First off, Happy New Year to you all – I hope everyone had a good one and celebrated it in good style!

I thought I’d use this first post of the year to summarise 2011 a bit and hopefully where 2012 can/will lead me to

2011…in short, was a fantastic year for me, personally, and from a business perspective.

Personally because:

• I had a massive health kick and lost 5 stone, coupled along with taking up good/regular exercise.
• I had laser eye surgery, giving me better than 20/20 vision
• My career outside of photography got taken to new heights
• I moved and now have my own place

That’s all I can think of off hand, either way…it’s been an extremely hectic year in a lot of ways, mostly good!

From a business perspective:

• My portfolio expanded considerably.
• I, personally, feel my photography abilities have reached new levels.
• I did my first wedding abroad, Italy to be precise!
• Took more bookings for 2012, 2013 and one for 2014! (nothing like planning ahead hehe)

Lots has been going on, obviously I cannot mention everything as I’ll be here all night (and you will most likely get bored) but either way the year has absolutely flown by with everything happening. Hopefully 2012 will prove to be just as fruitful!

And, I can actually say that 2012 has started off well! In October last year I was contacted by Pure Weddings magazine to be featured in their next issue, released this week…and here it is…

I’m beyond chuffed with the result! and thoroughly enjoyed the experience overall!

Not much else to add for now…I’ve got a lot of gallery updates coming within the next couple of weeks…and I do have an image to leave you with…one of my favourites from last year.

I’ll post again before January is out, take care all!

Jake

Saturday’s wedding was brilliant, in short.

As predicted, overall Mark and I had a really great time that day. The couple were fantastic to work with, the venue was pretty special as well, just overall everything fell into place exactly how you would want it to.

I haven’t got anything to show you…yet, give me a week or so and I’ll have some photos for you.

In other news, and I’m quite excited about this…I’m being published in the Essex January edition of Pure Weddings! I couldn’t believe it when it all started to happen and fall into place! So keep your eyes pealed…you’ll see me, a bio about yours truly and JE-Design Photography, also readers Q&A along with a full page with one of my images from the Italien wedding

So yeah that was a bit of a shock to the system! Couldn’t believe it!

Overall just winding things down now, no more Weddings until 2012, so it’s time to regroup, look back over the year, and prepare for next year where the bookings are starting to come in

I will do a summary blog post just before christmas with some of my favourite shots throughout the year (most likely also including one from Saturday which is probably my shot of the year)

Stay tuned, keep safe.

Jake

I tell you what is becoming a common trait with these blog posts…it’s me making excuses and apologising for not doing a blog post in ages!

So…err, well yeah, sorry for that! I am trying to post more! but y’know…I’ve been busy! Loads going on as always, but I’m positing now!

Ok, so whats new? Well – weddings are basically done for the year bar this Saturday with Mark, which should prove entertaining as always! Then straight away on the Sunday I’ve got a boudoir shoot which I haven’t done for a while. I was supposed to go to Richmond Park this Sunday just gone but stuff got in the way unfortunately, so that’ll be Richmond done for the year, gonna hit it lots next year though!

Also, I did an Equine Charity shoot a couple of weeks ago (for those reading those photos will be ready soon)

I’ve also been trying to use twitter more recently, and it’s getting there, it’s such a powerful tool…I need to learn how to use it more, if you’d like to follow however, heres the link! https://twitter.com/#!/jedesignphoto

Oh, one thing I have got to look forward to…I’m going to see my friends in Manchester in a couple of weeks and I’ll make a point of doing a shoot whilst I’m there…be it a location shoot or studio one…I’ll make sure I produce something

I haven’t got any photos to add to this post unfortunately, I’ll post some equine stuff when it’s done this week…until then please subscribe (top right hand corner) and until then happy snapping!

Take care,
Jake

“Fantastic wedding pictures!

Jake’s subtle style of photography meant he got some great natural poses of us and all our guests, he captured the love and fun of the day without interfering or missing any moments.  Some lovely posed shots as well that didn’t keep us away from the guests and the fun for too long.

