3 Ceremonies, a Stallion and a Flying Rabbi !

Wow. That's the best word I can use to describe my experience this past bank holiday weekend.

As you all know, I occasionally get contracted to work for and with other photographers. At around Easter, you will remember my trip to Rhinefield House in the New Forest (I blogged with photos of the horses LOL) - we were actually meeting up with my friend and talented photographer, Sophie Griffiths. it was at this get-together that Sophie asked if I would shoot with her at a large wedding in August - in the diary it went :)

I stayed with Sophie on Saturday night and when we went through the brief I could not believe my ears - hang on - 3 ceremonies (a civil, a Hindu and a Jewish) - groom arriving on a white stallion, Rabbi arriving in a chopper, the biggest marquee, EVER *lol* and dancing til the wee hours - ok then !

As you can imagine I took well over a thousand images on the day - that was just me, so you can at least double that !!! It was pretty difficult coming up with my favourites for this post, but here goes - I will try to add some commentary as I go ...

The temple had been built especially for the 2 outdoor ceremonies. The first ceremony was Hindu, with red chairs, flowers and decoration - very colourful !
Funky little Indian taxis were ferrying guests around - well, there were 500 to cope with :)

I had to indulge myself with this shot - the owner of the estate's really cool american car ... rrrrr

Indian music entertained the guests as they arrived and mingled on the lawns ...
The bride and her sisters waited patiently while the groom's procession made it's way down the trees ... 30 minutes to get down the hill !!!


It was definitely worth the wait - the music, the colours, the people - all loud, colourful and wonderful to behold - what an experience !

I used my fisheye lens quite a bit at this wedding ... there were a lot of cameras and video cameras around so I wanted to get myself in close and to not capture any other cameras - I was literally a couple of feet from the temple taking this shot !

The round temple was actually more difficult to shoot than we first thought - there were so many people in there ! But here I managed to capture a lovely expression on the bride's face - and the groom certainly looks very happy too :)

As you can imagine, with 500 guests, the formals were a tad challenging for Sophie - I managed to grab this shot from the side, showing the bride's family and her groom ...

Then it was all change again for the Jewish ceremony - the bride had opted for a white roses theme so all the flowers had to be replaced, including the floating petals in the little moat around the temple - there was much scurrying around by the flower ladies while the bride changed into her white dress ... to give you an idea of the scale of the wedding ... yes, that is the marquee on the right !!

I heard the helicopter overhead and knew I had to catch the Rabbi arriving - I have never been so close to one so the whole experience was pretty cool :)

Out with the fisheye lens for a shot of the ceremony - you can really get a feel for the number of guests and how intimate the temple was - that blue sky looks lovely in the photos but I did manage to get a little sunburned - we are never quite equipped for sunshine in the UK *lol*

The bride looked absolutely stunning - again - I love this image with a little burst of sunshine giving it a certain glow ...

And of course you guys know I love a little bit of detail ...
Then it was on to the walled garden for drinks ... I have never seen so many champagne glasses in one place :)

And then it was party time !!! And boy did they party !!!

This was their first dance - surrounded by hundreds of guests - it was absolutely packed full :)

Of course, no Jewish wedding is complete without a Hora ...
Then it was the turn of the Indian DJ and a drummer from the daytime celebrations joining in ... great stuff !!!
As always, I hope you enjoyed the images :)

Gill x

Note: The wedding was held in a private estate (which had been one-off sanctioned for this purpose) - I have not named names here, to protect everyone's identity - any enquiries relating to this wedding need to go through Sophie herself.

Portraits - Anywhere !

I have been thinking about branching out properly into portraiture to compliment my wedding photography business - I have dabbled with setups with friends and their children, and family members - don't we all? Not forgetting, of course, a few wedding clients have wanted portraiture work, including boudoir sessions and engagement or pre-wedding shoots - but up until now I didn't really give it enough thought ... so time to change that !

Ollie (wedding client's dog!)

David (friend)

Adam (friend) and his son, Xander

So this got me thinking about the type of portraiture I can offer - remember, I don't have a studio, which would be the traditional type of portrait photography - so what to do?

Well, to be honest, you can take a really good portrait just about anywhere.

The 2 photos here of me (top of post and below) are self portraits taken especially for this post.


These were taken in my dining room ... now, just to show that I don't live in a palace ... here is the setup ...


As you can see, you don't need a lot of space - just good lighting, good composition and post production skills ... I am dead chuffed with these and I usually hate being that side of the camera !

Why not contact me if you would like to take up my limited offer - I am currently waiving the sitting fee, meaning you only pay for the output of your session - why not treat yourself to beautiful canvas for your wall, or a framed print or multiple prints !

Click here to contact me ! I look forward to hearing from you :)

Gill x

Marketing, Fayres, new Albums on the way ...

