Christening in London

23/01/2012 by Anna.

I love any excuse for a trip to London and so was very happy to be asked to photograph Isobel’s christening in Wimbledon in early January.

She was so happy and well behaved the whole day.

What a beautiful line up of shoes!

There is never much natural light in January but we were lucky with the weather and it was bright enough for me not to have to use flash for these first pictures.

Big brother, whose christening I did  in 2010, was not keen to join in with this photo session.

Aaahh!

Here she is all ready dressed in her christening gown.

During the service I quietly took a few pictures without flash to be as unobtrusive as possible.

We finally managed to get one with Harry in! This time I set up my off camera flash to give me the flexibility to take pictures wherever I wanted. It is balanced with the ambient light.

It was lovely to see the growing family and to once again meet up with other family members and friends.

Posted in Christening | No Comments »

Boudoir session for two

02/01/2012 by Anna.

In November I had a fun boudoir shoot with two beautiful women; I think it was less scary for them to have a friend to share it with and I had an assistant to help with holding reflectors, when needed.

This shot works well on everyone and is always flattering.

The red satin sheets are brilliant for boudoir photography.

For this lovely last image I balanced the natural window light with a big softbox to give sandwich lighting which has highlighted Bethan’s beautiful shape.

I hope the prints you both got were favourably recieved by your men folk!

Posted in Boudoir | No Comments »

Winter Wedding at The Matara Centre

21/12/2011 by Anna.

At the beginning of this month I photographed Callum and Sue’s wedding at The Matara Centre in Gloucestershire. It’s a lovely, quirky place with so many places to take pictures whatever the weather.

For early December the weather was very kind to us and it was mild and dry enough for the service to be held outside.

However, once the ceremony had finished everyone was very happy to go inside for drinks and canape and to warm up a little!

After a little time inside warming up, during which time I could take candid shots of guests and the room decorated ready for the wedding breakfast, I persuaded everyone to go outside again for some group shots and confetti shots.

This covered cloister area has a lovely light for taking small groups.

And then we let the guests go inside again while I took some bride and groom shots.

Sue now donned her wellies  for a walk outside to a tree dedication in the grounds.

Then we all made our way to a wishing tree where you tie on pieces of ribbon whilst making a wish - lovely!

The wedding breakfast was afternoon tea with a delicious mixture of savoury and sweet, all beautifully presented and the room was quite stunning.

Can you guess what one of Callum and Sue’s hobbies is?… a friend had made these beautiful cakes. It seemed such a shame to cut them… but it has to be done!

I love the curtain of lights along one wall of the room - a very welcome addition for such a dark month.

It was such a lovely, relaxed party to celebrate Callum and Sue’s union and we loved being a part of it.

Posted in Weddings | No Comments »

A wedding in beautiful Lacock

28/11/2011 by Anna.

At the end of October I photographed the wedding of Victor and Anna in Lacock church followed by a reception at Stanton Manor Hotel.

The lovely autumn weather was continuing with plenty of sunshine.

I started off in Neston with the preparations and here the 3 bridesmaids are relaxing with a little champagne.

Mother and sister are helping Anna into her dress here with the usual pulling of straps and ribbons!

Proud father pops his head around the door to see how things are progressing.

This was made with a bit of tweaking in Lightroom and Photoshop.

As the house was an old cottage with low ceilings and fairly small windows I seated Anna to maximise the light in the room falling on her. I carry flash and diffusers around with me but will always try and use natural light first.

As the groom was preparing close to the church I managed to get to take a few pictures of him before he left for the church, again using what natural light I could find.

I stayed at the back of the church for much of the service but with both a wide angle and a longer focal length zoom lens I can vary the pictures I take.

For the more formal pictures it’s good to use flash. I use a very strange diffuser on the flashgun which looks a little like a clear yogurt pot!

A private moment for the newly married couple.

We took quite a few pictures outside the church as it is a lovely location.

While the guests travelled to Stanton Manor Hotel for the reception drinks we had a little walk around Lacock.

As I teach wedding photography at Lacock Photography (www.lacockphotography.com) just up the road from here, I know where to find the best light here, and luckily the sun stayed shining for this little session by the brook.

Lacock is a busy tourist village, so we had to work quickly to take these images inbetween the dog walkers and bemused tourists crossing the bridge!

Here we are in Stanton Manor Hotel in Stanton St. Quinton - a lovely old building near J17 of the M4.

The rooms were beautifully decorated with autumn colours and fresh foliage on the window sills.

The wind had picked up by this time, so poor Anna was starting to feel a little chilly! But at least we had the garden to ourselves as most of the guests were inside next to the roaring open fire.

This was the perfect time for outdoor photography with lovely late afternoon sun.

I like to vary the more formal wedding images with some impromtu moments.

Taking a dip?

A beautiful bride…

and a gorgeous groom!

We managed to drag a few guests away from the fire to throw the confetti. I like to get down low for these shots to get the waving hands in!

Look at that lovely colour sunshine!

My last picture just before everyone started the wedding breakfast and I headed for home with my stash of full memory cards.

Posted in Weddings | No Comments »

A bridal boudoir session

12/11/2011 by Anna.

I’m not sure if it’s thanks to Gok Wan but bridal boudoir is becoming quite big over here in the UK. The idea is that I capture your sexuality and femininity in pictures which are then given to your husband as a surprise on your wedding night! Last week I photographed Claire who is getting married at the end of the month.

