Wedding photography at Cantley House Hotel
By nealejames | June 21, 2009
Pastures new this weekend as I photographed at Cantley for the first time. Well done Steve, well done Sian, fab day, and one of the most original evening mobile studios yet! I know that by the time you get a chance to read this, you’ll more than likely have returned to your hotel for some early evening R&R following a day supping island cocktails on a beach under a sun umbrella in Hawaii. As much as it’s a great honour to photograph at familiar venues where as a company we’re a preferred photographic supplier, it’s equally good to tackle new locations. If you’ve read the blog or taken in the kind of thing that inspires me as a photographer through my images on the main site, you’ll know that I much prefer available light to napalming a scene with heavy flash work. When I started photographing weddings, a strobe would be attached to the camera pretty much all day. I’ve become subtle in ‘me old age…’ (cue comments on how kids have no respect these days and how in my day you had to climb up inside chimneys for pocket money.) And so, it was a delight to see a venue with some large windows to throw shafts of light on to various scenes. I look forward to going back one day.
Oh, and as for the mobile studio, we moved outside for the first time in a long time, and invited guests to embrace an Hawaiian theme. What is it about grown men with grass skirts and inflatable sharks? Loved it!
Topics: Blog journal, Wedding day tips, Wedding general | No Comments »
Father’s day
By nealejames | June 21, 2009
‘Boy’ as we affectionately refer to him is now 15 months old and this is the first Father’s day where he’s been able to assist in unwrapping a couple of pressies for me! I guess from now on I’ll not get to unwrap stuff at birthday’s, anniversaries and Christmas as it’s far too much fun watching him do the honours. We were at a playground earlier this week when I took the following shots. The look of satisfaction on his face when he pilots from one thing to another on his tottering ‘ickle feet is a joy. Being a photographer of course, I had to find a playground where the props and activities colour match his clothing!
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Tom and Anna’s big day out
By nealejames | June 19, 2009
I’m spending a reasonable amount of my summer at Wasing photographing weddings and it’s a venue I’m very fond of. A couple of shots from Tom and Anna’s fabulous nuptials as the post edit work now begins. Quick mention too for chef extraordinaire, the wonderful Joe. I quite like, when given the opportunity, to get into the kitchen at a wedding. The wedding banquet is such an important facet of the big day and chef is an important player and unsung hero frankly. When the thanks are read out, the list of key players will oft include the coordinator, for good reasons clearly, but rarely chef. So Joe, incase you get to read this, you’re an absolute star, and I can’t wait to show you the book of stuff I’ve recorded in your kitchen over the last few months.
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Find a window, sit in front of it…
By nealejames | June 16, 2009
Okay so the window just happens to be at Cliveden, a house of outstanding beauty and fabulous features, but none the less, these shots taken at a recent wedding soon to be released for preview by the couple, demonstrate the joy of photographing in unbridled natural light.
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My blog guardian!
By nealejames | June 14, 2009
For fear of becoming a BBC repeat, I may have mooted this before; keeping up the blog is sometimes like keeping the diary you were bought for Christmas aged 9. (For some reason mine was always a Disney one featuring Mickey and friends. It continued that way well into my teens.) You diligently filled it in for ooh, a good seven days following New Year’s Eve, then it became a series of ‘Got up, had lunch, went to bed’ comments for week two and by week three, it transgressed to a doodle pad at best. However I have a blog guardian it seems in Robbie, who wed Sarah yesterday at Wasing Park. So, Robbie, your enthusiasm for updating noted, some images from yesterday. I look forward to seeing you when you return from your honeymoon in July.
Topics: Blog journal, Wedding general | No Comments »
Notley Abbey open day
By nealejames | June 12, 2009
Sunday 14th June is Notley Abbey’s open day! As one of Notley’s recommended photographic suppliers, we’re pleased to be associated with a venue that carries a rich heritage dating from AD1112 when it was built to home a reformed order of Augustine monks, to its showbiz period as the country pile of Vivien Leigh and Sir Lawrence Olivier. Now of course it’s a fabulous wedding venue and one (pause) of (pause) a (pause) kind. Hopefully you can sense my breathless enthusiasm for the place.
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Look what flew in
By nealejames | June 9, 2009
Every now and then you’re thrown an artistic curve ball during a shoot. This one literally flew in from nowhere! My late father was a military aircraft enthusiast (I know each and every corner of Duxford) and I’ve continued to share that enthusiasm for winged vehicles, although I’m not that fond of commercial tin cans. We were shooting just off the taxiway of an unlicenced airstrip, so when a 1930s Tiger Moth made a welcome appearance my arty petrol head kicked in (would that be a wingnut in aviation terms?). It would’ve seemed rude not to have utilised this out of the ordinary prop. It didn’t become a shoot for Moth Monthly, but this was one family shoot that yielded some unusual images.
Topics: Blog journal | 1 Comment »
Chris and Caroline
By nealejames | June 8, 2009
Their private viewing gallery now online, here’s just a few scene setters from Chris and Caroline’s wedding in Berkshire.
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Robert and Sarah
By nealejames | May 12, 2009
Just a quickie before hitting the hay as they say across the pond… have completed Robert and Sarah’s pre-wedding shoot. Great shoot on the farm. I like working in the studio particularly since laying the real wooden floor, but it’s equally as good to get out into the yard. The industrial edge can look fabulous in contrast to what we’ll eventually achieve on the wedding day itself.
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A commercial photography diversion
By nealejames | May 10, 2009
Was burning the candle late in editing mode and thought it worth a post from a recent commercial shoot. This is ‘Ice’ modelling some ties for a Father’s Day campaign that may or may not make it to large format posters in a fairly well known menswear chain. I don’t noose my collar each morning as a habit, but if I did, I’d probably choose a tie like one of these. (I feel a little duty bound to say that, the art director just may be reading this!)
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