Apologies once again for the lack of blogging  - down time has been scarce recently, and sadly the blog is always the first thing to suffer!

Anyhow, I shall once again resume normal service, kicking off with the wedding of Beth and Adam from the tail end of last year.

Beth and Adam’s wedding ceremony was held at St Margaret’s Church in Rottingdean, and the reception then followed at the lovely Pangdean Farm in Pyecombe, West Sussex.

I was really impressed with Pangdean Farm, it was certainly a venue that offered something different from the many other venues that I’ve photographed at before.  It’s a working farm of 1,000 acres based at Pyecombe, and is only literally 5 miles away from Brighton. The most impressive aspect of the farm is the magnificent 17th Century oak framed Old Barn – it was beautiful and created a lovely ambience.

With it being an autumn wedding we didn’t have a lot of time for formal photographs due to available daylight, which was a shame as we only managed to get a couple of portraits within the farm grounds before running out of light.  Thankfully we did get some other portraits immediately after the ceremony itself – we headed across the road from St Margaret’s to conduct some shots in the Green Flag award winning Kipling Gardens which is delightful and provided us with some cracking photographs.

You can view a handful of shots throughout the whole day below.

Those wishing to have a look over the other images from the day, please feel free to browse via this link.

I recently had the pleasure of capturing the wedding of Rachael and Duncan at Sutton Registry Office, in Sutton, Surrey.

This was a relatively small scale wedding, and I was hired to only capture some photos of Rachael getting ready, the ceremony, and then finishing up with the formal portraits afterwards before they then proceeded to head to a restaurant in Sutton for their reception.

It was an intimate affair, and Rachael had many relatives make the journey down from Birmingham to help celebrate her big day with her.

I have shot a few weddings at Sutton Registry Office before, so knew the layout very well.

Duncan, the groom, was not a fan of having his picture taken, something I’m certain that he’d be more than happy to admit!  Whilst this may sound a problem, in all honesty this is a very common issue – there are not many people that do enjoy having their picture taken, this is indeed commonplace!  However, it is my job as the photographer to make them feel at ease and ensure that I capture the best results possible, providing the couple with images that they will cherish.

We got some lovely shots, of which you can view some below.  Those wishing to view more, please feel free to browse the complete set from the day here.

Apologies I’ve been somewhat lapse on the blog front of late due to being excessively busy in the build up to Christmas.

As a result I’ve got quite a few weddings to talk about, and of which I will look to get on here in the next few weeks and months.

The first one that I will talk about is Tarryn and Richard’s wedding which took place at Lythe Hill Hotel, Haslemere in Surrey.

Lythe Hill is based on the Surrey and Hampshire borders, and is a A Luxury Country House Hotel that overlooks the surrounding and beautiful Surrey Hills.

Whilst it was autumn at the time of shooting this wedding, we were fortunate with the weather that we were able to get outside and capture some lovely bride and groom portraits using the stunning surrounds.

There were some fab elements of character such as the outdoor wedding pavilion, as well as including what some might class as somewhat unconventional – a rather intriguing and grunge-esque derelict workman’s shed!

I’ve added a handful of images from the day below, although if anyone wishes to view more from the day you can view them here:

We are holding a Child portrait photography day at The House florist & gift shop in Carshalton Beeches on Sunday 20th November from 10am-3pm.

There will be the opportunity for any parents with young children to have a portrait taken within an allocated 15 minute mini session.

A portrait of your child/children would make a fabulous gift for a family relative – an ideal solution with Christmas only around the corner! Likewise why not use this opportunity to personalise your festive greeting cards to feature a portrait?

WE ARE OFFERING AN EXCLUSIVE PACKAGE FOR THIS EVENT – FOR £34.99 YOU WILL RECEIVE THE FOLLOWING:

• 15 minute mini session*
• Unlimited images captured within that session
• The choice to select ONE image to be reproduced in the following sizes:
- ONE 8”x6” print
- TWO 5″x4″ prints

*Please note that 15 minute mini sessions should be booked in advance, so please enquire here now to secure your session!

Additional products such as further prints, greeting cards and frames etc can be found below for your reference:

GREETING CARDS

A6 full colour, personalised greeting cards for Christmas featuring your chosen picture from your session and a message printed inside.
20 cards = £40
30 cards = £48
40 cards = £56
50 cards = £65

BOX FRAMES

Your chosen picture from the session presented in a contemporary frame solution.
7”x5” frame = £29.99
8”x6” frame = £39.99
10”x8” frame = £49.99
12”x8” frame = £59.99

ADDITIONAL PRINTS

8”x6” prints = £20 each
5”x4” prints = £10 each

We can also provide other framed products for walls and mantlepieces, as well as canvas prints and acrylic blocks – please ask to view our price list for further information.

If you require any further information and or would like to book a mini session, then please contact us here or call 07930 400059.

THE HOUSE, Floral Design and Gifts, Station Approach, Gordon Road, Carshalton, SM5 3RF.

I recently had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Sarah and John at St Michael’s church and the Dolphin Inn in Betchworth, Surrey.

St Michael’s was another church that I had not photographed at previously.

It was a fine church, and was situated in the heart of the rural Betchworth community. I love these small, quaint villages, they are so traditionally ‘English‘ and make a refreshing change from the suburbs from which I have grown up from.

This wasn’t a very big wedding in regards to scale – it was more of an intimate affair with their family and close friends.

