Photography News Wedding Photography Award Winner- Steve Vaughan!

Steve wins Wedding Photographer of the Year Round 3- Reportage

We are super excited to announce we have won another award!

Steve entered this photo from Harriet and Chris’s Wedding last year in the Photography News Wedding Photographer of the Year Round 3 (Reportage). It shows a moment in time where the brides grandparents and aunt were waiting inside the marquee at The Perch, Oxford . Although they look thoroughly miserable, Steve just caught a moment in time with our Fujifilm XT2 at waist level using the flip out viewfinder. Using a small mirrorless camera definitely helped capture the moment without disturbing it in any way. We can confirm they had a lovely day at the wedding, this was just one of those moments!

We were delighted to find out that Steve’s photo had won, having been selected by prestigious judges Trevor and Faye Yerbury, Paul Callaghan and Natalie Martin.

Photography News is a free monthly newspaper style publication. It is run by a team of photographers and writers bringing the latest photography news, competitions and events. It is usually found in photography shops, clubs and also on subscription. As well as being entered for the overall annual competition, Steve wins a Loxley Colour Bellissmo album.

You can see the latest edition with Steve’s photo (it’s on page 17) here:

Sam and Steve Photography - Award Winners!

Guides for Brides Customer Service Award Winners for Photography, 2019

We were thrilled and honoured to receive the 2019 Guides for Brides Customer Service Award for Wedding Photography on March 28th at the lovely Bodleian Library, Oxford. We were presented with our award by Judy Mansfield, owner and celebrant from Cherish Ceremonies.

Judy Mansfield presenting Sam and Steve with the Guides for Brides Photography award for 2019. Photo by Nigel Chapman Photography

As we described in our news update last month, the Guides For Brides Customers Service Awards are a prestigious award process that is held each year, by the leading wedding industry directory and resource guide. We were shortlisted for the awards event following the 80 (at the time of writing) 5 star reviews our customers have left for us on our Guides for Brides listing , for which we are so thankful for.

Over 120 owners and employees of the nominated wedding industry suppliers attended the awards event, which consisted of a welcome drink and dinner at the Weston Library (formerly the New Bodleian) before the awards ceremony across the road in the main hall of the Bodleian Library (of Harry Potter films fame). It was nice to be back at the Bodleian, having photographed a wedding there the week before. its a wonderful venue. For each category (such as venue, wedding cake, wedding dress supplier, videographer, etc) , a short list was announced followed by the presentation of the award winner. The judging took place by an impartial panel of Judy Mansfield from Cherish Ceremonies, Anthony Stears from the Telephone Assassin , and Kate del Nevo and Hannah Vinten from the Bodleian Library events team. The photography award was one of the last to be presented, which kept us chewing our nails for a little longer! We were of course delighted, and we want to thank our many friends (including fellow photographers) in the wedding supply business who came up to congratulate us. Most of all, our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all of the lovely couples we photographed in 2018, and who voted for us. We are truly humbled; without you there would be no Sam and Steve Photography.

Our thanks to John, Jackie and all the team at Guides for Brides for an excellently run evening, and of course the event team at the Bodleian.

Sam and Steve Photography with the team from Guides for Brides. Photo by Nigel Chapman Photography.

The full list of all winners from the evening can be found on the Guides for Brides site here.

Steve

Guides for Brides Customer Services Award Nomination

Guides for Brides is an wedding industry leading resource for both brides (and grooms!) to be, and also us in the wedding supplier business. Since 1995 their published guidebooks and also their website has been connecting couples with top quality venues, florists, dress shop, cake makers and of course photographers. Although there are a number on line wedding directories and guides, we only work with Guides for Brides; we like they way they do things, and the wedding fairs they arrange are always well run, well attended and great fun to exhibit at! (We will be with them at Eynsham Hall this Sunday, Jan 13th, come along and say Hi!)

Eynsham Hall, we will be attending the Guides for Brides Wedding Fair here on Jan 13th.

Every year Guides for Brides have customer service awards, and we are delighted to once again be shortlisted for the photography category. To be one of 26 wedding photography businesses out of 226 potential photographers is truly humbling, especially as it based on reviews from our customers on our Guides for Brides listing on their website here. The next step in the process will be for final award nominations in each supplier category to attend a gala dinner at the famous Bodleian Library in Oxford in March. This will be based in part on the number of votes received for the shortlisted suppliers in the month of January.