We couldn’t be any happier with the results, WHATEVER WE PAID…. IT WASN’T ENOUGH!

Many thanks
James and Eli”

Time to add to the testimonials me thinks

Jake

Sorry for such an overdue post I know it has been…too long since my last one. But here I am.
I’ve had lots going on recently, but I want to talk to you about my Italian wedding

Here’s the back story…

How this originally came about was a couple of years ago I was IT contracting for a small support firm in south London, I thoroughly enjoyed working for this place, and the manager, James soon stopped being a manager and quickly became a friend!

I stopped contracting for him in June last year as I had found a role closer to home but he had really gone out of his way to give me as much work as possible as he knew I was financially struggling at the time, something I massively appreciated and vowed to pay back however I could at some point.

Fast forward to January this year, James rings me and asks me to come down and have a night out with him and the others of the company for a catch up, so I go there and half way through the night James tells me that he and Elisa are engaged and are currently looking to set the date. This, for me…was my opportunity to help him in a way that I knew I could, I said to him without hesitation that if he could get me to Italy for the wedding I would happily shoot it for free, he was blown away by the offer and gratefully accepted

That was how I got the gig, and I felt enormously privileged that he would let me do this for him, I knew he and Eli loved my work and had said a few times previously about doing some shots of them for the mantlepiece.

Ok so fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I’m on the flight and the pressure started hitting home, I WAS going to go all out for this, I was going to deliver them the highest quality photographs that I possibly could, they were not going to regret this in any way shape or form I was determined to put every mm of that sensor to good use!
I won’t go into intricate details of each moment of the day but (and other wedding photographers will know what I mean by this) Eli and James were SO into each other, it made working with them an absolute dream! I didn’t have to pose them, everything was just 100% natural and I feel this really does show well in the photos. It’s hard to describe, but unbelievably and somewhere you get couples who said “I do” 2 hours beforehand and are then really really awkward around each other!! And some of these people have been together years! But fortunately this was not the case. It really did make the day quite special for me as well…I’ve done over 35 weddings now and I don’t know if it’s because I knew these 2 on a personal level or what but it was quite an emotional and for me I got an incredible feeling capturing these two. I’ve not had that at previous weddings…I’ve always enjoyed them and been happy for the couple, but nothing on this scale before.

Pictures to be added at the end of this post – The wedding was shot at a place called Agriturismo in Italy near Milan. (Which was an amazing country with incredible food by the way and would highly recommend anybody go and visit!)

And the next thing I want to talk about is Richmond Park ah yes…lovely Richmond Park.

Mark who I assist had shown me countless incredible images taken of the Deer here, I had been itching to go for a while and after shooting a wedding with him at Parklands, Quendon Hall on Friday, the upcoming weather conditions for the next 2 days seemed ideal, so Sunday morning my alarm went off at 5:15 am (Yes, I was confused as well at the thought of such hours existing on a Sunday!) I loaded the camera with my Canon 135L lens and Mark picked me up shortly afterwards.

We headed there and arrived around 6:40ish – now, I wasn’t really sure what to expect (which made it all the more exciting!) I had never really shot any wildlife/nature before.

The first thing that took me by surprise is the amount of Deer there were! absolutely loads! I was expecting to see a couple but that is about it! This was reassuring, surely I had to get some photos of these, although one thing that I realised was that due to my focal length (135mm isn’t really long enough for this sort of work!) I was going to use my expert ninja stalking skills! (and by this I mean Mark showed me and told me what to do)

The whole ordeal was a very surreal and incredible experience, the Deer are almost mythical in some ways, SO majestic in the way they move and are in an almost natural habitat. Beautiful creatures to work with and take photos of. Overall I was very very pleased with the result!

Below I’m attaching 5 images from the Italian job and 5 from Richmond Park, hope you enjoy them!

In other not so exciting news I have 2 weddings left for the year! It’s been a brilliant one so far photography wise, I’ll have to make a point of doing a summary of 2011. Got quite a few home photoshoots coming up though so they are always good fun!

