White Gables, 153 Grove Lane, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire. U.K.
Telephone 0161 439 2964. Fax 0161 439 3771 Mobile Tel 07836 661233

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur" - Red Adair

Frequently Asked Questions about
Neil McAllister's Wedding Photography

'Not all photographers are the same,'
could be Cheshire Photographer Neil McAllister's catchphrase, as he strives to create unique albums which break the mould of traditional wedding photography.
Described in one of his books, 'This is India' as 'internationally acclaimed' Neil has just celebrated more than twenty years in professional photography.
Here he answers the essential questions every future bride should ask her wedding photographer.

What are your professional qualifications?
I have an honours degree, specialising in Photographic Education. This took four years of full-time study, and a hundred thousand word thesis, which was only ten times as long as it should have been! For many years, as well as running my successful photographic practice, I taught photography and my ex-students, are now working all round the world. I photographed my first wedding in 1978, but have come a long way since then!

Are you a qualified member of a professional organisation?
In 1985 I was awarded an Associateship of the Master Photographer's Association. This is a trade qualification, based on assessment of my work.

Will we find you at Wedding Fairs?
No. To be honest the demand has been such that I have always turned down more weddings than I can book. People can get a much better impression of our work from this website, which is being constantly updated.

What do you do during the week?
I have a mixed workload of Advertising, Editorial and Commercial Photography - plus of course a fair number of midweek weddings. Over the years my photographs have appeared in magazines as diverse as Vogue, Woman & Home and The Sunday Express Magazine. Whilst most of my editorial work is for magazines, my pictures have been used in a wide range of newspapers from the Church Times to the Daily Telegraph. Over the years I have had quite a few books published featuring my photographs. When I was promoting 'Requiem for a Red Box', 'This Morning' used my book as the theme for the whole show. These days a huge chunk of our work is Travel Photography. We sell our travel images online, both through travelib.com our own site and at alamy.com who sell our pictures worldwide. If you would like to see that aspect of our work, visit our travelib site, click on the alamy link and type in a place to search through 25,000+ of our pictures.

Who takes the photographs?
Unlike many photographers, I won't employ 'Saturday boys' to cover more than one wedding. People book me because they know how I work. When people look at my display albums, they see real pictures from real weddings - the sort of pictures they can expect when I photograph their wedding.

How quickly do you work?
I cannot think of another photographer who works so quickly. Years of working for magazines has sharpened the way I work, and that has become part of the way I approach a wedding. To me it should be a wonderful day, not an excuse for a huge photographic session. I still need to produce an album of wonderful pictures, but need to do so within the wedding day, not taking it over. By arranging the coverage with the couple in advance, determining their particular requirements, it means I can work very quickly and efficiently on the day.

What experience do you have of local venues?
There aren't many places where we haven't worked at in the past, which isn't to say that we ever get complacent. Weddings are about people more than places, but we like to think that we are able to make the most of any location. Knowing local halls, hotels and churches well helps us to work quickly whilst getting the best possible pictures in the best possible places.

Do you go to the house first?
We always find that the pictures at the house set the tone for the rest of the day, it also gives the bride a deadline to be ready. With most coverage, we spend thirty minutes or so at the house, photographing the bride and family, leaving the house half an hour before the service. The worst enemy on a wedding day is panic,and we spend our time at the house employing our best camera-side manner to keep everyone calm.

Do you do 'photojournalistic' wedding photography?
Yes, and it does help having plenty of experience as a photojournalist! As well as having professional and trade qualifications, I am a member of the National Union of Journalists. I have always tried to keep my coverage as informal as possible, including candid views. But for ten years I did a substantial chunk of 'Cheshire Life's' social photography, and this led to people asking me to photograph weddings in the same casual manner. Years before it became fashionable, I was producing photographs of weddings for people who didn't want Wedding Photography. Today, as well as my Casual package, which is pure photojournalism, shot exactly as it happens with no groups, and no posing, my Silver and Gold Plus packages, as well as Platinum coverage involve a very substantial element of 'catching the action as it happens'. The advantage of this kind of coverage is that I also take whatever group and portrait photographs are required, and the finished albums can have a balance of small and larger prints to give a more realistic interpretation of the day.

