As I said the other day, we all knew that this would be a killer wedding!

I was lucky enough to be at Jasmines house with her family whilst she was getting ready.
I always love the atmosphere at the Brides house. So Electric, but so fun. Rushing back and forwards to the hair dressers, make up being done and girly music being blasted out. (no, I'm not a fan of the girly music, or make up for that matter)
Btw, the incredible Naomi from Angel Face Make up did Jasmines make up

Its slightly different at the grooms place. Fry-ups, Xbox, putting the ribbon on the car, failing to do a good job of putting the ribbon on the car, tieing cravats, failing to tie cravats without the aid of the internet, realising that they should of left the house 15 minutes ago. All good stuff.

The advantage of this job is that you can step back from all the nerves and excitement and be more aware of the emotions, because you yourself aren't actually involved in the emotion, even though you might get caught with watery eyes... =)
It's Fun!

A Classic Citroen picked Jasmine and her Dad, Marcus up and drove to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Craven Arms.
Now get this: We had to stop in a housing estate because we realised that we were running about 15 minutes early! How many times has that happened?!

From the Kingdom hall, the fresh and new Mr and Mrs Morgan along with a gorgeous Mrs Yarrow and Myself went to Stokesay Castle to do our little thing that we do.
That is a beautiful building, and I hope I can shoot there again soon.

We then went back to the reception in Craven Arms where Luke and Jasmine were greeted with a ruptious applause.
Then the Party started and they lived happily ever after.

Congratulations Luke and Jasmine!

Enjoy these pictures, and leave a comment at the bottom!
All of the pictures can be viewed and purchased here



The back of Jasmines silk wedding dress was laden with Swarovski Crystals




A bit of needed moral support from Bridesmaid and a Josephyarrow.com regular,  Mel

Here's Daddy




I don't think this picture will ever age.

In-case you didn't catch the teaser.



How's this then for a proud Mum and Dad?

This book was packed with helpful facts. There, I've written it now!




Jasmine Rocks


"Wow, you've got some really good looking friends Joseph" said Cindy, my previous bride!




Stokesay Castle Had billions of beautiful wild flowers, so I think a little color is in order here




Look who it is everyone!!

OK...Marcus (Jasmines Dad) is a bit of a dude when it comes to Origami.
This was the centre piece for the top table, it was about the size of a small football and was assembled with no glue (true origami uses no glue) If I remember correctly, Marcus asked for this very intricate design from a polish (?) origami expert, who designed it himself, so he's probably only the second ever person to make this? Probably
Now I'm really pusing my memory here...The whole ball is made up of 20? 24 pieces? (I've forgotten) and each piece took about 15 minutes to make and interlocks with the neighbouring piece.
After that very accurate description, I expect all my blog readers to create this and send it me so I can judge them.

And then... (I know, there's more)...on each table was this beautiful floral center piece with roses and peonies and the like, but Marcus had made origami roses and hidden them inside for the guests to find and take home as gifts. We found one in our center piece that was kindly given to us about 5 days after the wedding!! We were so pleased!! =)


Ben was the best man, well done Ben, and congratulations on getting married!


I didn't have any, but apparently, this cake was "off the chain"

Yes, this is relavent

OK..Usher time.
We have L>R
Jimmy
Mr Matthew Ives
Mr John Mark
Mr Tristan Khoo
Mr Luke "The Groom" Morgan
Mr Nathan Sonny Lee
Mr "Hot" Ben
Mr Davy Flavell

Ok...You ready?
Check this out!

No, your eyes aren't decieving you, that picture just happened!
-
Jasmine and Luke chose "Your love gets Sweeter" by Finley Quaye, One of my favorite songs

India rocks out the Charleston.

If you were wondering "Joseph, that picture of Jasmine and the ushers just looks too good to be true, surely something like that needs a whole team working together to make it happen?" Then you'd be right.
Thank you Dan.
On a different note, after checking through this post for typos and things like that, I realised that I hadn't actually edited the next two pictures. All that crazy blur is done completely in camera, no photoshop here.

It was great seeing the kids dance just as hard as the big kids



A suitable and relevant ending to the pictures I think!

Again, thank you Luke and Jasmine for choosing me as your photographer, I felt blessed to be there and be an important part of your day.

I've almost finished editing Cassie and Paul's Wedding pictures from Friday, and the more I look at them, the more I realise what an epic wedding it was.
Congratulations Guys!
Come back soon for the best from this amazing wedding in Bristol.

Me and Jess have been friends with Ian and Grace for years now, so it was a breeze to shoot with them.
Every wedding I shoot, I'm always amazed at the love between the couples. It sounds like an obvious thing to say, you know, with it being their wedding and everything!!...but I hope I never get used to seeing it! Ian and Grace were of course no exception!
Both sides of the family are super awesome too.

