Briscoe Photography Blog

Studio Engagement shoot

I can't believe it's taken this long to merge the studio and the weddings so close together. I always thought it would be too limiting to have an engagement shoot in the photography studio. In truth, this still wasn't my idea, but proved it was very possible to take some strong engagement pics in the studio. Here's a few highlights:

I was supposed to post this on #weddingwednesday! But life got in the way a little and I've only just been able to write everything up :)
With the few days of lovely sun I thought I'd post another sunny wedding blog with Gaving and Rebecca at Wychwood Park. Wychwood Park is a very modern wedding venue within a vast golf club. Gavin and Rebecca had their marriage ceremony outside, perfect for wedding photography, making life ridiculously easy for me and increasing the candid count tenfold!
Have a look at what we got up to :)

Oh to be in August and shooting first dances in the daylight again! The first wedding of the season went off in style with Rich and Diane tying the knot down in Stratford!
I'm sure I'll show that wedding off in around 6 months or so because I'm still going through the queue of weddings I photographed last year and we're still in August with Simone and Scott.
I'll start with news on what Chris and I have been up to since the last date. Lots and lots of family shoots in the studio, coupled with studio days in the studio and lots of new wedding couples meeting me in the studio. I'm writing off the back off an excellent week so far, one of our most significant weeks in my career so far. I can't say too much, as it's all to be rolled out but on top of a few great magazine publishes, some new strings to our bow and an excellent month in the studio we're also striking some new exciting deals with the photography gods :)
Enough about the studio, though, we're in wedding mode and after the wedding this year I had to pop up another amazing wedding I went to with one of the cutest couples I've ever photographed. Here's the highlights!

My body is still in January, my head in March and my blog is still back in August! It's coming up to that stressful time of year again and this year it's longer than ever! WEDDING SEASON.

I'm currently taking a few days off in Norway before the commotion starts but I'm still planning everything for my first wedding of the year which is only days away now!

However, while I pre-plan my future events let's take a look back at a lovely wedding from last year. A golden couple, so lovely, who made a brilliant day happen at Park Hall Farm, Leigh. So here's Louise and Richard :)

Nicole and Andrew, wedding photography staffordshire

Time to inject some sunshine into quite a grubby winter! When the majority of a wedding takes place outside I take a ridiculous amount of frames in my camera. When played at speed these images can come together as a short film. It gave me the idea to see if I could show Nicole and Andrews wedding photographs as a whole, no editing, all 1600 frames :) Take a look and let me know what you think!
Just to keep it tidy, the finished images can be found under the cut. And if you know anyone looking for a wedding photographer in Staffordshire for 2014/15 get in touch :)
Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

A friend once told me the reason so many mills were built in Leek was because of the guaranteed wet climate. It seems they were correct. I've photographed quite a few weddings at the Three Horseshoes Inn, Leek. It's quickly becoming my most photographed wedding venues. The staff are brilliant, the way they set out their wedding ceremonies are brilliant and the reception room they turn it into afterwards is large and ideal for a party!
Outside, they have an amazing view of the Staffordshire Moorlands with wonderful areas to sit underneath "The Roaches". If it rains, it's not so easy to do these things but the Three Horseshoes has a lovely, low lit, interior to compensate. As a photographer it's not so easy to come in from the rain when there's such an amazing landscape outside. So you have to get a little bit creative.
For me, this is the reason why you get yourself an experienced professional photographer to cover those important events. A photographer who's in it for the pay cheque or hasn't pushed themselves to adapt to certain unfavourable situations might not be able to cope with something as simple as a rainy day in a low lit venue and might have to rely on luck alone.

There's nothing wrong with luck. Most of my images are 'lucky'. Often, an image I've been imagining comes out very different in reality. Other times I'm just in the right place at the right time and capture that little bit of emotion where if I'd been less experienced, I might not have had the right exposure or focus or even equipment.
The photograph above was a mix of luck, equipment and training. I had no idea the rain was going to fall onto my camera this way but I did know that this couple were going to look awesome in this light. The mix of luck and experience created one of the best shots I've ever taken in what was one of the most challenging weddings, photographically, I've had in a while. Pardon for preaching a little here but when I photographed Laura and Gary's wedding it made me think about why I should be chosen to photograph a couples wedding over another photographer who may not have dedicated themselves as much to the trade - or, a topic for another day, why your uncle probably shouldn't photograph your wedding.
I can't capture every single moment. When Chris comes with me to a wedding we both couldn't possibly capture every single thing that happens. But when you have a well trained, well backed up photographer you increase your chances of capturing as many of these opportunities as possible.
Certain factors must come into alignment at the right time, light, angle, space, emotion, background and finally... the moment has to happen.
I'm often shown some amazing pictures by aunties and uncles at weddings where fortune has gifted them with a great photograph that I had no chance of getting because one of these things wasn't in line for me at that time. The thoughts I had about my own photography at Laura and Gary's wedding was that I was able to find these alignments quite often. My knowledge of photography allowed me to increase the probability of me capturing more amazing moments on their special day.
That's why you should hire a photographer who has dedicated themselves to learning their trade. Because they will get lucky more often.
Ok, essay over.... who wants to see how lucky I got?

