Tag: photography

A countryside affair – Bonnie & Will, Charlton House: Shepton Mallet, Somerset wedding photographer

Do you remember Bonnie and Will? They had found me after being referred by an old school friend. After our fab pre-wedding shoot by Clifton Suspension Bridge, I was really looking forward to covering their countryside-themed wedding for them.

The preparations took place in Bonnie’s home village of Croscombe in Somerset. She prepared for her wedding at her mother’s charming cottage and it was a real family affair with her brother Ben giving her away, her young brother James being pageboy and her cousin travelling all the way from Australia to be her bridesmaid. James was particularly excited heralding “Bonnie Alert!” when she came near. My favourite moments from the cottage are of Bonnie writing her speech (yes, she had one too) and reading a letter delivered from Will that made her weep (fortunately just before she put her mascara on).

In the meantime, what better way for a groom to calm last minute nerves than enjoying a pint with his ushers and best man at the local pub before jumping in a Triumph Spitfire to make it to the church on time!

The ceremony took place in the neighbouring village of Dinder, in its quintessentially English church. Real rose petals were strewn and despite a week full of rain, the sun shone for them gloriously. The couple and I made a sneaky stop off at a field overlooking Glastonbury Tor to capture their first few moments of married life. I love it when newly weds get to spend a few minutes away from the madding crowds and have a moment to revel in their new status! All too soon, it was onward to Charlton House near Shepton Mallett, recently under the new management of Duncan “Dragon” Bannantyne, for drinks on the lawn, Jenga, croquet, dance, lots and lots of sweets, flowers, a “real” cheese cake, cheese buffet and an all round damn fine celebration.

Thank you to Bonnie and Will for inviting me to be part of and capture their day. Back today from their honeymoon in Greece, I’ve just found out that it’s also Bonnie’s birthday. Happy birthday Bonnie!

Here are a few images that give you a flavour of the day, scroll to the bottom for the full gallery. With thanks to James Bailey for his brilliant second shooting

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1 Aug ’11
FEATURED IMAGE: Oblivion: Lovers by the Sea

People ask me what I like about being a documentary photographer. I tell them that I love the special gift that comes with being a photographer; the privileged ability to record memories and moments in time. And if successful, to each viewer, the image will retell the very story that the photographer saw, a story that moved them so much that they chose to document that moment.

It was during a fashion shoot that I spotted this couple sitting by the waters edge. Seeing them huddled up, looking out over a tempestuous sea made me pause a moment, reset my camera and capture a memory they thought might only be theirs.

What was the moment that I saw? A story of lovers oblivious to anything else. Their world stood still – it was just them, their love and the sea.

[Best viewed whilst listening to ‘By the Sea’ by Suede, if you will]

16 Jul ’11
Lighting Workshop with Alex Beckett, Goldbrick House

Last year, Cambridge-based photographer Alex Beckett (www.alexbeckett.co.uk) asked the Twitterverse for tips for his impending trip to Mongolia. Of course I obliged. Fast forward 6 months later and he is living in Bristol, down the road from me!

In March, his trip to Saudi was cancelled and decided to run his very first off-camera flash workshop. It was a multi-level workshop with photographers who were totally new to lighting alongside experienced professionals. I decided to go along to wrap a formal approach around my existing knowledge and to see some photographer friends!

Alex took us through the basics of flash photography, his kit, a demonstration (posing Martin Pemberton as The Godfather!)and we all got pitched in. I’d been involved recruiting the pilot group of attendees and models so knew most people attending the day, but there were a few new faces too. We all had fun and even the attendees with more advanced knowledge learnt a few tricks. A great day all in all and in a great venue. Alex will be running future workshops so keep an eye out for more workshop goodness.

With thanks to our models Jane (http://purestorm.com/profile.aspx?id=lady_galaxy92), Danielle (http://www.modelmayhem.com/676727) and Juliet.

Here are my pics of the model that my group worked with, Jane and my fellow photographers.

Lighting practice:

These ones are natural light:

Britain’s next top model, James Bailey

Reluctant model Lizi

Ian Francis & Lizi Cosslett

Martin Pemberton striking a pose as The Godfather

Matthew Roach strikes his own pose!

Neil (RattyBoots on Flickr)

Martin Drake

Caroline Alexander

Martin Gillman

James Bailey

Benjamin Edwards

Kristy Field

Lizi & Ian

Nicola Ferguson

7 May ’11
South Wales Coast: A stroll by the sea with Marley Hamilton

At the end of a recent shoot, I spotted Marley walking in her Ugg boots by the sea.

