As a photojournalist I’ve always enjoyed documenting youth culture and music events at the O2 Academy Bournemouth. This music and events venue was previously named the Opera House. I first worked as an event photographer at this venue for Slinky in 1995. It was great to be back to photograph Gareth Emery’s performance on behalf of his management company.

With varying lighting conditions it can be tricky to capture an artist during a live performance. I always use the available ambient light to document the true essence of the event and faithfully record the atmosphere. Through lifestyle portraiture and reportage photography it is possible to capture an artist performance naturally without interruption and documenting the live aspects of the music event.

Music event photojournalism

Here’s my music event photo story from Slinky:

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Had a fab time yesterday evening with Sarah and Callum on their pre wedding shoot in Bournemouth. Sarah did a fantastic job of picking the perfect day, blue skys, no wind and pleasantly warm. We met up not far from their home near Bournemouth town centre, a place where they have spent time together, had picnics and relaxing Sunday afternoons.

I’m very much looking forward to being their wedding photographer and documenting the wedding in a few weeks. The marriage will take place in Bournemouth Town Hall and the wedding reception at Branksome Dene Community Room, which has spectacular views over Bournemouth beach.

Pre wedding shoot on location in Bournemouth

During a pre-wedding shoot I like to allow people to relax, be themselves and have fun, this helps for more natural photos. I always include a ‘models own pose round’, Sarah and Callum achieved greatness in producing some funky shapes, fantastic for creative and fun couple portraits. Not sure what Sarah was doing behind me when I was taking Callum’s individual portaits, but it made Callum laugh allot.

Thanks to Sarah and Callum for making the evening enjoyable and fun to photograph. Here’s their pre wedding photography photo story featuring some of my favourite moments..

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Yesterday was the day when Megie and Matt got married in Bournemouth and I was honoured with the responsibility to be their documentary wedding photographer.

Something that I absolutely love about my work as a wedding photographer is the privilege of meeting couples, their family and friends, and sharing the experience of the wedding day celebration. Although the general wedding day follows a similar format, no two weddings are the same. In fact for me, everyone is entirely unique, as the individuals that take part and share the couples biggest day in the lives makes them so distinctive.

I found it hard today to choose some of my favourite documentary wedding photography for this preview, as there are so many wonderful moments captured. Megie looked amazing, extreme confetti throwing (50MPH wind gusts) in Bournemouth gardens, an epic and unique wedding reception venue, bongo playing, flower girl hurling, who can bounce the highest competition on the bouncy castle, the youngest wedding DJ that I’ve ever seen, champagne cork distance challenge popping, bubble blowing, people dancing, celebrating, so much fun was had by everyone. The full documentary wedding photo story to follow soon..

Big congratulations to MR & MRS Roscoe!

Documentary wedding photography preview

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WOW! What an amazing day! Charlie and Chris got married on bank holiday Monday in Dorset and celebrated their wedding at Parley Manor, I’m so honoured to have been chosen as their wedding photographer to document their special day.

The weather was perfect, Charlie looked stunning and so elegant in her wedding dress, all the guests enjoyed the beautiful surroundings at Parley Manor and celebration of marriage. I had fun too, capturing the true essence of their special day and will publish the full photo story soon.

Big congratulations to Mr & Mrs Peters!

Documentary wedding photography in Dorset

Here’s a short preview of their documentary wedding photography, hope you enjoy viewing the photos, please share the blog love using the social media buttons below and feel free to leave any comments, thanks for visiting..

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I met up with Megie and Matt yesterday in Poole for their pre wedding shoot and very much looking forward to documenting their wedding celebration in Bournemouth tomorrow. They are based in London and this was the first time we had the opportunity to meet up since they booked me as their Bournemouth wedding photographer. So it was nice to spend some time together before the wedding. I discovered that Megie and Matt are a fun loving couple, so I let them be themselves, enjoy the park and relax in the sunshine.

Here’s a short pre wedding photo story of our fun day out in the park:

Get in touch about wedding photography and to check availability of Bournemouth wedding photographer Paul Underhill.

