Off-Camera Flash Bridal Photography At The Beach

Off-Camera Flash Bridal Photography At The Beach

This photography project had been several weeks in the planning and for various reasons didn’t happen until now. In fact there was another postponement from the day previous due to weather problems.

It was bitterly cold, and I mean cold in the extreme with a biting winter wind, enough to make your face go numb in minutes! It was for this reason that we only managed one set of images right down on the beach itself as the wind coming in off the sea was almost unbearable at times. It’s fair to say then that with such strong, not to mention cold wind gusting around, allied to very bright, sunny conditions, it made bridal photography with a wedding dress quite impossible at times.

Technically, use of a soft box or any flash modifier was out of the question as it would have made in instant kite and disappeared down the beach. Also with such bright sun it was a working aperture of F11 and beyond, meaning bare speedlight flash on full power to compete with the sun. Luckily on most occasions the bright sand was acting like a very large natural reflector and bounced a lot of light back up.

I big thank you to everyone involved who helped make this happen. To Catherine for bridal makeup application and various touchups throughout the day, David Graham Hairdressing for bridal hair styling, Carla from Bonita Bridal for the use of a stunning wedding dress, Janice from The Flower Studio for providing a beautiful bridal bouquet, and our model Melissa. Melissa was a real trouper everything considered. Her commitment to this couldn’t be questioned,  she came very well prepared, and most of all followed me around to various locations, embracing each with the same level of enthusiasm without a single complaint, and in the extreme cold and wind.

Here’s a selection of images from the day: