam flew to Glasgow in Mid January to collect his beautifully printed and frames photo, and for a factory.

For photographers reading this; Steve took this image on a Fujifilm XT2 and 23mm lens. He shot it from the hip with using the rear LCD. It was totally unstaged or posed as an image.

To see more about the awards, read this article on the Loxley Blog. https://www.loxleycolour.com/blog/who-is-the-wedding-photographer-of-the-year-2019-56993

Sam and Steve launch a Podcast!

The Sam and Steve Podcast is a weekly show with wedding and photography content and interviews

We are excited to announce we are launching a podcast! The Sam and Steve Podcast will be a weekly 30 minute show, available on all popular podcast players, and will go live from early November 2019. The main part of the show will be a special guest interview each week; we will be talking with weddings specialists (e.g. cake makers, florists, dress shops, etc) that we know and whose services we love. We will also regularly chat with other photographers and videographers. In addition, we plan to have recently married couples whose wedding we have photographed, and that want to give advise and help to those couples currently planning a wedding.

The show therefore will be of interest specifically to the following listeners:

• Couples planning a wedding and looking for advice and support from highly experienced wedding specialists

• Photographers interested in wedding photography and videography

• Businesses currently not in the wedding supply business but interested in getting involved.

We also plan from time to time to have guests not directly wedding related but from local businesses, charities and causes that we like and support.

We welcome interest from anyone fitting the above categories interested in being interviewed for the show. Please comment below if interested. We would also love any of our lovely married couples, whose wedding we photographed, and would like to be on the show, to get in touch!

The podcast is hosted on Anchor (part of Spotify) and once live, should start appearing on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts and mobile podcast apps such as Pocket Cast. We will also each week share a link to the latest show here on our website. Here’s the link to the Anchor site.

https://anchor.fm/samandsteve

We would like to thank the extremely talented Mark Tabbener for the wonderful caricature for our channel art. You can see his work and contact him here: http://www.caricaturist.tv/

More coming soon!