With our Team at Linda Pasfield Photography, we have a well-defined personal style based on natural-film colors. Our pictures don’t look alike, because experience shows us, that every person is unique and there is no secret recipe for perfect a photoshoot. We try as much as possible to use natural light

Here are some of our tips for capturing great rain pictures.

A wise friend told us once, “Don’t fight the battle twice.” In other words, Don’t worry about things you can’t control until you have to confront them. If your Weather.com is as accurate as ours, it’ll change every day leading up to the event anyways, and as long as you have the right gear in your bag, there’s really nothing else you can do!

We recommend to borrow or purchase Black umbrellas a sturdy and generous size, or clear. Don’t go to an expense because most of your family or Bridal party will own a Black Umbrella. Don’t rely on the photographer on the day or the venue for umbrella’s because you might get one that has been over used and not perfect in your pictures.

Rain slows everything down a little bit because it takes longer to move people from one place to the next (think puddles, wet grass, etc.) and if you get an intense microburst of precipitation, sometimes you have to wait it out for 5-10 minutes (or longer) before you can run out an shoot again. The morning of a wedding, if it’s raining or the weather confirms it’s going to be raining, we arrive an hour early to give ourselves more leeway with the timeline. If we have to stop multiple times for really big downpours, the extra few hours can make all the difference between us finishing all the photos before the ceremony (as planned) and having to move bridal party or family photos to cocktail hour.

Even though there are great apps (like Dark Skies) that can tell you when the rain will start and stop, with pretty good accuracy, we never assume we’ll get clear skies back once it goes dark. So, for example, the image below with the Bridal Party back shot in the rain, the rain didn’t stop. Anthony quickly directed the Bridal party to a paddock and managed to capture this epic image.

Just in case there’s not enough time, we ask our bride and groom to quickly tell us which family shots on their list are the absolute most important (if they haven’t already) and which ones can be done at the reception if needed. That way, we can help set a realistic expectation for them of which ones we think we can get while we’re outside (with the venue/property in the background) and which ones will have to be inside or wait until later.

With rain, we always prioritize people over details. So, even though we typically give ourselves 30 minutes during cocktail hour to shoot reception details, when it rains, we have to assume the worst: that the timeline will get behind and we’ll be doing all the bridal party, family and couple photos during cocktail hour. With that assumption in place, we shoot through transitions. So, for example, at Jasmine and Ben’s wedding, we had a 15-minute drive, from the hotel where the couple was getting ready, to the venue. We always get there a little faster than them, so as soon as we arrived at the venue, we knew we’d have at least five minutes to shoot any reception or ceremony decor that was already up before our couple arrived for their first look. So we ran around like crazy people photographing every small detail we could, even though the whole thing wasn’t finished being set yet, just in case that was the only chance we’d get. It turned out not to be, but you can never be too careful.

You might get a little wet, and possibly have mud all over your shoes and maybe even on your suit. We will try very hard to not have you all soaking wet. Another idea is to have some spare shoes for the Brides and bridesmaids some flats or you can purchase some colourful gumboots to keep your feet dry and comfortable and keep your wedding shoes pristine for the night. You’ll be sore and tired and hungry, because it’s just a lot more work than a normal wedding.

You might even be jealous, because your photographer friends across the country are shooting in golden hour light while you’re praying for the rain to stop. But we have to be alert, and leave it all on the field, giving 100% of our physical and mental (just as important) energy every second we’re on the clock. Going above and beyond is the name of the game for two reasons. We want to give you the absolute best images on your day, and you’ll know in your heart of hearts that, despite the obstacles, we did everything in our power to give your Couple her dream day.

The third (and final) is a bonus: if you do the first two (and everything else above) you’ll actually still get to deliver a gallery of images that your bride and groom will love; and even though they’ll always remember the rain on their wedding day, when she looks at her photos, she’ll forget for a second, because our hard work will shine through.

One of our most important jobs as photographers is making sure we’re adding joy, and not extra stress, to an already stressful situation. The more we can focus on encouraging, smiling and reaffirming our clients and everyone around us, the better experience our clients are going to have, which is just important (if not more!) than the images themselves.