Nicholas Jermy Photography

May 2nd 2015 Les and Jo - Southwood Hall

2015-05-02T10:37:00.000+01:00

I've known Les for years, he was at school with my brother, and was my football manager for a couple of years too. So it was nice when I was asked to photograph his and Jo's wedding at Southwood Hall. With a nod here and there from his postman background, and a flourish of beautiful colours, they made the venue their own. I don't think I've seen a bride and groom laugh so much as Les and Jo either, it was a wonderful wedding to be a small part of.

An absolutely perfect venue for a wedding, a beautiful setting that transforms throughout the day to accommodate the changes.

Here are some photographs from their wedding:

April 18th 2015 Marion and Nick - Puppet Theatre and Arts Centre, Norwich

2015-04-18T13:47:00.000+01:00

It's amazing to get the chance to photograph at such unique locations, and The Puppet Theatre and Arts Centre in Norwich were exactly that. Marion and Nick of course, put their own twist on the venues, with a touch of Comic Books and a dash of Dinosaurs.

It's intriguing to see how these spaces can be set up for weddings, and it's a great challenge to photograph in these conditions too. I cannot be happier that I did a lot of research, and thorough thoughts on what combinations of lenses and cameras would suit the venues best.

Earlier in the year, I purchased a Canon 135mm f2, and along with the 50mm 1.4, not only can you create great depth, but you can get excellent shots. I actually found it was still possible to get good use out of my 24-105 with my 6D, but had to be used with care.

Below are a small sample of photos from the day. Marion and Nick were a lovely couple, who, along with friends and family, made us feel welcome and we really loved being a part of their day.

11th April 2015 Sara and Ian - Alburgh Church and Earsham Hall

2015-04-11T13:00:00.000+01:00

It was October 2012 when Heather and I had our wedding reception at Earsham Hall. So when friends Sara and Ian asked us to photograph their wedding at the same venue, we were delighted. They also have a daughter who is only a couple of weeks younger than our Ava.

Their ceremony was at Alburgh Church, which is where Sara grew up. The vicar there, was an old school teacher of mine too...who arrived on his motorcycle. He was as entertaining as I remembered.

It was really nice to go back to Earsham Hall, it's run by the wonderful Annabel, who Sara used to work for. I've known Sara since I can remember, so enjoyed catching up with her and the family (when I wasn't working of course!).

We got married in cooler conditions, so was a nice change to see the hall in a different light.

Here are some photos from their day:

St Martin, Shotesham

2015-02-22T15:00:00.001+00:00

I wanted to take my daughter out for a walk today, after running a few errands with her in the car though, she had other plans, and decided to fall asleep.

I didn't want to disturb her, as it was quite windy out, and I was sure it would soon wake her. So instead, I took a drive around home, and went to a spot I had biked passed many years ago. At that point, the ruins of St Martin church, just outside the main village of Shotesham, was undiscoverable, mainly due to the fact it was covered in foliage.

As described on the billboard next to it, it had been cleaned up in 2012, revealing the beautiful remains. With Ava still asleep, I snuck out the car to take a few photographs. My battery ran out on my last shot (what an amateur!) so I need to go back someday, especially in different weather conditions, my creative brain was going crazy!

But here are a few I took today, and in case anyone wonders how I got the long exposures, these were taken with a tiffen 10 stop filter. Something I've not had a play with for a long while, so was good to give it another go.

Shotesham

2015-02-16T18:29:00.000+00:00

We took our daughter out for a walk at the weekend over at Shotesham. A wonderful little village, which has the Boudica Way as part of its footpaths.

A very photographic little place, with every house as unique and as beautiful as the next. It was a good chance to test out my newest purchase - the Panasonic GX7 with it's 20mm 1.7 lens. With Ava strapped to my front, it was easy enough to get focus on composing shots. I think this one here was my favourite. Mainly because we're always encouraged to break 'the rules' of photography; whereas this image follows those rules, and gave me a really pleasing image.

I'm quite fond of the trees and path leading you, and the deeper you look, you then spot the church in the distance, which is in itself, being covered by the rolling mist.... I'm not being too boastful, am I?!... Maybe you have to sometimes when you're pleased with a shot.

Iceland Revisited

2015-02-12T21:25:00.000+00:00

A couple of years ago, Heather and I stopped off in Iceland for a mini moon between our weddings here in England, and in the US.