All I can really remember from this shoot is how soggy my feet were! Richard and Diane suggested we travel to a park they like to go to in Redditch for their engagement shoot. It rained, pretty hard, but it cleared for a bit allowing us to get out there and get some great shots for to celebrate their engagement. I decided to go a little more hipster on this one. The rustic style suits the weather and Richard and Diane said they really liked autumn colours. We went for a poorly equipped hike across muddy trails and up a very slippery hill to get to some really beautiful spots hidden in the trees :)
I can't wait for their wedding next year.

Wedding season has finally come to a close, end of October. Just a few weddings left to edit (and one or two dotted wedding dates up until Christmas) then I'll be ready to concentrate on the studio for the winter!
I'll be starting my wedding campaign again in January with the wedding photography season set to recommence in March next year! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all 25 brides and grooms who are already booked in for 2014 and I can't wait to see all of your wonderful and unique wedding days!
For today's blog we continue with the Summer! I was so humbled when Lauren and Geoff asked me to travel down to Somerset, right onto the fields of the infamous Glastonbury festival to photograph their truly amazing rustic wedding. Bunting and pastel colours galore AND SUN!!!
I'm starting to miss the sun now we're in Autumn. Unlike last year, I've been very lucky with a lot of sunny weddings along with stunning couples making it so easy to photograph weddings. Lauren and Geoff's stunning farm location just made it that more special.
A wonderful day, for a wonderful couple

Continuing with this summers weddings now! Rebekah and Matt tied the knot at Old Vicarage country house hotel in Bridgnorth. These two are a wonderfully kind-spirited couple who put together an amazing, personal wedding with the help of a beautiful and caring family. The reception was so bright and vibrant thanks to the great number of windows and doors making a pleasure to shoot :)

So close to the end of the season now! Only one more run of weddings to go and I'll be able to concentrate a little harder on the studio and start thinking about winter! We've lots of Christmas offers and ideas coming up as soon as the summer is out of the way!
Speaking of summer! What can I say about Emilie and Raph's wedding? SUNNY would be one. I can't believe how much sunnier it's been compared to last year! Emilie and Raphael got lucky at Goldstone Hall, Market Drayton with the weather but excellent planning made it perfect! Awesome cakes, brilliant decoration and a beautiful venue.

Music producers Indie and Gurj of High Flyers came into the studio ahead of the release of their new single Aaja Hun for some single and promotional photographs for their artwork. I also visited the shooting of their music video in Birmingham. Loved working with these guys and the guys at Ballistic video, we picked up some really good stuff. More photographs, information about the new single and the video trailer under the cut :)

I had to get this one out there because Rebecca and James are getting married in October! I recently traveled to Loughborough to visit this really funny couple and get some nice engagement photographs. As usual, the weather was against us but we found some gaps in the rain to get out to a local park for some pics!
I(Paul) have a very intense couple of weeks coming up squeezing around 5 weddings into the next 2 weeks around the country (and even one in Spain) so I may not be as contactable as usual and I ask for your patience if you leave me a voicemail or email over the next week or so :)
Chris is back from his holidays now, however, and is free to take any calls at our photography studio. He's there most days, when we aren't shooting on location, so feel free to pop in for a cuppa and ask about our up coming portrait deals for Christmas!
Thanks very much! Here's a few more from todays shoot under the cut :)

WHEW! This time of year is really tough. I've had non-stop weddings now since May and it doesn't end until November. Please don't take that the wrong way. I'm so grateful to be doing a job that I love and am very passionate about but when you're exhausted all you can do is have a little moan about it :p
Thank you so much to all of the couples so far this year. Every wedding has been amazing with something unique happening at each one and many of you have seen mine and Chris' excited faces when we've got a shot we really liked. Thank you so much.
I'm here to bring you a wedding from MAY! So long ago, but Natalie and Davids wedding I will always remember for their hilarious antics and my general exhaustion on what was a super sunny day in Nottingham.
After a wonderful church wedding we headed to Ramsdale Golf club, Nottingham for a brilliant party and some great group shots on a wide open golf course. It was a wonderful day and I can't wait to see their book.

A bit of an odd request, as you can see.... Last night we went into the studio for a rather quick and rather improptu family portrait with father and son, Paul and Theo. Paul has talked about doing this head swap thing for some time and I'm so glad we finally got round to it... because it's hilarious.
Still a few bugs to fix with it yet but I just had to get this shoot up as a test to how quickly a shoot like this can be done (I was up rather late last night).
Below are a few of the original pics from the shoot :P

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