Briscoe Photography Blog

Ness and Matt, Wedding photography, Kelham House, Nottinghamshire

Want some awesome ideas for your wedding decorations? Check out this wedding. Ness and Matt tied the knot at Kelham House in Nottinghamshire. I loved the rooms at this place, lots of light coming in from the window like you would get with a traditional country manor but decorated in a modern and very stylish way, perfect for wedding photography.
So many weddings to blog. I think I'm going to be blogging some of my May/June weddings as late as September! Thank you to everyone for the support and kind words and hello to all of the new customers that have booked recently :)

Chris took over the other day when we had 4 week old Harriet in for our first baby shoot in the new studio! We haven't finished the furnishings or even the website for our new photography studio but we've had 4 shoots in it already! Thank you so much to everyone for the support and our lovely new customers :)
Our baby portrait setups are almost ready to go but we decided we had to use our awesome blue sofa for most of Harriet's baby shoot. I'm only going to show a couple, because I'd like to save the most of them for the parents, but here's a couple :)
Looking for a photographer in Stoke? Get in touch! contact us at enquiries@briscoephotography.co.uk or pop into the studio for a chat at 225 London rd, Stoke, St45aa

A bit of an impromptu post here. I've had this for a while but I've never been able to get around to editing. I headed down to the tremendous art gallery Compton Verney in the West Midlands a few weeks to meet with Laura and Mark for a chat about their wedding in July.

It was a beautiful day and I was truly blown away by the location so we thought we might as well have a little engagement shoot for a bit of fun :)

To make it more fun, I'd only brought along an 85mm lens. I set myself the targets of getting the art work and interiors in and we took the shots in as short time as possible :)

Here's what we came up with :)

A few months ago I traveled down to London for a short shoot with AV Anish for his up coming releases for VIP records. The first release 'Tension' is out now on itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/tension-feat.-manak-e-ag-dolla/id647181373, I love the art work they put together for it using one from Manak-e we shot in the studio a while ago too. It's great when graphic designers get a free run with things, I like seeing the images used in different ways that I'd never even think of.
Pics from the original shoot and the released music video for 'Tension' under the cut:

Sometimes I get to do some really cool stuff. Wedding photography lets me meet a variety of interesting people but a few weeks ago, when I was asked to shoot two circus shows for Circus Starr, the interesting people level was cranked to 11.
Circus starr is an amazing charity organization that raises funds for local charities while offering free seats at their world-class show to thousands of disadvantaged children.
The show features a range of different types of acrobatics. I didn't get to see much of it but what I did see was amazing with some death defying stunts which I wouldn't mind learning myself!
For more information you can find their website here: http://www.circus-starr.org.uk/ More pics under the cut :)

I went a little bit hipster at Luke and Jo's wedding. The sun had a beautiful warm glow to it all day and with the exterior of the Hawkstone park hotel being completely white it makes life so easy for reportage style wedding photography.
As always it was a beautiful ceremony with a few surprises thrown in to make life a little bit of a challenge but the highlight for me is the cool place names on the reception tables. Luke and Jo went through the facebook images of every single one of their guests and printed their pic on to card which they pegged to every glass on the tables - a brilliant little touch which the guests found really fun!
Beware when you click through to the images today. There are MANY. I think around 95 pics made it into today's blog post, I feel sorry for your internet connection :p

Morning! I've just come off a double wedding weekend and still feeling the physical effects and soreness from it. But before I get back to editing I wanted to pop up another wedding. Amy and Brett had their wedding reception at Swindon Golf club in the West Midlands, the first truly sunny wedding of the year!
It's also become a running theme this year of riding golf buggies everywhere, a huge perk of the job :P
Another beautiful church, beautiful venue, beautiful bride, beautiful groom, beautiful guests, beautiful day :D

Oooooh it's been a tough March. Very cold, very snowy. It was no different for Jo and Kev's wedding at the Park house hotel in Shifnal. It didn't stop an amazing and creative wedding from going ahead though. With Kevin serenading Joanne down the aisle, a brilliant photo-cake and an excellent best mans song there was plenty to photograph despite the entire wedding being indoors :)
Props go out to the Park house hotel for up lighting the coves of the venue. It's a simple, and inexpensive way venues can make their events more atmospheric and makes low lit rooms a dream to photograph (check out the first dance for a good example).
Congrats Jo and Kev :D More pics under the cut!

