If you need to choose a wedding photographer to preserve all the special moments of your solemn celebration, iXO Stories is the agency that will meet all your requirements to the full extend.
The photographer & videographer advocate adventure weddings, which are about capturing natural scenes and sincere emotions against the natural backgrounds.
Helen Burt, a Northumberland wedding photographer, founded iXO Stories in Alnwick. Being a real specialist in the wedding field, she shoots both high-quality videos and photographs. Besides, Helen also conducts other types of photo sessions.
When she was 14, she grabbed her grandad's film camera and took her first pics. In 2016, Helen graduated from the University with BA Hons Photography degree.
After completing her education, she worked as a photographer or videographer in various projects like glamping, adventure sports, heli-weddings, etc.
Helen has many hobbies like boxing, snowboarding, and strolling with her dog Mango along the spectacular beaches close to Alnwick. Northumberland is famous for its fantastic wedding venues and she is eager to present their beauty via wedding stories.
Helen Burt specializes in wedding and her aim is to display people’s sincere emotions. She is not a supporter of studio photography with its staged poses, on the contrary, her main task is to capture the genuine emotions of the solemn day.
The main feature of iXO Stories, which distinguishes Helen’s artistic style from other wedding photographers is naturalness and focus on feelings.
Prior to a photo shoot, she always conducts a pre-wedding consultation, during which the clients tell about their photography ideas, choose the locations, etc. The photographer provides all the necessary tips on how to prepare for a photo session so that the shooting takes place in a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere.
Helen defines her artistic style as an adventure wedding, which presupposes the organization of wedding photoshoots in such complicated locations as mountain peaks, lakes, and dense forests. This style is somewhat similar to wildlife photography and nature photo genre, which make iXO Stories stand out among the competitors.
Often, she includes a helicopter in her wedding photo sessions. The shooting can take place right on a helicopter and it can be an impressive wedding portrait background for your romantic photo.
iXO Stories is often associated with wedding photo shoots conducted against stunning natural backgrounds of Northumberland. If you want original wedding photos in non-standard, but impressive photography locations, Helen Burt is ready to snap your special moments in forests, fields, wild parks, and more.
As a rule, the agency does not photograph the official part of the wedding or celebration with guests, focusing only on a couple. Helen likes relaxed poses and imperfect moments, as they are great for conveying real feelings between the newlyweds.
iXO Stories also specialize in engagement photography, which Helen Burt produces in places that matter much for the couple. She knows well that the choice of a location is of paramount importance, as it should be a place that means a lot to clients - the place of the first kiss or where they got engaged, etc.
Prior to the photo session, Helen talks with a client about what will be going on in a future photoshoot and recommends the appropriate props and outfits. Such careful preparation and discussion of details increase the chances that the hero of the shooting will relax and look natural in the photographs.
Dramatic atmosphere, smooth images, and original solutions are the characteristic features of the style of iXO Stories engagement photographer. The main difference between these photos from wedding images is that they often feature additional props or more creative posing.
In such shooting scenarios, a photographer often combines, at first glance, contradictory concepts. For example, a photo with a mountain range in the background, where a couple in festive attire are drinking champagne.
iXO Stories also takes couple photos to create romantic love stories for clients. The advantage of this type of shooting is that it does not need much preparation.
A photographer brings focus on genuine emotions, feelings, and the way two people communicate. Usually, such images are always fresh and look original thanks to impressive locations, whereas couple photography as a genre is often boring.
Helen Burt thinks that detailed retouching is not suitable for wedding shots and considers naturalness as the most important aspect of wedding. She will slightly improve the overall look of a pic, correct lighting, and colors, adjust exposure and erase blemishes. The use of creative effects is not a characteristic of the style of Helen’s photography.
Helen is convinced that refining the skin tone is the most important step of the post-editing stage. She carefully retouches the face to preserve the natural tone. She also does her best to add some volume to the facial features by playing with lights and shadows.
When analyzing different Helen Burt wedding shots, you’ll see that she often includes lighting effects. She often adds (natural-looking) highlights, sunbursts, and light flares to make the photo more lively, warm, and complete.
iXO Stories photographer frequently applies dramatic lighting effect when editing engagement pics. Although such effects are not common when it comes to wedding photos, the result is really impressive. Moreover, Helen loves to emphasize the textures of natural objects, as well as highlight contrasts between light and shadow.
Blurring is also in the arsenal of the photographer’s editing toolkit. Sometimes, it even results in the effect of overexposured photos, which gives the composition a special softness and even some kind of vintage flair.
Helen Burt also provides the services of a videographer, filming not only weddings but a great variety of other events.
Basically, she is a wedding videographer. While shooting the romantic event, her main task is to preserve the main moments of the day, such as pronouncing the oath, the first kiss, the bride's passage toward the groom, etc.
In addition, wedding videos by iXO Stories will display the emotions of the newlyweds, the way they look at each other, some moments of tenderness, and even hints of intimacy. The photographer’s website contains examples of Helen’s works providing the visitors with a general idea about her artistic style and shooting features.
In addition to weddings, Helen Burt also shoots videos in many other genres. In her Vimeo profile, you can watch video reviews of mountain resorts, underwater and surfing clips, commercials, and many more.
In my iXO Stories review, I should also mention that Helen is the author of a wedding blog where she posts articles with tips on how to prepare for the wedding photoshoot, where to find the most beautiful locations. Future customers will also learn a lot of useful information and ideas from the articles.
Besides, the blog contains many posts on the traveling theme. The author periodically makes reviews of different locations in the UK, publishes photos, and describes what a tourist can do there, as well as what places to visit in some tourist attractions.
The clients can choose from one of three subscriptions offered by iXO Stories.
The price of One package is $1850. By purchasing this subscription, you get a pre-wedding consultation, 6 hours of photography coverage, sneak peek photographs in 48hrs, a high-resolution online gallery, and full printing rights.
The Two package costs $2100 and offers the services of a photographer for the whole day and 3 fine art prints (8x10) in addition to those described above.
The Three plan, which costs $2500, includes the engagement session and all the services from the previous packages.
The price of the wedding clip starts at $1500. A client will receive a 3-5-minute highlights wedding film. Besides, it has some customizable options like a 60-second snippet trailer and ceremony/speech footage. The final price will depend on various aspects which are discussed for each particular case.
