Albums and layout designs- last chance for Christmas orders

Last dates for Christmas orders is fast approaching and thought I'd do a quick plug for my album work, full details here.

If you are interested in any of my luxury albums or photobooks as Christmas gifts, the deadline for submitting finalised drafts for Christmas delivery is 9th December, so let me know soon to avoid the rush.

This frail travelling coincidence

All down the line

Fresh couples climbed aboard: the rest stood round;

The last confetti and advice were thrown,

And, as we moved, each face seemed to define

Just what it saw departing: children frowned

At something dull; fathers had never known

Success so huge and wholly farcical;

The women shared

The secret like a happy funeral;

While girls, gripping their handbags tighter, stared

At a religious wounding.

An odd morning today, so something of an odd blog post. In celebration of it being 11th November 2011, Domkyrkan, one of Göteborg's principle churches, was marking the occasion with 11 simultaneous weddings which I clearly couldn't resist getting a part of. Now, I've always maintained that no two weddings are remotely alike, and was quite interested to see what this would actually look like in practise. And it was pretty impressive as young, old, gay, straight, single white roses and lös godis bouquets, traditional-white, baroque and Disney-Princess all came striding through the church yard one after another. It was all a bit of a PR event in some ways with a fair bit of corporate sponsorship kicking around and a fair portion of press, but it was quite a spectacle, watching eleven couples all standing at the altar at the same time. I don't know how the day worked. They all arrived together, but did any of them know each other? Had they chatted at the rehearsal? Would some of them link up on facebook? Judging by the sheer diversity of style, most of them didn't seem to have a great deal in common, and yet there they were all lining up together for possibly the most significant moments of their lives, at least in a symbolic sense. I wondered who they were exactly to want to have their wedding wrapped up on a Friday morning and witnessed by so many strangers.11

Free at last,

And loaded with the sum of all they saw,

We hurried towards London, shuffling gouts of steam.

Now fields were building-plots, and poplars cast

Long shadows over major roads, and for

Some fifty minutes, that in time would seem

Just long enough to settle hats and say

I nearly died,

A dozen marriages got under way.

They watched the landscape, sitting side by side

—An Odeon went past, a cooling tower,

And someone running up to bowl—and none

Thought of the others they would never meet

Or how their lives would all contain this hour.

So what's with all the Philip Larkin? Couldn't help but be reminded of it as total strangers shared such an important event and were then whisked off into the waiting crowd outside of twenty four families, friends and countless passers by. It's a feeling I often get packing up my kit at the end of a job while the disco is getting into full swing. I well recognise the immense privilege to be part of somebody else's wedding, to have watched their ceremony, listened to often intensely personal speeches about people whom, for all our discussions, I have only met a handful of times and to have been trusted to take the wedding photographs of. And then, while I'll be going over the pictures for a couple of weeks afterwards, and while there'll still be album designs to be discussed and, hopefully, baby and family portraits to look forward to, my taxi will arrive and I'll be on a train back to London. And, like the eleven couples married this morning, everyone who shares in that moment together will part ways into an unknown, hopefully happy, and unquestionably unique, future

I thought of London spread out in the sun,

Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat:

There we were aimed. And as we raced across

Bright knots of rail

Past standing Pullmans, walls of blackened moss

Came close, and it was nearly done, this frail

Travelling coincidence; and what it held

Stood ready to be loosed with all the power

That being changed can give. We slowed again,

And as the tightened brakes took hold, there swelled

A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower

Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain.

-Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings.

Sarah and George

Some Irish wedding photography this time, for Sarah and George in Lismore Cathedral a short distance from Sarah's family home. With a request for a minimum of formal shots and a friend handling the bridal shoot while I met up with George and his groomsmen and no photography that would interrupt the service, it was mostly a day of reportage, but in truly spectacular surroundings.

I was in Lismore for a couple of days, but unfortuneately the weather didn't co-operate and so it was mostly indoor reportage with off-camera speedlights and a chance to show off the low-noise capabilities of the D700. Being indoors for this wedding was no bad thing at all though. The Cathedral and the house were decked in some of the most impressive flower displays I’ve ever seen. The interior itself was extraordinary in its grandeur, most notably the staircase which, as well as functioning as my best way to see over the crowd, we managed to arrange the entire wedding party onto for the group shop opposite, which went extremely smoothly and got the whle party straight from the dining room to the dance floor.

As with all the best weddings, things finished off with a Ceilidh and compliments have to go to the two impromptu bouts of folk singing that went with it.