I started snapping, she started playing. End of story…and the beginning of this documentary photostory 🙂

Meet Marley:

4 May ’11
Paintworks, an urban wedding – Bristol wedding photographer

So I sit here watching our right Royal Wedding – an amazing spectacle that has made me become a wedding junkie…for the day. What better celebration of the wedding tradition than the fairytale story of an every day girl marrying her Prince Charming for love?

And what better can a wedding photographer do on this wedding day of all wedding days than blog a wedding 🙂 James Garrett and Isabel Sealey came together to seal the deal after a decade of love together. Isabel is a teacher and textiles whizz whilst her Prince Charming James is a DJ (DJ Ironside) well known on the local club circuit (http://www.myspace.com/dj_ironside). In addition to this, James’ brother works in the music industry and his best man was a musical maestro (and engineer). James’ clubbing mates all spruced up very well for a relaxed with a BBQ buffet…and onward to the music!

At Paintworks, you get married, eat, dance in the same area – an industrial building shared with BocaBar upstairs and an outdoor courtyard. Honourable mention for David Hawkin’s best man speech which was one of the most entertaining I have heard, outting James to his mates as a trainspotter!

The official photographer was Kate Kirkby (www.katekirkbyphotography.co.uk), I provided additional coverage and behind-the-scenes shots.

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29 Apr ’11
Getting back on the blog bike

Some of you will know that I recently had an operation. I’m now recovering well, and getting back to blogging! It’s been a fabulous few days, spending some time with brilliant documentary wedding photographer Caroline Alexander (www.caroline-alexander.co.uk), roving wedding reporter Emma Woodhouse (www.theweddingreporter.co.uk) and Jasmine Star (online via Creative Live!) More on those later…

On Saturday afternoon I made a last minute trip to London to join Claudia Carter of Photo Events UK (www.photographyeventsuk.co.uk/) and some photographers for dinner and drinks in Covent Garden.

Here are some (not all!) of the lovely folk I met/got to catch up with:

The lady herself, Claudia Carter, passionate about her new venture Photo Events UK (www.photographyeventsuk.co.uk) which aims to be THE central place for photography meetups/tweetups/networking events/anything that is happening of note. So dedicated to the cause, she has been travelling down from her home in Edinburgh to London on a regular basis. She has plenty of exciting plans that will be unveiled soon!

Fashion genius Jay McLaughlin www.jaymclaughlin.co.uk who explained to us, the subtleties between glamour and boudoir 😉

The two faces of Mark Osborne www.markosbornephotography.com

Lucy Williams from My Heart Skipped www.myheartskipped.wordpress.com

That last shot of Jo was captured on my camera by future-Bristolian Will Ablett of www.willablett.com

Yolande de Vries and her partner Richie, of Rings’n’Veils photography www.ringsnveils.blogspot.com Sorry about Richie’s expression on the first photo, I just love the way Yolande’s looking at him!

How many photographers does it take to sort out a (fixed price) bill?

Thanks to Claudia for organising the dinner. Let’s do it again soon!

11 Apr ’11
Hello, sailor! 1950s US Vintage Pinup shoot – Bristol fashion photographer

Everything vintage is super in-vogue at the moment. But vintage can mean almost anything. When I think of vintage, I think of muted colours, decorative details, fanciful sweet embellishments and lashings of romance; everything that every girl loves in her wedding styling and photography right now. But it can also be the bold colours of rock and roll and the black and white of the silver screen.

I’m generally a modern day photographer – photographing and documenting our times. However, there is still something very appealing about vintage photography. For me, part of that is about capturing an age of innocence. When local strobist, Rob Heslop masterminded a shoot inspired by 1950s US pinups, I was immediately onboard. I wanted to recreate the spirit of the emergence of the first pinup age, when poses were cheeky and saucy, but rarely sleazy, from a time when women were women and men were men (for better or worse!) It didn’t help my Mad Men obsession one bit – for all his flaws, I mourn for the loss of the Don Drapers of this world.

The models rose to the challenge and we had plenty of fun. Some of these shots were directly inspired by authentic vintage pinup poses and others were more…improvised!

