Mayor’s Parlour – Ellen & Steph’s civil partnership ( part one )
Ellen & Steph’s civil partnership ceremony in the Mayor’s Parlour at Islington Town Hall, last Friday. A simple ceremony with a few close family and friends, many who had travelled from the other side of the world to be there.
When Ellen and Steph got in touch with me last year they described how their union would be spread over two days. The Mayor’s Parlour (for the legal bit) on Friday, followed by a Buddhist wedding ceremony at Taplow Court near Maidenhead and a party at 6 St Chads Place on the Saturday. They wanted the storytelling approach ( documentary, reportage, photojournalistic – call it what you will ), not least because Ellen’s father was unable to travel over from Australia. Showing the day as it unfolds – reportage.
In the end, they decided to ask me to document just the Saturday rather than the civil partnership, legal bit in Islington but went on to add extra coverage time. But this somehow felt like ‘half coverage’? Missing the Friday. Not sure why. I’ve often covered all kinds of ceremonies days after the legal, registry ceremony had taken place, but as the day approached I thought of an idea. One that would hopefully give them some photographic coverage and give me an opportunity to ‘try something out’. When I met up with Ellen & Steph for the first time and a drink near London Bridge, a few weeks before the big day, I discovered they had made no plans for the Friday in terms of coverage. I still wasn’t booked for the Friday and I’d just got hold of a newly released camera, the Fuji X-T1, that I wanted to test. But the key to this was getting hold of a new lens due out sometime in March(?) – luckily I got hold of one of the first into the UK. So, still free on the day, I offered to shoot the ceremony for the cost of my train ticket to London, on the condition I used this new Fuji camera. (As it turned out, an editorial commission did come in for the Friday, just days before, which I had to turn down). But I’ll leave some thoughts about the camera (for anyone interested) until the very end of this post, rather than make this some camera review. This is about E & S’s civil partnership.
So on a bright, but quite cold, Friday afternoon – Ellen and Steph completed the ceremony at Islington Town Hall and led their family and friends across the road for some posh fish and chips. Below are some images from the civil partnership ceremony.
But part two is coming soon….it’ll have…dodging showers near The Tower of London, celebrity status for E&S on the train to Maidenhead, a Buddhist wedding ceremony, a Routemaster bus on the M4 and the Charleston at St Chad’s!!
Watch this space !! 😉
So the camera?
I shoot with Nikon cameras (the D4 and D3S). They suit the way I work. They are fast, are unsurpassed in lowlight (key to my wedding photography), they work through downpours but…..they can be heavy.
In the past few years, small, light, mirrorless cameras have gained a following amongst professional and amateur photographers alike. Foremost in this equipment has been the Fuji X series and it’s a system I’ve been building up and collecting over the last three years. They have a bit of a ‘marmite’ reputation – you either love them or hate them. Some photographers have built their reputations using them, others dismiss them as ‘toys’. But the system is evolving fast and the new camera, the Fuji X-T1, is their best yet (imho). Rather than aping a rangefinder design, this time Fuji have gone for a mini DSLR, ‘retro’ look. The designers of Nikon’s retro camera, the Df, must be weeping. It’s small, light and works pretty fast. With this new lens, the XF56mm f1.2 (an 85mm 35mm equivalent), it’s a system that is maturing. Fuji seem to be the most active camera manufacturer, updating firmware, responding to advice from photographers. Many people think that these mirrorless cameras could be the future – they could be right.
( A Nikon D4 with 85mm f1.4 lens and the Fuji X-T1 with the 56mm f1.2 lens and grip. )
But I’ve never found it easy to work with Nikons and Fujis together – it’s either one or the other. So that Friday was a simple test to see how shooting with the Fujis alone would suit my approach. I know the Mayor’s Parlour well and what lenses I would need. The 56mm (85mm) was important to have and it’s a belter of a lens. The Fuji lenses are sharp and getting faster. The image sensor, despite not being full frame, is very capable. Using EVF is a bit weird and I’m not overly keen on the multitude of buttons and menu settings you get with these cameras but the lack of weight to carry is very, very nice! I’m sticking with the Nikons for the time being but a system change may not be far off in the future!
