Wedding Photography - Clearwell Castle & Milton Keynes Village

I had a busy end of week last week. I was helping my friend Samantha Pommells out for a wedding at Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire. We had a lovely day with Kate and Phil then had to scoot across to Buckinghamshire (via my Mum and Dad's - home cooked casserole and a night of telly)for Sarah and Steve's day in Milton Keynes Village.

The weather was great for both days (hoorah!) and a good time was had by all.

I've yet to edit the photos but I thought I'd just pull a few frames to share.

Kim and Dan's Wedding PhotoVideo

Here's the PhotoVideo for Kim and Dan's wedding at Soughton Hall, North Wales in March. It was a lovely, close family day with a contingent flying in from Germany. Notice the bold purple and black feathers for the wedding breakfast and Kim's very structured dress (and colour). Unique and enjoyable...

National Wedding Show at Olympia, 18th-20th Feb, 2011

I took a trip to the National Wedding Show at Olymplia last week to get an idea of the sort of things that people were offering to couples for the coming year - and a little research on the wedding fair front as it something I don't do and wondered if I should.
Approximately 300 stands (10% of which were photographers) and plenty of choice for couples touring the show BUT the sad thing was I think the choice was pretty much between different degrees of very 'vanilla' wedding goods, so much of the goods you would find in the High Street or via a very broad 'google' as to render the bringing together of everyone obsolete. Doing two circuits of the show I found 3 companies that I thought offered interesting and well thoughtout goods or services with a passion for something different.

Wonderland Bakery - bespoke, handmade decorations, favours and cakes. Vintage and gorgeous.

Shropshire Petals - natural, bio-degradable petals in a fantastic range of colours, and I net the farmer!

Staggered - A male wedding planning website for blokes who feel left out!

As for me I wanted to be wowed and excited by all the ideas that brides were being offered to design their own days and create a really unique wedding - but I wasn't. I'm sorry to say I left disappointed knowing that for the majority of people attending who wanted to create a truely original day to remember that reflected their passions and style the search would have to continue... I should have gone to the Designer Vintage Bridal Show in Birmingham the same weekend - I was going but I came back from London with a sore throat that left me flat on my back for the weekend so I missed it!
There was a good Catwalk show at Olympia and I'll be blogging that soon with lots of pics.

'Bus Stop' rehearsals at the New Vic

I was asked to drop by rehearsals this week for 'Bus Stop' at the New Vic Theatre. The theatre likes to get some images of the actors working to generate some pre-publicity and create content for the website and I like the opportunity to try to shoot 'process' shots and capture peoples' working lives.
It's nicer to be brought in earlier in the process as you have more visual props to indicate what's happening (scripts in hand, more discussion about the scene etc.) otherwise it can look like a performance without the costumes or props or scenery! But it was still a great opportunity to show something people generally don't get to see and break the ice with the actors before I shoot the Dress Rehearsal in a couple of weeks time.

Contemporary Wedding Photographer Staffordshire

This is how I'm describing myself. I've had a lot of irons in the fire and now it's time to throw my energies in one major direction. The New Year brings a re-branding of me and my wedding website (http://www.weddingedge.co.uk) which I hope to have time to concentrate on and launch around April. I've had to think hard about what I love about shooting weddings (the people, telling stories, capturing unique moments, surprising people with what I've observed and how I've chosen to show it)and how I can stay true to the way I want to photograph events (natural, unguarded, candid, relaxed - with fun and unstrained 'formal' shots). This has to be reflected in how I represent myself to the world so this is going to be a hard road, but fun I hope.
I'll still stay fresh by doing other photography and I'm really happy to be working again this year with the New Vic Theatre, Partners in Creative Learning and some models and bands. Welcome 2011, bring it on!

Adam & Renu

In the interests of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) I have been advised to link from YouTube in order for the Google spiders to find me. Apologies for the boring nature of this post but please enjoy seeing Lizzy's wedding in Oxford...
I'm shooting my last wedding of the year this Saturday in Exeter and am really looking forward to it (as long as the snows stay away). I'm also in the middle of a really interesting project with Creative Partnerships in Staffordshire (Partners in Creative Learning) working as part of two affinity groups in schools and documenting the process... more from this in the New Year. Have a happy Christmas one and all.

Looking forward to Winter Weddings!

This time of the year I'm reading a lot of articles, tweets and blogs from photographers bemoaning the fact that the clocks have changed and days are darker and it makes shooting a wedding day hard. Yes we need light to shoot and I use available light for the majority of the time but when you dig down to it they seem to be complaining that they can't shoot weddings in the way they want to - posed shots in dappled sunlight, groups lit by the sun and plenty of time in the light to shoot. Embrace the situation - shoot in more innovative ways. The day is not just a collection of people that you pose in front of the lens. Make your theme the emotions of the day, the coming together of people to celebrate - a couple has chosen to marry later in the year (roaring fires, cuddling together, sheltering from rainy days) let's not pretend it's mid-summer! Wow! That was a bit of a rant but it obviously needed to come out! Anyway I've had a great Autumn so far - great weddings, interesting theatre, a holiday in Kos and a slideshow for a couple that went viral! (2,500 hits in 3 hours - see above) More soon...

Silent Anger - Reveal Theatre Company

On Thursday I did the production photography for a new play that is touring through May called 'Silent Anger' by Reveal Theatre Company - a very powerful piece of theatre exploring race hatred in Britain today. 4 Actors, 2 Crates, 2 Projection Screens and one white floor. Very simple but very effective. I've attached a slideshow that gives a flavour of the play, have a peek; I tried in shooting the performance to create a sense of the 'look', style and dynamism within the play.