The church were very strict with their photography policy – initially I was informed that I was not going to be able to photograph at all during the ceremony, then John the groom managed to have a chat and persuade them to allow me to photograph, which they then did but on the basis that I shot from one specific area. Whilst this was a compromise, they dictated exactly where I was allowed to stand, and I have to say it was incredibly restricted as I was placed behind the empty choir stalls and my view was impeded by the extended ends of the stalls which you could not but fail to include in any photograph in some form! Saying that, I guess it is better than no images at all for the couple, but was frustrating nonetheless!

Following on from the ceremony I had found a couple of interesting locations for some of the bride and groom portraits from my pre wedding visit to the venues. These included a man-made tree swing, and a corn field – both of which were within a 2 minute walk from the church, and these worked an absolute treat.

You can view a selection of images from their day below. For those interested in viewing more from the day please feel free to browse at your leisure…

This post is a little reminder that we do also provide commercial portrait services for aspiring models, actors/actresses, dancers and singers.

In any of these lines of work, a portfolio is required to showcase the person and their commercial potential.

Especially for aspiring young models, a varied portfolio is a must and is an imperative investment if they are to approach modeling agencies to seek modeling work.

We recently did a fashion based model portfolio for the lovely Hayley.

Using our local area of Carshalton we managed to find some brilliant backdrops to inject some character and style into these fashion styled portraits.

You can view a large selection of the images from the day below…

A big thank you to Natalie Foster of Creative Hair, Nails and Beauty (Carshalton High Street; 020 8669 6515) for her fabulous hair and make-up on the day – all of which was superb!

Recently I managed to get my own piece of the  ‘Only way is Essex‘ experience when I was given the priviledge of photographing Carly & Joe’s wedding at Parklands, Quendon Hall, in Essex.

This was a special wedding; a stunning bride, a grand venue, and an amazing marque!

With the weather remaining dry after initially threatening to rain the ceremony was conducted outside, which made a nice change to have the freedom to roam without the constraints of a room and it’s walls.

Following on from the ceremony, I had found a corn field to the rear of the venue’s grounds and persuaded the couple to head over to it to capture some portraits of them standing within the waves of corn.  I was surprised when the videographer informed me that he had been commissioned many times before at the venue, yet none of the other photographers on those previous jobs had bothered to take their couples to the corn field for some pictures – to me they had certainly missed a trick!

The venue lent itself well for many photographic opportunities, so we were spoiled for choice.

The wedding breakfast was held in an incredibly lavish marque – definitely the most glamorous I have had the pleasure to either photograph at and or even attend as a guest come to that matter!  It even had a brand new white carpet!  Wow, I mean, white carpet – not a practical colour, but it looked absolutely gorgeous, and I have to say it was also helpful for me too as it helped aided the light levels within the marque (white reflects light to those who might not know).

The dance floor was another stand out feature – shiny white reflective tiles, but more impressively they had LED lights embedded within the tiles too!  Fantastic.

It was a great day, and it resulted in some great images throughout too.

You can view a handful of the images here below, and for those who are intrigued to view the complete set please feel free to browse them via this link.

I had the pleasure of recently photographing baby Lewis’ first portrait shoot.

Lewis was incredibly photogenic, he was an absolute cutie!

I especially loved his little red hat that mum (Michelle) had brought with them – what a fab accessory that was.

Whilst Lewis didn’t crack too many smiles for us (apparently he saved them up for later that day!), regardless we caught some stunning images.

You can view some these images below…

Due to privacy I have agreed to not name the couple of this wedding, and shall refer to them as M&S.

This was another new wedding venue for me, this time based in East Sussex, M&S held their wedding ceremony at 13th century St Thomas A’becket Framfield Church in Uckfield.

This was slightly further out from my normal haunts in Surrey, but it was a delightful embark into the beautiful East Sussex countryside, and the church lived up to the classic stereotypical old English village church.

The ceremony all went to plan smoothly and without a hitch, and with the weather in true top form it was a perfect setting for M&S.

After quickly grabbing a couple of portraits of the bride and groom utilising the church yard’s gate way, we then headed off to the amazing reception venue; Buxted Park Hotel.

Wow, what a venue!  I absolutely loved this venue, it had stunning and vast external grounds – which provided us with so many photographic opportunities.  We were truly spoiled for choice.

Whilst we captured quite a selection of portraits of the couple, there were still so many more that I could have gone on to photograph – but you have to draw the line somewhere; after all there is a balance to be made between capturing enough photos for your client and not keeping them away from their wedding party for too long!

All in all I think there was a fab selection throughout the day, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable, even though it was hard work in the hot sun – but we got some great images.

You can view the images from the day here, and or scroll down below to a selection for an insight…

The wedding of Louise and Rob at Gatton Manor Golf Club in Ockley, Surrey was yet another enjoyable day to be involved with.

Both Louise and Rob are very laid back characters, and I always find that when a couple are relaxed it certainly yields the best photographic results, plus they enjoy the whole day and experience far more.

It was my first wedding at Gatton Manor, and being a golf club you always know that there will be ample green landscapes at your disposal.  In addition to this they had a very quaint garden area, which had a lovely big stone based stairs as well as other useful features that I was able to make use of for the bride and groom portraits.

Louise and Rob have two young children, and we got some fab images of them throughout the whole day – they were very willing subjects, and both very photogenic!

I’ve include a handful of images from the day below, although please feel free to browse through more of the official images from the day.