St. Brelade's - Jersey, another option

Here's a different composition from this morning, possibly my favourite.   Actually the first exposures I took when the pre-dawn light gave very dark featureless shadows.  In fact this has simplified the image to make it more graphic.  You don't always require full detail from the shadows to highlights, maximising detail in the tonal ranges to create a successful picture.

The standard photographic rules are often made to be broken!

Which image do you prefer?

St. Brelade's - Jersey

I'm in Jersey at the moment.  The purpose is judge a competition for the Jersey Camera Club, thank you for inviting me over, it is an honour.  Naturally I want to try as much as possible to take some images myself while here, so I was up at 5am and visited St. Brelade's.  The pier here is an obvious feature with numerous compositional possibilities , yet somehow it seems difficult to make the most of the strong feature of the pier with it's tree trunk mooring posts.  I have managed to edit a couple of shots briefly to give an indication of what I took, but processing on a laptop in bright light outdoors isn't easy, so forgive me if these are a little deficient until I can look at them further later at home.  (Cheers Alex for the tip to go to this location!)

Engagement sessions

I am

 offering my wedding clients an engagement session.  This serves several purposes: it of course provides a record of yourselves prior to your marriage that you wouldn't have otherwise, we get to know each other better, plus the resulting images can be made into a guest book and gets some more used to a camera so that they become less self conscious.  This latter point is important as some couples are worried about being photographed.  Well don't worry, in your wedding my documentary style means that often people are not even aware they are being photographed.  In an engagement session you are more aware of me as it is only us, but even then I would like to prove that with my style I am also taking pictures with a strong graphic element where the couple can be quite small in the frame, but still make the main focal point.

Now for those unfamiliar with the concept, a guest book is designed with areas left for guests to sign at the wedding reception.  Imagine having a collection of some wonderful images of yourselves in a beautiful book, then having your relatives and friends write messages and sign this.  This will provide some very precious memories for you in the future. 

As an example a very recent engagement session for an initially apprehensive couple rewarded us with a fun time and some truly exciting images, I can't wait to see the guest book which is currently being printed.  Thank you to Sara and Simon for being a great looking couple for these images.

My detailed knowledge of the island of Guernsey coupled with my landscape skills enables me to make the most of any opportunity to make great images with couples, whether on an engagement session or during your actual wedding.

Snow!

2nd February 2009

Well great excitement here, it snowed overnight and this is the scene outside our house at first light.  Plus the schools were closed so the children had an absolutely great time and so could make the best of this rare event.  Snow is uncommon in Guernsey, especially in recent years.

Naturally I tried to fit in a few pictures from around as much of the island as possible.  Put on the knobbly tyres on the bike and off I went.

Sark Elections

Sark is a beautiful island, but there was some dischord during the recent elections  (Dec 2008) which saw the ending of the feudal establishment after many centuries.  I was there to document this historic event.  I greatly enjoy the pressure to deliver some key images of events like these, and of course it keeps me in good practice for covering my wedding assignments which I prefer to do in photojournalistic way.

Here's a choice of images to sum up the drama.  From Daniel Parson's campaign bike,  to the polling station to the counting hall.

The poll closed at 6pm.  After initial sorting and checking for spoilt papers the counting began.  A packed hall was mesmerised as the each vote was called and recorded.  One had to admire the tenacity of the counters who persevered for 9 long hours!  Many in the hall sat there for the whole tension filled count, there was no way this could be described as boring.

Eventually at 4 am the results were announced to show a strong vote in favour of candidates who were perceived to be less sympathetic to the interests of the Barclay brothers of the neighbouring island of Brecqhou.

Sark Festival of the Sea

Last autumn there was a great day of entertainment in Sark for their “Festival of the Sea”. This was organised by Michelle Peree and sponsored by Wave Telecom. There were bands and many other things going on. The best fire act I have ever seen too. Please enjoy a few images below.

Paisley were a fantastic band, they really got the audience into the swing of things.

Photographing live acts in challenging lighting conditions isn’t easy, but ultimately can lead to rewarding results. As in many things with photography it is the out of the ordinary light that can make a memorable image.  This is the lead singer of FuZed.

Of course the fire act:-

This needed some hasty decisions on exposure compensation as I literally felt the fire on my face and had some concerns about the heat damaging the lens!  Some more images of the bands on my People gallery.