2016 Hasselblad Wedding Photography: Amy & Mike
Wedding Venue: Warwick House, Southam & Chesterton Windmill, Warwickshire
http://www.MrLeica.com
July 2016
Leica & Hasselblad Wedding
Chesterton Windmill Wedding Photos
Wedding Photographers









I know the days and weeks past by in a blur but I can’t believe it is almost two years since I shared any wedding photographs! Really sorry for the pause in my wedding blog posts. I will do my best to share highlights from some of the weddings I have covered over the last two years, in date order. To start off it is all the way back to 2015 with Alex and Lisa at the beautiful Barton Hall Hotel.
A fellow Leica photographer / analogue film photographer Glen McKenna invited me along to one of his wedding bookings to help cover the wedding using only film cameras. It would be my first real wedding using my Hasselblad 501C medium format film camera (rather than stylised bridal shoots with a model to give a wedding look). The camera captures 6×6 film negatives so I would have to compose my images as squares rather than the usual 6×4 rectangle format. I was happy there were more wedding photographers as it pretty much gave me a free licence to cover any angles I wanted to capture and not have to do the expected wedding photo shots (such as stand at the front of the aisle) (nor any wedding group photos). My fellow wedding photographers and I did agree who would be where so we had all angles covered for the couple and also to avoid getting in each others photos.
For the wedding I packed my Hasselblad 501C film camera, the 45 degree prism finder and two lenses. A Zeiss Distagon 60mm f3.5 CF lens for wider photos and a Zeiss Makro-Planar 120mm F4 CF lens for wedding portraits and wedding detail photos. I found I used the 60mm lens for most of the day but the macro lens is great to have in the bag. For my own wedding bookings I enjoy the wedding portrait photography part of the day especially as I can bring my fashion photography / model photography experience to produce natural looking yet styled wedding photos.
As it was a winter wedding I was a little worried about how much light we would have. Film cameras love bright conditions and are less keen on low light photography / night photography. I would also be using mostly available light so after sunset it would be quite tricky. I decided to load the Hasselblad with 120 Kodak Portra 400 colour film for the day as it has good latitude and so works well to retain both highlight detail and more shadow detail than say E6 slide film.
Here are a selection of Hasselblad film photos I took at Alex and Lisa’s wedding
In addition to the above mentioned Hasselblad 501C camera I also took a Leica M6 35mm film camera with a Zeiss ZM Biogon 21mm f2.8 lens for wider shots, loaded with black and white Kodak Eastman Double-X 5222 (Cinestill BWXX) film. In addition to the Leica camera I packed a 35mm Nikon F4 SLR for telephoto shots using a 100mm macro lens.
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Since this wedding I have invested in more of the best film cameras ever made with a goal to capture the highest quality wedding photos. Wedding clients have a choice of me using medium format Hasselblad cameras (V-Series and H-series) (and an array of lenses), medium format Mamiya RZ67 Pro II, Mamiya 6, Fuji GF670 and/ or 35mm Leica cameras and the latest purchase a Nikon F5. Most couples give the choice of what cameras I use and I currently use a mix of Leica cameras and Hasselblad cameras to capture your wedding day. (I also use 4×5 large format film cameras for the real camera enthusiasts!)
As much as I wish every couple could appreciate analogue film photography as much as I do I realise some people prefer the look of digital photos. For digital camera wedding photography bookings I continue to use my Leica M240 camera as the main wedding camera and then clients have the option to have Leica wedding photography (only) where I use a Leica M8 camera to support the Leica M240. I also use a digital Hasselblad that I can bring on request and various other cameras as backups.
To book a Leica / film wedding see here for more details:
http://www.matthewosbornephotography.co.uk/Wedding-Photographer.html
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Last September I treated myself to my first Hasselblad film camera to join my various Leica cameras. It was the best camera purchase I think I have ever made! I absolutely love working with the Hasselblad and the 6×6 medium format film negatives it produces. I was keen to start using it for film wedding photography along side the film Leicas (Leica M2, M3, M6) so decided to organise a wedding themed shoot with model Bec. The idea was to demonstrate what is possible at real wedding if given the chance to shoot film and with the Hasselblad 501C.
Here are a series of Hasselblad wedding look images with me testing the camera before I flew out to Poland (see Mr Leica.com blog for the Hasselblad in Poland). Indoor photos shot on Ilford Delta 100 film (@400 – I thought I had Fomapan 100 loaded to push to 400) and then Fuji Pro 400H film outside. Colour film was lab developed and scanned and I develop my own black and white film.
For New Year’s eve 2015 I was lucky enough to be asked to cover a wedding with two fellow Leica photographers. I took my Hasselblad camera plus the Leicas and had the oppotunity to shoot 5 rolls of 120 Kodak Portra 400 film with the Hassy. Amazing! Film is currently at the lab but I can’t wait to see the results!
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To book me for your film wedding photography whether with the Hasselblad or using the Leica film cameras see below for more details:
http://www.matthewosbornephotography.co.uk/Wedding-Photographer.html
2016 wedding film cameras include Hasselblad, Leica, Mamiya and Nikon and formats include 35mm, medium format and large format