30 May 2010

I had the pleasure of joining Claire, Jon and their family and friends at Shugborough Hall recently for their beautiful, intimate wedding. Claire previously worked at Shugborough and naturally wanted to get married there … they tied the knot in the Tower of the Winds, a quirky little building nestled in the grounds of the estate. We got special permission to go up to the main house as well, a real bonus. I honestly don’t think I have ever seen a more excited bride on the morning of the wedding … no nerves at all, just pure excitement and anticipation. Jon was more nervous about being in front of people and just wanted to be married LOL. Naturally “bunny” had to make an appearance … what a cutie !

The reception was held at The Moat House in Acton Trussell, with fun speeches, a bouquet toss and of course lots of dancing.

As always, a few favourites from the day … enjoy !

Shugborough Wedding Photographer … all images captured with Canon 5d II’s and gorgeous L series lenses

27 April 2010

You may remember Jess and Matt from their recent pre wedding shoot (here) … as always, it wasn’t too long before we had arrived at their wedding day at Crewe Hall in the glorious Cheshire countryside.

Jess was so excited and it was all we could do to keep her from peeping out the windows to see if Matt had arrived yet ! Matt, on the other hand was a little nervous, but his guys kept him occupied until it was ready to get hitched.

The weather was very kind to us which meant guests could enjoy the beautiful terrace and outdoor space Crewe Hall has to offer. There was much fun to be had, including Matt’s wedding ring point blank refusing to go on (LOL) and finished off with fun speeches.

A few favourites from the day … enjoy !

26 April 2010

I had the pleasure last week of meeting up with Charlotte & Charles to shoot their engagement session … as with some of my brides and grooms who book me, I had not met the guys before this meeting ! We met up at Charles’ parents beautiful home which offered lots of opportunities for different locations for the shoot. And then there was the cat …

Looking forward to the wedding, guys !

23 April 2010

As with any industry or job, we all need a little boost, or proverbial “kick”, to keep us on our toes and giving of our best at all times. So when I was invited to attend a seminar by the UK’s leading wedding photographer Jeff Ascough, I jumped at the chance and headed to Watford to hear what he had to say.

To say I was not dissapointed would not begin to cover it. His philosophies, his business insights, thought-provoking questions, marketing advice and of course his wonderful imagery, left us all feeling inspired and ready to come back into our own businesses and implement !!

Presenting at these seminars is full on and exhausting … enough to put many a speaker off repeating the experience … however, Jeff is considering another round of seminars and I would seriously urge you to not hesitate when hitting that booking form, this is not something to be missed if you are serious about improving your business in any way, shape or form.

I had a lot of fun catching up with some friends who also attended … I also had some time to shoot a couple of simple portraits in the bar (I know, I never stop !!).

Kevin Mullins …

Josh Archer …

As an added bonus, Jeff had invited along another leading light in the photography industry, Edmond Terakopian, winner of countless press photography awards. Ed added some humour, as well as some incredible sadness through his images of war-torn regions, countries recovering from devastating catastrophes and one particular event which happened much closer to home, the 2005 London Bombings. As some of you may remember, I shot a wedding at Christmas for a client who had been there that day (Paul Dadge) and had ended up on the cover of Time Magazine … I had not realised at that time that Ed was the photographer responsible for that iconic image until it came up on his slideshow. It truly is a small world at times.

Photo: © Edmond Terakopian www.pix.org.uk

Oh, I almost forgot, I also got to hang with my good friend Peter Prior who made the trip up from dan sath … and a final shout out to Helen at Snapperstuff for my new camera bag which I will be reviewing once I use it this weekend !

5 April 2010

Vegas has got to be the single most interesting and diverse place I have ever visited. I love it each time I am there but, to be completely honest, I’m always glad to get home ! It is full on, all the time, with the ding ding ding of the slot machines, the funky air conditioning (they pump stuff into it to keep you awake and keep you gambling), the amount of time it takes to get anywhere, all of it, it gets a bit much after a week. However, if you haven’t been I urge you to go, just make it a short visit LOL.

On the last day of my recent visit my flight wasn’t until 8pm, so I decided to walk the strip. I invited my friends Ian and Louise to come with me, as this was their first time there … they were game, so off we went. The Strip is pretty long, so we grabbed a cab from The MGM up to The Wynn (The Stratosphere is actually the top of The Strip, but we didn’t want to walk that far!), with the goal of only walking one way. Every hotel / casino has some theme or other and they are all very different. There are shops and malls along the way and contained within each hotel (seriously, did I mention how vast these places are?) including Tiffany’s in the Bellagio … I avoided it, I promise !

So, with documentary, here’s my take … all with my trusty Canon G10.

Inside The Wynn …

The view back up The Strip towards The Stratosphere … taken from one of the many foot bridges (these are so cool) …

The roof of the mall where I had my first ever Wendys burger … I prefer Wimpy burgers, still …

Treasure Island … enough said …

The Mirage, where the hilarious National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation was filmed …

Some random shots and gratuitous reminder of what a clear blue sky looks like …

2 of my favourite things on the one sign …

Ceasar’s Palace … the centre section is the original from the 60’s Rat Pack era …

One of my favourite hotels and of course where the Oceans movies were set …

Bally and Paris, complete with replicas of the Parisien sights …

This rather randomly reminded me of the Selfridges building in Birmingham !

Last one … this goes out to my Harley-mad friend, Peter …

Man, looking at these again is making me hanker to be back … looking forward to WPPI 2011 already !

My blog posts are like buses these days … nothing for ages then loads at once LOL

I often get asked “what would happen if you are ill / injured / otherwise unfit on our wedding day” … my answer is an easy one … I have a network of professional photographers I can call on, simple. This network goes both ways and so it was that I got asked to shoot a wedding for another photographer in February this year. Damian Brown is based in Birmingham and found himself in a situation where he simply couldn’t shoot this wedding … Damian’s beloved grandfather had passed away and the funeral was to take place on the same day … so he called and asked me.

This was a first for me in a few ways … the wedding was a Jehovah’s Witness ceremony and so I very quickly had to brush up on protocols, including wearing a skirt to the Kingdom Hall … I had to buy one (yes, I do live in jeans it appears !). The ceremony was beautiful and it stayed dry for us for the day, including no snow that had been threatened. The couple wanted a very relazed coverage of their day, but were up for a little bit of posing before heading in for their meal. The speeches were probably some of the most emotional I have ever seen, with tears of joy and emotion in equal measures. Their first dance was romantic and you could really tell these guys are so in love. And I got to feed my obsession with shoes, so all in all a great day.

And so, a few favourites from the day …

3 April 2010

Carolyn and Adam are getting married in May and to say their wedding plans are complicated would be an understatement … Carolyn is from the US, Adam is from the UK, they both currently live and work in Germany and so of course there are lots of legalities for them to work through to ensure they can get married in the UK ! Phew, I don’t envy them, but honestly Carolyn is soooo organised, they’re getting through it all one step at a time.

So when they were in the UK last week, sorting through some red tape, we figured it was the perfect opportunity to get together for a short shoot. Pre wedding sessions are a great way for me to get together with my clients, many of whom I will not have seen for a long time (since they booked, anything up to 12 months !), to chat about the final plans and of course to get some photos of them together. I get to see how they react in front of the camera and of course it is a great opportunity for them to get used to me and having a camera pointed at them.

We managed to find some greenery as a backdrop (well, it has been nothing but dreary here recently, so any green is a treat !) and so here are a few faves from the shoot …