Monthly Archives: February 2010

Click on the title of the blog post to view the entire entry.


Nick & Martha - a wedding at Drayton Old Lodge

I’ve known Nick since we were about six years old, we were at school together for the long haul and up until a few months ago I hadn’t seen him in nearly 20 years.

One Sunday morning I was down at the lifeboat shed cleaning down the boat after one of our Sunday morning exercises when I spotted Nick & his father wandering past.  We had a quick chat, the usual - what you up to now, it’s been a while, good to see you again, etc, and went our merry ways.

A few weeks later I had a mail from Nick saying he was getting married in February and could I send over some prices for my photography…. and here we are.

It was a crisp winter’s day at Drayton Old Lodge, crisp but a little damp and muddy - hence not many outdoor photos.  Nick & Martha had arranged a really relaxed, fun wedding, right from the 50’s sci-fi themed wedding invitations to the fun & games laid on for the 36 children attending (along with their parents!).

Below are some of my favourite shots of the day, my main aim was to capture the personalities of the people and fun of the event which I hope will come across in the images….

Below, it was all too much for some, I still have no idea how this little fella managed to actually go to sleep on a hard wooden floor but he was out cold!

Below, Nick & Martha had the excellent Sean Alexander performing incredible magic throughout the reception - in this one Nick tries to work out how Sean managed to warp a coin he just gave him.

Below, Sean Alexander then put on a full illusion show including this trick where he got Nick to conceal a 4 inch steel spike inside one of four polystyrene cups and then had to try & guess which one had the spike under it - to prove which ones were safe Nick’s hand was pushed right down onto the cups so this reaction from Nick is fully justified!

Below left, some decided the food was more of a fashion accessory than a foodstuff.

Below right, time for bed!

For the full gallery of shots from this wedding at Drayton old Lodge click here.  (although the full gallery is password protected at Nick & Martha’s request so you’ll need to get the password from them).

MyVision workshop 2010 - my results

Anyone who follows me on Facebook may have seen that the week before last I was in Brighton for 5 days on a groundbreaking photojournalism photography workshop called MyVision.

Originally I was going to be an assistant to one of the team leaders at the workshop but due to one of the candidates requiring emergency medical treatment I found myself in the amazing (yet daunting) position of being a fully fledged participant.

The workshop comprised four teams each with five members and a team leader (plus a merry band of assistants and support team).  Each participant was allocated a business/organisation local to the Brighton area to spend two days photographing.  I can’t go into too much detail here as there will be another workshop next year and there needs to be an element of the unknown for future candidates - nothing like a bit of tension to make you think!

The organisation I was allocated to was the Brighton Quakers Meeting House - they had a national tapestry exhibition.   I decided to focus on the relationships between the people and tried to capture the warmth and kindness of the Quakers and the people using the building, hopefully this comes across in my slideshow of final images…. (after clicking on below link click on the four arrows at the bottom right of the viewing window to get full screen for better viewing).

Brighton Quakers Meeting House 2010 slideshow

Many thanks to the people at the Quaker Meeting House especially to Rob , Christine, Richard Battson, Carolyn (as in Marilyn!) and the lovely ladies in the kitchen (awesome soup!), they all made me feel so welcome and didn’t once complain about me following their every move!

Wedding Show - Norfolk Showground

Just back from a very successful wedding show at the Norfolk Showground.

Thank you to everyone that dropped by, it was great to meet so many people and to receive such positive feedback.  Below is how my booth looked, it was a bit of a homemade job but it certainly seemed to work, thanks again to those who booked me on the day, I’ll get your booking confirmations out in the post tomorrow.

Ellie & Dominic - a wedding at Cley Mill

My first wedding of the year and it was a cold one!

Ellie & Dominic chose the beautiful Cley Mill for their wedding and reception venue, they didn’t want any shots of the ceremony itself so we have befores and afters (but no ‘durings’!) - it may have been bitterly cold and blowing a string North Westerly but the sun was shining and we had a great sunset to round off the coverage.

For the full gallery of shots from Ellie & Dom’s wedding at Cley Windmill click here.

And the winner is……

Thank you to everyone that voted in my wedding image of the year competition, we had over 400 votes in the end which was superb (although I wasn’t saying that as I was trying to count them all this morning!)

So without further ado…the phone lines are closed, the votes have been counted and verified and the results of the wedding photo of 2009 are…….

In first place with 32% of the votes is Image number 15 - the photo of Helen & Ollie in the sunset at Sheringham Golf Club.  Helen & Ollie win £50 worth of print credits towards any prints/products with me.

In second place with 29% of the votes is image number 8 - the photo of Vicky & Paul under the veil from their wedding at Caistor Hall.  Vicky & Paul win £30 worth of print credits.


In third place with 22% of the votes is image number 4 - the black & white shot of Kirsty walking with her veil catching the breeze.  Kirsty & Adam win £20 worth of print credits.

Congratulations to all of the winners, commiserations to those not fortunate enough to have reached the top three although honourable mentions should go to  Lyndsey & Dan Gonzalez for getting 9% of the votes for image 12 of Lyndsey under the veil on their beautiful Norfolk wedding day.