The ceremony was held at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Wilmslow, Cheshire.  It was definatly one of the best Kingdom Halls I've shot in, so much natural light flooding in!
The ceremony was then held at Davenport Green Hall in Cheshire. It was a stunning reception venue, I'd really love to shoot there again.
The food was incredible and they made a real effort to make sure that none of the food upset me. (I'm one of those annoying allergy people)
Also, the staff couldn't of been more helpful!

Anyway everyone, I hope you enjoy the pictures, I really loved taking them, it was a brilliant day!
Congratulations Ian and Grace!

(Don't mention the red sofa!!)












You really don't want to know what they were laughing about... =)


I think this is one of my favorite ever pictures of one of my brides!

She's got a wicked cool smile...





Ian is just a plain old happy bloke! =)

Daddy Hill....Respect please!


Ian and Grace didn't know that they were getting a wedding cake, so this present was one of the best suprises of the day...


And....DANCE!




That'll be my brother-in-law-best-mate Keir

Everyone loves a conga line!...Right?





And they're off! (to Egypt incase you were wondering!)

Thanks so much guys for choosing me as your photographer, it was a real pleasure! I loved every second of your day!

If you would like me to photograph your wedding, first find an awesome person of the opposite sex, fall in love, get engaged, then contact me

One thing I love about the brits is that the very second the sun comes out, everyone is like "QUICK! GET THE CHARCOAL AND THE BARBEQUE!" or..."Quick!! get some sun tan lotion on!" or "lets all go down to the beach at once!! Hurry though, because they're only beaches in Devon and Cornwall!!"
Anyway...
I loved Sundays shoot. Even though I was telling Phil and Hannah (My brother and his Wife) that it was a terrible shoot the whole time, I had a great time.
I'm very similar to Phil in the same way that he is similar to Dad...(Remind him of that regularly, he loves it!)...in that when we're nervous, we clown around and go all silly and try to show off and pull faces, and basicly act like idiots! Its terrible!!

The shoot went very well though, and for the first time, I have actually been satisfied with my pictures straight after taking them, Whereas previously, I would leave it a couple of days before I start looking at the images to edit them because I "Knew" that I had failed....But then I'd edit them and realise that they're actually pretty cool shots!.... Weird

Another reason why I think this shoot went well is that a few of these pictures made me realise that I have my own style, and I like it. This sounds like a simple statement, but for me, this is groundbreaking! For the first time I'm really pleased with my pictures!

Enjoy these please.

Phils Eye lashes are like, 4 inches long in this picture!

Extra brownie points to anyone who can tell me whats the other side of this fence?



I love being able to shoot with the d300 and a 50mm 1.f8 lens with no flash at 7pm!

I really love doing photoshoots, they're totally underated over here. Going back to the brits again, I think in general, we don't like having our picture taken (me included)...but why? Are we the only nation who are so camera shy? Probably not, but we're pretty bad at freezing when we see a camera! Hopefully the falling prices of decent digital cameras will encourage the younger generations to relax a little infront of the lens! If you feel like putting your inhibitions to one side and having a photoshoot with me then drop me a line! I'd love to hear from you!

Here goes

I Couldn't resist using the lensbaby for a bit, but soon gave up as it was too cold to use it. (terrible excuse!!)

I used a little strobist magic here to isolate Nathanael from the background

I wouldn't usually pride myself on this, but on Sunday morning which was the parents wedding anniversary, I got a phone call from Mummy Hornby telling me that she cried when she saw the pictures and was absolutely thrilled with them! Woohoo!!! =D

Again, if you're interested in having a photoshoot like this, please contact me!

Have a good Thursday everybody!

I thought I'd just share my favorite images of the year, and whilst I was compiling all these images from our archives in the basement(?) I realised that I've had an amazing year!

enjoy these pictures will you? =)

We went to London. London Rocks

Shot a Party...

Took one of my favorite pictures of my brother-in-law, Keir

Had the pleasure of shooting some promo shots for a pub in clifton called the portcullis.

Had an awesome E-Session with Sam and Reanne..

Spent lots of time with Keir, and his girlfriend, Sonia

I do take pictures of them facing the camera sometimes! =)

Spent loads of quality time with my brother and his wife, Hannah

Did a cool E-session with Sam and Esther

Shot a Cat

Rocked a 10-20mm lens at Sam and Esthers Wedding.

Rocked one of the best weddings ever, Ben and Selena...

Saw true love...or something

Sam and Reannes Wedding, What a day!

Autumn Came, and we rocked it..

