Firsttake is a 100% digital photography business. We do not offer film as a photography option any longer, as we prefer the digital medium.

Digital is a different choice. Film has a different look and feel. However, I really feel that digital allows us more creative freedom. We are not restricted by film speeds, have more control over bad lighting at venues, and no longer have to change rolls every 36 images. We can shoot much, much more and try new things without worrying. It has afforded us the ability to reach so much further artistically. And of course, it allows the client more achievability. Images on DVD can be copied and stored in multiple locations for years to come. There is no longer a worry about degradation of the chemical negatives and/or losing them and never being able to have them replaced. It really is the better way when it comes to documenting and preserving that one day in your life that can never be repeated.

As with most of your other wedding vendors, you will want to setup a meeting to come in and meet with us. Part of the process is seeing the work in print … that is very important … and also meeting with Jon. We are firm believers that you must establish a connection with your photographer. We start that process from the first meeting.

If you decide that you would like to book Firsttake as your wedding day photographer, we will require a signed contract and a retainer to reserve your date. Retainers can be paid by chq and can be submitted with the signed contract, which we will e-mail you. Our retainers is dependent on the value of the total coverage you are booking and is usually 20%.

Yes payments can be in up-to 12 parts. The retainer 20 % due upon contract signing and the final balance due on the within 1 months of your wedding day. Please Note we do not charge customer any interest (we are not a credit broker ) we simply offer this service to try and help spread the cost into manageable chunks payments can be made by Chqs or standing order from your bank account.

Yes, for a Friday, Saturday or Sunday Weddings, we require the 4 hour minimum package booking that is featured on our price list. If you are having an event on any other day of the week, then we do provide coverage starting at 2 hours at a rate of £100 per hour. This is an a la carte style coverage that provides the hours of photography, a private online gallery and your high resolution files on DVD.

Yes, we also have Collections available for purchase, which provide product at discounted rates. We will also be happy to put together a custom collection for you, with a minimum requirement of 4 hours coverage and one main album.

Generally we don’t include prints because we provide the high resolution files to our clients. This makes it easier and more cost effective to you, as our client, to do your own printing. This is a huge advantage when you’re printing for friends and family, which usually calls for smaller prints like 4×6 and 5×7.

We suggest that you order your larger prints that you intend to frame and any other specialty products through us. We will retouch and prepare the product for printing through our professional lab, which provides you with a superior product. When doing larger prints, this additional quality control is a must and isn’t something that you would be guaranteed to get from a consumer lab.

We always provide camera sized files as high resolution JPGs at 300 dpi on a DVD. These images have been color corrected to print well at any quality lab. We will always give you our recommendations on good places to take your images so that you get great results. We do not do any retouching to the images provided on your DVD, however, our color correction methods still provide great quality images that won’t show any needs for retouching until you get into printing larger images.

No, I’m sorry, but Firsttake does not provide access to raw files as we prefer to be fully in control of all color correction on your images. Our color production is very specific and part of our artistic expression. It is generally part of the reason that client’s book us, therefore, it is very important that this is always consistent.

We provide you with an edited selection of everything we shoot for your day. You receive an incredibly beautiful story, containing only the BEST images ( min 250 images ). We want you, as the client, to relive your day and present you with images that best represent that.

We do not keep the other images on file once we have delivered your finished wedding. To help us eliminate the need for massive memory storage requirements, we only maintain the delivered images.

Your delivered and edited wedding images are kept on file by Firsttake for a minimum of 3 years from your wedding date.

Base minimum coverage provides you with Jonathan Moorhouse as your main photographer along with an assistant. If you require a second photographer, this coverage can be purchased.

Hourly coverage is continuous and begins when we arrive at the first location. We do not split hours, unless we are shooting a mutli-day event and then each day’s coverage would still be on a continuous basis.

We most definitely will photograph a multiple day event, as is common with a lot of Indian clients’ requirements. We price these events as single events and just charge based on an hourly basis as if it was one continuous day. Then the client can breakup those hours over the days required. However, each separate day’s hours are on a continuous basis as if it was a regular wedding event.

If you are hiring Firsttake, then you are expecting the creativity and vision of Jonathan Moorhouse. This cannot be provided by splitting the team. We find that there isn’t always a style flow between the bride’s and groom’s when this happens. What we usually recommend is that Jonathan will photograph the groom’s location first, leave the second photographer at that location to travel with the men to the ceremony location, thereby providing some additional candid coverage. Then Jonathan will head to the bride’s and follow her through to the ceremony. This solution usually works great and provides a creative flow to your images.