At the time, I went through most of my photographs, but after going through my 'archive' I thought I would have a look at some I never touched. Here are just a few - mainly taken at Thingvellir, which shows off the Mid Atlantic ridge - it's incredible, all Geography school trips need to visit. This also makes me want to go back more than ever... especially before it gets saturated with TV crews filming the next big thing...:

Tim & Olivia Wedding

2014-09-20T14:08:00.000+01:00

A belated update to my blog, but as I can schedule my posts, I can be sneaky and make it look like it was posted the day after the wedding...

The last wedding of the, was a lovely coastal one at The Cliff Hotel in Dunwich. Heather was at home with Ava, so I was all alone for this one. I knew the groom previously, as I used to play football with him, and he was at school with my brother. I also knew a lot of the guests for similar reasons.

Despite being at the end of summer, the couple had stunning weather. It was very difficult not to join in with the guests and sit outside with a cold beer... it was very tempting!

I know Dunwich reasonably well, and had scouted out the area again a few weeks earlier. I was also so pleased that despite it being a difficult walk to the beach, the bride and groom were very much up for having some photos taken down by the sea.

With a tinge of sadness, this was our last wedding of the year, but a thoroughly enjoyable one to be a part of. Below I have shared a few photographs, and can't wait until wedding season starts again next year (diary is already getting filled up!).

Poppy & Jon Wedding

2014-07-27T14:17:00.000+01:00

Our second wedding of the year, was of the lovely Poppy & Jon.

Their wedding was at St Mary's Church in South Walsham, and their reception at the local village hall. My usual assistant, Heather, was at home looking after our newborn, so my brother Matt stepped up to help out. I don't mind photographing weddings by myself, but it's really nice to have someone else with you, to catch bits and pieces you may inevitably miss, and also, to bounce ideas off.

Everything about this wedding was absolutely lovely. I think it sums up how much everyone was fond of the couple, when I was waiting for the brides arrival (who was a tad late after forgetting their flowers!). There were people in the churchyard waiting for her arrival, they weren't guests for the day, but knew of them both (mainly through Poppy cutting their hair) and they just wanted to see her on her wedding day.

I will let the photographs do the rest of the talking. More and more, I enjoy being part of peoples special day, to see everyone having such a good time is lovely company to be in.

It must also be noted, that this is the first time I've been asked to create a Church selfie... maybe the start of a trend??

My camera rig...

2014-04-25T11:45:00.001+01:00

A few months ago, I did a piece on a Camera Rig I'd made for a video I was shooting at work.

I had the chance to use this again recently while shooting a video for an RC car we'll be selling soon. My rig, and the film me and the copywriter shot, are now online for all to see. I would love to have shared a behind the scenes video of me running along side the car, pulling the camera rig along with shoelaces!...

http://www.hawkin.com/blog/we-made-a-rolling-camera-rig/

http://www.hawkin.com/blog/the-most-fun-weve-had-at-the-office-this-month/

Annual Snowdrops

2014-03-04T19:53:00.001+00:00

Its feels like I annually go out and photograph the snowdrops.

So here they are! The snowdrops are up in our backgarden, so I went out with my camera once again, each year I seem to have different equipment, so they do change....slightly... this was with a Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens.

We've actually just sold our house, so we're now thinking that as soon as they die off, we will dig them up and take the to the new house to be photographed, once again, next year!

Trying to reshoot London

2014-02-17T13:12:00.000+00:00

Last weekend, after visiting the wonderful Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the National History Museum on the Saturday, I had a free Sunday to wander London, as my wonderful wife had a conference in another part of the city.

So I decided I would take the common walk along the Thames from Westminster to Tower Bridge. I hadn't had a chance to play with my 10 stop filter for a while, so saw this as a perfect opportunity to take a bit of time (as I was on my own) to have a little play. The only issue I had, was that I didn't have a tripod with me... so I spent a lot of my time finding flat surfaces to rest my camera for the 30 second exposures I was capturing. The view of Parliament has a decent ledge, and I liked the surface the view of Tower Bridge offered, but otherwise, it wasn't the easiest task.

I also realise that these shots had been taken thousands of times before as well, but always nice to bank my own take on these popular locations, and try and do something a little bit different.

Homemade Camera Rig

2013-11-13T17:28:00.001+00:00

For work recently, the copywriter and I went to Woodrow Pilling Park in Norwich to test out a "Geyser Car" - a rocket car, which is powered by the Mentos + Diet Coke reaction. You strap a fizzy pop bottle to the car, and pull the plug to release the Mentos, and step back and admire!

