Picture of the Day.
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Business 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.
