A couple of Saturdays back saw the wedding of Owen and Jane at Clearwell Castle in the Forest of Dean, just a short drive from Bristol.
As you've probably noticed, I'm often at Clearwell Castle so I'm really getting comfortable there.
It's a beautiful venue with some massive rooms, beautiful art, furniture and grounds.
The grounds look extra special for Owen and Jane's wedding. Things are looking much more green and mature now!

I could say this about every Bride that I shoot, but Jane made a fantastic Bride. She really enjoyed it!
I hope that you'll be able to see that from the images. Owen was very laid back and was also a pleasure to shoot.

A super-cool couple indeed!
How cool?

Well Owen is a concept artist who has worked on projects for some small companies like Disney and Atari.... No, I've never heard of them either.
Jane designs websites for CBBC and CBeebies.
I think that classifies them as cool, and those are just their jobs!

Thank you Owen and Jane for letting me be with you (literally) all day. You and your guests made me feel so welcome.
Enjoy these pictures.

Owen created these designs. Very impressive!

A sneak peek at Jane's dress

Hair and make up by the amazing Julie Dunkley

This is the cottage where Jane got ready, And yes, I was very nervous bringing the dress outside!

Jane's mum helps to take the dress to the Bridal suite

Nice to see a keen groom like Owen and suited up already!

Jane's twin sister Sam and friend Nerys made brilliant bridesmaids and multitaskers.

A new favorite.

I loved how Jane and Sam shared their mannerisms!

Jane's Mum loved seeing Jane get ready, and she was a great help too...in-fact she was a pro!

Owen's parents looking excited!

Molly just getting in some practise for her big job!

Jane's Dad was thrilled to see Jane looking so stunning!

Owen looks more relaxed than his best men! That's a first for sure!

The amazing wedding cake by Justine from Just Cakes

Wearing a hat as smart as this one, you can't help but smile, I think.

This amazing string quartet really set the mood!

Nobody knows how to play, but everybody likes a shot at it!

Good friends of the family and real gentlemen; Roy and Steve were very pleased to be at the wedding.

Rhydian looking a little nervous before his speech! I hate that feeling. Alcohol usually does the trick.

The soup really was that good!

I've not included the images here, but there was a pretty ugly riot at the wedding a little later on when the guests realised they weren't give fish and chips like Molly!

This here was the leader of the riot.

How good does this look though?!

In the same room was the secret meeting of hat wearing ladies. SShhhh!

A quick costume change! Very pretty!

Jane's fathers speech was brilliant and is physically congratulated by pretty much everybody!

"You ready?"
"Yep...let's rip Owen to pieces"

...and rip they did!

7:43 to be exact! I'm not too sure who won the sweepstake, but I did hear some heavy bribery going on!

We popped out whilst the light was just fading. All my couples, Owen and Jane included love this time when they can just relax and get some fresh air!

...and have a lie down!

I love a well beered-up group of stags, this lot though were especially tricky to work with. I loved it!

I challenge anyone to find me a picture of a freshly married groom with a fat cigar in his mouth, rocking a pair of aviators with a castle in the reflection.

Dance time!

Nerys and Nick make a great couple. (tried to think of an Avatar-based quip for their blue faces... I failed)

This lady is either heading for the dance floor, or the bar. Either way, she's going the right direction!

If you're not using your fingers to point in every direction, you're simply not dancing!

I liked watching Jane hold on tight to her husband!

And that's all!

Congratulations Jane and Owen.
You made me feel very relaxed and welcome and I thank you for that.

I hope you've enjoyed your honeymoon in San Francisco and I also hope that you really enjoy the rest of your lives together, you're a wonderful couple!
Take care.

This post is a follow up to my previous, and similarly titled "Brides Magazine Recommended Photographer" post.

I recommend that you read the above mentioned post before reading this one, it'll just make more sense!
...
I'm guessing you've read it now, I'll continue.

The other day, on the way up to Adam and Lorna's wedding up in the Midlands, I bought Brides Magazine.
I often buy it as I actually enjoy reading it, it gives me plenty of inspiration and being in the wedding industry I think it makes a lot of sense to read the same sort of material that my brides are reading too. I keep on top of some of the trends that I might of missed previously on the interweb.
I also like to laugh at the adverts.

So, like I said, I bought it. £4.90 please. Ouch!
I failed to notice, until I was taking the glossy magazine out of the packaging that there was a DVD in there too.
The Sherlocks upon you will work out that this was likely the same DVD that I could of been featured on as the recommended photographer for my region.

Inside the magazine, lots of pretty pictures, plenty of dodgy adverts (some taking up 5-6 spreads, and one certain company showing a model posing as a bridesmaid who I can only presume previously had a career as a boxer)...but no mention of the scores of information and links found on the free DVD.

I pop the disc into my laptop and follow the appropriate links to find who was the photographer for my region, and I get this;

...Ta-da

This photographer paid £495 for that advert.
Nothing else, no additional links, no extra pictures and no slideshow. Infact, when I typed into everybody's favourite search engine "three acorns photography brides magazine" and even "Thornbury Brides Magazine" (this photographer is based in Thornbury, a little town down the road), nothing came up.
So Brides magazine don't even have the time to put together a simple online directory for their paying customers!

