First!!

As many of you know a great passion of mine is nature photography and from time to time I enter my images into competitions just to see how they will fair against some of the big hitters out there. One of the national competitions I entered last year was for the website "Wildlife Extra" - and not only did I win the mammals category (I actually had a 3 photos shortlisted) I eventually went on to win the overall competition! My prize was a £500 donation to the wildlife charity of my choice (South Essex Wildlife Hospital), and I also won a Bronze sculpture by wildlife artist David Mayer and an Olympus Digital Camera.  Sadly I missed the deadline to enter this years competition so will not be able to defend my title, but hopefully when I get myself down to Epping Forest or Richmond park in the next few weeks I will be able to start capturing some images for next years competition.

Here is the link to the winners page on Wildlife Extra - also take the time to have a look around their website, definitely one of the best out there at the moment.

Here is my winning shot.

The beauty of the Juxtaposition!

Click to enbiggen!

Comlongon Castle, Scotland.

July is (umm, was) upon us so that means Kevin & I ventured North to Scotland to shoot Sophie & Gregs wedding at Comlongon Castle.

Now a question I get asked a lot is "Which is your favourite venue to shoot weddings at?" and usually I would answer St Audries in Somerset, however, now I have shot a wedding at Comlongon I am rather torn between the two - its a cracking example of a medieval castle on the Scottish borders - with great staff and an ambience that only comes with a Scottish wedding venue.

Even though we had rain pretty much most of the day, we still managed to get a few dry spells to get outside and  grab a few formals. I just wish I could get a few more weddings up there!

Anyway, we still had an amazing day and shooting Sophie & Greg was a real pleasure.

Shoe Fetish..

...I don`t have one, I just love some of the shoe shots I`ve been getting.  I daresay the title of this post will bring in the oddballs though!!

Canon 5D with 85mm f1.2 mk2

Leez Priory - November 2010

Just a quick shot from Autumn of 2010 - Carly & Kieran were married at Leez Priory in Essex. Incredibly we had warm sunshine and great weather all day - which allowed us to get outside and get some great images. I`m shooting there again this year, looking forward to that one!

Canon 5D with 135 F2L

Canon 5D with 16-35 F2.8L

YES!!!

Sometimes a picture can literally tell the story for you. I can`t begin to tell you how much I love this image.

Canon 1Dmk3 with 85mm F1.2mk2

Matthew & Helena - April 2011

Rebranding.

Canon 1Dmk3 with 50mm 1.4

As you can see from my previous post - the logo and name has changed somewhat- Not a huge change, just bringing my name more to the forefront but the Eyecandy brand still remains.  We are designing a new website to compliment the change, but this isn't due to go live until 2012 - it will also mean us redesigning our brochures and stationary so obviously its not something that will happen overnight.. For those who didn`t see it in the previous post, its displayed here along with a rather natty pair of shoes.

And so I`m back, from outer space! You just walked in to find me here with a look of shame upon my face.

Yes, here I am, shuffling shamefaced back onto my blog page after 5 long months without a post. I`ve been away too long. Things have just been hectic here for the past 12 months in terms of business and Realife© "stuff". But this is the first post of the year and I hope to make it the first of many!

So lets play catchup and go back to October 2010 and visit my most favourite venue in the UK. St Audries Park in Somerset. This venue is without doubt one of the best places I have ever shot a wedding - this was my second trip to St Audries - having shot a wedding there back in 2008 - it's a beautiful country house tucked away in the Quantock Hills. To me its a blank canvas - most country houses have lots of gaudy decoration on the wall, but at St Audries they have kept it simple - its hard to take a bad photo there!

I was shooting the wedding of Ivy & Richard, a fun young couple from London. The weather was a real mixed bag - it started out gloomy and misty with a drizzling rain. Just before the ceremony it tipped down, but by the evening things had brightened up and we managed to get outside for the portraits.

All images are clickable for a larger version! As always, comments welcome!