I took Stokie metallers Rokk Savage into the studio a couple of weeks ago. No strict brief, just some basic white-mid grey-dark grey shots that would allow their designer easy use to add text and backgrounds. No gimmicks, just pics.

Sisters, Sam and Libby met with me in Telford for a little portrait session. We wanted to get a few shots of them together and a few of Libby on her own as a gift to their parents. As luck would have it, it snowed again yesterday, in the middle of March! What is happening with the weather?? Still we went out and pick up some beautiful pictures of them both. Take a look!

I'm back from a mini break in Norway before my life goes into the intense work phase. My Wedding season intensifies this weekend until October so there may be less blog activity with time taken up by editing and deliveries. To all my brides and grooms booked in, I'm still contactable at all the same places including briscoe@briscoephotography.co.uk.
I've held on to this one for quite a while now. No reason why, I just haven't found the right time to show it off. It was a chilly December day at Ringwood hall. I've photographed weddings quite a few times at Ringwood hall, the last time I was here with Emily and Anthony (you may recognize a few faces from this wedding).
It was very different from Emily and Anthony's wedding. Their's was on a bright, sunny day with lots of time spent out doors where Fiona and Steven's was much colder and spent indoors in closer quarters, a much more challenging situation. It was a still beautiful as Ringwood hall has an amazing interior with large function rooms and beautiful, low lit decor. The staff are also brilliant and helpful allowing me to wander while they continued their great service.
I won't jabber on, have a look at the pics :)

Emma Jackson, GB 800m Runner, Photography

With winter passing and my wedding season within a week of shifting into a higher gear I wanted to post something not involved with my wedding photography.
This shoot took place at the end of last summer but the website, which the images were taken for, isn't finished yet so I can't release them all. However, after the snow, and with the beautiful blue sky and warm sunlight out today I wanted to post some pics that reminded me of summer.
Emma would have been one of my last shoots of last summer. After controversially missing out on running for GB in the 800m at the London 2012 Olympics due to injury, she continues her training with her sights set on Rio. In my brief time with Emma she came across as very bright, friendly and determined with an amazing work ethic. She travels all over the world competing at the highest level heavily funded, like other athletes, by herself. I hope my photographs help her, in their own little way, to prove she's the best.

From the large, vibrant wedding of Nerissa and Travis to the refined, intimate wedding or Karena and Peter. Another wonderful couple in their own way with a violin, Harry Potter readings and only a handful of guest at the Lords of the Manor hotel.
It was an honour that Karena and Peter hired me to photograph such an intimate day.

Capula, Imtech Corporate photography

See! It's not all about wedding photography, there's plenty of other types of photography I enjoy. Today we're in the commercial and editorial photography world. A few months ago Staffordshire based IT/Electronics company Capula got in touch to get a cover shot for the magazine of their parent company - giant Dutch engineering firm Imtech.
They approached me with a concept of Business Development Director Simon Coombs working on an idea accompanied by portraits of Simon showing off different aspects of the company.
Here's what we came up with, a few that weren't used are in there too along with a couple of behind the scenes and the article the magazine ran with :)

I figured, as it's snowing at the moment I'd post one of my summer weddings to bring a little sunshine back into your life.
I've been holding this one back for a while now. I have quite a few weddings queued up ready to be blogged but this one has been at the back of that queue for a while.
I'm not completely sure why but I know for sure one of the reasons is that I LOVED this wedding. Everyone was so happy and joyful for these guys which made it so easy to photograph. The whole family got involved with helping the day along and so many guests turn out to celebrate!