It is wonderful to have been recommended and to receive so many votes from our lovely couples in 2018, and we are thrilled to have been shortlisted. Of course, we would love to make the finals event, and even to be the overall winner, but we are delighted to be involved. We would like to thank all of you that have voted for us; if you haven’t done so, you can still do so by clicking on the button below.

THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH.

Sam and Steve

Photographers Keeping It Real Award Winners!

Award from community of documentary wedding photographers

We were delighted recently to be given an award from the Photographers Keeping it Real community of documentary wedding photographers. 

Started by Andy Hudson and Steve Grogan, PKIR is a collective of wedding photographers who specialise in reportage, candid style wedding photography, which started with a facebook group and expanded into a fully members based community. Every season they invite members to submit photos for their awards; award winners are selected in turn by a panel with the two entries being selected by the group members. It was lovely therefore when we found out that Steve's photo from Harriet and Chris's wedding at the Perch Oxford, was one of the two award winners chosen by the community. 

Although the award is just for fun, it was great to be recognised by fellow documentary wedding photographers for our work!

You can see more photos from Harriet and Chris's Perch Oxford wedding here.

Why we love wedding wedding fairs!

Wedding Fairs and why they are worth attending

A busy wedding fair at the recent Tythe Barn wedding venue, near Bicester

 We have a confession...we LOVE wedding fairs. (Or fayres if you prefer.)

 Now, we know from the various wedding photography groups we are in on Facebook that not all photographers agree with us on this. For sure, they can be expensive to attend. Photographers are usually the most over subscribed category of wedding suppliers looking to attend a fair, so getting a spot can be a real dogfight. The costs of the flyers, sample albums, pop up banners and other marketing collateral can be prohibitive, especially if you are just starting out. And, they can be a long day standing, especially if the fair is not that busy.

 So, many photographers it seems are more keen these days to invest their marketing budgets elsewhere, for example on Google AdWords, directories, social media campaigns or similar. And we know this works well, as we of course do most of these as well!

Sam chatting with a couple at the Tythe Barn wedding fair

So why are we so keen on wedding fairs?

Firstly, we love meeting couples, and hearing about their plans. Whether they have just got engaged, or they are well down the tracks in getting everything arranged for their big day, its always lovely to meet couples in love, and excited about getting married. 

Secondly, for us they are our best source of enquiries. Our style of documentary wedding photography is still not fully understood by many couples. By explaining how we work, how we won't take over their day and make them and their guests pose for hours, we often find that couples are a) unaware of this style of wedding photography, and b) find this is exactly right for them! My 20+ years in sales and sales management means that we of course know how to work on a stand professionally; however of course no one gets a hard sell! We just ensure we are always pleasant, happy to chat, and our phones stay safely switched off out of the way. 

Finally, they are a great opportunity to network. During set up or break down, or during quieter moments, we always chat with other vendors, exchanging business cards and getting to know their work. We do from time to time get asked by our couples to recommend dress shops, cake makers, florists, etc, and we have an extensive network now of great professionals in these categories.  

A lovely floral arrangement by Penny Blossoms at the Tythe Barn wedding fair.

Last Sunday we attended a wedding fair at one of our favourite wedding venues, the Tythe Barn, which is near where we live, in Bicester. The event was organised by our good friends at the leading on line wedding directory, Guides for Brides. It was probably the best fair we have ever attended! Over 150 brides attended, and we probably chatted to over half of these and took 20 plus good enquiries for 2017, 2018 and 2019 weddings. There was a good mix of different types of suppliers and categories to help those attending. A great day!

We will be attending many more wedding fairs in 2018. The best way to keep in touch regarding  where we will be and when is our Facebook business page, here. We can't wait to see you at our next one!

Steve

FREE engagement photoshoot special offer!

As a Valentine's day special offer, we are giving away a limited number of FREE 1 hour engagement photo shoots. These will be up to a one hour photo session at a location of your choice near to you. You will receive a 5 x 7inch prints and 20 images to download. This is a limited time offer, so if you would like to be in with a chance to win the shoot, fill in your details below, and we will get back to you shortly!

Terms and Conditions.