In most cases we will always have an additional assistant with us. If you have booked single photographer coverage, then the team consists of your photographer and assistant. If you book two photographer coverage, then your team consists of two photographers and an assistant.

We only require setup time for additional lighting at the reception. This takes approximately 15-20 minutes to get ready. If you have booked two photographers for your event, then we will always have one photographer shooting the reception/cocktail party, while the other sets up the lights with the assistant.

Firsttake is not a traditional studio and we do not provide any formal portrait setups for guest photos at your reception.

You can purchase proofs as an additional option with your a la carte coverage, or you can include them as a product in any custom package we put together for you.

We do not place any embellishments on our delivered proofs. Our proofs are 4×6 prints and beautifully presented in proof albums, as well they are printed on only the best quality photographic paper.

Generally we do not attend rehearsals. If you wish Firsttake to attend your rehearsal there is a fee for this service. Please inquire. If we are doing a destination wedding for you, this service is included.

We deliver a minimum of 70 finished images per hour shooting, however, we do not make any guarantees. Some hours garner more images then others, i.e. the photo shoot portion of your day will always provide us with more photo opportunities compounded in an hour then your reception might. Generally it does all tend to balance itself out overall when the final product is delivered to you.

Your online gallery and high resolution files are ready within 4 weeks of your wedding date. If you’ve chosen the proofing option, it takes an additional 2 weeks to complete delivery on the proofs and files, but that does not affect the posting of the online gallery.

Yes, every event gets posted to the blog. I post a dozen of my favorite images and then I put together a small flash slideshow with approximately 100 images set to music.

Currently we cannot provide access to that slideshow, as the software that I use to produce it does not produce a single file. It requires multiple files and folders. However, there will likely be a point in the future where I’ll be able to include a slideshow on your high resolution DVD. At that time, I will announce it. There will be no additional charge for this option when it does become available.

We ask that you provide the photography team with a hot meal if we are staying past 8 p.m. If no meal is provided and we are required to work your reception, then a meal charge of £25 per team member will be charged to your account and payable upon delivery of your finished files or proofs. We suggest that it is good practice to provide us with a meal to keep us fueled and going. We are working very hard for you through the day and generally get very little opportunity to eat.

Firsttake is a non-traditional studio, and therefore we do not work from detailed shot lists. We do, however, ask for specific direction from you on the timeline of your day to be sure we don’t miss any important events. And we also look to you to tell us what formal family photos you would like taken. Any list of family photos you provide us with will help us determine how much time we will need to complete those images requested.

We will always stay at your request. Overtime requested on the day of the wedding is at a rate of £80/hr. and is billed in 30 minute increments. It is payable upon delivery of your finished files and/or proofs.

We cannot possibly make that kind of guarantee. If you provide us with the family group photo list, we will always do our best to complete it 100%, however, sometimes timelines run late and circumstances mean that we need to cut some of those photos. That is always something we will consult with you on and ultimately the final decisions on cutting photos will have to come from the client. As for candid images, while we do our best to include as many guests and family as possible, there is absolutely no guarantee that we will get a photograph of everyone, and sometimes timelines do not provide us with as much “candid” time as we would like to have.

Yes we will, but due to the nature of this sort of thing, timing is of the essence. We take two shots of each table and deliver the best of the two to you. We do not guarantee that all of them will be perfect and without blinkers. Also please be aware that these images are not always the prettiest, as food, drink and other things are always on the tables, as generally this type of shooting has to take place during dinner. And we are always faced with situations where people are not at the tables. So its not unusual that the odd table might be forgotten, especially if you have a large number of guests. We do not take responsibility for tables that do not get their photos taken.

We pride ourselves on our ability to be as unobtrusive as possible. Therefore we use flash as little as possible throughout the course of the day. We will photograph the majority of your ceremony with natural light if possible. We do like to be creative as well, so during your photo shoot, we will manipulate and use the natural light to the best of our abilities. We do sometimes use additional lighting methods such as reflectors and video lights, but that is reserved for just the photo shoot portion of your day. At your reception, we setup additional flash lighting in the corners to add mood, however, this lighting is only triggered by our equipment.

If required and if we have never been there previously, we will discuss this with you to see if it is necessary. If we deem that it would be a benefit to do so, then we will visit the location along with the client. Please note that visits will usually have to be scheduled for a time between Monday to Friday due to our heavy shooting schedule on the weekends.

We will travel at least 50 Miles outside of Halifax to photograph a wedding free of charge. Any other locations are quoted on an individual basis