Sarah and TK

Well sorry for taking a while to blog this event, but I actually managed to fit in a short holiday myself!

Sarah and TK's wedding was a beautiful and intimate event, with lots of different aspects to cover. Great fun it was too, there was much laughter throughout and the day, especially the evening function was extremely vibrant.

As normal I try to fit in the bride's, and groom's, preparations.



Trying to follow the action discreetly without getting in the way is my goal, as is getting the best pictures I can of course!





These momentary glances are so precious, yet so fleeting.



The service took place at St. James, this beautiful location is spectacular inside and naturally I try to make full use of the architectural features. While outside children are their unpredictable selves, but this can yield photo opportunities if you are quick enough!





The remainder of the day was spent at Le Gouffre, with the reception taking place at L'Escalier. Just a few images to show this aspect, but of course Dean's cooking is legendary and the story of the paella and cake will have to be told another time.

Chantal and Mark

I really haven't had time to attend to the blog for a while, so sorry to those who have looked recently. But I just have to post an entry from my last wedding. This gives the newly wed couple a little teaser of what lies in store for them once back from honeymoon.

Chantal and Mark are a beautiful couple and full of humour. Here are some of my favourites to share for now. I like to start with any preparatory shots and with this event the dress hanging up made for a stunning picture, all lit with natural light from a nearby window. This natural lighting also made the illumination for the lovely image of Chantal wearing her veil, a nice high key image.



At this stage everyone is busy getting ready, I am watching the time as I must get to the church myself, but want to stay with the bride as long as possible in order to capture as much of the story of the day. Displaying great efficiency and team work the next image shows 2 bridesmaids, the bride and her mother all working to ensure that they won't be late.



I haven't got room to post too many images here, but will try to show the key moments of the day. So here's my choice from the church service. Timing was critical with this image as Chantal made her way to the room with the register. A fraction later and her head would not be isolated against the blank wall, it's little things like this that can make a good shot even better.



On the way to the reception it is often possible to stop off at a picturesque location for a few portraits. This is the only time the bride and groom are alone together with me just for a few pictures. My style is to shoot in a journalistic way and I do not set up any images apart from at this time and for family group pictures. Again looking for something different I also chose to try a panoramic image, which I feel works well and adds variety to the normal compositions.




Fast forward to the reception and one of the most memorable events was the song by one of the bride's sisters, who also played the guitar. Again here I tried to capture a bit more than the obvious, purposely choosing a slower shutter speed with a touch of flash the intention was to convey the movement of the hand on the strings, so much more effective than just a static image. Isn't photography wonderful? Challenging too!



Just to finish this post off one picture of the first dance. Hope you have enjoyed this preview and I am looking forward to designing this album. But many days of editing work to go first!

THE Shower Incident.....

Okay, okay by popular request here's what happened on Saturday when I went to the football club to photograph the groom's party getting ready.  With a degree of embarrassment I'll admit that in trying to find the best angle of Simon adjusting his tie in the mirror I was tight in against the opposite wall.  Well my back pressed the shower button and I was nicely drenched in a powerful overhead spray designed to clean off muddy footballers.  My jacket and head were soaked, unfortunately I was carrying 2 cameras and a flash gun at the time.

But fortunately the great merriment at my predicament made one of the highlights of the day for some, I dried off, the gear survived and also I had the presence to keep shooting to record the reactions.  I even laugh myself now when I think about it!

Sara and Simon

Well there's so much to say about this event, how so much was fitted into this wonderful day was remarkable. It was a beautiful and fun packed wedding, quite memorable. Naturally there are a huge number of images to go through, I estimate I spend 4 times the number of hours editing my work than I do photographing the event, and I was taking pictures for a solid 16 hours on Saturday. This is the unseen side of the wedding photographer's workload.

I am keen to share a few initial images on the blog, to give a flavour of the event. So hope you enjoy these images, from the preparations, the service, football on the beach, to the reception and dance. I am looking forward to presenting the images to Sara and Simon when they return from honeymoon, we have some great images to show what an exciting day you had.

Golden Wedding Anniversary

While attending a family celebration today I naturally had to cover the event for the record.  But there is always the opportunity to keep an eye out for something special too.  Here are two images I was very pleased with, just taken as the children were playing naturally in the afternoon.  The saxaphone picture of Alex was in a corner of a room between a couple of windows, a radiator and a set of blinds. Natural light only and some contortions on the floor from me yielded a splendid image that I look forward to getting printed.

This other image of Fern was hastily photographed by looking through a collection of floral gifts.  To me it gives the impression of dense undergrowth or an elaborate hat.  Just goes to show we have to be prepared to deal with unexpected and fleeting chances, and having the eye to spot these opportunities in the first place.

Snowy Owl in Guernsey!

Another surprise in store today.  Amazingly across the lane from our house in a recently planted field of potatoes was a Snowy Owl.  It's only a couple of thousand miles away from where it should be really, and if you see my post beiow on the snow we had, a couple of months too late for that.  So instead of catching up on my backlog of work I spent a total of 9 hours lurking by hedges waiting for this superb bird to do something.  It just sat there until I could no longer see it over an hour after sunset.  I never saw it fly away.

Spot it near the middle of the field as a heavy rain shower passes by.  My favourite shot is the last one, in near darkness the light turns cool blue, and the owl appears soft white in this dusk light. It's probably dining on rabbit tonight.  Enjoy these images.

Getting Ready

Being passionate about making great pictures I want to cover as much as possible of your wedding day as possible.  This includes the getting ready part of the day.  Some people don't think there's anything worth taking.  But I believe this is all part of the story of your wedding, and of course let's your other half see your side of the preparations that they are not privileged to see.  Whether it's at the hairdresser, getting dressed or make-up there is a wealth of photographs to take which help to record a complete memory of your big day for your album.  

Here are a few examples to share:-

Of course don't forget the groom:-

Thank you to Daniella and Gary.  We have some beautiful pictures that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

Here's a very pictorial image and one of my favourites.  All these pictures were completely unposed and unobtrusive documentary work.

Danielle and Gary

When you book your wedding photographer you need to have confidence in their ability to cope with everything that is thrown at them.  Changes to plans can occur for various reasons and the photographer needs to be ready to think fast and adapt.

For example a recent blessing and reception all took place within a very cluttered dining area instead of out on the beach.  Having to contend with heavily patterned wallpaper, pillars, wall lights, windows and air conditioning grills all potentially intruding into the images in a small venue really makes for a testing time.  However I have to make pictures that still stand out and provide a great record of the event.  At least we did pop out to the beach in the afternoon briefly so that one of the younger guests could make a sandcastle!  Thanks to Danielle and Gary, everyone had a very enjoyable event.

Judging

Well done to the Jersey Camera Club, I was very impressed by the standard of the entries in the landscape competition I judged last night.  Things have improved a lot since I was here last to view your work.  The atmosphere was amiable and it was a pleasure to meet you.

Thank you to John Nasey for taking the image of me below in full flow discussing one particular picture.  Hope no-one was bored and that you learnt something from me.  I always believe a judge should try and give something back in knowledge, and naturally justify the decisions reached, to help those experienced and those less experienced.  I look forward to my next visit!

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.