Yesterday saw me cover my first wedding of 2012 and I couldn’t have asked for a nicer couple. Saul and Catherine were getting married at Down Hall Hotel in Hertfordshire and even though it was January it remained reasonably dry if a but blustery at times! Both Catherine and Saul work in the entertainment industry on cruise ships and their many friends had come from all corners of the globe to join them and their families in the celebrations and when you have a group of people as outgoing as this it really does make my job easier.

They are leaving tomorrow for a three week honeymoon in Thailand and on their return will be visiting Saul’s family in Toronto before going back to sea. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish them the very best for the future – wherever they may be!

I haven’t been blogging much for the last few months due to personal reasons but I thought I’d round off 2011 with the news that two of my wedding images have won awards and been placed by a couple of international societies. Both photographs were taken during Steven and Rebecca’s wedding at Pendley Manor in Hertfordshire and I am sure they will be chuffed to bits to hear about the awards.

This first photograph of Rebecca was taken in the church as she stood in a shaft of sunlight and it won a Gold award with the International Professional Photographers’ Network (IPPN) and here are some of the judges comments:

“This is amazing natural light…”
“Unusual shot – well controlled”
“This is photography! Love it!”

The second photograph is one of my personal favourites from the year. This was taken at Pendley Manor and when I saw the beautiful parquet flooring I knew it would make a great backdrop for Rebecca’s stunning dress, the shot was taken by leaning over a balcony directly above Rebecca. This image won a Silver award with the IPPN and the judges comments included the following:

“Love the graininess and movement of this image….very beautiful and dreamy photo”
“Love it! This really works well. Love the processing.”
“An eye catching image….”

This photograph was also placed in the International Society Of Professional Wedding Photographers (ISPWP) Fall 2011 competition in the Pure Art category. I have been a member of the ISPWP for some time now and have always aspired to be placed in one of their competitions as the standard of photography on this site is immense, the judge’s comment was:

“Good motion. Like the pattern on floor.”

So that is it for 2011! As I said earlier I apologise for not blogging as much as I would like and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy New Year and in particular my thoughts and wishes are with my Dad.

See you in 2012!

Yesterday saw me shooting my final wedding of 2011 and I couldn’t have asked for lovelier couple or better December weather, even if it was a bit cold. Julia and Dan were married at Fanhams Hall Hotel in Ware and it was day full of love and laughter when they were joined by their family and friends. They were married in the Great Hall which is always a stunning venue and even more so at this time of year with the Christmas decorations up. Dan had even written and recorded a song for his ‘Princess’ and this was theme was enhanced by an astounding fairy-tale castle cake hand made by one of their guests – it certainly got my ‘Cake of the Year’ award!

Dan and Julia are leaving for a three week honeymoon tomorrow that will include Peru and St. Lucia, have a great time and here are just a few pictures from yesterday.

In a few weeks time Julia and Deiniol are to be married at Fanhams Hall in Ware and as part of their wedding photography package we met today to run through the final details and do a few photographs. Rather than use Fanhams Hall we had a stroll through Hatfield Forest near Takeley in Essex and we were very lucky to avoid the fog and gloominess that had been prevalent all week. Quite a few laughs were had and I’m really looking forward to the wedding in December, fingers crossed for another day of lovely weather.

Yesterday I was assisting a friend and fellow wedding photographer for James and Eleanor’s wedding at the London Corinthia Hotel. Wedding photography is always a pleasure but when you throw a top London hotel into the mix it really becomes something special and yesterday was no exception. The hotel only opened in April this year and this was their first wedding, it is situated in Whitehall Place very near to the Embankment and as usual the Saturday afternoon traffic was heaving and was not helped by road closures due to a demonstration and all that that entails – sirens, police helicopter etc.

The wedding was a joy and we popped out for a walk in Northumberland Avenue and Hungerford Bridge which provided some great entertainment for passing traffic and pedestrians, it was good to hear so many good luck wishes from complete strangers.