A couple of montages

Not sure why these never got posted, but here are a couple of montage videos from last month's weddings here. Will and Julia's wedding enormous yet wonderfully laid-back celebration in Brussels, and Daisuke and Sagiri's much more intimate one in University college Oxford.

Folksuniversitetet, Japanese wedding, and then some

Some Japanese wedding photography in Oxford, a commercial shoot for Folkuniversitetet in Gothenburg, an SWPP seminar courtesy of Kevin Mullins on his unique reportage in Suffolk, and a couple of possible client meetings are all just part of what's been a very busy week so far with now just a day to get myself ready for Sarah and George's wedding in Ireland this weekend.

So, as usual, I'm going to let a picture tell a lot more words than I have time for while I turn my attention to my well-honed art of fitting my wedding gear into two 10kg bags and getting some processing underway.

A couple of pictures from Daisuke and Sagiri's, and an initial preview from a marketing shoot for Gothenburg Folkuniversitetet which is eventually going to be part of a 'Day in the Life' photo-essay for their anniversary book, due later this year.

New preview, and Wedding-Whippet

Running a bit behind my usual two week turn-around on the pictures from Will and Julia's Belgian wedding, so here are a couple more previews showing a bit more of the day.

As well as trying to show a bit more of the day, we proudly present the third most important member of the day, George who... even if I'm wrong in labelling a whippet, did a pretty good job of stealing the show, not to mention breaking several hearts.

Jeremy&Louise full album now up

Pictures from Jeremy and Louise's wedding at Cain Manor near Farnham, now online. Highlights video here:

Will and Julia preview

Impossible to do justice to Will and Julia's wedding in Parc Tournay-Solvay in Brussels in just a few pictures, but here's a quick preview with many, many more to come, complete with crumbling chateau, gypsy band and of course the frite van.

Full Tali and Johan album now online

Jeremy and Louise Preview

Congratulations to Jeremy and Louise, married 21st August. Quick sneak preview now before they take off on their three month honeymoon, but plenty more to come.

First peek at Mike and Jeni's

Away for a bit

Bit of time between jobs so taking a short break away. Still getting emails but might have slow response time for the next week or so. Back in time for Mike and Jeni's on the 30th.

Luke&Emily preview

A quick preview of some of the shots from Luke&Emily's wedding last weekend. More to come. A lot more...

Pro-shoot, with a sprinkling of lomo

Well, it's been a late star this year, but the 2011 summer wedding season is clearly here with two venue-visits, four client meetings and a wedding all in the next four days. Got a fun wedding to start the season with on Saturday, mixing some high resolution full-frame DSLR perfection in a 500-year-old college, with hipster lomography wizardry in a hotel/converted-prison. Intrigued? See here later in a few weeks for the results.

Sad news just come in that the long-awaited studio for September has fallen through and but plans remain to get something set up soon and, in the meantime, at-home lighting sets and portrait shoots are still going.

And, for those of you wanting to test your creative photography, here's a challenge for you:

Matilda och Paul

Not an official job, so no formal portraits, but I was a guest at Matilda and Paul's wedding at their renovated farmhouse in Västra Götaland. Probably the most laid back wedding I've ever been to, a refreshing change from some of my larger jobs, and I hope that it comes across in the reportage. Enjoy!

Back in the driving seat

Spring is here, and with it the return of the blog. I realised the other day that not only has it been months since I updated this, I didn't even sign off with the end of the season back in November (there was to be an update at Christmas, but a batch of what I like to tell people was Swine flu put everything else on hold for a bit).

So what do photographers in chilly climates do outside the wedding season? It's been fairly quite really, trying to get myself registered in Sweden and getting ready to start here in earnest just as soon as I get a final few confirmations from Migrationsverket which will allow me to set up a company here. Big news is that there's also studio coming together, but more on that another time.

Highlight of the off-season is always the SWPP convention in London. The SWPP is the UK's principal Society for Wedding and Portrait photographers who host one of the largest conventions of its type in January. It's a great chance to keep up to date with developments in the industry as well as to experience some really inspiring talks and demonstrations and of course the trade fair which never ceases to amaze with the number of toys to play with and the quality of some of the product offerings, although I'm still a firm believer that Loxley Colour still have the edge.

It's also a very good time for a bit of professional development and an opportunity to spend some more leisurely time honing skills behind the lens instead of in front of the editing screen. I was able to attend a workshop at the end of last year with Adam Alex , one of the UK's bigger names. Very interesting approach he has and looking forward to offering a more contemporary twist to my standard shoot this year to couples who want to include a touch of fashion inspired photography to their albums (but not Benetton... I have my limits.)

Right, that's enough for now... but good to be back and watch this space.