Katie+Maddox // Prince Albert pre-wedding shoot

Prince Albert Pub Camden- Wedding Photographer

I met up with the lovely Katie and Maddox at The Prince Albert pub in Camden, where they’re getting married later in the summer. It was a beautiful sun soaked summer evening and we went for a little wander along the canal and to nearby park to scope out some nice possible spots for photographs on their big day.

Pre-wedding shoots are a bit weird and a little forced… On the wedding day itself it seems totally natural to have a photographer snapping away, capturing a day you’ve dedicated to the love you have for each other. At the wedding you are overwhelmed by all the people you want to talk to and all the nice food to eat and the nice speeches to listen to that when it comes to having some pictures just the two of you it’s actually quite nice to have some time to escape the madness. But during engagement shoots there’s no escaping or avoiding the fact that there’s just a photographer there, and you’re being asked to be completely relaxed and yourselves in front of a new person with their big scary camera… However they really can be quite useful both for the photographer and for the two of you.

People are all quite different in front of the camera so it’s a really good opportunity for me to get to know you guys and how you like to be photographed, but also for you to get to know how I work and trust that you’ll get some beautiful images at the end of it. I don’t like putting people into poses or telling people what to do, it never results in a very genuine image or a memory you particularly want documented. I usually say “just try to ignore me and focus on each other” which can feel odd take a little while but when a couple just has chats, has fun making each other laugh through the awkwardness and ignores me they soon forget I’m there and then I can just concentrate on creating some lovely images of them being themselves.

Katie and Maddox felt a bit awkward jumping into an engagement shoot, but we had a lovely hour or so wandering around finding some nice spots and some lovely light. They used the awkwardness to their advantage and laughed a lot! Katie tried to catch Maddox dirty dancing style… which didn’t go as planned, they played some playground clapping games and Katie proposed to Maddox down on one knee. It was all completely unposed and unplanned and the results capture the real Katie and Maddox.

I got a lovely message from Katie after they received the photographs ‘we’ve just looked through the photos- they are absolutely beautiful and so fun!!! We love them! Thank you so so much.’ I can’t wait to photograph these two tying the knot later in the summer!