After a few successful launches, my mind turned to creating some different shots, in particular, so "in-car" pieces. As you can see from the below, the product lent itself perfectly to turn into a cheap camera rig. The velcro straps kept the camera in position, and a cautious push, got some extra, different shots for the final video, which I've also included in this post.

Lion Wood, Norwich

2013-11-11T17:53:00.000+00:00

While spending a lazy day on the sofa watching the "Super Sunday" games this weekend, during half time, I thought I'd get up and stretch my legs. So took a quick stroll to Lion Wood at the top of my road.

I did have it in the back of my mind to try something like this out at the beginning of the day, so planned to go out just as the sun started to set. We get lovely sunsets this time of the year, so that, with shooting through tress gave me some cool effects.

I'd like to think after looking back over these that getting off of the couch is a smart move sometimes...

Aperture gif animation

2013-10-20T15:31:00.000+01:00

I was helping my sister decide which lens to buy for her camera the other day, and in going through the different options, I decided to show the benefits of playing with apertures, and what a difference these can make. In doing so, I took a series of shots from f22 - f1.8 (with my Canon 50mm f1.8).

This is a shot set up, with all the same settings, bar the adjustment of the aperture, hopefully this shows how much fun it can be to play with different apertures. I don't know about any other photographers, but my camera is 90% of the time set to aperture priority mode. I think getting the right depth in a photograph, is very often the key to turning good shots, to great shots. I think this also demonstrates how, not only at 1.8, can you knock the background out, and focus on the foreground, but get a totally different shot from f16 - f22, and create the star effect in the streetlights.

I've since turned this little tutorial into a small gif, which hopefully shows how different f stops create these different images:

A short video

2013-10-17T19:12:00.000+01:00

A year after going, I wanted to put together a short video of some photos, and film I took while in Iceland on our (mini)honeymoon. We'd love to go back one day.

Diss Town vs Felixstowe & Walton

2013-10-06T12:06:00.000+01:00

A good friend of mine was down in Norfolk for the weekend last week. He was here for a friends 30th, and at the same time, had rearranged it, so he could officiate a local game (he's a referee). So I thought this would be a good chance to go and see him in action, I also saw it as an opportunity to have a go at some sports photography. I've done a bit here and there, nothing ever more than casually. The game was between Diss and Felixstowe, so I contacted the home club, who more than happy for me to bring along a camera.

Sports photography has always fascinated me, I find it more and more common for me to watch photographers at a sports game, and see them at work on their laptops, processing images, and sending them off throughout the game, than sometimes the action on the pitch. Things have changed, and through the social world of Twitter, Norwich City send through images of the game for fans to follow as it happens. Luckily, I had a few days after the game to sort through what I shot. I trust my 6D for occasions like this, I have a modest telephoto lens though, so wasn't entirely sure how good my shots would be.

After the game, I sent my images off to Diss Town and Felixstowe & Walton United. They were both very kind and grateful, and even shared my images in their match reports. You can click on the team names to be directed to their websites.

I do think that if ever these opportunities arise again, I would love to go along to these games and shoot away. A thoroughly enjoyable game, and I'd love to photograph this sort of thing more.

Sally and James' Wedding

2013-09-22T13:02:00.000+01:00

Sadly, this was our last wedding of the year, but what a way to finish off the year! Sally is good friends with Heather, and also a work colleague. We've been lucky enough to get to know the couple well over the last few years, so when I was asked to photograph their wedding, and Heather was asked to not only make the cake, but to be a bridesmaid, we knew this was going to be special.

A beautiful setting, with the church in the very picturesque town of Bruton, Somerset, and the reception held at Holbrook House, I did have a feeling this may be a very enjoyable wedding to photograph. We stayed in the area over the weekend, so had the chance to do a bit of a recce while we were there.

As always, below are a few teasers from the day, I will share more on here and my website later on. I particularly enjoyed playing around with my flash triggers while we shot some photographs in the evening, think I achieved some nice effects. I can't finish this without mentioning the trip to the dovecot after the ceremony, and trying to keep out the way of the cows!

Paul and Camilla's Wedding

2013-09-14T11:00:00.000+01:00

I was fortunate to be asked to photograph a former work colleague's wedding this weekend, for what is to be my penultimate wedding of the year (unless we receive a last minute booking!).

The ceremony took place at Norwich Registry Office, which is at Churchman House, a very curious building, with wonderful detail inside (I will have to ask the wife to look into the history of the building).

