No pressure on me!

On Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing Peter & John's civil partnership in London. The couple had kept rather quiet about who photographed the pre partnership portrait that was on display. It was in fact taken by Lord Snowdon, a friend of Peter & John. Lord Snowdon is a very famous photographer and considered by many as one of the great photographers of the 20th century.

Lord Snowdon was also a guest at the reception. I'm not sure what he will make of my photograph of him, although I did get to talk to him briefly about photography and he didn't seem too keen on digital cameras (photograph taken on a Canon 5DmkII digital camera in a very dark room at iso6400).

Holdenby House - Jane & Rob's wedding

Jane and Rob married on the 9th October 2009 at Holdenby House in Northamptonshire.

Holdenby is one of my favourite locations for weddings in Northamptonshire. It's a family home and has a lovely feel that you don't get with a hotel. Holdenby only have a handful of weddings each year.

Hampton Court House wedding - Rebecca and Rupert

Rebecca & Rupert married at St James Church in Hampton Hill, London, on the 3rd October 2009. Their reception was at Hampton Court House.

This was my second visit to Hampton Court House, which is a school during the week and a great wedding location at the weekend.

These are a small selection of photographs from their day.

Johanne & Gareth's wedding at Thrumpton Hall

Johanne & Gareth married at St Michael and All Angels church in Diesworth and had their reception at Thrumpton Hall.

I had photographed the wedding of Johanne's sister a few years back and the weddings of a number of their friends since. It's always lovely to work with the same family again.

A number of Johanne's friends gathered at the bottom of the stairs to greet her at the house after she got dressed. This was a lovely touching moment which made for great photographs.

Hodsock Priory wedding photography

Charlotte & Simon married on the 4th September at Hodsock Priory, a really fantastic location for weddings.

These are a few of the photographs I took.

Siobhan & Matthew 's London wedding

Siobhan & Matthew had their wedding in London and the reception in Docklands overlooking the 02 Arena (formally the Millennium Dome). The speeches took place outside next to the River Thames, later the couple had their first dance on the terrace.

7 weeks, 13 weddings, 2300 miles

Regular visitors to my blog might have noticed a lack of posts recently. I have just come to the end of the busiest part of the year and it's always a real challenge to find spare time to blog recent weddings. Looking back through my diary over the past 7 weeks reveals I have driven 2300 miles, covered 13 weddings (two most weeks) at all corners of the UK and taken over 5000 photographs. The year is far from over yet, I have weddings right through to the 30th December and my diary for 2010 is filling up fast.

I'll shortly be posting some photographs from last weekend's weddings.

What do photographers do on their day off? Photograph weddings of course!

What do wedding photographers do on a day off? Maybe have a nice restful day? Or maybe go for a day out? Actually no, they hook up with photographer friends and second shoot for them. (It's better than going shopping with my wife).

I joined up with my friends Dan & Ann Johnson who are wedding photographers based in East Sussex, on their wedding at the HAC (http://www.hac.org.uk/html/corporate-private-events) in London.

The bride, Dolly, wore a fabulous Vivienne Westwood dress. The groom, Chris, looked very fashionable in his blue suit.

These are a few of my photographs from the day.


















And here I am in action.

Harewood House wedding - Melissa & Nik

Melissa & Nik married at Harewood House in Yorkshire, a stunning venue near Leeds (http://www.harewood.org/).

Nik & Melissa met at Starbucks, the proposal was from a hot air balloon, Nik had written in paint on the lawn which Melissa spotted as they drifted across the sky in the balloon.

Northamptonshire wedding photography, Higham Ferrers and Holdenby House

What could be better than photographing a wedding right on your doorstep? Most of the weddings I photograph involve a lot of driving and I often find myself two or three hours from home. When Catherine & Ross told me their wedding was taking place in my local parish church I thought it was local, but when I found out their parents are almost neighbours it was more local than I thought.

Ross is a wedding photographer, so no pressure for me on this one. The marriage ceremony took place at St Mary's church in Higham Ferrers on the 31st July 2009. I might be biased, but I think it's one of the nicest churches in the country. The reception was at the beautiful Holdenby House in Northamptonshire.

Holdenby House has a Falconry, this kept the guests entertained and those with cameras challenged to catch the birds in flight.