As a quick aside – here’s a third-hand view of Helen capturing the photo of Stacey and Mike lying in the daisies:

Good luck with the wedding planning guys, see you again in a few months!

In the developing world, it doesn’t work like that. There’s millions of people out there with reversible eye conditions who simply can’t get the help they need. This is where Sightsavers come in. They help millions of people with potentially blinding conditions. Last year alone, they helped 3.7 millions people.

My recent trip to the opticians has really brought home what my eyesight means to me. Without it I couldn’t appreciate photography and I’d probably have to give up my job. There are a few blind photographers out there, but I’m not sure I’m cut out to be one of them. Helen and I were married a couple of years ago, and we still bring out our wedding photographs to look at every now and again. I couldn’t imagine what life would be like if I had wedding photographs that I’d never be able to look at again.

I’m not here to ask you for money. I’m here to ask you to just think about what your eyesight means to you and how much easy access we have in the developing world to treatments. I know a number of professional photographers read this blog – think about your livelihood. Think about not being able to see another photograph ever again.

In order to show my support for Sightsavers International and the work they do, I’ve decided to team up with some friends to undertake the Three Peaks Challenge in June. If you don’t know what the challenge entails, its basically climbing three mountains in under 24 hours (including travelling between them!). Until about two weeks ago, I’d never even seen a mountain before so its a massive undertaking for me.

If you’d like to know how our training is going, and how we’re progressing on the day itself, we’ve got a website set up at www.geeksandpeaks.com. I’ll be sure to take some photos for you all.

Earlier this month we photographed Jo-Anne and Matt’s wedding at Christ Church, Winchester and The Alton House Hotel, Alton. Despite some drizzle it was really beautiful, some of our favourite photos are below (click any of the images to see the full slideshow).

It’s sometimes the case that when a couple arrive they can feel self concious – especially if they’re not used to being in front of a camera, but all we want to do is capture the love you feel for each other in pictures, and when you’re relaxed and remember that, we get some beautiful results.

Now what to do with these beautiful photos? Yes the purpose was to practice but that doesn’t mean the photos should be dismissed or overshadowed by the wedding photos (which would be remembered with fuller emotion). To use them to their full potential our Elite wedding package includes a Guest Book (also available as an addition to other packages). This is a hand bound and hard backed book that photos from the engagement shoot, and a number of white pages for your wedding guests to write on.

It’s obviously possible to just buy a note book for your guests to fill, but these memory-provoking photo Guest Books are so much more personal, and so much nicer to just have around the house, on the coffee table etc.

If you’d like more information on Engagement Shoots, Guest Books, or any other of our services, we’d love to hear from you.

Hope you’re enjoying this lovely weather!

Helen x

There’s a few images below. If you’d like to see more, just click the images to be taken to the slideshow.

Jo-Anne and Matt’s wedding is just a few weeks away. We’ll pop their wedding images up as soon as we can.

If you’d like to purchase any images from this shoot, please click through to our proofing area.

You’ve probably seen the tweets on Twitter, or the (not so) subtle hints on Facebook… but I’m pleased to announce that we have our very own iPhone application available to purchase from the Apple App Store.

Second Shootr is an iPhone/iPod Touch application for professional wedding photographers. It has just one goal: to help photographers do what they do best…take awesome photos! Second Shootr helps professional wedding photographers to organise the wedding day so that their minds are free to concentrate on capturing those lasting memories.

A brief run-down of Second Shootr’s features:

• Store important client information – Names, addresses, phone numbers, websites etc.
• Store key details about the wedding itself – Ceremony/Reception locations, wedding theme etc.
• Capture and contact key members of the wedding party – Store contact details for the vicar, or the best man.
• Know where to be and at what time – Store key events and their location.
• Plan and tick-off your photos – plan those must-have photos, use photos from your iPhone camera or library as a reference and then tick them off when you’re done.
• Remember all your kit, every time – check your kit out as you leave the studio, then check it back in when you’re packing up.
• Remember everything you need to do before, during and after the wedding – Second Shootr will list your to-do items, just tick them off when done.
• Customise Second Shootr to your business requirements.
  

Second Shootr is available in the Apple App Store right now and is available for all models of iPhone and iPod Touch (as long as you’re running OS 3.0).

If you’d like more information, as well as further screenshots and an instructional video, head to www.secondshootr.com or go straight to the app store to purchase it:

If you want to know the latest updates and information about Second Shootr, head to the blog: blog.secondshootr.com

Why should I care? I’m a client, not a wedding photographer.

True, you may not be interested in buying Second Shootr, but you can be safe in the knowledge that Plinkk Photography is leading the way in wedding photography and wedding photography technologies, so much so that we are investing very large sums of money into helping other wedding photographers play catchup! You can be certain that we have every detail of your day logged and at our fingertips – We’ve already used Second Shootr out on weddings, and we will continue to do so.

Here are a few photos from the portrait session that day.

Click any of the pictures to see the full slideshow.

Jason is a prolific photography blogger based all the way in the USA. He’s been writing online for over 7 years now, mostly discussing photography and Photoshop techniques as well as building up an online community.

All this experience means that Jason knows what he’s talking about when he says “Tim Collins, of Plinkk Photography, and his wife Helen do some awesome work in the field of engagement/wedding/event photography. In a genre that can so easily fall into a very formulaic portfolio of images, Tim and Helen have an eye for creating something truly unique.”

We are flattered by the attention from across the pond and would like to take the opportunity to thank Jason for his kind words.