A very relaxed event, which I have hopefully captured in the selection of photographs below. The more weddings I'm involved in, the more I enjoy these wonderful days, and they always throw up something I've never witnessed before. For Paul and Camilla's, it was the choice of music for the bride and groom leaving... the theme tune to Indiana Jones, absolutely brilliant!

Paris

2013-09-02T22:09:00.001+01:00

Heather and I recently took a trip to Paris to belatedly celebrate her 30th, and prematurely celebrate our first wedding anniversary. We don't have the holiday later on in the year, so had to squeeze it in over a bank holiday.

I've been a few times, but not for a long while, and was great to share this wonderful city with Heather, who'd waited a life time to visit.

Metfield Produce Show

2013-08-18T10:35:00.001+01:00

I was asked by a family friend to judge the photography competition at Metfield Produce Show at the weekend. I of course gratefully accepted the challenge. I'm not sure I realised how long it would take me to pick the top 3, very hard judging people's hard work! Heather Jermy and I also popped over the road to the church on our way out for their flower fiesta.

Here's hoping these village traditions continue to grow in the future, such a great way for a community to get together, and just hope that in years to come, these shows are still happening.

Jack and Laura Wedding

2013-08-10T14:06:00.000+01:00

Another wedding photographed this weekend. This one was Jack and Laura's in Laxfield, Suffolk. I've worked and played football with Jack for many years, so it was a pleasure when he asked me to photograph his wedding.

The venue was so beautiful, Laxfield is a wonderful little village, with a wonderful church (just next to the pub!). On the photography side of things, the setting was absolutely perfect, in fact, the whole day was an absolute joy to photograph. As with any wedding, I do get nervous, but I think it's more to do with wanting to do the best I possibly can, and not to do with any concern with my abilities.

Jack and Laura made it a great experience to photograph, they looked so naturally good together, it felt that it would've been hard to take bad pictures of them. Below are a small selection of photos from the day, I hope to post a full account of the day over the coming weeks.

One other thing to add, is that with every wedding I do, seems to throw up something new. What will stick out in my mind in this one, is that I don't believe there will ever be a longer confetti shot. Must've been 50 yards or so, with around 125 people throwing confetti, like I've said earlier, they seemed to make it easy for me.

I do have to note that the above shot was taken by the wife. Incidentally as well, this photograph is all about being in the right place at the right time. The laughter caught, is from when a child chipped a football towards me, which I attempted to volley. I caught it sweetly, but unfortunately at the wrong angle, and it ended up in the next field. I instantly remembered why I stopped playing.

Mark and Sarah's Wedding

2013-08-04T13:35:00.000+01:00

My cousin Mark, and his now wife Sarah, held their wedding at Albion Days, near Greater Melton at the weekend.

We were guests, but also asked to take a few photos on the side as well. As one never to turn down a good photo opportunity, we had a lot fun photographing the day.

A wonderful venue with a very unique feel, there was so much going on, owl delivering the rings; hog roast; archery; story telling; air guitar with pink inflatable guitars; brother of the bride having a spontaneous jam with the band. Hopefully my photos below will give the day justice.

Norwich Storms

2013-08-02T17:25:00.001+01:00

We're not used to stormy weather in Norfolk, and although I sit with my back to the window at work, I was told that there was a big storm in the city today. On my lunch break I did go home and take a few photos out my bathroom window as the storms were passing.

Doesn't happen very often, so have to try and make the most of it.

Go Go Gorillas

2013-06-30T16:43:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, we set about gorilla hunting around Norwich. Setting off on foot from our home, it wasn't long until we spotted our first primate down by Bishopgate Bridge.

There are 53 in total, and after covering nearly 9 miles in about 7 hours (this includes a stop at the Adam and Eve for a refreshment!) we had completed our trip around the city. It is all part of the Go Go Gorillas outdoor art trail to raise funds for charity when they are auctioned off at the end of the parade; to raise money for the chosen charities - Break and the Born Free Foundation.

I took 3 or 4 images of each gorilla, difficult to take just one shot when they are so creatively decorated, with details covering each and every one. I think this is the best way to display them though, in a bit of a collage. I highly recommend giving it go visiting them, even if it is just a few of them (give all 53 a go though!) If you would like to see them all in a little more detail, please feel free to contact me.

Weybourne Norfolk Country Fair 2013

2013-05-27T12:34:00.000+01:00

Our first visit to Norfolk Country Fair over the weekend, here are some photos of the delights that welcomed us