Music event photography is both allot of fun and a challenge. I was on tour with Gareth Emery over the weekend to document some of his DJ performances. The event was held at The Arches which is in Glasgow city centre and the gig was Colours. Working as a photojournalist I like to capture the true essence of an event like this, all the atmosphere, energy and emotion. The Glasgow clubbers were extremely enthusiastic which was fantastic to photograph.

I spend allot of time on post production using both technical and creative digital photography techniques to enhance the raw camera data before supplying the digital negatives ready for immediate press use.

Here are some of my favourite event photos from the gig in Glasgow:

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Sunset is such a magical time, fantastic for creative photography and artistic portraiture on location in Dorset. The advantage of being a Dorset photographer is easy access to scenery like Sandbanks beach and Poole Harbour, it’s inspirational to photograph and a beautiful backdrop for lifestyle and portrait photography. And I love the sunsets over Poole Harbour, the tide was out on this visit and the sky was almost completely clear of any clouds providing a wonderful mix of colours.

From the beach the view was so clear over the Purbeck hills, Old Harry’s were shining bright as they reflected the evening sun. The shoreline was past the end of the groynes exposing an area that is usually deep under water. As the sun got lower the side lighting became even more dramatic and interesting to photography, changing the atmosphere both on the beach and in the harbour.

Creative photography techniques

The raw camera data captured is very flat and uninteresting, so enhancement and creative post production techniques are required to produce images that are artistic, expressive and beautiful.

I have a real passion for creative photography and documenting beautiful things. Here’s my photo story of our sunset evening walk..

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I have been a documentary wedding photographer for many years and it’s always rewarding when people enjoy my wedding photography. Recently one of my wedding photos was voted the winning documentary wedding photograph by my piers. This has special meaning when other wedding photographers appreciate your work.

With documentary photography and wedding photojournalism the key element for capturing moments is people observation. Taking note of body language, their actions and reactions allows anticipation of these moments to ensure they are captured truthfully and creatively.

This documentary wedding photo was taken a few weeks ago at a wedding in Dorset. The photo represents the touching real emotion that occurs during a wedding day. The best man (the groom’s brother) was overcome with emotion during the wedding ceremony, a heartfelt honest moment.

Get in touch about documentary wedding photography and to check availability of Dorset wedding photographer and photojournalist Paul Underhill.

It was Nicola and James’ pre wedding shoot the other day, it’s been a while since I’ve seen them and I’m very much looking forward to being their documentary wedding photographer for their Dorset country wedding which takes place in a few weeks. The wedding reception is being held at Nicola’s father’s farm in Dorset, which I’m very excited about and the quaint village church for their marriage is just a short walk up the road.

We arranged the pre wedding shoot at a location where there was a bit of cover as the weather was being very unpredictable. It was a rather overcast sky and typically as we arrived it started to rain, however after a short while the rain decided to stop and the sun even managed to come out in between the clouds, which made for some dramatic sky and lighting. We discovered that Nicola is the cheeky one and full of laughs, which made me giggle lots during the shoot. Check out the tree hugging!

Really enjoyed our time together and looking forward to documenting all the fun of their special day.

Pre wedding photography by Dorset wedding photographer

Here are my favourite photos from the pre wedding shoot:

Contact Dorset wedding photographer Paul Underhill about documentary wedding photography for your wedding day.

Over the weekend we made a trip over to Brownsea Island in Poole, Dorset for a walk and adventure. It’s been so many years since I visited the National Trust site situated in Poole Harbour, it was really good to spend some time on the Island for a relaxing walk, checking out the sites, the amazing views of the Purbeck Hills and Dorset coastline. I decided to produce a creative photographic documentary capturing the elements of the scenery and wildlife. There are a few ferry options, we caught the ferry to Brownsea Island from Sandbanks.

When photographing as a documentary photographer, I’m always on the lookout for interesting things and to creatively capture them. Brownsea Island had plenty to offer, famous for it’s Scouting history it is also home to the Red Squirrel, as well as many other wildlife including peafowl (peacocks) that rome free. During the walk we sat down for a snack and a very friendly Pheasant came to investigate what we were eating. We also stumbled across a large ant’s nest. My attempt at photographing an ant running up a tree took some dexterity to keep up with him.

Documentary photography

It was a fun day out, here’s my documentary photography photo story from the Brownsea Island adventure..

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