Here are the Italian photos:

 
And now the Richmond Park shots:

That’s it for now! I’ll try not to leave it so long before the next post and try to make the next one significantly shorter as well!

Thanks for reading!

Jake

Or I should say morning really, nevermind…

For some reason, at 23:16 I have decided to do a blog post, just to keep you all in the loop on what’s been going on, on the ridiculous month I have had, but in a good way – It’s been busy, we like busy!

Starting from the beginning…

1. Wedding at Buxted Park in Tunbridge Wells – This was a blast, loved every moment of that day
2. Wedding at Pontlands Park
3. Wedding at Richmond Hotel, London – had a lot of fun here!
4. Wedding at Somerford Hall

I had a couple of other Photography jobs as well this month, main one being a prom for a school in Romford, Essex…either way, it’s been an extremely busy month overall, one of which I have been exhausted through out, but it’s been worth it…the material taken this month has been my best so far. I will be updating the gallery and adding some photos to the blog over this coming week.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

Jake

It’s true!

This month consists of one day off…yes…one! This month in total I have the following:

1. 4 weddings (and before anyone cracks it, no, not a funeral :p)
2. School prom
3. Car shoot
4. Lots of face to face work with clients
5. Normal day-to-day job

And I need to try and get some sleep in the middle of all that (oh and it’s my birthday on the 19th, please use the contact page to gain address details to send pressies)

Although I’m not complaining about the work load, oh no! it makes the month go quickly, helps the earnings and allows me to take more photos! (which I quite enjoy )

July has already started off to be a busy month, last weekend I shot a wedding with my friend and fellow photographer Nick Benson (see below for a link to his site) and I have to say we had an absolute blast, produced some cracking photos, the bride & groom were exceptional, the vicar was a gent – and I had never been Tunbridge Wells before so got to see around there and I really liked the area! I’ll post some photos in a week or so when I’ve got a decent collection of ‘winners’ but either way the gallery will be getting a big update! lots of lovely photos for you all to see (also for those who love a stat I shot 1200 photos that day which worked out roughly 2 for every minute we were there! )

I’ve also decided my next lens is most certainly a Canon 135L F/2.0 – now I just have to see about affording it…all donations are welcome!

Also I need to buy some other equipment, an upgraded Flash is one of them, 580ex II yes please…(fully aware that a lot of these numbers will mean nothing to you all but hey ho there are some geeks out there!)

Over the next couple of weeks I’ve got quite a bit to look forward to!

• Prom this Friday
• Consult on Saturday morning with a wedding planner
• Car shoot Saturday afternoon
• 2 Weddings next weekend (I’m going to die)
• Wedding the weekend after!
• And to finish off I’ve had a Wedding booking in August and a shoot booking as well!

Busy busy!

I think that’s enough babbling for one day, and I’ll leave you all be!

Thank you for reading (assuming you still are) – please subscribe and pass this round to friends and family I do value each and every subscriber

Check back in about a week for an update with wedding photos from last week…

Bye for now,
Jake

Nick Benson
 

Ok, so it’s been a month. Quite a lot has happened but in retrospect of other months, June is a really quiet one!

Last time I posted I said this:

• Wedding this Saturday in Essex. – Done, went well, worked with Mark and really enjoyed it.
• Photoshoot on Sunday – Portfolio shoot. – It changed, still pending to happen.
• Photoshoot next weekend – Car shoot. – Still pending, will happen soon.
• Southend Air Show next weekend which should produce some fun Red Arrow shots. – Did this, enjoyed it, but sod me it was cold! Haven’t processed any yet just been working on other projects and work as well…

Other updates:

1. I have a few more wedding gallery updates to add, just some fresh stuff, got some really nice stuff to go up, although I’m quite happy with it at the moment.
2. Lots of search engine stuff has been done to the site, you’ll see lots of nice text everywhere! It’s nice, I feel it completes the website a lot and it was missing, nice to have it finally finished off.
3. More search engine stuff to go on, I need to start tagging in my blog posts apparently, and the person doing the tagging…well she’ll kill me if I don’t (however I’m tempted to try her bluff :p)
4. Got a couple of cool features I’m going to look into adding soon (well I think they are cool)

On a side note I did a family shoot a couple of weeks ago (I will add some images to the portraits gallery as that won’t hurt to have that updated either) and I REALLY enjoyed it…I knew I enjoyed them anyway but it’s been a while and had such a good time doing it, goiing to try and promote these more.

