Mark & Samantha's Wedding

After photographing Brian & Chris' Wedding on the Friday, the very next day I was up in the Cotswolds with my good friend Steve Pratley at the stunning Matara for the Wedding of Mark Fryer & Samantha Luker.


The day started off at a nearby hotel called the Egypt Mill where Samantha and members of her family had been staying. We had enough time to photograph some of the detail before photographing Samantha in her wedding dress and then making off back to the Matara to meet up with Mark.


Yet again the day just couldn't have been better. Beautiful clear blue skies, bright sunshine, a stunning location, great guests and a wonderful Bride & Groom; an absolute gift.


As is the always the case with me I'd been up to the venue several times prior to the wedding scouting out locations for photos and planning for every eventuality; even though we'd been promised a sunny day, this is England so anything can happen.


With a timetable of when I'd be photographing certain items and events, the day ran like clockwork, was incredibly relaxed and great fun; just couldn't have wished it be to better in any other way.


Following the outdoor ceremony next to an ornamental pond we made our way around the grounds with Mark & Samantha to take some 'personal' photos away from their guests. At a location such as The Matara there is so much choice with stunning surroundings, shaded areas and beautiful soft light spilling in through the tree canopy into a woodland area. We walked around a pre planned route for roughly 45 minutes before heading back to the main building.


Mark & Samantha were great fun to photograph, putting their trust in me and 'going with the flow'. This again I'm convinced is because of the earlier 'pre wedding / engagement' shoot where they'd had the opportunity to be photographed before the wedding and see how I work. There's just no way I would enter into a wedding without first having been out on a 'pre wedding / engagement' photo shoot or as Brian Whyte called it 'The getting to know you shoot'; it's just so incredibly valuable.


Anyway, I've got a little more editing to get on with before Mark & Samantha return from their honeymoon so I'd better crack on. Oh, and for any of you interested all these shots are lit using 'natural' light; the only flash I used during the day was right at the end for the 'first dance'.

Bye for now ;o)

Brian & Chris' Wedding

In a word, last Friday was 'Superb'. I was over at the Frimley Hall Hotel, Camberley, Surrey photographing the Wedding/Civil Partnership of Brian Whyte & Chris Rivett. The weather was just incredible; beautiful clear blue skies and plenty of sun and we couldn't have wished for a better bunch of people.


Being Brian & Chris' Photographer was a huge honour; to me it meant a heck of alot to be asked to capture their Civil Partnership for a whole host of reasons, some that maybe to them weren't relevant or they'd even considered.


Anyone with a camera can photograph two people together, but to photograph an emotion, a connection between those people is something else. It was incredibly important to me to get this right. Brian and Chris are life partners, lovers, and it was vital that I could portray this in their photographs rather than them just showing two men stood together.

I blogged earlier about their 'pre wedding / engagement' shoot and this to me proved invaluable. Maybe I didn't need to show this to the guys, but I felt I need them to see that I wanted to photograph them as 'lovers' and that they shouldn't hold back when it came to showing their feelings towards each other.


It wasn't long at all into the 'shoot' that everyone relaxed to the point where we were taking more than portraits but were photographing that 'connection' between two people who have such strong feelings for each other that they're prepared to commit for life.



Brian & Chris' Thank You so much for asking me to be part of your Big Day; a day packed with emotion that I'll never forget.

Technical:
As with all Weddings when it comes to photography, being organised is vitally important, because without it time will literally fly by and before you know it, the day is coming to a close and you've not got the shots you need.


On this particular occasion for my lighting set up I decided to use a Nikon SB800 Flash and Tri Grip Diffuser rather than a shoot thru umbrella and light stand; main reason being it's portability and speed in setting up a shot. All that was needed was for me to position Brian & Chris how I wanted them in each shot, and then get my good friend Dave Gurnhill who was helping me on this day, to step in with the SB800 and Tri Grip. Obviously the closer in he brought the Tri Grip the softer the light, so long as the flash was held far enough back to allow the light from it to spread onto it's surface. I opted to use the Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System) to trigger the SB800 so to do so I put another flash on my D3's hotshoe and set it to Master. I could have maybe opted to use the SU-800 controller but as we were working in bright sunlight I didn't want to risk it not triggering. Using the CLS allowed for quick adjustments of the ambient light and flash power from the camera itself rather than having to shout out to Dave any adjustments that I needed, and so long as the Infra Red 'eye' on the flash was pointing in my general direction, we were 'Good to Go'.

