My first wedding in May

[david lee]

Dear all
I wanted to tell you that I have been asked by my friend to be the photographer at his wedding in May this year.

This initially sent alarm bells off in my head as I am not a wedding photog, I'm simply a landscape shooter.

Well now that I have calmed down and thought about it I am rather looking forward to the challenge and I have booked myself on a short 2 day wedding photography course next week.

I need to get some proper training in.

All is well so far, I have the equipment and will have SOME formal training but now I have learned that the wedding will not be a traditional church wedding.
Its going to be held in a Bar in London, the "Absolute ice bar" to be exact.
This is a rather "cool" and trendy bar in London that has its interior made out of ice.......................?? :rolleyes: Dont Ask!

Now I have never been to this place before and I do plan on doing a recce before the big day but I believe its all going to be interior shots with flash as there is no garden area.

Naturally I need to take plenty of batteries for the flash.

I hear that there was a wedding held there last week and it was a failure because the photographer was unprepaired.

I know its difficult to ask tips on a thing like this when you havent seen the place but is there a general way to go about taking acceptable photo's in a low ceiling dark interior windowless bar as this place will surely be:cry:

thanks
Dave

[CyberPet]

If the whole bar is built of ice, you should be able to bounce your flash successfully, as snow and ice is, well white (at least here in Sweden, can't speak for London). I'd try to get as much ambient light as possible, as the ice makes the light very cool. Lots of batteries, spare body (of course).

Take a look at some images from the REAL ice hotel in northern Sweden, it should give you some ideas:
http://icehotel.se/

[david lee]

Thanks Cyberpet
I think this bar is linked to the icehotel because the water supply that is frozen comes from the same source.

[CyberPet]

LOL, yeah probaly... the ice is crystal clear from Torneå River (not sure how they handle the transport, maybe it's only the ice cubes left until it's arrived in London :D). (I live in the same region but a bit further south). Each year they store tons and tons of ice for the next years build, as it takes a while for the ice to be strong enough for their opening. This year they might be in trouble, not much cold weather lately.