What am I saying?..or not saying for that matter...

I'm not saying that Brides magazine is conning photographers out of money.
I'm not saying "don't invest in having your business listed on their free DVD"
I'm not saying I'm bitter, because I'm not. I consider myself pretty lucky actually.
I'm also not saying that every single photographer  listed on the DVD will get no bookings, they just might...in fact I really hope they do!

I'm saying, if you're a photographer, then research these things first so that you don't end up spending a lot of money on very little.
If you're a bride looking for a photographer, then the DVD might be perfect for you.
Probably not though. It wasn't that good to be honest!
Just use google.

But again, I thank you Conde Nast publishers, and Brides magazine for asking me to be one of your recommended photographers.
Very kind of you...I'm still on page one for "Brides Magazine Recommended Photographer"

hehe...

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW ALL PICTURES! CHEERS!

Business is very slow at the moment.

By that, I mean that the work I've got on is enough, but editing and album design use up the time and energy that I'd rather be using to take pictures.
To keep my camera and I busy, I've got a couple of projects and goals for this year.
One of my goals is that to get one of my weddings published in a magazine or on a wedding blog.
The recognition that I'd get from that would be incredible. If anybody knows someone who knows someone in the biz, help a brother out!

My other goal, with no direct finish line, is to simply shoot more. For fun.
My job here started off purely as a hobby. Now I earn a living from it. That alone for me is incredible, but that also means that my camera usually only gets to see weddings.
I need to get back to taking my camera out with me everyday and shooting something not because i'm being paid to do so, but because I want to!
Old-school readers of this blog will remember that I used to give away for download a free wallpaper every Monday, this feature had a very catchy name; "Free Wallpaper Monday!"
Each Monday, I felt a fair bit of pressure from my readers to get a picture up, and it did me good! It got me out there with my camera!
So as from today, I will do my very best to get a picture of some description, whether it be an iPhone shot or a wedding shot, up on this blog every Thursday...or something.

Jessica had a day off (she does work, I promise. Very hard too). We drove down to Cheddar and before we left for home, I saw this very image in my head.
I had to climb a very small hill which was near impossible because of my poor choice of footwear and the snow.
The picture is pretty far away from technically perfect, mostly because of the water droplets on the lens... but I like it.

15/01/10

Today, in comparison to how I was feeling about business yesterday, i'm feeling great. Since then I have had three bookings! THREE!
This year is going to be so busy, i'm just glad it's a job that im so passionate about.
I've also been very busy with something that's in the pipeline. Keep an eye out for some massive changes yeh?
Enjoy today's picture of our cat.
Despite the fact that I take my fair share of pictures of jpeg each day, (yes, that's her name) i'll be doing my best not to innundate you with pictures of her!

20/01/10

So this picture of the day thing seems to be going well so far doesn't it! (I'm sorry, I've done a terrible job of keeping on top of it already!)

My first entry on the picture of the day, I was complaining a little on how quiet business is at the moment. Well now, already things are incredible. I'm getting booked up left right and centre and it really is a strange concept for me.

I'm getting allot of lovely couples booking me to capture the happiest day of their lives! The nice things that they're saying about my work are incredible to hear. They feel like I'm the person for the job! I'm grinning like an idiot!
It's just very bizarre for me at the moment, sure '09 was great, but already '10 is booming and I'm finding it hard to stop jumping around with excitement each time a couple books me!

Something that reminded me to blog today was a new venue I found that is no distance from me at all, it's called Berwick Lodge, and goodness me, it looks beautiful inside. I would love to shoot a wedding there. By foot (because admit it, who drives anymore?) it's 1.4 miles away!
Here is their website
So hopefully I'll be shooting there sometime this year!

Enjoy today's picture of the "day"
Trust me, the summer will be here soon. Just don't quote me on that!

21/01/10

Just popped online quickly to show today's picture of the day.
It seems like I'm loving the square crop recently as you may have noticed.

Gloomy days like today make me so desperate for summer to get some sun on my skin!
I hope you're having a good week.
Enjoy today's picture.

28/01/10
Are you taking pictures?
What are you using?
Don't worry about having the best equipment, all that matters is that you're taking pictures.
Use your mobile phone, use the old 35mm camera at the back of your cupboard, or just your new digital camera that you keep on meaning to go out and use but haven't had the chance.
Get out there and take pictures of whatever you like.
And enjoy!

29/01/10

So I couldn't post just one picture today.
It just started snowing a little while ago, and if you're a UK reader, you're thinking something along the lines of "Go away snow, we've had enough of you"

I saw these huge storm clouds rolling in, followed by a very heavy blizzard, followed by sunshine! I bet 90% of the residents of Bristol hardly knew there was a snow storm. Incredible.
So to show you how quick it all happened, heres the first one;

And here's the second picture;

Both quite nice pictures, sure. But the amazing thing in my mind is that these pictures were taken just ten minutes within each other.

And just whilst I've been typing this up, the sun has set, but there is still an beautiful sunset lighting up the sky, just enough for me to be able to see more snow clouds rolling in! Hopefully we won't get more snow like we did last time round!