So did my couples...
Em and Stef

...Phil and Helen...

Emma and Jay...

And look out for this couple!

And of course, none of this would of been possible without my lovely little lady who I love more and more each day.

I think I deserve some rest...especially after using the word "rocks" far too many times in one blog

Enjoy the rest of the pictures from Emma and Jays photoshoot that we did in Clifton, Bristol.
As I said in the last post, if you feel like having a shoot like the one I did with Emma and Jay, or my other couples, then please feel free to contact me.

This was shot with my lensbaby. It rarely creates technically perfect pictures, which it what I like about it I think!

(sorry number 10 for shooting on your doorstep, well you see it looked so nice, we couldn't resist!)

I realise posting has been a little stiff over the past week, and I'm sorry about that, I've been pretty busy, but its been brilliant.
I've learnt lots and lots, mostly about myself and I've really enjoyed it.

Watch this space (over the next year...I know, sorry, no immediate changes) and see if anything changes.

A couple of weeks when there were still some leaves on the trees, I did a photoshoot with a really brilliant couple.
Keeping in tradition, they showed me the locations.

I loved shooting with them. I wish I still had the 85mm f1.4 for this shoot, because that was a fantastic lens, but I enjoyed using the 50mm 1.8, and thats not changed since.

Enjoy these pictures.

Tell me what you think about the processing about this image. I like it, but I'm intrigued as to whether you like it too...?

Thats all for tonight, I need to go to bed. I'll post the rest later on in the week.
Thanks to Emma And Jay for allowing me to shoot with you, I really had a fantastic time!
If you are interested in having a photoshoot like the one we did here, then feel free to contact me.
I love doing these shoots, its just all about fun!

Keep an eye out on this blog for second part of this shoot.

Have a good week everybody.

Joseph

Recently, I thought that there was not much more that I could learn, but after being on a 3 day course recently, I'm not as smart as I think I am. Very humbling.

Many photographers tell you that you need to understand the rules of photography, the most common and simple one is the rule of thirds.
They will also tell you that the rules are there to be broken.

At the moment, I am trying hard to learn more about the magic of light, and how I can use my camera to capture the light.

Like any learning process, it takes time but I am really enjoying looking at everything with a photographic eye.

But like any good photographer, I will apply the "rules are there to be broken"-rule when it makes me look good.
Camera shake? I prefer to call it, Oh I don't know... "An artistic quiver"?
Out of Focus? Lets call it from now on "Gaussian blur!"
Or, you could just convert to black and white, and everyones happy!

Enjoy these pictures.

To celebrate, Jess booked two weeks off work, which was perfect! Just what we needed.
We got up to all sorts, it was brilliant! We didn't do as much as what we wanted to as we both had the cold that everyone seems to have at the moment.
I think the best thing we did was visiting Thermae Bath Spa for a twilight session. Along with allot more, they have a rooftop pool with really warm water. As the cold air hits the warm water, lots of steam comes off and it's an amazing site!
The deal clincher though, was that it was firework night, and there was a massive fireworks display over the city next to the cathedral, and we had the best view ever (which was often momentarily interupted by the steam) It was a fantastic experience!
If you live locally, make sure you're there next year! You will not regret it!! And you'll see us there too, I'm sure!
Next time we're there, I'll try to smuggle a waterproof camera in!

We had some really great meals, we ate at Jamie Olivers new restaurant in bath which was amazing. Jess loved it of course, she's a huge Jamie Oliver Fan. Browns was another place we ate at with a couple of our friends, and I plan to incoorperate the building into a future photoshoot.

On a technical point, while editing these pictures, I noticed that I had been using the same lens for the whole 2 weeks, which I don't mind at all.
For quite a long time, I've owned the 50mm f1.8, but it really just seems to sit at the bottom of my bag.
I was never happy with the focusing speed, and the sharpness, especially wide open at f1.8
My sister in law borrowed my usual lens, my 18-50mm 2.8 so I used that as an oppurtunity to get to know my "nifty fifty" a bit better.
I fell in love with it! =)
Its perfect for dim rooms, and portraits. It just throws the background out of focus and makes the subject really pop!
Enjoy these pictures, and I must warn you, there's quite allot, and most won't mean much to you, but I just wanted to share.

Scroll to near the bottom for more 'arty' shots...

...Jess and Myself

My Awesome Brother, Phil

My mum!!

My Dad!!

Hannah, My amazing sister-in-law

Keir and his awesome girlfriend, Sonia after a lush meal at wagamama's in Manchester

My good friend Luke...

...Naf, at a LAN, along with...

...Johnny

...and Tristan

...And Jessica's Gorgeous and super smart little cousin, Poppy!