Siobhan and Squeak

I met Siobham earlier in the year when I went on the fabulous David Williams workshop in North Yorkshire. One thing most photographers with children have in common is that they never have pictures taken of themselves with their own children. They may take plenty of pictures of their children, but they don't usually get to be in the pictures too.

So, on the workshop Siobhan and I agreed that at some point she would come up to visit me with her daughter Squeak (aka Aisling) and I'd take some pictures. They came up recently, thankfully on a dry and relatively sunny day, and I gave them a tour of some of my 'secret' local locations before we met up with another local photographer, Mark Betts, for lunch (which has got me thinking; what's the collective noun for photographers? Answers on a postcard, please).

Anyway, these are some of my favourite images from the session.

Firstly, Squeak:

And most importantly, Siobhan and Squeak together:

It was great to see you again, and I hope you like the results!

Bronze, Silver and GOLD!

Since July I've been entering the monthly competition run by the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP), and I was pleased that all of the images that I entered have received a merit award; a bronze in July, and seven silvers in August.

Then at the beginning of this month my eight entries were judged as three bronze, three silver, and I was delighted to receive my first two golds, in the Children and Fine Art categories. The golds, which follow below, will now go forward to the annual competition and be published in the SWPP magazine.

Firstly, Ashlynne, judged gold in the Children category:



And this image of a misty morning in St Marks Square, Venice, which was judged gold in the Fine Art category:



Fingers crossed for future entries!

Pure Weddings magazine - Trash The Dress

The autumn edition of Pure Weddings magazine should be hitting the shelves soon, and it features a two page spread with my images from a Trash the Dress (TTD as it's know) session.

Trash the Dress gives the bride (and groom if he wants to get involved) the opportunity to get dressed up again, have a fun shoot, and not be too precious about the dress. It's not really about destroying the dress, it's more of a non-traditional and artistic way of having a fun time and getting some great fashion inspired images. Honest! Otherwise, what happens to the dress? It gets put away safely in a storage box and may never see the light of day again.

All of our brides have the opportunity of a TTD session, and if they really don't want to get their wedding dress a little grubby they can always look for a cheap one on E-bay!

The images featured in Pure Weddings were from a shoot last October in Edinburgh where Nicky and Scott ended up in the sea. It was a bit cold to say the least, but all in the name of TTD.




Weather permitting (i.e. we don't want it to be too good!), we've got some more TTD sessions coming up shortly, one with the promise of a motorbike as a prop.

Watch out for the posts in the next week or so.

A bit behind...

Things have been a bit hectic recently and the blog has been a bit neglected.

There have been a few shoots which I need to blog, some great news regarding competitions, the launch of the long awaited new brand, a magazine feature, and amongst all that I'm putting together some stunning wedding albums from some of the weddings that we've photographed recently.

I'll try and catch up with the blolgging over the next few days and then get back into the habit again.

Watch this space...

Sarah and Alastair

On Sunday I caught up with Sarah and Alastair for a pre-wedding portrait session and to discuss their wedding plans as their big day gets nearer. Here are a few of the images:

They also told me of their exciting honeymoon plans and where they're going. I won't spill the beans, but I'm very jealous....

We look forward to seeing you later in the year.

Kayleigh's 21st!

Earlier in the month we went to Kaleigh's 21st birthday celebrations - a night at the Oscars - with carefully selected Oscars for a few lucky (!) recipients.

Here's the star of the evening in front of the glittering stars of 'Hollywood':



With mum Michelle and dad Colin:



And no 21st is complete without a cake (and a plug for Colin's disco!):



Congratulations Kayleigh!

Gemma and Terry are married!

After a week of pretty hopeless weather, the sun shone on Saturday and it was a glorious day for Gemma and Terry who were married at St Mary and All Saints Church, Stoughton, near Leicester, with their reception following at the splendid Rushton Hall where they were well looked after by Toastmaster Alan Hodge.

So, all the right ingredients; glorious weather, a lovely venue and a fabulous couple. Gemma looked absolutely gorgeous in her Pronovias wedding dress and Jimmy Choo shoes, and Terry scrubbed up rather nicely too!

They're off to Mauritius for their honeymoon but, hopefully, will see these early favourites before they go.

It was great to be with them on their big day and we look forward to catching up with them when they're back. If I was going to be really PC (!) about the day, I'd say that they made an arresting sight!