Marketing News

Well, I have just this week finalised my marketing with 2 of the county's most prestigious wedding venues ... The Moat House, Acton Trussell and Shugborough Hall ...

http://www.moathouse.co.uk/
http://www.shugborough.org.uk/

I will be featured in their brochures, with links on their online brochures striaght to my site and will also be recommended to brides and grooms enquiring about having their wedding at their venues ! How exciting !

It is always incredibly difficult to choose favourite images to use for advertising purposes but I tried to find a mix of details, brides, dress shots which are some of my favourite parts to capture during the day.

Wedding Fayres - come and see me !

Wow - doesn't time fly - it is almost September already and I have some wedding fayres coming up ... I can't wait ! I love love love setting up my stands, showing my work, chatting with brides, grooms and mums :)

I am exhibiting at the following fayres:

2007
16th September ... The Moat House Hotel, Stoke on Trent (Signal 1)
23rd September ... Wychwood Park Hotel, Crewe
21st October ... Crewe Hall, Crewe (Signal 1)

2008
3rd February ... Shugborough Hall

Remember to pop these in your diary - if you are thinking of planning your wedding, if you have planned your wedding - even if you have already booked me !!! I would love to see you there !

New Album Range

Well, I am very very excited about my new range of albums ... I just ordered the first set this week - these are the multiple-mat albums - where there are multiple images on teh page, all separately mounted - gorgeous !

The front cover of the main 14x11" album is a photo mounted behind acrylic with a leather bound edge - I have chosen the following image and so the album will look like this ...

I am in the process of getting together my magazine style album in between designing client albums, shooting weddings and processing images LOL !!!

Gill x

Sophie's Bridal Preps - Acton Trussell

I often get asked to cover bridal preps by male photographers - either while they are shooting the groom preps or because the bride would like a female photographer. This was the former !

The wedding was taking place at The Moat House in Acton Trussell - a very popular wedding venue and somewhere I have shot many times before, so of course I was delighted to be asked to cover Sophie's bridal preps :) Sophie spent all morning with her Mother - they are very close - and both looked radiant, tanned and ready for the day ahead ...

It was all Sophie's Mum could do to keep her away from the window - she wanted to peep at her friends ... and at Rob - no chance !!! LOL

I love this moment ... Sophie is hiding as she doesn't want her Dad to see her yet ... so they all had a conversation through the doorway :)

Her dress had a very glam, Spanish feel to it and with her beautifully bobbed hair, and veil, she looked every part a princess !!

In her Mum's words, everything about Sophie's outfit was understated and elegant ...

The back of the dress was absolutely stunning !

Rob's expression is lovely as he see Sophie walking towards him ...

Gill x

James & Gemma's Wedding - Swinfen Hall

I think the e-mail from Gemma on Friday night (with details of her formals) summed up their day for me ...

"Hi Gill - I can't believe it's finally here! Time has just flown by!"

I guess that's how it feels for all of us girls who are getting married ... all that planning and then, suddenly, it's here, it's time !!!

Gemma came to see me a few weeks ago with an idea for a gift for her husband to be ... a saucy photo shoot in her bridal underwear ... no, I'm not posting them here LOL - they were for James's eyes only and he loved the photos!!

So, armed with my glamorous assistant for the day, Carl, we headed off to Swinfen to cover James and Gemma's day.

As always, here is a selection of my favourites from the day ...

Carl went off with the guys and covered them getting ready and having a laugh ...

... while I stayed with the girls ... this setup works really well as both parties feel comfortable being shot in various states of undress by photographers of the same gender ...

Gemma's dress was absolutely stunning - really big skirt with Victorian lace overlay - scrumptious ... and I took every opportunity throughout the day to get a great shot of it :)

The ceremony was lovely, very emotional as both Gemma and James were nervous, all of a sudden!

I love the expression as James looks around at Gemma walking in ...

I love capturing little moments like this - Gemma just grasped a couple of James's fingers - a delicate touch ...

We headed out for the small amount of formals the guys wanted, here are 2 of my favourites - when I was posing the girls I told them of my plan for a fun shot - the guests were all on the patio, cameras poised, so I thought I would give them a treat ... or so I thought LOL

This is the demure version ...

And one word from me ... Charlie's Angels ... ha ha !

Oh, and did I mention that I took every opportunity to shoot that dress? LOL

Once the meal was finished, Carl and I headed in to cover the speeches - particularly good ones this week, as James had 2 best men ... boy, did he get a roasting !!!

Double checking the speech ...

Laughter ...

Toasts ...

Romance ...

The evening light was absolutely beautiful and so we could not resist getting James and Gemma (and their friends and family) out for more photographs before we finished for the day ...

The final shot ... this started out as a small number and ended up a massive line of people - who I made walk like 'hey hey, we're the monkeys' LOL :)

James and Gemma head off for an extended honeymoon today - a surprise for Gemma as James has planned it all ... how romantic ! See you in a few weeks, guys :)

Gill x