RB And The Dress!

Ellie’s wedding day was the 7^th of July 2011. 2 days later we drove to the stables in the wedding graffitied car, where she once again donned the wedding dress and collected her Horse.

Royal Blue is an Irish Draught, gorgeous dapple Grey colours, and Ellie wanted to do a photo shoot of her in her dress with him. I was privileged to do this, and we had fun at the same time, I guess I was more relaxed about these as it was a laid back situation, no time limit, unless RB said so!

We went into one of the horses fields, and had RB being held by Ellie. Trying to get good shots of animals is difficult and needs patience, and when I did get a good one of RB, Ellie was talking or facing the wrong direction, but after a while we got it, and tried doing some photographs without the harness on RB so he looked more natural and at home. We got some nice shots of him walking by her side, but in all honesty, I think he was only interested in the food we were rattling to keep him happy!

My favourite set of shots was when Ellie sat on the ground, set her dress out, and we convinced RB to stay around by using feed and letting him eat it of the dress. This worked, even though at one point RB started to eat the actual dress, despite this, the dress remained intact and we got some photos of the occasion I was happy with, and most importantly, Ellie was happy with.

I only used Monochrome for these photos, feeling it would give the images a more personalized and timeless feel about them. I did once again, have problems with lighting… it seems to be my downfall! Some images turned out too dark, and once again had to be Photoshopped brighter. This led to the photos having noise, and I had to work on a fine surface blur in order to cover up the noise without softening the focal foreground.

I’ve yet to print the photos, choosing to concentrate on Uni work first. But these images will be printed and sent on!

Ellie And Howard Reads wedding day!!

I was so nervous. I really wanted to get some really good photos for the married couple, and didn’t put the camera down all day and all night. I took 1685 images. Sorting through them was very time consuming, and considering many of the photos turned out dark, needing a tad of Photoshop to brighten them up!

The day started the night before. Bride, Bridesmaids, mother and I had manicures and pedicures, drank champagne until late night and prepared ourselves for the next day.

Ellie was awake before the rest of us, and by the time we got downstairs she was already having her hair curled and prepared by her Aunty. I tried getting a couple of these shots but the lighting inside was difficult, so I decided to leave it until we arrived at The Matara.

Things started kicking off when we got there. The Bridesmaids got dressed and had their hair done, The bride got ready last, the flower girl came to join us, and so did the official photographer for the day. We managed to get the dress and take it to a room in the housing area. Hung the dress up on the four-poster bed and started taking what was an attempt at an iconic photograph for the occasion.

The ceremony came and went, and we all got put into the hall for lunch. Bangers and Mash! We ate while listening to saxophone, and being entertained by the same guy.

Time for the speeches, and I was lucky to be seated right in front of the main table, giving me an uninterrupted view of the Bride and Groom and the family. Unfortunately, my social anxiety got the better of me on this occasion, and I found myself unable to move from my seat in order to get different angles. I settled my nerves by remembering I wasn’t priority photographer, and that she most probably had the shot already.

The evening was difficult as everybody was on the dance floor, and nothing is really distinguishable! Yet you still get the essence of the day.

I hope Ellie and Howard will like the photos. I will be the first to admit I feel I failed in getting some iconic good ones that they would’ve liked as their professional, so for me it concludes that I’m not ready to start doing wedding photography professionally yet, until I have more of the right experience and kit with me. This is not my best work by far, but it’s defiantly a start!

tango's growing

Due to unfortunate events, I've got to admit I've been neglecting tango quite abit! So he's been getting to come out of his viv alot more and gets free roam of the bedroom! He likes coming out when we've got people around, only as long as they're okay with him and don't get too excited!


He's enjoying his food, it seemed like we were over feeding him a little to compensate for the lack of handling, so he's been on a mini diet... this seemed to encourage 'hunt mode'!!


He's over 3 foot long now, so different to the tiny worm we got over a year ago!! Must say I do enjoy taking photogarphs of him, however, it's tricky in low lighting situations, and he's never keen on staying still for more than an 8th of a second!


Good Tango! :)

off to southwold again

One of our trips to Southwold, and after a long break I started to pick up the camera again. Just using standard Canon 50ml lense!



The beach huts are renowned in Southwold, one of the better views of the North sea!



Just a couple of days away from home made us feel alot better and helped get me back on track with my work... resulting in hand and camera surgically attatched!