Massive effort was involved to bring this together, so huge thanks to Rob Heslop and further credit where its due…

Models:
Gemma/Miss Cherry Delight http://www.modelmayhem.com/1663173
BubbleFaery http://www.modelmayhem.com/816798
Adreena UK http://www.modelmayhem.com/1539867
Aavriel Angst http://www.modelmayhem.com/1686082
Kat Stroak
Kae Hopewell

Cars:
Bristol Hot Rods <http://www.bristolhotrods.co.uk

Collaborators included:
Roger Barnes
James Bailey
Angi Nelson
Peter Tecks

Please let me know if you were involved on this project and would like a high resolution file

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24 Oct ’10
Harmony, an urban wedding – Bristol wedding photographer

Kelly and Paul had a fabulous wedding that celebrated Bristol, the city where they had met and fallen in love. I knew they had been planning a fairly no-nonsense wedding, so I was surprised when they announced that as well as the church and brasseries, they had booked…a megayacht! The wedding played out at several locations across the city, starting close to where they lived, in fact Paul managed to fit in a swift pint at the pub before heading to church!

The megayacht was a fantastic venue and after several frosty weeks, we were all delighted to see the sun come out to greet us which meant the guests could revel on the yacht’s huge upper decks, although I personally thought it was a shame that no one wanted to take a dip in the hot tub. Although huge (with a lounge, dining room, several decks, dance hall, bedrooms and more!), working onboard did provide some photographic challenges in terms of space and lighting on the lower decks, so we had decided to do the couple’s shots at a park near their home. Actually they loved having this part of the day to themselves, having a moment to cavort and bask in the sun and also take in the reality that they had done the deed. Shooting in the park was a fun experience with local ‘wildlife’ dressed in varying shades of neon wandering through our photoshoot. Gotta love Bristol.

I loved the moment during his speech when Paul revealed that when he first met Kelly, he had thought “this is the woman I want to marry.” The stuff that fairytales are made of. Weddings are such huge events, I feel privileged as a wedding photographer to share the rare moments that a couple spends away from the madding crowd. As part of my signature style, I work with the couple to create key creative images that they would like to put on their wall in its own right, wedding picture or not. From this shoot, I particularly love the series of pictures of them walking through the trees because their house is in the distance and has that much more meaning to them. And of course, the images of Kelly, walking along the harbourside, radiant and buoyant with her love for Paul 🙂

As usual, here are a few of my favourites, full gallery at the bottom.

Preparations at The Greenhouse Salon

Classic styling

Diamante is a girl’s best friend?

A church with a view

…I thee wed

One for the family album

Blessings from above

In nature

A rare moment of solitude

Swept away

Half-full 😉

Ready and waiting

Finest dining

Sparkles and petals abound

The good stuff

Walking on air

Little Miss Sunshine

Striking a pose

All aboard!

Radiance

Through the looking glass, in the spotlight

Starboard

Disco 2000

Survivor

Sweetness

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28 Sep ’10
“I left my soul there, down by the sea”*

The flames fanned by the Photography Parlour shootout, and wanting to learn more about working with flash, I looked up my local Strobist group. Strobism is another name for off-camera flash use.

I really knew close to zero about working this way and turned up at Clevedon Beach to learn what I could and without knowing what to expect. The guys set about their business, enthusiastically setting up their lights so they could shoot the models, who were mainly girls in their swimsuits. Most were more than willing to let me get pitched in with them, which in many ways was brilliant and in other ways, I was in at the deep end! Following a ghastly day, we were lucky as the weather was extremely kind to us with a beautiful sun set to boot.

The models did really well, especially those for whom it was their first time modelling. It was also a good experience to direct first-timers. I enjoyed directing two models to look like a couple in love when they’d only met 10 minutes beforehand and trying to making the most of the flare from the setting sun.

I love to be by the sea and would love to do some more beach shoots somewhere like Cornwall. Although I very much like the pebble beach and rugged cliffs of Clevedon, I wouldn’t have thought of it as a modelling location, but our models bought a touch of glamour and romance to the ordinarily mumsy destination. Actually, I think it could pass for California or Ibiza in some of the shots!

Huge thanks to the Strobist team for their baptism by fire (or flash…) and the great models who were all so accommodating. I was surprised to get some usable shots from this shoot, a bonus!

With thanks to all who collaborated, including:
MUA
Cat Parnell http://www.modelmayhem/1518216
MODELS
HanahMarie (finalist in Bristol’s Next Top Model 2010!) http://www.modelmayhem.com/hanahmarie
Ryan Spong
Iain Gorrie http://www.modelmayhem.com/1701420

Ami Tipps BubbleFaery http://www.modelmayhem.com/816798

*And the blog title? From the Morcheeba song…

5 Sep ’10