Also, new business cards being ordered next week – well overdue, will get some pics up of those.

I was planning a longer post but I’m on earlys this week so I need my beauty sleep, but I’ll do a proper post later in the week with some new content as well attached

Until then,

Jake

My god I’m updating this blog so soon! who would’ve thought it…I’ll clarify a couple of things.

No I’m not ill, and yes I feel fine…I’m updating so soon as I have something to update it with so soon!

Anyway, it’s not a major one except to say that my Wedding gallery has been updated at long last! also the images on my home page! – I’ve still got a few more bits to come and quite a hefty amount for the portrait section, along with the SEO work being done…it’s all go at JE-Design

Work update:

• Wedding this Saturday in Essex.
• Photoshoot on Sunday – Portfolio shoot.
• Photoshoot next weekend – Car shoot.
• Southend Air Show next weekend which should produce some fun Red Arrow shots.

As always I’ll keep the blog and website as up to date as possible, but on a side note I’m particularly happy with my most recent entrys in the gallery…impressed myself, sad isn’t it? hehe

Anyway, going to go now, but thought I’d pop on and say this

Take care,
Jake

Whats New?

• I got my grip and additional battery last week
• I’ve shot 3 weddings recently, all of them were a blast and was assisting. Loved every minute!
• I’ve moved recently as well (this is a big part of the lack of updates as I’ve only had the internet for a week)
• Lots of work is being done to the website at the moment!
• I’ve lost 2 stone in weight (Ok this isn’t photography related but I’m quite proud so thought I would say something)

Ok the main part to cover here would be the final bullet point, the ‘lots of work being done to the site’

I’ve been looking into Search Engine Optimization a lot recently, it’s something thats always intrigued me and looking at my monthly figures, something I’ve always thought I should really get done, but I’ve always been a little bit suspect about it…well anyway I’ve decided to take the plunge and get my website done .

First bits of info/work have been produced this week and will be done gradually (and then implemented all at once) for a big hit then I’ll monitor the monthly stats and see how much of an improvement it makes, along with seeing how much more findable it is as well obviously, when done I’ll post the before and after figures and a link to the person doing my site so hopefully you can put some business her way after seeing some reassuring evidence it works

Oh btw, a few people mentioned about me not doing the shutter count thing anymore, well it went out the window when I bought the 5D Mark II. But I did a quick check the other day, for those that are interested when I bought it at the end of October it had 3k on the shutter, it now has 11k on there – for 3 months during me owning it I haven’t used it at all so it’s worked out at 8k of shots with 3 months of usage…there you go, pointless bit of info (and probably just lost me a subscriber)…but hey, I am a geek…stats are interesting, alright I’ll shut up, I get the picture…

Up and coming I’ve got:

• A car shoot soon, keeps getting postponed but it’ll happen, should be in May.
• Family shoot in June.
• July is shaping up to be a busy month, 2 or 3 weddings (its midnight and I need to check my diary to be sure), a private shoot as well.

Also, I’ve got A LOT of updated content coming, lots to add to the Wedding gallery especially, and the site is going to have a bit of a shuffle along with the website optimization - it’s going to be more focused and primarily based around weddings. It’s what I want to do full time, more than family portrait sessions…so that’s what you guys can expect.

Thanks for reading, it’s been a bit of a waffling post this one I admit…but I’ve quite enjoyed it and felt you guys deserved it,  hope you enjoyed reading it! don’t forget to subscribe!

Oh and by the way (yes one last thing)  I know I normally post a few images with each post but I haven’t had time this time around, plus I want to keep you all in suspense and save the content for the next version of the site, so to speak.

Take care,

Jake