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.

Wall-mounts, Christmas cards, Portraits, oh my!

First of all, a big thank-you to everybody who came along to last month's showcase in London. It was great to see you all, and great to have my work all in one place for once as well as to see clients old and new. After spending so long on each couples' pictures and albums, I sometimes forget that they don't actually wear big white dresses the whole time.

So with my last wedding for 2010 done, what next?

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the products section of the new site is now up and, wouldn't you know it, just in time for Christmas. So if having to start up the laptop every time you want to see your pictures doesn't quite do it for you, there are now several styles of wall print to choose from. The styles are the work of top-end printers Loxley Colour and can be ordered directly from the Recent Albums section of the site. In addition Greetings/Thank-you cards are

now available to order directly from the site as well so if you want a more personal style of Christmas card this year, now is the time to order them.

Meanwhile, there's still low season work continues aplenty with family and portrait shoots. Last week, there was a shoot was all set to be a large outdoor executive portrait session in Göteborg... which would have been fine had it not been the first day of snow. Actually I think the light would have been perfect, but I seriously doubt that the subjects would have been so instead it was a session in the foyer.

End of season and October showcase announcement

Last wedding of the season was Ben and Holly who were married in Tunbridge Wells. Once again, my job was made easier by having Alex Brenner with me to cover the groom in the morning and to obtain coverage of the ceremony from further up the church. The full set is still a few more days off, but from the album so far it is a spectacular set of pictures coming out and a very satisfying job to finish on all round.

Meanwhile wheels are being set in motion for... the London showcase 2010 which will be in the Bishopsgate Balls Brothers on Thursday 21st October from 6.30pm (see below for details). There will be a selection of albums on display, a running slideshow and perhaps more importantly free drinks... but only until the tab is used up, so make sure to come along early, print and bring along a copy of the postcard below. All are very welcome to come along though and make sure to tell all those newly engaged couples fresh back from their holidays.

Finally the main website has received an update including more details on my events and portraiture work and, of course, the 2010 wedding portfolio montage.

An English, a Welsh and a Scots wedding...

Not the start of a bad joke, simply a description of my July. A reminder though of how every wedding I shoot ends up being unique in some way. City, village, countryside... Quaker, Anglican, Civil... Posed, Reportage, Contemporary... Band, Disco, Ceilidh... definitely avoiding falling into the trap of treating all jobs as the same, as is always the danger with some schools of wedding photography.

First up was Emma and Gregory in Edinburgh. Emma and Gregory's was an interesting one in

that they had two ceremonies. The first was a very low-key Quaker meeting in their local

meeting house before the official ceremony, a much grander Church of Scotland one. They asked for no photography at all during the actual ceremonies and so instead the start of the day was their

reception venue at the Mansfield Traquair... and what a venue! While I wouldn't go so far as to call it "The Sistine Chapel of Edinburgh" as the bumf goes, this recently renovated old church is a staggering and vast space, covered with some truly remarkable murals. It also has a shockingly high minstrel's gallery which is where I spent many of the quiet moments of the evening clutching white-knuckled to a single bar of scaffolding while trying to do some justice to what was going on below.

And, what better way to finish a Scottish wedding than the timeless

tradition of a Ceilidh. With a wedding party that was mostly English and French, there were always bound to be a bit of confusion with some of the dances, but they didn't do at all badly and I managed to get some pretty good picture from it too.

Straight after that came Paul and Elen in the Brecon Beacons. The reception was in a Georgian spa with a splendid view out of the rear balconies down a steep river valley. I made the drive across to Wales the day beforehand to get a proper look round the venues and get myself fully prepared. It really makes a difference to wake up right in the place where a wedding takes place instead of needing to catch an early morning train.

Despite the usual protestations of being unphotogenic, Paul and Elen were a dream to shoot and very keen to take some time out from the bustle of the day to make sure they had some really stunning portraits. One of their requests was to get photos which captured the scenery and we were able to use a disused coach-house on the main road to the reception to get some great vistas down the valley. They were also certainly not going to let a little thing like a stile after rainy weather get in the way of some good pics.

Finally, Harvey and Sarah were married in the village church a few hundred yards from their newly rennovated house and garden in Essex which iswhere their reception took place. When I visited them a month earlier everything was still in chaos but on the day you could see the love and

hard work which had gone into making both their wedding venue and their home. The day was almost completely reportage owing to a distinct aversion to cameras from both bride and groom, but I think I managed to catch the spirit of the day while letting both Harvey and Sarah enjoy themselves.

Got a short trip away next week but back again for the tail end of the season in September.