Oscar and George - Family portraits, Staffordshire

I've been sitting on these for a while now, I didn't want to post them until all the surprise gifts had been given out at Christmas. It must have been November when I went to the park with Oscar and George to get some pics of them for Nan and Grandad. I really enjoy this type of child portrait. It's much better than sitting in a studio, much more fun for the kids and the pics have more to say than my usual studio family portraits. It was very cold so we didn't have a lot of time before everyone started to get cold but here's a few of the highlights :D

Alicia and Andrew - Crewe Hall wedding photography

It was a chilly 1st December for Alicia and Andrews wedding at Crewe Hall. A beautiful, low lit, venue - a challenge to shoot but wonderful if you get it right. The room was spectacular and the reception room was just as good with everything set up and decorated beautifully for Christmas.

Some awesome quirks at this wedding, my personal favourite (aside from the dressed up pug) was the place names, named after some of my own fave TV shows.

This is likely to be my last blog post until after Christmas, I'm quite glad it's this wedding as I'm really happy with how the images came out considering the challenging nature of the venue.

Have a look :)


Tussk band - Gentry shoot


I had some super fun time with the Stoke band Tussk yesterday. We'd been talking for a few days about shooting a gentry style pic. Music photography isn't something I do very often anymore but when I get the chance I love pushing it out and doing something a little quirky like this.
You can check this band out at their facebook page.

More underneath the cut :)

Terri-ann and Aaron, West midlands wedding photography.

It's Terri-ann and Aaron in Coventry, West midlands
I've wanted to get this one up for ages, just couldn't find the right time.
There's many more weddings I need to blog, my aim is to fit them all in before march.
I won't ramble today, just take a look at the pics ;)

DJ Gurps and Ali Abbas

DJ Gurps new track Ouskurri 2 featuring Manak e releases at midnight tonight so I thought I'd show two covers that the label came up with along with a few of the originals.

 

Gemma and Craigs beach wedding, The Seiners Arms Hotel, Perranporth, Cornwall

Well worth the long drive. Craig and Gemma had an amazing wedding on Perranporth beach in Cornwall and I was lucky enough to be picked to capture it :)

They picked a beautiful day, one of a handful of weddings I've photographed this year where it didn't rain! The Seiners arms is practically on the beach-  the sand touches its walls and the staff are so friendly and informal.

I've never walked so much at a wedding. The hairdressers, brides house, grooms hotel room and venue were all in walking distance so I lugged my kit a good few miles, wore my shoes down a bit, all worth it :)

Megan and Sam, Keele Hall, Staffordshire

Megan and Sam tied the knot at Keele Hall.

The rain held out just long enough for us to have a walk around the grounds. I love shooting at Keele Hall, the staff bend over backwards to help me as a photographer and the guests. This meant they were more than happy to get me to a room with a great view for the group shot!

Here's a few from the day:

Fun with make up too.


I can't believe I forgot to blog these. Earlier this year I had a day with a few make up artists and models for their portfolio. It was fun but very challenging. These pics were all created up against the kitchen door with various backgrounds hung over the door and a few different light modifiers. I've had a quick look through the NEFs and couldn't find any set up shots which, is a little annoying. I left the make up and styling completely up to the pros :)

Which brings me up to now :)
With wedding season slowing down it's time to start updating my own 2013 portfolio, changes will be happening on the site in the next few weeks but I'd also like to hear from any models, stylists, muas and designers who might like to collaborate on something a little larger scale in the last few weeks of November and January/February 2013. 

Hope you like :D



 


Models: Kavan Sokhi, Laurie Austin
Make up Artists: Sanj Sandhu, Harminder Kaur





Liz and Chris Wroxall Abbey, warwickshire wedding photography


You may have noticed I posted the slideshow video from this wedding above ^. I've finally worked out how to post HD(ish) videos of the day up here. It's a shame they're not 1080 but 720 will do I guess. View full screen and HD for best results :)

Once again - it rained. Most of my weddings this year have been in the rain - it makes things more difficult from a photography point of view but we still got some great stuff. We were lucky enough to be in and out of the venue in between bursts until right at the evening when it poured down.

