Hi, I’m James. I’m a Nottinghamshire wedding photographer specialising in natural, relaxed and documentary-led wedding photography.

I’ve photographed at Hazel Gap Barn on the Welbeck Estate and it’s a venue I’d love to return to.

If you’re looking for someone who’ll capture the atmosphere, people and all those little moments happening around you — without spending your wedding day constantly posing for photographs — that’s exactly how I work.

Set on the historic Welbeck Estate near Edwinstowe, Hazel Gap Barn is one of Nottinghamshire’s most distinctive wedding venues.

The red-brick barn buildings surround an intimate courtyard, while inside the venue you’ve got exposed brick, huge timber beams, fireplaces and candlelight. The Oak Room offers a completely different feel, with a lighter space overlooking the gardens and woodland.

The ceremony, drinks reception, wedding breakfast and evening celebrations can all take place at Hazel Gap, allowing the wedding day to flow naturally without guests constantly travelling between locations.

For couples who love rustic character but still want a venue that feels elegant and atmospheric, Hazel Gap offers a really interesting combination.

From a photographer’s perspective, one of Hazel Gap Barn’s biggest strengths is the amount of variety you get without having to travel anywhere.

The red-brick courtyard, old barn buildings, stonework, gardens and surrounding woodland all give us different backgrounds for photographs, while the interiors have a completely different atmosphere again.

That means we don’t need to disappear for an hour-long photoshoot to create a varied set of couple photographs.

We can take ten or fifteen minutes together, use a couple of areas around the venue and then get you straight back to your guests. If the light looks particularly good later in the day, we can always head out again for another few minutes.

The ceremony barn is another highlight photographically. The exposed brick, timber beams, fireplace and candlelight give it loads of character, while the Oak Room provides a brighter contrast for the wedding breakfast.

But what I particularly like about Hazel Gap is how the spaces flow.

Your guests naturally move between the barn, courtyard and reception areas, which creates exactly the kind of interactions I look for when photographing a wedding documentary-style.

It’s a venue where there’s plenty happening around you — and that normally means plenty for me to photograph.

I’m James, the photographer behind 3rdEyeImages, and the way I photograph weddings is pretty simple — I want you to spend your wedding day enjoying it, not constantly being pulled away for photographs.

Most of the couples who book me tell me they’re not particularly comfortable in front of the camera. You don’t need to know how to pose and you definitely don’t need to practise what to do with your hands before the wedding.

When you need some direction, I’ll give it to you.

We’ll get the family photographs that matter to you, I’ll help organise everyone so they don’t take forever, and we’ll take a little time for some relaxed photographs of the two of you around Hazel Gap.

But for most of your wedding, I’ll let things happen.

I’ll be watching for the reactions during your ceremony, the conversations during the drinks reception, people laughing during the speeches, your friends messing around and all those little moments happening around you that you might not even notice at the time.

I’ve already photographed at Hazel Gap, so I know how the venue flows and where we can go for photographs without wasting loads of your wedding day looking for locations.

But I don’t arrive with a checklist of photographs I’ve taken there before.

Your wedding shouldn’t look like somebody else’s Hazel Gap wedding.

I want to photograph your people, your personalities and what actually happens on your day.

I’m relaxed with guests, I’m happy to have a laugh and I don’t want people feeling like there’s a photographer watching them constantly. The more comfortable everyone becomes around me, the more natural the photographs become.

So if you’d rather spend your Hazel Gap wedding celebrating with your family and friends than standing around posing for me all day, I think we’ll probably get along pretty well.