Do you print all your own photographs?
As we are digital, I prepare every image for printing myself, so they are exactly as I want.

Can we have the photographs on disk?
A few years ago I would have said no, knowing that to do so would allow my pictures to be printed on home inkjet printers with the inevitable effect on my professional reputation. The rise of cowboy operators, doing this has forced my hand - so yes, I can supply high resolution pictures on CD (or DVD) Our digital album package is just that, a disk supplied after the wedding containing the prepared pictures. You may find it useful to know my workflow, as it will help you understand the cost of this option.

For album based coverage, first I spend at least two days working through the day's raw files, editing, and preparing for viewing. At this stage, composition, colour, and contrast are corrected. Later, all prints then selected for the album are re-worked, retouching and refining them properly, this often takes another two days. This work is reflected in the costing. To supply all the pictures on disk means doing all this work for every picture, which takes forever.

Do you still use film?
No - and you couldn't get me to go back to using film even with a cattle-prod. Top-end digital, has transformed our wedding photography, allowing me to realise my vision of how images should appear, and allowing me technical control of the wedding from conception to realisation. If anyone tells you film is better than digital, they are either deluded, ill-informed, or protecting their investment in film cameras. There is an immense difference between consumer and professional cameras and our constant investment in software and hardware means that the quality of pictures I can achieve are light-years ahead of even the best film cameras (which we have unused in our store-room!)

Do you make black & white prints?
I can make black and white, sepia, toned, of part-colour prints from any pictures taken at the wedding - at no additional cost.

What do you do if the weather is bad?
There is always somewhere to work. We have had to contend with blizzards, torrential rain, hail gale-force winds and bright sunshine just over the horizon in December. If the weather is just too bad, and the venue has nowhere attractive inside, we can always photograph couple and bridal pictures in our studio as a last resort. The fact remains however that pictures taken on a poor weather day will be different from those taken on a glorious day.

How do you handle people?
Successful wedding photography is 10% to do with cameras and 90% to do with people. Putting a bride, or a fretting mother at ease, and organising and arranging people quickly into natural-looking groups is vital to get great photographs. When I am photographing in Photojournalist mode, I try to become almost invisible, which isn't easy for a six footer, but, the day is about the couple not the photographer, and I always try to reflect that in the way I work.

What do you wear?
If guests are making an effort, it is only professional for me and my staff to blend in. This means that if it is a morning suit wedding, both I and my assistant wear a morning suit.

Do you do more than one wedding in a day?
No, I put so much in physically and mentally that it isn't too dramatic to say that I am always drained at the end of a wedding. I know there are people who fit in two or more weddings on a day, but I donÕt think you can do the job with the same level of commitment and professionalism if you do this.

Do you work on your own?
As I mentioned, I usually have an assistant who takes care of the fetching and carrying - this leaves me free to get on with the job in hand - photographing the wedding. For stills and Video, we have a team of four, both Hazel and I have assistants, who work in the background, allowing us to work efficiently.

What happens if equipment goes wrong?
Mechanical things malfunctioning is a fact of life, but to guard against this, we carry spares of everything, By using the very best equipment, properly and regularly maintained, we can prevent problems. In more than twenty years, whenever we have had a technical hitch, I have always been able to spot it and change to backup equipment without the couple even noticing.

How far in advance do clients book?
We tend to get booked up for peak Saturdays up to 18 months in advance, but most people book about a year before the wedding. Unfortunately we still get people following bridal magazine's advice and ringing us 4 months before! We actually turn down more weddings than we photograph because we are already booked.

How do you work out your prices?
We calculate the time taken on the wedding, including time spent discussing requirements, and mounting and preparation of the pictures, and add this to the cost of the album and photographs. We dont believe in the 'think of a price and double it' philosophy. We aim to provide the highest quality at a fair price - after all we have been in business for over two decades, and plan to stay in business for at least two more!

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