More Later ;o)

2 Weddings in 2 Days ...

This past weekend was a 'Photography Fest' having photographed two Weddings; one on Friday and one on Saturday.

Friday was Brian Whyte & Chris Rivett's Wedding at the Frimley Hall Hotel, Camberley in Surrey who's Pre Wedding / Engagement Shoot I blogged about on 12th April 2009.


Saturday was Mark Fryer & Samantha Luker's Wedding at The Matara Centre, Gloucestershire who's Pre Wedding / Engagement Shoot I blogged abut on 13th May 2009.


I'm going to write about each of the Weddings in a couple of days (including more photos and how I took each shot) once I've had time to do a bit more editing and my feet have stopped screaming at me. For now though I just wanted to say that despite it being a non-stop busy weekend it's been an amazing experience with some great people at stunning locations.

HUGE 'Thank You' to my good friends David Gurnhill & Steve Pratley who assisted me at each of the Weddings. It's because of their help that both days photography was a dream; extremely well organised and relaxed.

Winner No. 4: Free Photo-Shoot Friday

The answer to last weeks FREE PHOTO-SHOOT FRIDAY Competition was: A.C.E. stands for Adobe Certified Expert; a qualification I passed back in February 2007.

Out of all the correct answers emailed in, the Winner is a Karen Hutchison from Amersham; Congratulations Karen, with the great weather upon us let's get a date in the diary for the photo shoot.

That's it now for FREE PHOTO SHOOT FRIDAY during the month of May, but keep an eye on the blog or follow me on Twitter / Facebook to find out when the next competition is going to be announced.

More later ;o)

FREE PHOTO-SHOOT FRIDAY - No.4

Well it's the last Friday in May which means this is the last FREE PHOTO-SHOOT FRIDAY (for now), so for your chance to win a Portrait Shoot all you need to do is answer the following question:

"Some time ago I got the A.C.E. qualification. Question is, what does A.C.E. stand for and when did I pass it?"

As usual, email your answer to me by midnight on Sunday (31st May) and I'll announce the winner here on the blog Monday morning.

Good luck ;o)

ps> Did I mention this was the last one ?
pps> Answer is somewhere in the blog ;o)

Phil & Tom's Portrait Shoot

At the start of this week I was out in Old Amersham, Buckinghamshire on a portrait shoot with two guys, Phil Hughes & Tom Beynon. Having arrived a couple of hours earlier and scouted the area for good 'shoot' locations, I met up with the guys for the usual coffee and a chat through what shots I had planned.



We headed off on foot, starting with some simple 'practice' shots to get into the right frame of mind (pardon the pun) and then onto some other locations that I'd discovered earlier. Both Phil & Tom had brought along a few changes of clothing to give the photos a bit of variety but to be honest it was me that could have done with some. Let's just say that next time I'm photographing in a field with long grass I'll take extra care when I'm getting down for a low angle shot; who said that it was 'lucky' to step in a Dog's Number 2????


We were out photographing for just under 2 hours, finishing off in a covered Market Place before making tracks for an urgent clothing change :o)


Technical:
A couple of hours before the guys arrived I'd been out an a recce; the weather was dry and fairly overcast so I intended to use the Nikon Speedlight as there wasn't that much sun coming through to overpower.

For the shots of Phil & Tom together in the field I went for a high vantage point to 'shoot' downwards, which in turn eliminated the sky out of the frame. Flash Power wasn't too much of an issue in this case, so an SB800 fired into a shoot-thru umbrella, close-in was all that was needed. Tom and Phil were then positioned in such a way that there was an even spread of light hitting both of them.



For the shots of Phil on his own in the field I went for a low angle, aiming upwards towards him which ofcourse meant that sky was going to be in the shot. I needed as much power as possible out of the SB800 so opted to use it with no diffuser but a Honl Speed Grid; just that extra stop of light or so that this gave me was just enough to get the sky looking how I wanted.



