A pre wedding shoot is a unique opportunity to get some fantastic high quality professional photographs of you and your fiance in a relaxed and casual setting that is personal to you both. Favourite parks, beaches and beauty spots are common for a wedding photographer who is eager to capture some romance on camera before the wedding.there are many benefits to both the bride and groom and the photographer for arranging a shoot such as this including the opportunity to run through poses and familiarise yourself with the way your photographer will work on your wedding day and to feel at ease in front of the camera.

While a wedding photographer can be technically correct in every aspect of their work or show high amounts of creative flair with the camera on your wedding day this does not always equate to excellent wedding photographs. The reason is simply that if the subject matter itself i.e the bride and groom are made to feel uncomfortable or do not know the wedding photographer well it can be very easy to clam up in front of the camera. Afterall none of us have much experience working in front of a camera and even though we may strive for magazine quality memories of our wedding day its very easy for those wedding day nerves to show through!

This makes pre wedding shoot photography ideal for mentally preparing yourself and familiarising yourself with not only your photographer but the camera itself. Usually I will asl my brides to pick out a park or beach or favourite location of their choice and I will have around ten different photo ideas for poses that I use. The next step is to explain and communicate easily the way you'd like your brides to be posed.

My ipad is a godsend for this in two ways. Firstly I can show them a photo of how I'd like them to stand, This I find works brilliantly and I would really recommend getting an ipad for work such as this in wedding photography. Secondly it allows me to trawl the internet before hand allowing me to download and carry with me a series of pre wedding shoot poses! Whilst there are many wedding photographers out there who tend to copy each other when it comes to certain shots equally there are new and exciting photographers out there who will come up with something new. Again modern technology is at the forefront in sharing this information. Facebook and Twitter is brilliant for accessing a showcase of some of the worlds best wedding photographers and I find I am never stuck for something new to try when it comes to wedding poses.

Pre wedding shoots do vary slighly in terms of posing the couple in the fact that what they are wearing will be obviously different to a wedding dress and suit. This allows a more casual or cooler style of photography as aposed to documentary wedding photograhy. After all it doesn't matter how informal you make your wedding day shots It will still be hard to escape the formality of any wedding day.