Yesterday saw me cover my first wedding of 2012 and I couldn’t have asked for a nicer couple. Saul and Catherine were getting married at Down Hall Hotel in Hertfordshire and even though it was January it remained reasonably dry if a but blustery at times! Both Catherine and Saul work in the entertainment industry on cruise ships and their many friends had come from all corners of the globe to join them and their families in the celebrations and when you have a group of people as outgoing as this it really does make my job easier.

They are leaving tomorrow for a three week honeymoon in Thailand and on their return will be visiting Saul’s family in Toronto before going back to sea. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish them the very best for the future – wherever they may be!

I haven’t been blogging much for the last few months due to personal reasons but I thought I’d round off 2011 with the news that two of my wedding images have won awards and been placed by a couple of international societies. Both photographs were taken during Steven and Rebecca’s wedding at Pendley Manor in Hertfordshire and I am sure they will be chuffed to bits to hear about the awards.

This first photograph of Rebecca was taken in the church as she stood in a shaft of sunlight and it won a Gold award with the International Professional Photographers’ Network (IPPN) and here are some of the judges comments:

“This is amazing natural light…”
“Unusual shot – well controlled”
“This is photography! Love it!”

The second photograph is one of my personal favourites from the year. This was taken at Pendley Manor and when I saw the beautiful parquet flooring I knew it would make a great backdrop for Rebecca’s stunning dress, the shot was taken by leaning over a balcony directly above Rebecca. This image won a Silver award with the IPPN and the judges comments included the following:

“Love the graininess and movement of this image….very beautiful and dreamy photo”
“Love it! This really works well. Love the processing.”
“An eye catching image….”

This photograph was also placed in the International Society Of Professional Wedding Photographers (ISPWP) Fall 2011 competition in the Pure Art category. I have been a member of the ISPWP for some time now and have always aspired to be placed in one of their competitions as the standard of photography on this site is immense, the judge’s comment was:

“Good motion. Like the pattern on floor.”

So that is it for 2011! As I said earlier I apologise for not blogging as much as I would like and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy New Year and in particular my thoughts and wishes are with my Dad.

See you in 2012!

Yesterday saw me shooting my final wedding of 2011 and I couldn’t have asked for lovelier couple or better December weather, even if it was a bit cold. Julia and Dan were married at Fanhams Hall Hotel in Ware and it was day full of love and laughter when they were joined by their family and friends. They were married in the Great Hall which is always a stunning venue and even more so at this time of year with the Christmas decorations up. Dan had even written and recorded a song for his ‘Princess’ and this was theme was enhanced by an astounding fairy-tale castle cake hand made by one of their guests – it certainly got my ‘Cake of the Year’ award!

Dan and Julia are leaving for a three week honeymoon tomorrow that will include Peru and St. Lucia, have a great time and here are just a few pictures from yesterday.

In a few weeks time Julia and Deiniol are to be married at Fanhams Hall in Ware and as part of their wedding photography package we met today to run through the final details and do a few photographs. Rather than use Fanhams Hall we had a stroll through Hatfield Forest near Takeley in Essex and we were very lucky to avoid the fog and gloominess that had been prevalent all week. Quite a few laughs were had and I’m really looking forward to the wedding in December, fingers crossed for another day of lovely weather.

On Thursday I went to The Square in Harlow to watch and photograph The Side Effects performing at this lovely music venue. They were second on and performed an eight song set to a very appreciative crowd but as an ‘oldie’ I still don’t get moshing – it looks far too dangerous for me although if one of them fell over moshing etiquette ensured they were soon picked up!

Unfortunately, the following day The Side Effects’ lead guitarist Harry broke his left hand and is unable to play for four weeks, as you can imagine he is not too happy about that.

Here are some pictures from the gig and more can be seen on The Side Effects blog:

Yesterday I was assisting a friend and fellow wedding photographer for James and Eleanor’s wedding at the London Corinthia Hotel. Wedding photography is always a pleasure but when you throw a top London hotel into the mix it really becomes something special and yesterday was no exception. The hotel only opened in April this year and this was their first wedding, it is situated in Whitehall Place very near to the Embankment and as usual the Saturday afternoon traffic was heaving and was not helped by road closures due to a demonstration and all that that entails – sirens, police helicopter etc.

The wedding was a joy and we popped out for a walk in Northumberland Avenue and Hungerford Bridge which provided some great entertainment for passing traffic and pedestrians, it was good to hear so many good luck wishes from complete strangers.

