Farmers Image of the Week #126

 

Imagine you are on your 50th wedding of the year. How would you be feeling? The maximum I've ever done is 40 in one year and I admit, towards the end I started to feel like I was on a wedding juggernaut. I never want to feel that way, I want to feel inspired for every single one, excited and in love with the whole process. So my hat goes off to anyone shooting more than 40 and still loving it all. Which brings me to Neil Thomas Douglas. We first met him at our two day Photography Farm and since then he has worked his ass off establishing himself as one of the best known, respected and creative wedding photographers in Scotland. And with that, he is also one of the busiest. The temptation is when you are on that juggernaut, that you could just coast, just go through the motions and get through. 

But truly great photographers will still always go the extra mile. Still always look for that epic shot, still go above and beyond. This week, Neil posted this image and it has received a lot of well deserved attention. It has so many elements that combined are simple mind blowing. When faced with rain at a wedding, many photographers would consider the portraits to be over with, but Neil sensed a rainbow was coming and he was not wrong. I saw a discussion in a group this week about what 'epic wedding photography' is. Someone said it's not tiny people in a landscape. Er, well if the landscape is incredible, the sky gifts you this and the people are in gorgeous light, then maybe it is. This image is the very definition of epic ...

Neil Thomas Douglas is based in Glasgow and travels all over the UK and international to shoot alternative weddings. He won Photography Farm Image of the Year in 2014 and is one of our fantastic mentors at Farm Week 16. He is teaching a class called Book Shoot Survive where he will be sharing his tips on booking a high number of weddings, shooting and editing them as well as not letting it take over your whole life. This class only has a couple of spaces open now.