Finally, something local!

Jessica and myself travel all over the country to shoot weddings, I guess that's just something that you get from being so good looking.
Ah well.

Shooting all over the country does have it's benefits. We've made some new friends and we can stay in contact with old friends too.
But, it tires us out and we can never wait to get back home to our own bed!

Moses and Sabrina are getting married early next month in Thornbury, Bristol. Then on to Caldicot Choir Hall.

Like the majority of my couples, Moses and Sabrina chose to invest in having an engagement shoot around Clifton where Moses popped the question.
You might recognise Sabrina from the Hornby Photoshoot back when it was freezing. You can see the Bristol pictures here and here.

As I'm super busy at the moment (Two weddings this weekend; local too!)...so I won't be inundating you with pictures from their shoot. Enjoy this little collection!

We couldn't believe this sunset when we were shooting next to the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Hope you enjoyed

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.

You're going to love this one!

Jasmine and Luke were an utter dream to work with, I can't wait to shoot their wedding next month.
These two are majorly in love, and they're so comfortable in eachothers company, basicly exactly as it should be!

This was shot in a field of barley as we couldn't find a decent looking rapeseed field, I'm glad we opted for this beautiful field.
And thanks to the farmer who allowed to shoot in his field without him knowing about it. =)

Thanks for a great weekend guys!
Me and Jess had a brilliant time!
Enjoy this little teaser, the full set should be on here sometime this week, so keep an eye out for the pictures.

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!

A few months ago, our friend Mel asked me if I would do a photoshoot with her brothers and sister as a present to their parents for their anniversary. Of course, I left it far too late, the anniversary was today (Happy Anniversary Dave and Caroline!), and we only did the shoot yesterday.
Mel came round today and put the pictures in the frames and wrapped them all up.

We had a few locations lined up, and honestly, we could not of chosen a better (and colder) day. It was beautiful! I've never seen Bristol look so amazing!

Enjoy these pictures!

Baby Sam loves the cake..

I really loved yesterdays shoot, it was awesome!!
If you would like a shoot similar to this please contact me, I love doing them. They're just a load of fun!

Techy Stuff:
Again, I'm still addicted to using my little 50mm f1.8 lens, so most of yesterdays pictures were taken with it, but I loved using my 70-200mm f2.8 lens, I don't get to use it much to be honest, but when I do, it never lets me down!
The 2nd, 3rd and 4th pictures were taken with it. Look what it does to the background and the foreground, it just pulverises it into a smooth tasty puree!...sorry.

Hope you're all having a great Sunday afternoon.
I'll do my very best to provide all you wallpaper junkies with a fresh dose tomorrow!

I wrote this post a few weeks ago, and I don't really plan on editing it, so just laugh at how out of date it is will you? =)
Here goes...:

Obviously, I've been very busy recently, I've had a nice little project on my hands!

The weather at the moment is fantastic though.
Have you had a chance to capture all those colors?

This project I've given myself has been great. Its kept me really busy whilst there aren't many weddings to do.
I really recommend that if you're finding yourself in a bit of a lull, just plan out what you really want to get some pictures of, and don't let anything get in your way.
Take some pictures of your parents, which I plan to do as soon as they're up for it.
Get up early to get pictures of the sunrise, which I don't ever plan on doing... =)
Ask your friends to dress up and come out for a walk, and turn it into an impromptu shoot!
I'm sure you've got a perfectly great camera in your house. Use it =)
Oh, and print them up, don't just leave them on your computer!!

I wanted to get in as many shoots as possible with a lens that I hired from http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk

I hired the 85mm f.14 nikkor, which was beautiful. One of the sharpest lenses I've used. And around £40 for an £800 pro grade prime lens isn't bad at all. I'll definatly hire from them again.

I only managed to do two shoots with this lens, but I think that was enough really, especially when I'm running out of space on my external HDD.

I've got plenty more shoots lined up, so keep an eye on the blog.

Onto Stef and Em's shoot.

In general, I have a pretty good idea for locations, but more often than not, my couples know the area better than myself.
We found a great location which, to be honest, I don't plan on telling you where it is because it was so great and I'm selfish! I'll let you work it out, its not impossible :)
I might do a TTD session here when I have the guts one day! :)

This shoot was just a couple of weeks ago, and believe it or not, it was actually warm, dare I say Hot?
The light at first was pretty tricky to work with, but by the end of the day, it was getting really golden and we soon found ourselves literally running to a spot where we could see some sunlight peeking through trees and bushes. Good fun!

Enjoy the pictures!

Stef and Em, thanks allot for letting me shoot you! You were very patient, but loads of fun! =)

If you are interested in having a photoshoot like the one I did with Stef and Emily, then why not contact me, and we can have a little chat.