Guest blog - beautiful documentary style wedding photography

We are super excited for today’s guest blog as we are interviewing the wonderfully talented Olesja from In the Name of Love Photography. Olesja is an alternative documentary photographer who works all over the world shooting stunning weddings.

Tell us a bit about you and how you got into photography

My name is Olesja and I run In the Name of Love Photography based in Glasgow, Scotland. I work all over the world photographing weddings. I am originally from Latvia and my family live in Southern Ireland. I love living in Scotland, from the people to the scenery, every day I fall more and more in love with this amazing country.

My photography journey started in 2010 as an amateur photographer. Even then I never dreamt of becoming a professional photographer, at the time, I was just madly in love with photography and thoroughly enjoyed snapping away with my camera. I later bought a Canon 50D and signed up for an online photography course in Moscow.

I tried my hand at photographing a wedding, which wasn’t successful and at that time, I thought wedding photography wasn’t for me. I loved to photograph families, children, portraits and couples, so continued to follow this route for a while. I was also successful in the boudoir photography field. However, after a few years, I decided to have another go at the wedding industry, as I love to work with couples, so upgraded my camera to the Canon Mark 5D III and started again.

I worked really hard and travelled all over the UK capturing weddings as a second photographer. This was a difficult time, but I loved every minute of it. I am very grateful to Paola de Paola Photography and many other photographers as well as family, friends and my wedding couples who put their trust and belief in me to become the successful wedding photographer that I am today.

I love to learn new skills, so I regularly attend wedding workshops and training courses to bring new and exciting methods into my photography, which helps me to stand out.

I also love to work on styled shoots and along with some of the real weddings I have worked on, my photography has been featured and published on JUNEBUG WEDDINGS, Way Out Wedding, Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, And So To Wed, Tie The Knot Scotland, We Fell in Love, Braw Brides and The Baby Town Collective.

You capture weddings in a documentary style; can you tell us more about this?

There are many different styles of wedding photography. At first, I didn’t think about it, but soon realised that I like to photograph with a more natural and relaxed approach without stiff posing. I work with natural light, so capturing light and composition is one of my main strengths. The documentary style is all about capturing natural imagery and considering every important moment in an authentic, revealing and raw way. It’s great looking back on your wedding photographs and remembering those key moments. The creative, documentary style suits couples who don’t like to pose and prefer more natural and artistic photography that not only captures the mood of the day, but also the little moments that they will cherish forever.

Your style is more alternative to traditional photography, why are more couples choosing this style of photography for their wedding?

Alternative style photography is really popular in Scotland and couples are choosing it because it is a mixture of a few styles – natural and relaxed with the creative and quirky portraiture in an unobtrusive way. Alternative photography is perfect for couples that are looking for something different. Most of my clients are creative people who tend to do a lot towards their own weddings such as the styling, décor and stationery. For them, it is really important that all of the details, the look and the mood of the day are captured perfectly.

Why do you love to photograph weddings?

I am a wedding photographer and I’m madly in LOVE with what I do! I love my couples and love to meet new people. I love all aspects of weddings – the real tender moments, raw emotions, warm hugs, happy smiles and of course the tears. It is the most wonderful and important day of two lovely souls in love and I feel privileged to be a part of their day.

What has been your most favourite wedding that you have worked on?

One of my favourite weddings was my first proper wedding at Killearn Village Hall after coming back to wedding photography. The couple were alternative and the wedding was very relaxed, informal and colourful with lots of personal details. Their complimentary engagement shoot took place at a very unusual setting, an industrial Arrochar Torpedo Testing Station surrounded by the stunning Loch Lomond Hills, which were perfectly reflected their love and personalities.

Do you have a favourite venue or place to photograph?

As I am a natural light photographer, I adore all outdoor weddings in natural environments. I specialise in barns, castles and city weddings and elopements. All of my couples have fantastic vision and their venues are unique. One of my favourite venues for a ceremony is the Botanic Gardens located in the west end of Glasgow. It is a stunning botanical venue with a few glasshouses including the famous Kibble Palace. The west end has a quirky and rustic feel that is perfect for matching my photography.

My second choice for the engagement and elopement sessions is the Glencoe and Loch Lomond & Trossachs area. These locations are breathtakingly stunning.

What should couples look for when choosing a wedding photographer?

Firstly, I would suggest that you make a decision as to what style of photography is going to suit your personalities, what you like and what is important to you. Second, when you visit a photographer’s website, very often you will see their best photographs, but keep in mind that these are only a few from various weddings, so if you see something you like, contact the photographer to see if you can see more from a specific wedding if they aren’t featured on their wedding blog/journal. This will give you a feel for the whole day, the photographer’s style, lighting, composition and quality of the photographs that the photographer produces.

I would always recommend that you read testimonials as your wedding photographer will be the one person who will be with you throughout the day and you want to make sure that you will click. Make sure you choose not only a highly professional photographer, but someone nice, polite and someone who you will feel comfortable and relaxed with all day.

As we are all about confetti here at Shropshire Petals, do you have any tips on how to capture the confetti moment?

Oh yes!! CONFETTI – my favourite part of the day! The confetti shot is not only a beautiful and emotional moment, it is lots of fun for all of your guests as well.

My only tip for a successful and wonderful confetti shot is to get guests to throw confetti into the air above the couple (not towards their faces!) Have fun and enjoy it.

Thank you Shropshire Petals for inviting me to be a guest blogger this week, I hope my story will inspire you – the future brides and grooms to be! Happy wedding planning, enjoy it!

Warmth,
Olesja at In the Name of Love Photography

Thank you Olesja for that wonderful insight into your business and thank you for sharing some of your stunning photography. To find out more about Olesja, head to:
www.inthenameoflovephotography.com or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Youtube, Instagram and Linkedin.

Love as always, SP x x