It goes without saying that I'm a pretty huge fan of wedding photography as a whole, and I get to connect with some truly amazing and talented Photographers through writing for Love My Dress. Some of these Photographers stand out, not only for their warmth and passion for what they do, but for their sheer talent and ability to capture the most amazing moments on camera. You'll struggle to fine a 'bad shot' or 'off photo' in amidst the portfolios of the types of Photographer I'm referring to.
One such Photographer is Chanelle Segerius Bruce, who, along with her Husband Craig, make up 'Segerius Bruce Photography – a Husband and Wife Photography team, with a reputation for shooting some of the most beautiful destination weddings…
"My husband and I shoot weddings together, having been married 3 years
ago and organising a wedding in South Africa from the UK we can
certainly empathise with our wedding clients. I am total wedding addict
and love following wedding blogs. I love bridal fashion too and totally
fell in love with my Jenny Packham gown.
We are based in Surrey, not far
from London but do cover weddings UK wide as well as a bit further
afield including South Africa, Mauritius, Prague, Cyprus and we are
looking forward to a wedding in Bali in June 2011.
Apart from weddings
we also cover pre and post wedding shoots with couples, usually around
London but we have also travelled to Bath and Cambridge for these sorts
of couple sessions. It can either be in wedding gear or styled outfits.
It's a nice idea for a unique anniversary gift."
Love My Dress Wedding Blog, Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Segerius Bruce
"We love to travel. Craig is a surfer at heart and is out with his board every day when we visit South Africa. I love horses and have been riding since the age of 6. I competed here in the UK doing One Day Eventing. We love long strolls along the beach, spending time with friends and family and our little dog, Marley rules the roost at home!"
How would you describe your signature style?
"I like to think that we mix documentary style coverage effectively with
highly creative, beautiful portraits of the bride and groom. I am an
active member of the WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) which is
notoriously difficult to get into, with your entire website, brand and
portfolio being critiqued by a panel of highly acclaimed photographers.
This was a major goal of mine from the start."
How long have you been a Photographer for now?
"I studied a B-Tech in photography 9 years ago when we first moved
over from South Africa to the UK. I am so fortunate to have done it at
that time as the course still involved using a fully manual film camera
and getting your hands dirty in the darkroom.
There is something magical
about watching that image appear in the dish! It gave me a good
grounding for what I do now. I started out shooting lots of travel
images as we did visit a lot of places over the years. I then got into
shooting portraits and won Digital Photographer Magazine's "Portrait
Photographer of the year" in 2007 and 2008. We have been shooting
weddings for 2 and a half years now."
What first drew you to Photography?
"I
have always loved fashion images, travel images and details that tell
as story. I would love to shoot some bridal fashion editorial or travel
editorial. It's so exciting shooting weddings – how many people can say
that on their way to work (a wedding for me) they have butterflies in
their stomach and just can't wait to get there?"
Can you provide brief details of your consultation and booking process?
"We
require a £500 deposit to secure the wedding date. This works on a
first come first serve basis to keep things fair. Usually we liaise via
email to begin with and follow that up with a chat on the telephone to
discuss the wedding and how we work.
I love to hear about all of
the bride and groom's ideas, venue, the dress and so on. I really do
get excited about each and every wedding that we shoot. I just love it!
Some couples book us there an then with the date secure and others like
to meet with us in Dorking at a wonderful little hotel near Box Hill. We
usually discuss things over a cafe late and get to know one another.
Your
photographer is going to be the one person who is there with you from
the preparations stage and you need to make sure that you click with
them. Pretty much your entire wedding day will involve the photographer
so I think that personality's matching is key. We show off our album
options which we have two, one is a UK suppler and the other is
Queensberry from New Zealand. Queensberry are renowned for being the
best and most luxurious album company in the world. These are all
individually hand made and in my opinion are gorgeous, with both more
traditional matted options, digital pages as well as a duo (mixture of
the two)"
What inspires you most about Wedding Photography and what do you love most about what you do?
"I
lost my Dad to a sudden heart attack a year and half ago. One thing I
am eternally grateful for is that he was there to walk me down the aisle
and give me away. It meant a lot to my Dad that Craig had called him up
to ask for his permission for my hand in marriage before he proposed to
me during a holiday in Switzerland. I think we need to pull ourselves
down to to the ground, so to speak, when all the little things are
causing stress. Especially on the morning of the wedding. Nothing can be
done, and nobody will even notice.
The main thing is that you are there
with your family, you are about to marry the love of your life and
everyone is there to support you – cherish that. I would give anything
to wind back the clock and to be planning my wedding and to be spending a
whole weekend with all of my close family and friends around me. Sadly
that's not possible, but what I do have are great memories and beautiful
wedding album to look back on. I am so blessed to be in a position to
provide that for other people."
If you weren't a Photographer, what would you be?
"A
high end retoucher. In fact I still do freelance retouching when we are
not in the busy wedding season. Most notably I do a lot of freelance
work for fashion photographer, Mario Testino – http://www.mariotestino.com"
What was it like being the Bride, and having your turn behind the camera?