This blog links in a little with yesterdays picture of the day where I was encouraging anyone with a camera to take pictures.
I don't think I explained myself enough. But to illustrate, I don't always take my camera with me. I used to, religiously, but not now.
Instead I'll usually just have my iPhone, or my little compact camera. These two pictures  were taken with my little compact and I'm happy enough with the quality of it that I actually use it at weddings instead of my digital SLR equipment worth a four figure sum.

Remember a few pictures back, I was talking about a new wedding venue I found called Berwick Lodge?
Well, I had an appointment with the wedding coordinator today. A really nice lady called Fiona.
Berwick Lodge is by far the most incredible hotel I've ever been in.
Without wanting to raise my hopes too much, it looks like I'll be one of only two recommended photographers for the hotel.
I can't wait to shoot there, it really is something else! And rumor has it that they'll soon have a Michelin starred Chef gracing their kitchens!

Anyway, I'm going to look out the window a bit more.

01/02/10

Welcome to February.

I'm very busy today, so I'll keep it short and sweet.
In reference to my little comments about 'it doesn't matter what camera you use to take pictures', I'll be posting some iPhone images soon, I promise.

Meanwhile, I had to share this image with you.
This picture was taken back in October in Neal's Yard, Covent Garden.
It was a little tree with lots of paper tags tied to it with notes from people. A bit like facebook, but cute.
Hope your week goes well for you.

09/02/10
And, as promised, an iPhone picture. I've got loads of iPhone pictures of our cat, but I don't want a successful wedding photography blog to turn into a blog about fur balls and litter training, so I'm trying very hard to not inundate you with them!

I took this picture out of the car window on a miserable day.
I love this picture though, and I realise that I've already posted a picture with rain drops distorting the image but I'm not going to make any apologies!
Shooting in Manchester is always great fun for me! One of my favorite weddings I've shot was there and I've got plenty of bookings coming up, including one at the Great John Street Hotel.
For future reference, all pictures taken on my phone haven't been touched by photoshop

10/02/10

Love - a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker.

Now here's a picture from the archives! I think this was my very first engagement shoot with a couple called Sam and Reanne.
They had a great wedding, the [tiny] pictures from which can be found here

05/03/10

I say bring on the Spring! Next will come the Summer, it usually goes like that doesn't it? Although in this country, Winter likes to say 'hi' in the middle of Summer sometimes! And yet somehow, it is still a reliable topic of conversation in this country! Brilliant!

This blog, as I promised the other day will definitely get busy from next week! I can't wait to blow the digital dust off this blog (I can't believe I just used that terminology. If you're still reading, thank you!)

This little picture was taken in Clifton, Bristol whilst my friend, Gav Letsoalo from South Africa was over. He's a director who specalises in music videos! We went out for a walk and spotted this tree with this incredible blossom on. The tree with the blossom on just happened to be the same tree in the 6th picture down on this photoshoot in Clifton. Wow, that was ages ago!

Enjoy this picture which, as the previous picture of the day, also has yellow in!

09/03/10

Well, I have a nasty chest infection/sore throat/excuse to feel sorry for myself, but those things aside, I'm really looking forward to this weekend.
This weekend is the very first wedding of 2010!
2009 proved to be a very eventful year, and 2010 already promises to be even busier!

At first I was a little worried that I had got left behind, but after seeing some incredible photographers whose work I admire only recently posting their first wedding of the year, I felt a little better!
Today's picture of the day is in my eyes, nothing particularly special. It's a nice sunset with some impressive clouds, but I needed to share this with you because where we live, we get views like this, literally every day. I take pictures of the view pretty much all the time on my phone. If the view is especially great, I'll get my digital camera out, and today, I did.

This picture was taken with a new lens of mine, so I've been using it very very heavily so that I know what the picture will look like before I take it. (thats the idea anyway)

Enjoy.

10/03/10

Blogging two days in a row? I must be on something!
I'll keep this on quick, as I'm taking this as my break from designing some albums.
This was taken up in Scotland last summer. A nice break from Bristol!
I love our friend's hair getting blown by the wind and echoing the landscape. The landscape up there was eerie yet beautiful, and in some places, lunar-like.

For reference, this was taken on a digital compact camera.

Hope you're all doing well.

11/03/10

Technically, a combination between my brother Phil taking this shot of me, and a self portrait. Don't ask how though.
Hi Phil

22/03/10

It's nice to get a little bit of sunshine on our skin isn't it?
This weekend, we went to London. Jess surprised me by booking tickets to see the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. Best surprise ever!
(I told everybody that we were seeing Lion King 3D, which personally, I thought was hilarious. Jess... not so much!)
As soon as you get a chance to see the show, please just go and do it. It was incredible!
If you love the Lion King film then you'll love the show. Not too sure why you wouldn't love the film, but, I'm just sayin'...
Best character?  I'm torn between Zazu, and Rafiki.
Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures during the show, but I was too busy weeping at Mufasa dieing (no, they didn't edit that bit out)
Instead, enjoy this little bit of Spring! Can't wait for the real thing!