It didn't stop us having an amazing day. Wroxall Abbey in Warwickshire is an AMAZING wedding venue. The rooms contained ridiculous amounts of window light and the building contained lots of character it made the photography indoor so much easier. Liz and Chris seemed to have a great time with a brilliant vicar, amazing guests and hilarious speeches. Definitely a wedding I'll remember for a long time :)

The video doesn't contain all of the wedding images from the day. I could only fit a few into the songs but it gives you a good taster of everything that happened. If you can't sit through all 16 minutes of it I've posted a few highlights below :)


Untitled states



Wedding and events band Untitled states got in contact with me a few weeks ago.From what I gathered they've been around for a while but are now taking it to the next level with a new website and images. I had a quick listen to one of their recordings after the shoot  and it was really, really good.I've only posted two on here because I want you to go to their website. They've put a few more up there so have a look :)www.untitledstates.co.ukwww.facebook.com/Untitledstates












John and Veronica, Sheerness, Kent

Just a quick one tonight!
I've got a lot on and I'm trying to update this as much as possible.
A few weeks ago I traveled to Sheerness in Kent for Veronica and Johns wedding. A lovely, sunny day, one of the few I've had this year - we soaked up all of that sun and blue sky.
The church was amazing. A cozy, traditional church with hundreds of years of history.

Anyway, enough from me, here's a few :)


Andria and Ryan - Consall Hall and Gardens

I can't really figure out how to structure this post. There's soooooooooooo many pics from Andria and Ryans wedding at Consall hall and gardens. 

We had so much time and ideas to get lots of pics with some really cooky things happening. Consall hall is an excellent wedding venue. It's one of my favourite  places to shoot and definitely one of the best venues this year. There's so much to do.

By the way, check out the multi-coloured rose. 

Congrats guys!



Ian and Juliette - St Marys Guildhall, Coventry


Whew! Things are starting to settle down a bit after what has been the hardest 4 months of my life. It means I've a few minutes to update the blog and show you what I've been up to. I'll Start with Ian and Juliette. Once again, a slightly different style. A lot more natural light, free lensing, a bit more raw and less gimmicks and a more natural post production. We're getting a little closer to the style I want to be using in 2013.

As with most of my weddings this year... it rained. It can be quite tricky getting sharp, well exposed images when everywhere touched by daylight is completely out of bounds. You have to change up your game a little.

I was lucky to be blessed with the beautiful St Mary's Guildhall in Coventry. It's a stunning venue with so much character and history. Loving how the place photographs and with the rain it meant we were able to explore some of the more intimate part of the guildhall and picking up some images that might never have been taken there before :)

Here's some more, leave some comments and likes and the bottom if you want to :)

Schneekeh Peekeh

Quick sneak peek from Andria and Ryan's big day at Consall Hall and Gardens.
It's a Brenizer method. I think it's about 17 shots but the final image is 12,000 pixels high :)
Look out for the rest of pics in the coming weeks, I haven't had a chance to have a proper look at them yet but I can't wait to see the final result. I really, really I enjoyed my day with these two.









Ryan and Michelle - Upper House - Barlaston


It's been a while now since I posted anything with any substance. I'm right in the thick of wedding season at the moment and for the next three months it seems my personal life is on hold :)

It means there's a huge back log of weddings and pictures to show and today I'm getting to the first of them. I've no idea when I'll get to show the next one but the last three or four weddings, particularly the editing, have all been about developing my 2013 style. Wedding photography styles have shifted in the past year and while I do want to keep up and create pictures that follow the trend I also can't completely ignore my own style.
So the latest weddings have all been about the post processing styles. First of all is Ryan and Michelle's wedding at the Upper house in Barlaston. It feels like ages ago I shot for these guys, but it was probably only a month or two ago. I love this family. Loads of characters and a lot of banter made a wonderful day and a lively party.