"Photography
was obviously hugely important to us. I spent a lot of time planning my
timings of the day with my wedding photographer who is based in Durban,
South Africa. We booked him and his assistant into a B&B for two
nights near our venue which was in the Natal midlands. We started at
6:30am! Yes it's true. He did some beautiful bridal portraits of me in
the misty morning light. We then headed into a forrest and did the
getting ready shots out there with my bridesmaids.
It was
the boys turn after that and their photographs where done on an old
railway line. It was great to involve the entire bridal party in these
images. We allowed plenty of time after the ceremony for some family
groups and few creative portraits.
The next morning we got
dressed up again with more of a relaxed vibe and did a Next Day Shoot.
This is in fact where we got the idea for doing them for our wedding
clients. It means that you are not worried about getting back to your
guests and the dress is allowed to get a bit more dirty at this stage in
the game. We certainly didn't "trash" anything and my dress is fine and
healthy after a dry clean."
What
advice would you give the Bride and Groom looking for a Photographer to
shoot their destination wedding, but nervous about where to start
looking?
"Some hotels at destinations actually offer a free photographer thrown
into the package. I have seen what transpires from these shoots and it
ain't pretty! Firstly, it really depends on your budget. You need to
factor in that if you are booking a UK based photographer that there
would be flights, hotels and expenses to cover on top of the normal
wedding fee. On the plus side a lot of destination weddings work out to
be less expensive overall compared with a UK equivalent so why not spend
a bit more on photography and have some beautiful images that really
show of the location that you chose.
The wedding that we shot in
Mauritius last year was published on this blog as well is in You &
Your Wedding magazine. The editor was really excited about the wedding
as she said that a lot of destination weddings get submitted and could
have been great but the photography is so poor that they just cannot
print it."
What are your top-tips or any couple keen to capture the perfect wedding photos on camera?
"Time.
Allow time.
Did I say time?
Listen
to your photographer when they ask for time. In the morning I advise my
brides to be ready in their dress at least half an hour prior to
leaving for the church. This allows for some beautiful bridal portraits.
Ensure that your hair and
make-up artists know when you need to be done as this tends to be the
thing that often over runs. Speak with them and find out exactly how
long they will need. If you are having a lot of bridesmaids' make-up and
hair done then consider having two artists in the morning.
For
the most part, I would say 90% of the day we shoot in a
photojournalistic / documentary fashion with no prompting or interruption
to the day. Let bridal party members and guests know that they can
carry on naturally and don't need to stop and pose for the
photographers. Real moments are hard to beat…
Family groups tend to take about 3 mins per group. That means:
5 family groups = 15 mins.
10 family groups = 30 mins
A big group shot of everyone – allow about 10 to 15 mins to round people up
Creative
shoot – I like to say to couples to put in about 45 mins to an Hour for
this. Yes, we can do it in 20 mins but if you only allow for 20 mins
in your timing schedule and things overrun (which more likely than not,
they will) you then get left with 5 mins to do a creative shoot.
Alternatively you could go for a next day creative shoot which means you
don't need to allow for so much time on the actual day."
How do you approach working with couples who may be nervous in front of the camera?
"I would recommend that if a couple are particularly nervous that they
should book a pre wedding engagement session with their photographer.
This allows the couple to get to know how the photographer works, relax
in front of the camera and know what to expect on the wedding day. It
really does take the edge off."
Client Testimonials…
Gemma & Steve, January 30th, 2010…"The
photos are fantastic and Steve and I are over the moon with them. You
and Craig have really managed to capture the atmosphere of the day and
we’re thrilled with the shots of the ceremony and the speeches in
particular. We will certainly be recommending you to our friends where
ever possible! "
Vic & Tom, January 9th, 2010…"Hope
all is well with you. Thank you for forwarding the link, we’ve finally
managed to have a look at all the photos and absolutely love them all,
thank you so very much. We can’t quite believe how beautifully you
managed to capture our special day. We really felt that you were both
part of the wedding and we found it effortless due to your relaxed
approach. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and we will be
telling all our friends how fab you both are. Thank you again for making
our wedding day so memorable."
Sandra & Duncan, August 29th, 2009…"We
are about half way through the pictures and I have to say they are
absolutely beautiful. You’ve managed to capture the essence of the day
in so many ways. As everybody warned us the day flew past far too
quickly to recollect everything and your pictures are bringing back
memories we didn’t realise we had. Thank you so much. So many
favourites, choosing those for inclusion in the album is going to be a
mammoth task.
A final thank you also for being so patient with the
guests on the day and also for managing to totally blend in to the
background. I suspect that far from a past working in fashion
photography you have both trained in covert operations as there were
vast periods of time when I suspected you had left already only for you
to reappear, camera in hand. The pictures are testament to how good you
both are at blending in to the crowd to capture the most natural shots!"
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Chanelle (far left) and her Husband Craig (far right) below, at the wedding of Dom and Jen, which took place in Mauritius in October 2009, and featured on Love My Dress here…
What a fabulous insight into the world of a Globe-travelling Wedding Photographers, and amazing talent. Thank you so much Chanelle for sharing your wisdom with our readers today.
For further information, please visit the Segerius Bruce website. You can also follow Segerius Bruce on Twitter, keep a track of all Segerius Bruce's latest work via their Blog or keep a track of updates via the Segerius Bruce Facebook Page.
Much love,
Annabel 🙂
♥
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
