A holiday romance, my Leica on hols in Menorca
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
Stepping aside from weddings for just one mo. As a confirmed DSLR user (this post’s for the togs) had someone suggested a year back that I would enjoy the challenges proffered by a digital camera body featuring a chip that suffers magenta colour cast, no autofocus, a viewfinder with inaccurate framelines (no through the lens technology), painfully short battery life, green ghosting and noisy high ISO above 640, I would have thrown an icy stare that could freeze the Bay of Biscay. Oh, and add to that the cost. This isn’t a cheap camera. Even purchased second hand, brand new flagship Canon and Nikon DSLR bodies are only marginally more expensive. But, boy, this historical rangefinder with updated innards feels good. There’s something very comforting about operating a camera system revered by Cartier-Bresson, Winogrand, Capa and Arbus. See, there’s a traditionalist in me that happily accepts the technical foibles of the digital Leica rangefinder. The Leica M8, not the most up to date of the brand’s digital rangefinder family, superseded by the M9 which addresses many of the reported colour issues and ISO boundaries. It’s been my choice of recreational digital camera since the turn of the year and I have to say, I’m lovin’ it! There’s a satisfying clunk, an initial unhealthy conversion rate, a retro look that leaves the boys clutching grip laden top notch SLRs sniggering with disdain for something only the historically literate would truly appreciate. It’s sadly true that Leica bodies are also the playthings of collectors that will never allow one out of it’s box. I’ll romanticise that this is like an E Type. It doesn’t belong boxed up or in a museum. It needs to be out on the open road exploring and discovering. So for the togs amongst us musing about shooting rangefinder stylee, rent one and try it for a week. I think the uncompromising behaviour of this tool will, if you’ll pardon the pun, focus your creative journey. For me, there’s an air of reinvention when this is in your kit bag. It slows you down, forces you to think composition composition composition. It stops this serial inane machine gunning that has crept into photography. It’s not for everyone granted and neither should it be. But hell, is it fun.
Wasing Park wedding photography
Monday, January 18th, 2010Jamie, Beth, inspired idea to feature your late Grandparents within photo frames as the table names and decorations for your Wasing Park wedding.
Photographically, there is a documentary moment at most weddings when a father’s eyes will meet those of his daughter’s for the first time as she stands before him in her wedding gown. The intensity differs from father to father of course and even those dads with the most obdurate courage find this to be one moment more than any other during the day, where a myriad of emotions flatten any wall of masculine parental steely resolve they thought they possessed. It’s fabulous. Professional platitudes abound on the web, so I’ll cautiously express a somewhat overused term; privilege. As a documentary maker, albeit in stills, that’s what makes this job so important, he says, hearing the opening bars of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ fading up behind this blog entry. Listen, I can swill beer, crack beer nuts and talk sport with the best of ‘em at any bar in this land where spit and sawdust define the landlord’s choice of decor. But I’ll also experience and hopefully always will, a lump in the throat when I witness the sincere pride liberated by a father with momentary tunnel vision, who can see no further than his ‘little girl’ on the morning of her wedding. Phew, that’s said. Okay, big hearty Haka lads and let’s get back to talking rugby.
Where are they now? Freddie and Steve at Silchester House
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009It’s been two years since their Silchester House wedding and thanks for your note guys to let me know how things have been coming along since then. For private reasons to the couple, this wedding was a wonderfully emotional experience; I remember there being a lump in my throat for much of the speeches. ‘Nuff said’ on that note, the couple have some amazing travel plans afoot for the next year; trips to Australasia and the Americas to name just two continents. It’s been a commercial journey in the last year too, as Steve has launched his own business in the online search engine optimisation field, that dark art where we all battle to become Google’s favourite friend!
Rivervale Barn wedding photography
Sunday, August 16th, 2009It’s been good to see Rivervale Barn grow into a working wedding venue over the past year and it was even more special to shoot my first wedding there at the start of the week, Rivervale’s fourth. Double congratulations then; John and Moyra for the incredible turnaround that I’ve witnessed, from nought to sixty five thousand tiles in twelves months, and Alex and Carrie our bride and groom for the day. Rivervale has one of the finest ceremony rooms I’ve had the privilege to work in, huge floor to ceiling windows (there must be 40/50 feet of glass) that drop kicks light into the room in cathedral like fashion; a photographer’s dream.
Father’s day
Sunday, June 21st, 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!