Earlier this year I was booked by Catherine for her wedding in January at the magnificent Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire and she and Saul wanted to do the pre-wedding shoot whilst there was still a chance of good weather. The other reason for the early shoot was thay they both work as performers on cruise ships and as such are not very often in the country. Luckily we had the weather when we met and had a wander round the grounds, they were so easy to work with and I am really looking forward to the wedding in a couple of months time.

Last night I was at Rhodes Rocks at The Rhodes Centre in Bishops Stortford to watch my son’s band The Side Effects play a gig there and I know I’m biased but they nailed it! The band opened the night with seven numbers and had quite a few fans in attendance, it was plain to see they really enjoyed it and their confidence on stage was nothing short of amazing – well done lads. Here are just a few images from the night and the rest can be seen on The Side Effects blog.

A few months ago my wife Jan qualified for the British Dressage Regional Championships and there she was successful in qualifying for the BD National Championships that started today. Weeks of preparation and planning had gone into this trip to Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire and yesterday we loaded up the trusty LandCruiser and the trailer with an absolute mountain of gear – as a family we take less on holiday for two weeks and you wouldn’t have believed we were only going for one day. The journey up there was pretty uneventful and took about 3 hours but the the fun began with sorting out stabling and all our paraphernalia. Once this done Jan and Zeus were able to do an arena walk and this is to try and get the horse and rider acclimatised to competing in a large arena with many, many distractions that could spook a young horse. I could tell Jan was taking it all in and absolutely loving it as it was a new experience for both of them.

Once this was done it was back to the stable for feed and water and eventually we got to our hotel that turned out to be really crappy! It was an early start today and we got to the showground around 5.30am to get them ready as they had drawn the 7.57am slot meaning they were the very first ones to compete at this four day event. None of us could believe how cold it was when we arrived, apparently the temperature had dropped to just 2 degrees and it felt it. Zeus was fed whilst Jan finished plaiting his mane and basically the girls fussed over him and prettied him up for his big day whilst I took some photographs and did a bit of fetching and carrying.

The warm up started with a low sun which gave me some very nice light and it was soon time for Jan and Zeus to begin their test. It looked good to me although Zeus was a bit tense which is hardly surprising when there was so much going on with marquees, cars, flags and everything else associated with a large event such as this. The test went without a hitch and we found out a little while later that they had scored  63.94% to give them sixteenth place in a field of twenty seven. I know Jan was slightly disappointed as she really wanted to be in the Top 10 although on this occasion it wasn’t to be, but they have done so well to get this far when you consider that hundreds if not thousands of riders enter this competition and the qualifying heats are fiercely contested as are the Regional Championships.

Well done Mrs G, I’m so proud of both of you.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank some people who have helped Jan on this incredible journey. The first two are Steve and Andrea Bond of Bond Fitness in Hertford and they run a gym but it’s not like any other gym you’ll have seen, they take a really fresh approach to getting fit and they devised a series of equestrian and dressage specific exercises to assist Jan as they state on their website “Our ethos is simple… find the best way for you to train to get the results you’re after”. The other person is John Lancaster of  The Lancaster Clinic and one of his areas of expertise is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and this has been of huge benefit to Jan and her approach to competitons. Thanks guys, it is appreciated!

Onto some pictures – there are a few!

Have you ever seen so much stuff?

Pimms o’clock!

On the way to the arena walk on the first day

Says it all…Working on the plaits…

Whilst this was going on he had a doze

DAY 2

A bright but cold start

Back in to the arena for some more familiarisationII spent days polishing and bulling these boots Into the warm-up arena

Enter at A and proceed down centre line…

A couple of months ago I wrote about how I had won a wedding photography award from a professional body who give critique and feedback to wedding photographers. As I mentioned before I believe it is vitally important as a wedding photographer to continually improve my creative vision in order to give my brides and grooms a first rate service and one of the key areas for this is feedback from my contemporaries.

I am very pleased to say that this month I have gained two awards with the International Professional Photographers Network (IPPN) for two images I entered and I gained a Silver and a Bronze Award. The Silver Award winning photograph was from Natalie and Simon’s recent wedding at Ware Priory, Ware in Hertfordshire and was taken as the sun was setting. Here is the image and some of the judges comments:

“Beautiful rich colours – lovely shot.”

“Love the back lighting.”

“Well exposed and lovely colours…”

“Beautiful framing, love the warm background, skin tones beautiful.”

The second award winning wedding photograph was from Natalie and Dave’s wedding at The Casa Hotel in Chesterfield, Derbyshire back in July. This very modern and chic hotel unfortunately does not have any gardens so for one of the bridal portraits I used a corridor and positioned Natalie underneath a downlight. Hopefully you will agree it worked out quite well!

Here is the judge’s feedback and the image:

“Like this one an unusual bridal composition.”

“Nice use of available light.”