Earlier this year I was booked by Catherine for her wedding in January at the magnificent Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire and she and Saul wanted to do the pre-wedding shoot whilst there was still a chance of good weather. The other reason for the early shoot was thay they both work as performers on cruise ships and as such are not very often in the country. Luckily we had the weather when we met and had a wander round the grounds, they were so easy to work with and I am really looking forward to the wedding in a couple of months time.

A couple of months ago I wrote about how I had won a wedding photography award from a professional body who give critique and feedback to wedding photographers. As I mentioned before I believe it is vitally important as a wedding photographer to continually improve my creative vision in order to give my brides and grooms a first rate service and one of the key areas for this is feedback from my contemporaries.

I am very pleased to say that this month I have gained two awards with the International Professional Photographers Network (IPPN) for two images I entered and I gained a Silver and a Bronze Award. The Silver Award winning photograph was from Natalie and Simon’s recent wedding at Ware Priory, Ware in Hertfordshire and was taken as the sun was setting. Here is the image and some of the judges comments:

“Beautiful rich colours – lovely shot.”

“Love the back lighting.”

“Well exposed and lovely colours…”

“Beautiful framing, love the warm background, skin tones beautiful.”

The second award winning wedding photograph was from Natalie and Dave’s wedding at The Casa Hotel in Chesterfield, Derbyshire back in July. This very modern and chic hotel unfortunately does not have any gardens so for one of the bridal portraits I used a corridor and positioned Natalie underneath a downlight. Hopefully you will agree it worked out quite well!

Here is the judge’s feedback and the image:

“Like this one an unusual bridal composition.”

“Nice use of available light.”

Back in March I had the pleasure of being Andrew and Eleanor’s wedding photographer at Highgate House in Creaton near Northampton and today I received this lovely letter of thanks through the post that was tucked inside a hand engraved card. For once I’ll shut up and let my clients do the talking!

Dear Colin,

We just thought it only fair to put in writing how delighted we are with not only the wonderful album we have just received, but also with yourself and your work ethic.

The amount of work you put in, from our initial pre-wedding shoot, right throughout our wedding day and beyond into our album production is quite staggering. You were always available to answer any questions or queries and continual ensured that we were satisfied with how everything was going both on the day and subsequently. You really did put us first, and at no point in time did we feel anything but delighted with our decision to choose you as our wedding photographer. Friends and family alike have all commented on your professionalism, approachability and enthusiasm during our big day, and everyone loves the photographs you have produced as much as we do.

When we look back on our wedding planning and decisions, like any couple, we’re very happy with our choices, and there are only a few small aspects which in hindsight we would change, I’m very pleased to say our photographer is most certainly not one of them.

Colin, we both thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and wish you every continued success that we both know you throughly deserve. As for the album, we genuinely can’t stop looking at it!!

Kind regards and best wishes,

Andrew and Eleanor Alexander

Highgate House – 26th March 2011

Thank you very much Andrew and Eleanor, it was an absolute pleasure and I hope you don’t mind me sharing your wedding album design.

My second wedding this weekend and it I was off to Hinchinbrooke House in Huntingdon for Clare and Matt’s wedding at this beautiful country house built around an early 13th century nunnery. Matt and Clare are keen hockey players and I had a suspicion this was going to be a lively and fun wedding – I wasn’t disappointed! It was a murky start but the sun soon came out to give us another glorious late summer day and everyone enjoyed the extensive gardens on offer.

Matt and Clare are off to Kenya and Tanzania on Monday for their honeymoon and I’d like to wish them the very best, have a great trip. Here is a small selection of photographs from their wedding.

Yesterday I had the first of two weddings this weekend when I headed over to Tring in Hertfordshire for Steven and Rebecca’s wedding. They were getting married at the very pretty 15th century St Mary the Virgin Church in Drayton Beauchamp before heading to Pendley Manor for their reception. As a Hertfordshire wedding photographer I am very fortunate to photograph weddings at many great venues and Pendley Manor is amongst them with lovely grounds and a very grand entrance hall. Rebecca looked stunning in what has got to be the whitest wedding dress I have ever seen and we were also very fortunate with the weather with warm sunshine for most of the day. After the first dance we were treated to a firework display and this was a first for me so the pressure was on to get it right!

Here are just a few images from the day: