Let it snow!

Wow, a week before Christmas and here in Essex snow is laying everywhere - it looks amazing and gave me a chance to get out with the camera and shoot for myself for a change.  I took the image below near Brentwood.

Almost caught up on all my work, added some more to the new website, although still trying to work out which gallery to use for my examples - flash galleries look nice, but I like the customisation that HTML galleries allow me.
Also putting together my review of 2009 which is harder than I thought because trying to decide which photos to include is really hard - I will probably have to do it in two parts to allow me to use more images.
Other than that, not much to report - things slow down a lot at this time of year - giving me a chance to catch up on the accounts, send equipment off to be serviced etc.
Anyway, there will probably be one more entry before the New Year (and the review) and then we will be into 2010!  So I will take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Flickr updates.

Hi all, just a quick post whilst drinking my coffee and having a break. As some of you may or may not of noticed, I have updated my Flickr account with a number of images from this years weddings. To access my Flickr photostream just click on one of the tiny slideshows to the right. This is by no means an exhaustive list of my favourite wedding shots of the year (I have taken over 30000 photos this year, well, between me and my assistants that is) but just a few I had laying around on my hard drive or in my "photoshopped stuff" folder on my desktop. I plan to post another 100 or so before the end of the year - and also some of my favourite shots from venue visits, corporate events and just my hobby shots ( I have a great shot I took of the Home Secretary Alan Johnson surrounded by crying babies!)
However I will still be putting together an end of year review and posting it on here - I can see from my stats I now have a fair number of regular readers which is great! I can also see the blog is bringing people to my site due to certain keywords I drop in here and there as well which was the original plan of the blog, although since then its become a lot more than an SEO tool.
Anyway, finished my coffee now and lots of work to be getting on with. Be sure to leave comments if you get a few minutes - you dont need a blogger account and they can be left anonymously.

Chat later!

Last wedding of 2009. DONE!

Well a cause for celebration as I managed to get to the end of a very tough year. I shot my last wedding of 2009 yesterday for Sarah & Phil - I didn't get home until 1am this morning but we had a great time and I am looking forward to sorting the photos in the next week or so. However, now the catchup work begins, I still have a number of albums to get out of the door and even a few from October/November to complete and send the proofs out so no chance to take my foot off the peddle just yet - but its looking like I will have everything done by Christmas week which will be great as it will give me a chance to take a well earned break. I will be tinkering with the new website a bit more, but I wont start that in earnest until after Christmas. I will also be writing a few more blog entries and will possibly write a review of 2009 featuring my favourite photos from all my weddings of the year.

Next up is working on another website with Kevin to push our photography training days which we are looking to expand a lot next year. We own the website name which considering how many photography teaching websites there are out there we managed to grab a really good one, however more on that early next year, but after two successful `Introduction to Wedding Photography` courses now we have a feeling this is a venture that could really take off!

Also I need to start looking at mounting an attempt of my Associateship with the BIPP, I am still toying with this idea, I feel I have some incredible work from this year, but debating whether or not to leave it another year to refine my style somewhat.

My last actual photography job of the year is on the 18th December which is a Christmas party at West Ham Football Club. I shot the party last year and had a great time so really looking forward to this years bash.

Then it all starts again with a venue visit on January 1st with Vicky & Alan!

Ooooooh! Exciting...

Flag counter

Added a wee flag counter widget to my sidebar - this will show me where my visitors are coming from - it replaces the twitter feed which didn`t really belong there.

Not really an update I guess - just me playing around. Currently working on a redesign of the website - probably wont go live for a good 3 or 4 months yet - hopefully get a lot done over the winter.

Hopefully the next update will be a bit more substantial.

Adios!

Phil & Sarah - Venue Visit

Out today to visit Sarah & Phil who are getting married in December. Phil was Bestman at a wedding I shot earlier this year at Walcott Hall (pre-blog days) - he holds the eyecandy record for the most EPIC bestmans speech ever.

Anyway, we had the venue all to ourselves today and had a bit of time & privacy to get some cracking shots, this is one of my personal favourites - all shot with my new sparkly Canon 85mm 1.2L lens.. its a bit of a beast and sucks photons out of the air like a blackhole.

Comments please!

Special blog entry for Mel, Keith & Friends.

...I know they are eagerly awaiting their photos and I know they read the blog - so a few to whet their appetites whilst they wait just a couple of more days.

Too busy to update!

Currently working through the backlog of albums I have - I managed to get three sent off to Queensberry this week which is a HUGE weight of my chest - hopefully sending another two more over this weekend. I know I have been neglecting my blog, but I really am far too busy for mindless chit chat.

Next week I should have a nice big update for you all, with pictures and everything!

I did get a chance to go to a fireworks display tonight here in Basildon. My biggest bugbear with the local one is that they always do it on the 5th of November, which whilst traditional isn't the best of ideas when you have a five year old who normally is in bed at 7pm standing around in a field at 19:45 waiting for the display to kick off. Why can't they hold it on the nearest Friday or Saturday? - they would probably get a lot more people as well.

A strongly worded letter to the Basildon Round Table group is required methinks!!

Nothing going on at Eyecandy Towers....

.. at the moment - back is getting better - been up and about this week and seem to be more comfortable with everyday tasks. Looking at refreshing the main gallery so it better represents the work we are now producing - will also update the album pages to show off the new materials available from Queensberry. There may be a blog post coming up in the near future about Queensberry (our Album suppliers) and how we go about designing our albums.

But I will leave you with this gorgeous image of Shoma who recently got married at Pembroke Lodge in beautiful Richmond Park.

Halloween fast approaches.

...and my inbox starts filling up with people commenting on my `Zombie` tutorial on Youtube. For those of you who haven`t seen it, its something I knocked up a few years back to show off some photoshop techniques I had been working on. After a number of requests I wrote a text tutorial for a couple of websites who took an interest in it, then created a short video of the whole creation process - the whole thing only took me 12 minutes to create (which is why the teeth dont line up correctly - watch the video, you`ll see what I mean) but I speeded it up 3x to keep it at a youtube friendly 4 minutes.

Anyway, I always get a steady stream of emails and comments on the video, but they always start picking up around October time as people start searching out creepy things to do with photoshop. I just thought I would share it here with my readers. I havent quite worked out a way I could combine these photoshop skills with my wedding photography - maybe if I get a Goth wedding in the future I might get a chance!

And yes, that is an image of me that I start with - form an orderly queue please ladies!

Twittered up.

I bit the bullet I'm afraid - got on the twitter bandwagon earlier today. Now got to try and work out how to use and/or exploit it to my advantage.

However, you can imagine my surprise when I found one can only "Tweet" (picking up the lingo already - impressive eh?) a maximum of 160 characters - including spaces!? Whats that all about then?

It then did something to my iPhone which allows me to "tweet" from wherever I am - so I can join the legions of people who post their every move for anyone bored enough to read.

However, that means you can all `follow` me now, which sounds rather ominous and stalkerish, but likewise I can `follow` other people as well, which sounds tremendously exciting.

Anyway, for those of you who would like to add me to your `following` list then you can find my twitter profile at

http://twitter.com/icandyphoto

Will no doubt update it regularly for a few days, then end up getting bored of it. However, I thought this Blog would be a `five minute wonder`, but I have kept it up pretty well, so who knows.

UPDATE - just added a Twitter gadget to the sidebar.

This is how wedding videos should be shot.

Never been a big fan of videography at weddings, but this is nothing short of amazing. It's great to see individuals out there pushing the boundaries of this medium - however at around $20000 to fly them over from Canada, it isn't a cheap option. But this work is phenomenal. Everything about it is perfect, from the choice of soundtrack, to that amazingly brave shot at 2:08 where they pan inside the church, looking up at the ceiling and finally settling on the bride walking up the aisle, to the voiceovers - the editing is so tight and fits perfectly. 10 out of 10. Enjoy.

Injured little soldier.

Picked up an injury at the weekend - put my back out, only just got back from chiropractor - thank god I dont have a wedding this weekend - cant walk - bored of laying in bed with ice packs on my back - thank god for the iPhone my only link to the outside world - and great for playing online poker.

Must buy new laptop.

I am so bored I even toyed with the idea of getting on `twitter`.

Can't type any more. Hopefully back in action by the weekend.

All sympathy greatly received.

BIPP and beyond!

OK, as you may or may not know I am a Licenciate of the British Institute of Professional Photography - this is THE qualification to have if one is serious about their work - when I worked for Max I realised how professional it looked to have the letters LBIPP (ABIPP or FBIPP) after ones name - maybe not to Joe Public who might not of heard of the BIPP, but certainly to other photographers. It's not just about fancy letters after your name, its a sign that you have reached a certain standard in your photography - they dont let any old Tom, Dick or Harry in y`know!

However, I am now looking at progressing onto my Associateship, the second level of qualification. With some of the work I have produced this year, I am quietly confident that I can at least make a good impression with the judges.

The BIPP have already run an interview/case study with me earlier this year - which brings a surprising amount of traffic to my website.

I think towards the end of the year I will post a `best of` gallery to get everyone else's opinion. With the grading interviews in April of next year, I have to start thinking which ones to use.

Wish me luck!

Time is on my side... sometimes.

After another fantastic day this time shooting a Wedding in Thurlston, Devon, I have a few comments regarding time given to the photographer to create the formals - now as you know when I talk about formals I am referring to the intimate shots with just the bride & groom - the money shots, the showstoppers, the ones that your friends & family will see and just say. "Wow!". Now these will not be the `reportage` (urgh, I hate that word) style shots, these will be the ones where I am allowed to flex my artistic muscles and create images that really will be the envy of all your work colleagues when you show them your album/gallery etc. These are the ones I will need some time to work on to get just right... I have so many ideas when it comes to the formals, but they do require a little time to pose, compose and shoot - it may mean I have to set up a couple of flashes on stands so that I can tease light onto the subjects face - it usually requires me to lay down on the floor to work depth and texture into a shot using foreground subjects - but I will guarantee you that if I am given time I will create work that really will stun you, remind you why you hired me and make you feel & look like a million dollars (about £631226 taking the current exchange rate into consideration - but I digress). My style is not and never will be 100% reportage - I hope my clients never hire me thinking that is the case.

The one most important thing I try to achieve every time I shoot a wedding is to capture the emotion between the B&G, but in a way that looks stylish - not tacky. Maybe selfishly I try to create amazing images for my own reasons - anyone who knows me knows how goddamn passionate I am about this job - to not be able to capture YOU in amazing and stylish ways frustrates me so much - I want to progress in my chosen career - I want to deliver images my clients deserve - I don't want to be some hack churning out the same old formulaic rubbish time after time - I know my clients know this and hopefully its some of that passion that endears me to them.

All I ask is for a little bit of time to capture all that magic and bottle it up for you.

Thanks so much for reading again

Cheers, Mark

PS - we was given time for the image below - I love it to pieces. Its the first one I grabbed from loads we took - I cant wait to get started on the others, but they need to wait until next week - I have a LOT of catching up to do!

PPS - the next post will be far more upbeat and less whiny - I promise!!!

New projects.

OK, as some of you may know, I am currently setting up a number of training courses and photographic workshops along with one of my freelance photographers Kevin, the first one of which was a wedding workshop last month that went really well. Due to demand we have now scheduled another one for November.

As a result, Kevin & I have decided to work on this together which includes setting the whole project up as a separate enterprise to Eyecandy. We are still working on names etc. but today we registered a whole bunch of domain names so we can setup a website in the very near future.

Eventually we hope to be able to cover a wide range of photographic disciplines from Basic D-SLR training courses, wedding seminars and even studio lighting & nature photography workshops. Further down the line we are looking at holding seminars and talks and may look into inviting prestigious photographers along for Q&A sessions. Its early days yet but we are both very excited with some of the other ideas we are coming up with. It will certainly help those quieter winter months fly by (and help keep the bank account healthy).

Once I have some more news and can share some of our even better ideas I will post here. Keep checking back often, I know from my webstats I have around 15-20 regular visitors (and I also know who two of them are now - right girls? ;-) - and feel free to leave comments.

One last thing - a few weeks back I mentioned that I was designing my new brochure and couldn't decide between two covers. Well in the end I opted for a completely different cover - but I am very happy with the choice - it is a far more classic shot and should look amazing on the super-high glossy paper we have opted for. Hopefully I will find out in the next few days when 2500 of them are delivered to Eyecandy Towers.

You can view it by clicking HERE - however be warned it is a large PDF file weighing in at around 50mb - so will take a few minutes to download even on a relatively fast connection.

Hablamos mas tarde!

Not much really happening...

Just a quick update to please those search engines, not much happeneing, still shooting a wedding every week at the moment, although I did have this Saturday off ,well, I did have a venue visit in beautiful autumnal Richmond Park and another on Sunday at Mannings Heath Golf Club again - but my first Saturday evening at home in about the last thirteen weeks - I did shoot a wedding at Forbes House in swanky Kensington/Belgravia on Friday though, so still keeping busy on the wedding front. Attached a few pictures from that day here - shot most of the formals inside as we had the most amazing light filtering in through the windows we just HAD to use it. I guess as we move more towards the darker afternoons/evenings we will be shooting more and more formals inside - but lets enjoy that amazing autumn late afternoon light whilst we have it.

Some from last week.

Just a couple of my favourites from last weeks shoot. I love the 1950s hollywood feel to both of these. The couple are Pip & Ash married at Rivervale Barn near Sandhurst. Its a great example of what is possible given enough time to shoot some formals. These are going to look so good in their album. Click on the images to view larger versions.

Wedding at Rivervale Barn

Reportage vs Formals vs Art

One thing this year that has been playing on my mind a bit is regarding Reportage v Formals - now I am not a big fan of the word `reportage`, its been thrown around amongst wedding photographers both good and bad and during the past few years & the whole concept has become somewhat diluted - clients or potential clients will approach me, whether it be after meeting me at an exhibition, finding my website or being referred to me from another couple whose wedding I have shot and they say they want the reportage style of wedding shoot - but when I say "fine, that means you dont want any group shots or posed formals" they generally say "oh yes, we want those as well" - which isn`t really a reportage wedding.

If you'll allow me to expand on that a bit -

The problem stems from photographers and their web galleries - when a bride (or groom, but usually the bride) is reading up on wedding photography they visit all these websites and see these wonderful `reportage` slideshows showing about 15 or so images from a single wedding, backed with a nice snip of emotive piano music and the initial impact is usually "WOW!" - and they do look great, simple & effective, showing tiny snapshots of the day and making the whole slideshow `pop` with some nifty photoshopping and cool black and white effects. The only problem with that is the prospective client wouldn't only want to be presented with 30 or so `reportage` images for their many hundreds or even thousands of pounds spent. It’s a problem I have been wrestling with all year - do I present less images? do I cut out my DVD package and not allow the client to see,literally, hundreds of shots of the day and just send the couple a proof of the album and my interpretation of the day? Or do I post 600 shots on my website so they can see every tiny thing we captured? I like to think of my style as 65% "reportage", 35% formals - and by formals I don't mean lots of group shots, I am talking about the artistic couple shots which are posed but not in a contrived 1980s style - I like to bring the essence of the couple into my formals, integrating the venue, the weather, the lighting and some love and personality - but when that’s tied in with some nice reportage it can make for an amazing album, something you can pull out on a cold winters night whilst sitting in your lounge and relive the day through 20 pages of well picked, tastefully laid out photographs, in fact, something you can pull out in ten years time with your kids on your lap and they will say "wow Mummy you look so pretty".