Steal the stars are a young folk duo from Stafford out doing doing the festival circuit at the moment and will be at a festival near you soon!
I wanted to approach this shoot a little different to the usual, a challenge, using only one lens and no lights or reflections and see what can be done straight from the camera. The photographs needed to be quite folky and hipster, containing a little meaning but also not be completely depressing.
Have a look at their facebook page and twitter. They've recently released their EP "Little Hands" and it's really good, I think you can get a peak of it on the page too.
Have a look at the rest of the shoot below!

I've been updating my portfolio ready for 2013 which means I scour through all the weddings from 2012 and pick my faves to show off on my wedding photography page.
Ideally, I wanted to pack the page exclusively with photography from 2012 to show off my latest style, the absolute best I can produce at this point in my photography learning curve. For the most part I've achieved this goal. With the exception of two, possibly three images on the wedding page, all of the pictures there are from last year.
However, there are one or two from the three years I've been working as a wedding photographer that I can't shake. These photographs were taken at the right place, the right time, with the right people and I've never been able to surpass the lighting, the personality, or the general je ne sais quoi (yeah, I just spoke french) of these photographs.
So, in order to keep them in line with the portfolio I revisited some of them on old dusty hard drives to give them a 2013 spruce. I don't keep many of the RAW originals of the photographs, just the finished edits, to save disk space. The two other images had to be edited from their finished product which, as a photo editors will tell you, is a cardinal sin but I discovered that I had not deleted the RAW files from Stu and Torys wedding at The Ashes, Edon from... 2008? 2009?
I can't actually remember what year it was but it feels like a world away from where I'm am now and as I nostalgically looked back through the images I could see where I have now learned from mistakes and some where I shouldn't have changed anything at all. It's obvious I was quite new back then. There are little hints to my inexperience such as blur from shooting with a slow shutter speed, taking lots of photographs in portrait, not double checking the focus point is correct and taking the group shot in bright sun so everyone is squinty. But I am surprised at some of the photographically technical points I was quite good at such as composition, depth of field, and my awareness of where light was.
So I decided to revisit a few of Stuart and Victorias wedding pics, give them an edit from 2013 me, it's the closest I'm ever going to get to going back to 2008 to slap myself in the face and say "don't do that!".
Not only are Stuart and Victoria a ridiculously photogenic couple but I still remember the day clearly, all the fun we had, the chatting, the wonderful light, clouds, guests, staff. I wanted to give them a update because they took a chance on a new, 20 year old, young professional and brand new, raw, wedding venue, that The Ashes was at the time, and allowed me to continue my learning curve, to take a couple of chances with their wedding photography to see if we can get that shot that's just a little better than average.

Anyway, I've rambled enough, here's a few highlights from Stuart and Victoria's wedding at the The Ashes, Endon from.... around 2008/9.

Amanda and Richard, wedding photography, Three Horse shoes, Leek

This pretty couple are Amanda and Richard who got hitched at The Three Horseshoes Inn, Leek.

The Three Horseshoes is a wonderful venue resting in front of the staffordshire moorlands. The lovely gardens at the rear show off a spectacular view and inside the staff prepare a beautifully cosy wedding service turning around the same room into a large, lavish wedding reception area afterwards with nice big windows to bathe the room in light :)

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 :)

BABIES!

This is a public announcement BABIES. That will be all :)

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 :)

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!

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 :)

Ness and Matt, Wedding photography, Kelham House, Nottinghamshire

Harriet, Studio baby portrait

Laura and Mark, Engagement, Compton Verney

Av feat. Manak-e - Tension, music photography

My trip to the circus - Circus starr, commercial photography

Luke and Jo, Hawkstone Park hotel, Shropshire wedding photography

Amy and Brett, Wedding photography, Swindon Golf Club

Joanne and Kevin, Wedding Photography, Park House Hotel, Shifnal

Rokk Savage, Band photography

Sam and Libby - Family portrait photography

Fiona and Steven, Wedding photography, Ringwood Hall, Sheffield.