I decided to play with the blacks for this set. As usual, I do my best to find inspiration from overseas and this style is often used in the cities in America and a little bit of Australia. It's about adding a little bit of grey to the neutrals and the blacks creating this really cool, hazy detail in the shadows. I really like the effect and it may take a more prominent role in some of my weddings in the future :)

Anyway, here's a few:

Mounted signing boards!

I've a huge back log of work at the moment which is why there haven't been many posts from me for a few weeks. With a wedding each week it all gets very busy this time of year. Not to worry though because I'll be posting some great highlights over the coming weeks showing off my new styles and sneaky peaks of 2013.


For now, I wanted to pop these two images up of my mounted signing boards. I've had a lot of orders for these this year. They're great fun and I love having a little more time to interact with couples on an engagement shoot (which is where we get the main image :).


So here's two pics of them in use at weddings recently :D








Party time!




This might be the quickest I've gone from shooting a wedding to getting it in a blog post! I wanted to write this one as quick as possible because I have an exceptionally busy (but exciting) weekend coming up.

Yesterday I was taking a few pictures at Moddershall Oaks for Liz and Chris. In spite of the rain we had a wonderful day getting some great pics with the moody clouds. I haven't seen them yet, they're scheduled for editing tomorrow. However, the reason I have stayed up until 3am on a Sunday (well... Monday morning) is to have a look at the amazing party they had after!

I'm sorry all other weddings - but these guys knew how to party. Everyone was up and dancing all night with lots going on.

The wedding reception and party is often forgotten about where photography is concerned. It's also one of the hardest things to get right. For every one shot I get that is acceptable there are 50 that are out of focus, under lit, blurred or have random coloured lights making a mess - it's a minefield. But when you have a room full of energy it's so much easier to get some great pictures, after all, it's the people who make them what they are.

So I've dedicated this blog post to the wedding reception and all the party goers. From the first dance, right through the night!

Paul and Alison - The Upper House, Barlaston


Paul and Alisons wedding at The Upper House in Barlaston was wonderful. I met these two on a number of occasions before their wedding and I've loved popping over for chats :)

I've enjoyed being in their company as much as I did editing their photographs - so much so that I want to share a few more than normal with you. I've shared a lot of my wedding portrait photography in previous posts so I thought I'd show a bit more of my candid, reportage or documentary photography - it has so many names I don't know what to call it.

To make it a little more fun, I haven't storyboarded them, it's purely a random pull from Paul and Alison's pool of photographs.

Anyway... here's 40 :)





Elizabeth and Chris - Wroxall Abbey

Yesterday I met up with Elizabeth and Chris at Wroxall Abbey in Warwickshire to have a chat about their day. After a natter we decided to have the quickest engagement shoot. After chatting so long we had only 5 mins left so I quickly grabbed these including my first ever fully working Ryan Brenizer method pic :)

   









Laura and Anthony - Priest house, Castle Donnington

Well, it has been quite a while since I last posted!
Almost an entire month. The wedding season has begun and it's taken up a lot of my time. I've got plenty to show everyone!

First off is Laura and Anthony who sealed the deal in Castle Donnington with their reception at the Priest house, a really brilliant and friendly venue. The weather held off just long enough to get some piccys out front with a gap later in the evening where we picked up a great sunset!

I haven't put many on because a few of you mentioned they were taking a while to load, hopefully this is a little better... and I'm sure it's worth the wait to see them :P

thanks all!



PMC - Bari Barsi

The world famous Panjab MC has released his new single, Bari Barsi, I went down to the video shoot with the brilliant Bhangra Empire dance troop to get some still material.










 


It's a really bouncy tune, I really like it. All available on itunes :)

Paul
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Steve and Jayne



So it's here! First official wedding of the season!
Last weekend was Steve and Jaynes turn to tie the knot. 
It was a great day, the weather held off to help make a brilliant day even better!


So here we go, the start of another busy, busy summer with more weddings being added to my list every day. I can't wait for it all to happen, this year my dream of becoming a full time photographer has really come true with more exciting things happening in the near future.



Here's a sneak peek from last week:






















Paul
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