I think within the next few years I will drop the number of images shown in my online galleries from 500 or so now, down to 250 - I certainly don`t want to end up turning into some `hack` photographer treating every wedding like a souless product on a production line just so I get my paydirt - thankfully I know I will never get to that stage , but looking at a lot of photographers out there it seems, sadly, that the way it is going for some of them. Anyone who knows me, friend, family or client will know I have an absolute passion for photography, whilst this is a job for me, I still have that fire in my belly to become great within my field and respected by my peers. I just want to produce work that will tingle emotions in ten, twenty or even thirty years from now when my clients look at their wedding album.

Thanks for reading.

A dilemma!

I have hit a bit of a problem regarding the design of my new brochure. It's regarding the frontcover - I am torn between two images both of which are rather similar but equally pretty.

Bearing in mind this year we are going for very glossy A4 brochures to really make an impact at the exhibitions and so it stands out in amongst all the other pamphlets that will no doubt being filling the vistors bags to bursting. So, here are my two choices - I know I have a number of regular visitors to the blog (I can tell from my web-logs, although I have no idea who you are!) so it would be great if you could just leave a comment telling me what you think- you dont even need a blogspot account to leave comments, just leave them anonymously.

Thanks!!

School days.

Well yesterday was the day that we held our first "Introduction to Wedding Photography" training course. We hired out the facilities at Crondon Park Golf Course in Essex and we had four students in our initial `intake` and we had a great day! In the morning we talked about the wedding day as it happens, the do and don'ts, how to prepare and be ready, essential equipment and we also took some questions relating to the business aspects of wedding photography (although the business side is another course we are planning). After a lovely hot buffet lunch we introduced a couple of models for the practical aspects of the course - covering areas such as posing, direction, communication and looking for and utilising intersting areas for the bride & groom portraits.

We also used the Function Suite area to discuss flash lighting - both on-camera and off-camera - natural lighting and how to add movement to otherwise dull and flat images. I believe everyone went away with lots of information to mull over - I certainly had to learn how to teach as I had never done anything like that before, but its certainly something we will be expanding upon in the near future - in fact the next course may well be "An introduction to DSLR photography" and even a couple of nature workshops!

I have attached a few shots that I fired off inbetween advising the students - thanks to our models Emily and Lee for working so hard and being incredibly patient.

Have golf cart - will play!

Saturday found Kevin and I at Mannings Heath Golf Club in Surrey - as always I had met the couple beforehand at the venue which gave me a chance to scout out the best areas for the formals and maybe a touch of inspiration - Hazel & Andy (the happy couple) had said they would be able to commandeer a couple of golf buggies for the afternoon/evening and that we could maybe use them to get around.. this led me to thinking how we could use them and maybe incorporate them into some photos - this would work on a couple of levels as 1. they would be fun shots and 2. it would give the images a sense of location. So the initial idea I had was to capture the golf buggy driving past me at speed and I could pan alongside to give the images a sense of motion. However these mighty machines have had a speed limiter installed which allows them to move at about a fast running pace - not ideal for motion panning shots unless we left the shutter open a bit longer, but that runs the risk of camera shake and blurriness (and not the good type!). Then Kev struck upon the idea of having the Cart drive around us in circles, allowing us more chances to capture a pin sharp photo. The idea worked a treat and the photo came out really well as you can see below.

We also took a few shots on the course, including one with me laying in a bunker whilst the bride hacked sand over me with a hockey stick - sounds weird eh? Again - photo below.

I did get one other shot during the bridal preps that I liked so much it is onthe frontpage of the website now (we rotate the image displayed on the frontpage each time the site is reloaded so you may have to reload the page several times until it appears).. I will have to be honest here, I did copy the idea from a portrait of Noel Gallagher I saw in a gallery a few weeks back, but I loved it so much I just had to pinch the idea for my own needs.