It’s not usual for the bride-to be’s mother to be present, but Claire’s mother was a very good assistant, holding the reflector and a little video light when needed!

I always start off with a head and shoulders portrait to help my client to settle in and feel confident when she can see how great she looks!

Claire’s new husband is going to love this one!

I have a full length cathedral veil which I also use for my wedding training sessions, and it’s great as an accessory.

This is always a beautiful, flattering pose.

A cheeky smile!

Thanks, Claire, for letting me use your images and I hope Tom loves them!

Posted in Boudoir | No Comments »

Holiday in France - October 2011

30/10/2011 by Anna.

This is the season for taking pictures at schools, pre-schools and toddler groups, which is something I love doing and is very rewarding. However, as I don’t have permission from parents I do not post any of the images on my blog - such a shame! So today I’m going to share some pictures with you that I took earlier this month when we went to stay with friends who have very recently moved from our village in Wiltshire to France.

As we didn’t check in any baggage I only had my little compact camera with me - easy to carry around, but not quite what I’m used to!

Our host, Bob and his dog - the day before he turned 60… shhh don’t tell him I told you!

The nearby town of Pons has a very dramatic donjon visible for miles around.

Down the hill in Pons is a river with some lovely riverside walks - this picture has had a little work done on it in Lightroom. Do you think it looks a bit like an impressionist painting?

Hmmm… trying to be creative here.

Here are Bob and Magali outside their home that Bob has been renovating for several years.

During one of our dog walks Bob led us to this old wreck in the woods and I had some fun photographing it.

This old tractor was also on the route.

A trip to the seaside - the Atlantic coast

And of course no French holiday would be complete without a visit to a vineyard and a chateau - this was the chateau.

The day we left was the rugby world cup semi finals with France v Wales and guess what… Magali is French and Bob is Welsh. He was not a happy man at the end of the match and so we left and came home!

Posted in Personal photography | No Comments »

Family session in the autumn sun

17/10/2011 by Anna.

Now that my blog is up and running again it’s time to put some new pictures on. Remember those lovely, hot days in early October? Luckily I had a photo shoot planned so we really made the most of it. Deb, Ben, Amelie and Ethan and Simon and I strolled around West Kington for a couple of hours, enjoying the sun.

The sun was still strong for late afternoon, so we found shade behind a huge tree.

Making the most of the sun for this one!

Ethan was very excited about his 4th birthday the following day!

This really doesn’t look like October 2nd, does it?!

What a lovely couple!

I wonder what Amelie’s pictures turned out like?

It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon - thanks guys!

Posted in Family, Children | No Comments »

Holiday in Denmark - September 2011

26/09/2011 by Anna.

Our whole family were in Denmark in early September for our biennial cousins’ party.

For the first time ever this year I saw a fox at Fiskerminde; it appeared several times on the first day we were there, and was a really pretty little thing.

Fiskersminde has been in the family since 1917 and the branch of our family that own it have done a huge amount of work to improve it.

It has so much character.

There are now so many cousin’s descendents that it’s quite hard to keep track of all the children!

About 75 of us were present this year for the lamb midday meal…

after the meal it was time for the traditional ice cream kiosk to open where the children can buy ice cream and sweets using special money made just for Fiskersminde.

There is a lot of beer drinking, talking, playing games and relaxing at Fiskersminde.

We were really lucky with the weather this year, and it was even warm enough for a swim.

It’s not often that it’s so calm and warm when we visit Denmark, so this was a real treat!

Posted in Family gatherings | No Comments »

Portrait training day at Lacock Photography

12/09/2011 by Anna.

Last Saturday I did my first portrait training day at Lacock Photography, a new venture that Andy and Fiona Turnbull are setting up in a newly built premises in Lacock. Once fully opened the site, which used to be the old Working Men’s Club, will consist of their house, a 3 bedroomed B&B, a photographic gallery, shop and training room. It’s going to be a beautiful building. Here are some of the pictures of both the training taking place and some of the images I got from the afternoon’s session with our model, Lexy.

Here is Lexy showing an ‘S’ body shape which is flattering and dynamic.

We experimented with Lexy moving around so that the natural window light created different images with different moods. As there was a brief spell of rain it was great to have the indoor space to use for photography.

Once the rain stopped we headed for the beautiful village of Lacock for more shooting. This was taken in the bus stop.

Not quite portrait photography but we were practising doing some panning and the slow moving cars were the only things moving fast enough!

It was a fun session with lots of aspects of portrait photography covered. My next training session is on September 25th and is a day talking about wedding photography with bride and groom models for a hands on session out in the village. More details can be found here: www.lacockphotography.co.uk

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Golden Wedding Anniversary lunch party

30/08/2011 by Anna.

50 years eh? That’s a long time! John and Carolyne do not look old enough to have been married for so long. This event was held in Hullavington Village Hall; it is not a good place for colour pictures having an orangy coloured floor, hence most of the images I took were turned into B&W!

This is one of their grandchildren with his other grandpa.

A lovely picture of Mary.

Mmmm, makes your mouth water, doesn’t it?

Kyla, from The Little Balloon Company, did all the balloons.

I’ve just finished designing a photo book which will be a lovely reminder of the happy party.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »