Wasing Park wedding photography
Monday, August 3rd, 2009The weather wasn’t perhaps the kindest feature of Saturday’s Wasing Park wedding, but (trying to avoid cliches like dampen the spirits) that did little to cast a cloud (dash, did it) on proceedings. Fab day guys, one of those occasions where as a wedding photographer you have to be at your best when it comes to banter. There was a distinct Australian flavour to the day, groom Nick being an Aussie. He even grasped the opportunity to put the English crew to rights when it came to where the Ashes really belong. Did you manage to finish that whole hog roast Nick? Remember the challenge?
Where are they now? Emmie and Alex, Silchester House
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009I shoot a reasonable amount of weddings each year for professionals in the creative field, so being requested by a fellow wedding photographer to shoot her Silchester House wedding was flattering indeed. In Emmie’s words; “Our wedding day was the best day of our lives (we’re supposed to say that aren’t we?!) It was such a good day though and we enjoy looking back and remembering it all 16 months later. Alex is still counting bricks for a living (quantity surveying) although of late has been trying his hand (or should I say fists) at boxing and winning! I am still in photography and education. We still live in Tilehurst in our lovely little house with Mr Jinks the cat. No kids yet, we are far too busy enjoying ourselves!” So a few shots from their Silchester wedding that I enjoy, and my thanks to you both for keeping in touch. Don’t let that guard down Alex, jab jab and then… oh, you know.
Where are they now? Sian, Matthew (and Jack!)
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009About a year after our own wedding, we covered Sian and Matthew’s day, also at Silchester House near Reading. I’ve really enjoyed catching up with the lives of those couples we photographed on their own wedding day. I’ve been sending out mails gradually and have a stack of stories to tell. So to continue the ‘Where are they now’ feature, in their own words (well, Sian’s…) “Since 6th Oct 07, what’s happened? We went on our six week honeymoon to Oz; fantastic. We’re living in the same house with an extension on the way. The most exciting development has been the birth of our baby boy Jack Christopher Hart, born 9th May this year weighing in at 8lbs 13. He’s now ten weeks old and a gorgeous boy, who likes to smile and talk. (Sian it gets even more amazing. Our 15 month old has just brought me a frozen pea that Mummy dropped on the floor. To him, it’s the most amazing thing in the World. His delight at sharing this tiny object with me just makes my heart dance!) We’re loving being parents; the best thing we have ever done. Coincidence that your little boy is also called Jack, it’s such a cool name. (I agree Sian!) Our wedding pictures are our pride and joy – the photos were so lovely and really helped us to capture our memories. I can’t believe it was nearly two years ago – time flies!! We both turned thirty this year and we are having a fancy dress party dressed as rock and pop stars. The band Target will be there, they played at our wedding. Very excited about reliving that part of the wedding again.” Matt, where’s the invite? Have a great time, your wedding was a brilliant party from start to finish. Loved the old bus too. Made for some bus-tastic photos. Didn’t want to use the fab word again… my English teacher would roll his eyes and that weird tobacco he kept, and then smoke it in a Shakespearean tragedy. He was strange like that.
Notley Abbey prewedding shoot – Laura and Sean
Monday, July 27th, 2009We’re about to enter the busiest August wedding season we’ve had at Breathe and frankly I can’t wait. I just know we’ll all emerge the other side richer for the wonderful things we witness and amazing people we meet. Talking of which, meet Laura, Sean and their amazing son Dylan. I look forward to a fabulous day at Notley!
Englemere wedding photography
Saturday, July 25th, 2009Out on location today soon; wedding in Aldermaston. I did however promise to pop a couple of shots from yesterday’s wedding up. Hopefully Hannah and Neil you’ll see these before you jet off to those sunny climes!
I did fear the rain would be coming at us sideways, just as those nice folk at Metcheck forecast. The morning looked fairly ominous, although Englemere’s white facade photographs beautifully against angry storm clouds. Breathe hasn’t photographed at Englemere for a little while, so it was good to return.
Literally seconds after the ceremony, the rain stopped, the thunder subsided, and sunshine took over!
Jason and Ginny, where are they now?
Friday, July 24th, 2009Married at St Michael’s Church in Sandhurst with a reception at Heckfield Place, Jason and Ginny have been married for three years. There was a strong musical theme to the day and I still remember you belting out a tune Jason, Tom Jones number wasn’t it? Or was it Andy Williams? Or indeed both? Did you actually get off the microphone? Ginny still works for British Airways and is a fully qualified nutritional therapist, although (and I’m sorry Jason) it doesn’t seem to have aided hubby’s diet. Come clean in the comments section Jason, how many pounds do you have to lose? Jason works for a company called Dialog and deals in subjects such as competitor intelligence. His company can search 300,000 things on the web simultaneously. He’s part of the deep web, which all sounds hideously clever to me. It’s an American company; the largest online aggregator of published information, their first database was linked with all the cleverness needed to launch NASA space missions to the moon. Yet they still can’t spell the word ‘color’ correctly. Gin and Jason have been touring the World, ending up with the purchase of a holiday home in Turkey. (I’d like to book two weeks next June please.) No baby JasGins yet, but watch this space. A couple of shots from their wedding’s evening mobile studio. I’m in there too. Nope, not the dude with the beer glass. C’est moi at the bottom, gripping on to a random Auntie.
Where are they now? Annabel and Mike
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009It’s fair to say that most of us are so preoccupied being busier than busy in this hectic go go non stop You Tube Google World we frequent personally and professionally, that we forget to take stock and remember sometimes where we’ve been and what we’ve achieved. Well, I’m going to try and redress that with the following blog feature. It won’t be long before I’ll be batting at the 200 not out wicket, a double century of weddings; experience that began tentatively covering my best man’s brother’s wedding as a favour, to a career that has taken me across continents. I’ve been trained and mentored by some of the industry’s finest and found new important friendships with fellow pros that share the following professional impulse; a desire to document a day so uniquely special to each client and do it whatever the weather, whatever the day and even when England are playing a World Cup match that’s actually on a channel we don’t have to pay for. We’ve been tremendously lucky at Breathe in that we established a social portraiture and wedding photography business in Newbury earlier this decade that has not only provided us with an income to feed hungry family mouths, but introduced us to some fabulous couples and families. It’s their stories that enthuse upon me that weekends were not made for drinking beer and watching X Factor, and so I begin a series of blog entries about the couples I have witnessed saying ‘I do’ through a selection of lenses. 3rd February 2007, Annabel and Mike were wed in Windsor with a wedding reception at Great Fosters near Egham; a grade one listed building that is remarkable for a list of reasons that would make this blog unreadably long. In Annabel’s words: “Mike and I are doing great, still living in Windsor. We’ve been back to Great Fosters for our last two wedding anniversaries, which was really lovely. We always pay homage to Jane Austen’s curtains. (A reference to the fact that needing to darken a scene whilst photographing the couple round the hotel, I whipped these historic items closed risking the demise of one of the World’s most historic curtains.) Mike went out to South Africa in June on a boys tour to watch the Lions. He ended up doing the highest bungee jump in the World off Bloukrans Bridge (about 216 m) – crazy fool. All 18 stones of Yorkshire goodness dangled on a piece of elastic! Other than that, we’re still at the same house but have been giving it and the garden a bit of a makeover. No baby Annabel and Mikes… yet.”
Breathe Pictures launch new web design
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009For those zooming straight through to the blog from Breathe’s splash page, take a click to our main website from Breathe links. It’s a brand new design! It’s been updated with new galleries to promote wedding photography in Newbury our hometown and has many new and unseen images. For those who have prompted, there will indeed be a whole new section on portraiture coming soon, but with the nuptials season in full swing, right now pretty much all of our attentions at HQ are devoted to that cause. It’s a busy August with the best part of half of it being spent at celebrations across the south of England. Personally I’ll be clocking up some miles too shooting weddings on the coast; Dorset being one of my personal highlights as that’s where I spent many of my childhood holidays. So take a moment to visit the new site, let me know what you think of it in the comments section here, I’m a big boy and happy to take some constructive crit.
Wasing Park wedding photography
Sunday, July 19th, 2009Just a quick blog to announce that Giovanni and Sabrina’s wedding website has gone live through our client area. Fabulous wedding at Wasing Park and what a party! Incidentally, and this is one for grooms with upcoming stag parties abroad, working as air crew on short haul Sabrina has seen her fair share of stags destined for places like Prague. One poor chap recently boarded dressed as Sesame Street’s Big Bird character (how on earth did he get through Customs???) Once they were at cruising altitude, his mates gleefully announced that he may well be enroute for a weekend’s beer fest, but his suitcase was stored safely back in Blighty. The only thing he had to wear all weekend, was one big feathery yellow costume. Nice one!
Breathe Pictures photograph featured in The Times
Saturday, July 18th, 2009Nice surprise to hear from a client getting wed next week to say one of our prewed pictures has appeared in The Times Marriages and Engagements section. It’s page 91; a slightly cross processed image taken from Neil and Hannah’s prewed shoot about a month back. Newspaper print process is not always kind to this kind of colour treatment, so I thought I’d pop it online in all it’s originally intended glory, plus a couple of extras beneath. I’m off to Sir Charles Napier, a new venue today (for me anyway) in Chinnor; car’s packed, batteries are charged, the primes are, well, primed. (Photography quip-ish.)
Rivervale Barn wedding photography in Yateley
Thursday, July 16th, 2009Solid day today spent at Rivervale Barn in Yateley shooting test and stock images for this stunning new wedding venue set on the banks of the Blackwater, approximately one hour from the smoke. It’s one of the most incredible barn projects I have ever seen but don’t just take my word for it, take a peak at the images below. (65,000 reclaimed tiles by the way, now THAT takes some laying.) Owned by John and Moyra Illsley, they’ll also be your hosts for the showround if you visit. I think meeting the owners creates a special relationship when planning a wedding, without doubt. By the way, if you’re wondering who the mystery bride is, it’s Nat, our new recruit at Breathe Pictures! She recently joined the company to fulfil a retouching and photographic assisting role. Dressing you up as a bride for some test shots at Rivervale Barn may have seemed a strange initiation Nat, but I think you rose to that challenge well! (Flowers courtesy Cherubs of Reading and bridal wear from Jennies, as featured on recommended links.)
Cantley House Hotel wedding photography
Sunday, June 21st, 2009Pastures 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 wedding 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!
Wasing Park wedding photography
Friday, June 19th, 2009I’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 Wasing Park 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.
Cliveden House wedding photography
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Okay 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.
Wasing Park wedding photography
Sunday, June 14th, 2009For 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.
The Black Barn wedding photography
Monday, June 8th, 2009Their private viewing gallery now online, here’s just a few scene setters from Chris and Caroline’s wedding in Berkshire.
Wasing Park wedding photography
Saturday, May 9th, 2009It’s a Wasing weekend this week as I find myself there on two consecutive days. Jay and Katy’s 70 friends and family members witnessed their nuptials yesterday. I love a good tactile wedding, loads of hugs, tub thumpy kind of hearty ‘I love ya mate’ rugby scrum down embraces. This one had plenty!
Great Fosters wedding photography
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009It was an early ’set off’ yesterday for Adam and Julie’s wedding. Usually I’m car bound during Wossy’s Radio 2 gig, but if the radio splurts a dash of Brian Matthews when I turn the engine over, then I’m probably dodging traffic on the M25. Destination Ewell, arrived 10.30, service midday (sent to the balcony, up in the Gods at the church, if you’ll pardon the usage) – why is it everyone in the House of God is welcome bar the photographer? Anyway, back to a favourite venue of mine, the Tudor splendor that is Great Fosters near Egham for the reception. A couple of years ago at the very same venue I’d been doing an arty lit shot with the bride on a stairwell. I whipped closed a couple of curtains, only to find these were original designs by Jane Austin hung in 1798 by the great lady herself. I get selective vision when I’m photographing weddings, so large ‘don’t walk on the grass’, ‘don’t photograph in here’, or more pertinently titled signs like ‘don’t touch these curtains ever ever ever’ don’t tend to fog my vision when trying to grab a shot. Still no harm done, honest guvnor. A couple of favourite images from yesterday then…
Smile for the man?
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009I reckon, standby – HUGE generalisation about to emit via this ‘ere blog… I reckon, that the main reason people have a fear of being photographed, is not that their soul will be stolen and sold to the cheapest bidder via Ebay, but they feel a pressure to bring on an unnatural smile. Such is the memory of school photographs where the history tutor (why was it always the history guy) would stand in the school photographer’s doorway and threaten you with six of the best if you failed to show your parents via a smile how wonderful your schooling days were, that many an adult now likens a trip to Doctor Camera with a one hour subjection to root canal surgery. It is true that I may as a photographer ask a sitter to smile, or at least crack a faint smiley type expression thingie to show enthusiasm for the session. But usually that’ll be during a family shoot, where you know your work won’t be displayed if you return a Victorian presentation of earnest intensity. Often though I won’t ask for that, opting to create some kind of diversion, usually by conversation, where the subjects engage more naturally. I shot two pre-wedding shoots today with couples I’ll see over the next couple of months – and I like to think, both shoots will yield some cracking images. Each session started with the usual mantra; “I hate having my picture taken.” By the end of it though, I hope that both couples felt we’d done nothing more hellish than simply walk through the countryside adjacent to my studio, popping a couple of shots here and there, and talking about their wonderful honeymoon locations. I asked one of my couples; “Now, how many times in the last twenty minutes have I told you to smile?” Just as an aside, some parents who bring their children for a family shoot will feel the shoot hasn’t yielded any gold if they don’t remember a particularly smiley visit. I’m delighted when I receive a mail or phone call to say how surprised and delighted they are with the results. A little wry smile appears on my face, naturally that is.
Silchester House wedding photography
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009Just in the final stages of presenting an album design to Chris and Natalie from a wedding shot a couple of months ago at Silchester House, Berkshire. Thought I’d take a moment to share some of my favourite black and whites from the day. It was a privilege being there for you both!