Oldie but goodie.

Trawling through some of my older photos looking to refresh the gallery on my main website (got loads of new material to put on there this year) I found this shot tucked away in a folder - it was from a relatively small wedding a few years back - the great thing about it was the Bride & Groom and all their friends were really into the whole `Mod` scene circa late 1950s/early 1960s, and the wedding was fashioned to resemble how a wedding (they assumed) would of been during those times. They dressed in incredibly authentic clothes, they all had Lambretta or Vespa scooters (the Mods transportation of choice) and the reception was held in a very old style village hall in deepest darkest Essex, even the DJ used old style record players using genuine 1960s vinyl.. A great experience - in the shot here you can see how fantastic they all looked - I even went to the effort of researching how black & white photos looked at the time and emulated it so the photos had a real vintage look and feel to them.. Super cool people.

Busy busy busy!

So the wedding season is in full swing and I am now shooting weddings every Saturday up until the Wedding show at Birmingham NEC in October (then busy for the next month after that), coupled in with the remaining pre-wedding venue visits I have yet to sort out, organising the exhibition stuff, designing our new 2010 brouchure (more on that soon), going through the photos from each wedding and designing the albums, thank you cards and making sure everything gets sent out to the right people I am certainly going to be putting in some long days and nights over the next few months. Luckily I have my family & friends behind me 100% and my ever suffering other half Angela (who some of you would of met if you booked us at the wedding shows) who rarely sees me these days as I am always in front of this damn computer or out shooting weddings or even meeting new/potential clients. Still, everything so far this year has gone swimmingly and the bookings are up for next year, and even a few in 2011! incredible!

So, onwards and upwards! The shot below is from the week

end, Anna (Swedish) & Craig (British) who both live in Germany, so it was a real melting

pot of cultures & nationalities AND the first weekend in ages it hasn't poured down. MAGIC!

The wedding was at Coombe Abbey near Coventry.

Prime or Zoom?

Hola y bienvenido a todos!

OK, just a quick update today - I am currently going through my most recent wedding (Josephine & Bobby, Tamworth Castle) and I have realised that I am now using my prime lenses far more often that my zooms. Whoa! I hear you cry (the non-geeky non-photo type amongst you that is), whats the difference between the two? Well a zoom lens is possibly the most popular type amongst most photographers, it has a variable focal length, basically THAT means that you can zoom in and out, its more pratical and can act as many lenses in one. Now a Prime Lens on the other hand only has one focal length, basically if you want to get closer or further from your subject then you have to zoom in with your feet. But surely thats inconvinient?! (thats you asking again, my hard rocking amigos), Ummm, a little bit but I feel the benefits of a prime lens are a huge benefit in comparison, the image quality is far superior - crisper, sharper images with plenty of contrast and colour saturation, they also weigh less (in most cases) - AND they are also generally faster than zoom lenses in the similar focal lengths, and faster means they let in more light allowing me to shoot in dimly lit areas (like churches for example).

I also feel they force me to be more discplined as a photographer, which can only be a good thing I guess. I guess one problem is I do have to carry around a number of them for most situations, but thats why I have an assistant!

Until next time. Adios y verle pronto!

Meet the Eyecandy team!

I am going to take a few minutes out here just to introduce you to `mi amigos` who help make Eyecandy the smoothly sailing ship that it is. If you are having Eyecandy shoot your wedding then in all likelyhood you will get to meet one of these two fine photographers.

First up is the enigmatic John.

John has been with Eyecandy pretty much since the beginning - I met him when he assisted me when I worked for another photographer a few years back and instantly admired his workrate and his rather impressive equipment (!). John is also a keen photographer in his spare time and also speaks Cantonese. The photos he produces at weddings are always of a consistantly high standard and he is not a `m

achine gunner`, meaning he doesn`t fire off 20 shots in quick succession hoping that at least one will look good - which makes my life so much easier when it comes to the post-processing stage of a wedding project. John is currently well on his way to his LBIPP accreditation

and hopefully we will be putting him forward for it within the next 12 months.