Finally for the series of shots in the covered Market Place I used the SB800 but this time with the Lastolite Ezybox. This is a great piece of kit that gives a much more directed spread of light onto the subject and minimises spill onto the surrounding area. Being in a shaded area, the flash could be dialed way down which in turn gave quicker recycling times and allowed for me to take a faster series of shots with minimal delay.



Right, busy weekend fast approaching with two day long photo shoots (Friday & Saturday) so it's time to check, check and check again that all my kit is in order.

More later ;o)

My iPhone 'Photo of the Day' Project

Since starting my 'iPhone Photo of the Day' Project, I've been overwhelmed by the interest that it's generated, so I thought I'd write a short post to explain how I go about it.


Two of the most common questions I get asked are:

1. Are the photos taken with your iPhone?
2. What have you done in Photoshop?

Well, the answer to both questions is: Yes and Nothing. All the photos are indeed taken with my iPhone and all editing is done 'in phone' using some of the many applications available from the iTunes 'App' Store. In fact the only time the pictures see my computer is when I'm downloading them from my phone into Lightroom or iPhoto for cataloguing and uploading to the iPhone Gallery on may main website.


There are literally hundreds of applications available form the 'App' Store with more being added every day, especially with the imminent release of the new model of iPhone and 3.0 Software.

Anyway, here's a list of the 'apps' that I regularly use:


My 'editing' workflow is pretty simple: I'll generally open up an image in Photogene and adjust the Shadows, Midtones and Highlights to how I want them and then it's a case of jumping in and out of the other applications until I get the desired effect I'm after. What I love about each of the apps is that once you've made an adjustment to an image it saves out a copy which I can then adjust further, all the time my original image remains safe and untouched, just incase I need to go back to it.


Despite the iPhone's camera far from being the best 'phone camera' out there, there is a heck of alot you can do with it ... in fact the front cover of this weeks 'New Yorker' Magazine was taken with an iPhone. So remember, the best camera to use is the one you have with you!

Happy Shooting,
More Later ;o)

Winner No. 3: Free Photo-Shoot Friday

.... and Winner number 3 of FREE PHOTO SHOOT FRIDAY is ... (drum roll please, followed by ridiculously long pause which only serves to annoy the viewer rather than build suspense) ...

Fionnan Quigley, with the correct answer of Personal Portfolio (No: 22)

That's now the 3rd FREE Portrait Shoot for the month of May, with only 1 more remaining so be sure to check out this coming Friday's question (May 29th)

More later ;o)

FREE PHOTO-SHOOT FRIDAY - No.3

Already at Week 3, here's this weeks chance for you to win a FREE Portrait Shoot with FREE PHOTO SHOOT FRIDAY;all you need to do is answer the following question:

My new website has 4 Portfolios:People, Commercial, Personal & iPhone and in one of them you'll find the picture below. The question is, which of the portfolio's does it appear in???

As usual, email your answers to me using the address on my contact page by no later than midnight on Sunday 24th May and I'll announce the Winner first thing on Monday morning.

Good luck ;o)

How 'Stoked' was I ?

How 'stoked' was I to see today that one of my images had been given 'Editor's Choice' by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) for this week, and to read some of the comments that my new portfolio has received :o)


I've been a member of the NAPP for some years now and it's thanks to these guys and their workshops I've attended out in the United States, that I became an Adobe Certified Expert (A.C.E.) in February 2007. The NAPP has roughly 100,000 members worldwide; a membership which grows day by day because of the 1st class teaching it provides by the worlds finest in Photography & Photoshop.

The upcoming Photowalk on the 18th July I've blogged about earlier has been put together by the President of NAPP, Photoshop Guru, Award winning Author and all round 'great guy' and friend Scott Kelby, so if you're into Photography of any kind and at any level I urge you to get involved in what is a great fun & FREE event. (For more details see the post below).

Here too is a larger version of the image that got Editor's Choice and a link to my NAPP Portfolio. (Many of the images you'll see on my main site too)


Enjoy ;o)