1. No cash alternative is available.

2. The photo shoot will be arranged at a date convenient for both the couples and Sam and Steve Photography, but will be fitted in around existing paid for photography commitments

3. The couple agree that the photos taken may be used by Sam and Steve Photography for promotional purposes

4. Sam and Steve Photography reserves the right to select the winning entries.

Engagement Photo Shoots

Engagement (Pre-wedding) photo shoots from documentary photographers?

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Informal and relaxed engagement photography.

If you looked through our website, and read our about us section,  you will know that we are professional documentary wedding photographers, specialising in natural, un-posed and relaxed wedding photos.  So, how come we offer engagement shoots?  Simply because our customers ask for them!  From our point of view, an engagement shoot (or a pre-wedding shoot if nearer to the wedding day) is a chance to get to know the couple we are photographing on their wedding day.  Although we will be unobtrusive and informal on the wedding day with our approach, we will still be with the bride and groom typically from 10 to 12 hours on the day.  We want them to be comfortable with us, and get used to having us around, even if it will be in the background. Sam is with the bride getting ready from the start of the day, and will be present whilst the bride is getting dressed.  (Sam often lends a hand here, she has been to a few bridal preparations, and did work in a wedding dress shop some time ago when we lived in America. )

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Our approach to engagement shoots is as follows. Firstly, its entirely up to our couples if the have the pre-wedding shoot or not.  We include it in our pricing, so there is no additional cost involved. Typically 50% of our couples take this option.  We leave it to them to suggest a suitable date (for obvious reasons we are busy most Saturdays!), and a location.  Typically the shoot takes place at a country park, or local beauty spot; we have also photographed in the family garden, a hotel grounds and sometimes the wedding venue itself.  Depending on timing and workload, we sometimes work together on the engagement shoot, sometimes just one of us takes the session. We usually suggest to the couple meeting for a coffee beforehand on the day of the engagement shoot; this is to talk through the shoot, but also as a chance to catch up on the wedding plans. 

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The actual shoot itself typically takes between 45 and 90 minutes.  Consistent with our wedding approach, we don't ask the couple to pose formally.  We ask them to try and forget we are there, and interact with each other as if we weren't there; have a walk, hold hands, cuddle, even steal a kiss. We find within a few minutes our couples relax and start to enjoy the session.  We usually take around 100 to 150 images, and provide the couple with around 30 to 40 via our Shootproof hosting site. An example is here.  The couple can use the photos as they wish; often they are used for save the date cards, or for guest signing books, which we can provide for a small cost. 

If you would like a FREE engagement shoot as part of your wedding photography package, we would love to hear from you. 

Why the change from SSVPhotography to Sam and Steve Photography?

Changing our brand not our approach

Changing your branding and busy identify is not a decision for the faint hearted! Since we started back in 2008, we have built us a reputation both locally in Oxfordshire as well as further a field. Our name SSVPhotography, based on our initials, became well known and well respected. 

So why change it?

Several reasons really. Firstly, there is a unconnected website in the US with .com after the SSVPhotography (we were .co.uk). Secondly, it was time to generally refresh our logo, marketing material, pop up stand, etc. Thirdly, and most importantly, we felt that SSV sounded too corporate sounding. This was fine when we started out, as we offered a range of photographic services, including headshots and events for local firms. But as we have specialised over recent years in wedding photography, and, specifically, documentary wedding photography, we wanted our brand to reflect the values that we believe make us special: 

• Our personal touch, as nice people!

• Two photographers

• Sam as the boss (of course!)

We are known as Sam and Steve by everyone in the wedding business in Oxfordshire, and in the Fuji Photography world, so the name of Sam and Steve Photography was an obvious one. If you were customers of us previously, you should have received an email explaining our changes and the fact that your photos are still stored in the same place. Our company name is not our brand name, so our legal entity status is unchanged as well. 

We have also made a change to our email address. Unfortunately both Hotmail and Gmail seemed to take as dislike to our SSVPhotography email domain, often sending our emails to clients into spam filters, even though we would never knowingly spam anyone (we hate it too!). Moving to our new email address of samandstevephotography@gmail.com will hopefully prevent this happening; however we always recommend checking your junk email if you contact us, just in case...we usually reply within a day to any emails we receive. 

We would love to keep you updated with our news and developments, so, if you would like us to keep in touch, just contact us with the button below. No spam, we promise!