Next is Kevin.

Kevin is a Licenciate of the British Institute of Professional Photography. He also has his own portraiture and wedding photography business but likes to work with me so he can see how the real professionals work. All joking aside though Kevin is fantastic at portraiture both on location and the work he does in his studio. He has a

amazing understanding of lighting methods and working locations into his photos. He also recently became a Daddy! I met Kevin through a photography competition website we both frequent and was impressed at the wedding work he was showing off so contacted him and asked if he would like to assist me from time to time at some of my weddings. Its nice to have someone on board who also has their own photography business as it allows us to bounce ideas off one another and also refer prospective clients to each other if we are already busy.

I'll also just use this opportunity to thank them for their incredibly hard work and comradeship! Muchos Gracias mi amigos!

And in stark contrast...

..to the rotten weather for Charl & Robs wedding, the following day was absolutely glorious and so we headed east across the Tamar bridge into Devon to meet another couple who are getting married later this year for their pre-wedding photoshoot. This involved a trip down to the beach to grab some shots - it was marvellous weather, so much so I donned my specially embroidered Eyecandy speedos to frolic in the surf with Kevin (assistant) and grab some lovely shots of Helen & Alex - I just wish the weather had been like this the previous day. Now whilst my camera is pretty much sealed against the elements (water, sand etc) I actually ended up with quite a thick coating of salt on the front element of my lenses resulting in a rather pleasing soft focus effect - however its probably not very good for the glass so had to make sure they were properly cleaned when I got home. Therather uneventful journey home took us around four and a half hours - not bad considering my satnav took us on a magical mystery tour of the Devonshire countryside.

Attached a few shots from the beach.

Helen & Alex - July 2009

Rain rain go away...

Yeuck! What grotty weather for the wedding in Cornwall for Charlene & Rob - it rained non-stop all day - horrendous weather from nine in the morning until the time we left at eleven at night. I guess that is the one thing no amount of planning can change - we are literally at the mercy of the elements and it doesn`t matter at what time of year one plans to get married, there is always a chance that the heavens will open and it will tip down. However as always we rose to the challenge and shot pretty much the entire day indoors - not always the best option but you do have two options available to you.

1. Shoot using the available natural light - this always looks better (in my everso humble

opinion) as it gives a shot depth and texture, the only downside is that one has to crank up the sensitivity of the cameras sensor (also known as ISO or for you people who have used film, ASA - similar to using a fast film in days of yore) one of the side effects of this is that it can introduce a lot of `noise` to the image at the higher sensitivites which whilst the average viewer would never notice, us pixel peepers who view the images at 100% on wide gamut super resolution monitors will always shake our heads in dismay. This can be cleaned up to a certain degree in photoshop afterwards but can somtimes give plasticy skin textures if not controlled correctly.

2. Use flash - not my favourite option is natural light is available - and when I do use it I would generally try to bounce the light off the ceiling or a wall, which is OK as long as the walls/ceilings are relatively close and quite reflective (white walls are great, dark walls are not). I

guess we could use direct flash but that can make shots rather snapshotty. There are other techniques available such as shutter dragging, but I wont bore you with the details here.

We did get a few quirky umbrella shots though!

Oh well, I guess thats what my customers pay me good money for... Until next time.

Adiós a todos!

Charlene & Rob - July 2009

Off to Cornwall we go!

A wedding in Cornwall this weekend so my assistant Kevin & I hop in the old jalopy and head west. Weather report for the weekend is rather poor but we will scout out the venue and find some wet weather areas `just in case`. After two hundred and twenty (or so) miles of motorway down to Exeter we decided to take the scenic route through the moors for some photos and lunch. After stopping off at `The Warren House Inn` in the middle of Dartmoor we found a herd (or sometimes known as a mob, band or harem) of feral Dartmoor Ponies. Unbelievably we managed to get very close to them and get some great shots - one of my favourite is displayed here. Unfortunately we didn't have as much time as we would of liked so had to cut our expedition short and headed across the moors to the Saltash Travelodge... Nice. ( I did get time to grab a shot of the ST as it sat majestically on the moors though!)

