First wedding of the year for me on Saturday, (it’s been a late start for me this year but it’s also going to be by far my busiest – just all crammed into seven months!).
Rayna and Andy held their wedding at The Broad House Hotel in Wroxham, a beautifully presented boutique hotel and only recently licensed for wedding ceremonies, a very photogenic venue, really friendly staff and awesome food.
Despite awful forecasts the weather couldn’t have been better, OK I suppose it could have been 15 degrees warmer but we’re talking Norfolk here!
The dining room looked really classy, Rayna had chosen to echo the decor of the room in the menus with the tables set to a red, white and black theme.
Rayna arrives…
I have to thank Rayna’s friend and wedding usher – Shankar for the great expressions here, every wedding should have a Shankar, he was great fun and made a great (unpaid) assistant at times too, thanks Shankar!
Andy was very calm throughout the day and even seemed to enjoy having his photo taken – when we first met Andy said he didn’t like having his photo taken (like most people I guess!) but this is where the free Pre-wedding photo shoots I’m doing came in handy – Andy and Rayna already knew how I worked, got used to my daft directions and had confidence in my instruction so we managed to get some great shots on the day without anyone feeling uncomfortable.
I love the colours in this shot, we were walking through a corridor in the hotel when I spotted the opportunity for this shot, there was some great directional light coming through a window and this warm yellow wall continuing into the darker corridor, all we needed was our beautiful bride and hey presto!
So to the speeches before the wedding breakfast was served.
Great wedding cake, one word comes to mind – quirky. Actually two words, quirky and cool.
For the full gallery of images from Rayna & Andy’s wedding follow the link below, I recommend the slideshow option, get yourself a glass of wine, hit play and enjoy! Here’s the gallery —> click here
I just wanted to post a quick thank you message to Jim – Microsoft Technician (sorry Jim that’s all I know you as!) – last week my PC died, wouldn’t even start up. All of my photographs are backed-up onto external hard drives and again onto DVD’s so no worries there but I wasn’t sure I would be so lucky with all of my emails, advertising materials and stationery…. so I called Jim.
The next day it was a mixture of good and bad news – the good news was that Jim had managed to get the computer working and accessed the internal harddrive so he could get all my files out, the bad news was the PC was pretty much scrap metal so we went to the local PC shop, Jim selected all the bits we needed (hardware terrifies me), got a hefty discount in the shop and then built the PC, installed my software again, got my old files back in and even configured my email so I was back up and running within very little time.
Not only did Jim get all this done for me super fast his fees are incredibly reasonable, I can’t recommend him enough, it’s great to know we have someone so knowledgeable and helpful locally.
Jim can be contacted on 07789895603 or jsimmo1059@aol.com
Thanks Jim!
Yesterday I photographed one of the North Norfolk Railway’s Driver Experience Days (click here for info).
It’s a new area of photography I’m investigating – I attend the day with the five or six chaps that have paid/been bought the experience, document their day and make the images available to purchase online (link at the bottom of this post). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stay for the whole day this time but I will be attending the next one on the 18th April for the whole day.
The ultimate aim is to produce personalised hardbacked books for the attendees containing 40 of their favourite images of the day – these would include images of them driving the trains, of their guests enjoying their train rides and various scenic/detail shots of the trains/stations/etc. (the books can be ordered through the online gallery, link below).
Below are some of my favourite shots from yesterday, it was a pretty damp morning, starting with snow and following with rain and grey skies so I’ve not posted a lot of scenic shots on this blog entry!
I actually really like the close-up details shots, the shapes, textures and colours can make interesting images.
I’ve used a process to replicate a really old photograph on this image, I guess it works considering the subject matter – the train that is, not Peter!
While I can’t claim to be a rail enthusiast it was pretty amazing to actually go underneath a full-sized steam train.
Here the Fire-man stokes up the fire, no chance of getting cold in there!
For the full gallery of shots and online ordering please CLICK HERE
Late last week I was photographing one of my favourite Norfolk wedding venues – Drayton Old Lodge.
Below are some of the shots of the inside of the venue and some of the chef’s creations. While there we were invited to dine at the restaurant and it was an incredible meal, I had a starter of scallops with grilled black pudding and lobster ravioli with a chervil butter dressing which was superb. I won’t list the entire meal but it was really lovely and an indication of just how good their food is for wedding receptions.
Below are some panoramics of the inside showing the recently refurbished bar and restaurant.
The scallops with grilled black pudding and lobster ravioli (this is one that the chef prepared for the shoot), having photographed this I knew exactly what I was ordering once we were finished and sat down to eat!
Sea Bass with clams, brown shrimp and puy lentils…
Here’s Head Chef, Ray Maddox at work, can’t beat a bit of a flambe for a dramatic cooking image!
I was recently asked by the people at the Big C bridal shop to do some edgy shots using some of the second-hand dresses they have for sale in the Norwich shop.
Last week we went into the shop to select the dresses and on Friday we did the first shoot at the great old ruin at Drayton Old Lodge
As you can see we have gone for a grungy, kind of look which worked well with the ruins at Drayton, plenty more dresses, locations and models lined up for the next week or two so come back and see the results.
Hi,
this is my new look blog – for my old blog and previous posts please go to http://www.christaylorphoto.co.uk/old_blog
This new version will allow me to display much larger images than the old one, allows people to leave comments (complete with spam filter) and has so much more flexibility so watch this space!