A few shots from the weekend.

Had a great shoot this weekend - the wedding was at Salomons in Kent - again we had beautiful weather, beautiful bride and a beautiful venue - all the ingredients for some great photographs. It also gave me a chance to try out my new 50mm f1.4 lens - I love shooting with primes and between that and my 85mm f1.8 I rarely break out the zoom lenses these days except for the ceremony and wide angles. For those reading who are not aware what a `prime lens` is, it is basically a fixed focal length lens, so you cannot zoom in and out (unless you move backwards an forwards) the benefits of these lens are generally faster (able to shoot in lower light) incredibly sharp and contrasty images and you have to think on your feet a bit more when it comes to image composition - and you thought all we had to do was press the button all day. Just a couple of shots from the day.

Rosie & Rob - Kent - July 2009

Bride in the bluebells.

Just thought I would share this image with you, I really love this shot from a wedding back in May - the bluebells looked fantastic and we was really lucky with the weather - everything just came together perfectly.

Serena & Konrad - May 09 - Hertfordshire

My other passion..

...besides wedding photography is nature photography - some of you are probably already aware that I have an extensive portfolio of natural history photographs and this is something I have REALLY missed over the past seven or eight months whilst working tirelessly on building my business. I can`t wait until Autumn when I can get up at 04:30 and head off to Richmond Park or Epping Forest in temperatures barely over the freezing mark.

However as luck would have it I have actually got a wedding in Richmond Park this Autumn which is going to be absolutely amazing, and the couple (Shoma & Simon) are looking to have a pre-wedding

or post-wedding shoot in the early morning when the park is at its most magical. I am hoping the mist and the weather will be favourable so I can pull off some more shots like these. Fingers crossed!

One of the best things about this job....

....is the fact I get to travel to and see some amazing, and in some cases quite unique, wedding Venues. Possibly the quirkiest of these so far this year would be back in March when I shot a wedding for Victoria & Kan aboard Isambard Kingdom Brunels SS Great Britain in Bristol. (see pic)

I also have weddings in Cornwall, Devon, Birmingham, Tamworth, Coventry, Kent, Stratford-upon-Avon, Berkshire, Herts and even Essex. I will certainly be putting a few miles on the "ST" this year. I ALMOST got to go up in a helicopter at one of my weddings in Cornwall but due to rather horrible weather it was not to be. Still, all being well there may be a hotair balloon trip in August, lets hope Mother Nature is a bit kinder this time.

Still, each of the venues has its own unique character, something I try to capture in the photographs - I mean, aside from the Bride & Groom, the venue is one of the major protagonists of the day! It certainly deserves a place in your album.

Dear diary...

So here we are, the first entry in my new blog. After toying with the idea for a while and continuously reading in my SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) guide that the best way to get my page ranking up in the search engines is to keep my content fresh - and they suggest the best way is with a blog, journal or as us old fashioned girls like to call them - a diary. I doubt I will get many subscribers but hey! who knows, maybe some of my friends, family & clients will pop in from time to time to make sure I am still creating fabbo wedding images and having loads of fun at the same time. Or maybe just my Mum, to make sure I am eating OK and not `overdoing things`.

I will certainly be posting images from the weddings I shoot and also some of my natural history photographs - new material and old - and maybe a few tidbits about upcoming projects on the horizon.

I will keep it all as informal as I (professionally) can and will be more than happy to answer any technical questions regarding any of the photographs and techniques I used to achieve them, both in-camera techniques and also how I work my photoshop mojo!

Anyway, I think thats enough to get me started - if you read this be sure to leave a comment letting me know how you found the diary and if you think its a good idea.

Adios amigos! (more about my attempts at learning Espanol over the next few months)

Mark