Saturday, February 25, 2012

A fine day for a February wedding!

When we were first asked to shoot this wedding Gary's reaction was "Oh crap!" Beccy is his cousin and he was terrified of not getting it right. I, on the other hand was giddy with excitement. It's not that I wasn't worried, or didn't care, it's just I knew we had this. Gary taught me to shoot, and whilst we now have very different styles, we compliment each other well. (And don't tell him I said this, but if he wasn't gonna be my groom one day, I'd want him shooting my wedding). We work well together as a team, and yesterday was no different.

The day started out with rain, and I swear I could have cried. I drove to the bride's grandmother's house praying for the rain to stop. Please, please just stop for lunchtime, stop for when we get to the church, please. 

As I set about getting the shots of the bridal party getting ready (with a lovely glass of Bucksfizz -  I was a spoiled photographer yesterday), I continued praying. 

The bridal party consisted of Beccy, her sister Vicky and her mum Anne. All of whom were far more calm than I expected. I suspect it had something to do with the pampering from the having their hair and make-up done. 









Beccy's dress was breathtakingly beautiful! She covered all the bases with fastenings, there was in inner corset,




A zip, and then 24 buttons,





Whilst I was with the bridal party, Gary was with the Groom and his grooms-men, 


Tom on the left and his Best-man Ryan on the right. Ryan's best-man speech was brilliant (I heartily recommend him as a best-man). 



Thankfully, my prayers were answered and we ended up with a lovely clear afternoon. The service was beautiful, and there were a few tissues in hands as vows were exchanged. St Annes is a gorgeous church, I mean come on!


From the balcony above the service I was able to get some lovely shots of the bride and groom throughout the ceremony. 




Including the exchanging of the rings!! 


Once the ceremony was over we went out into a now lovely, if slightly blustery day. 



Then it was off to the venue for the evening celebrations. Beccy and Tom had a gorgeous car, and we took full advantage of the car and the now lovely weather.





Beccy, you looked absolutely stunning! Tom is a VERY lucky man! 


After allowing everyone a few minutes to breath, Gary and I herded them all into the garden and handed out balloons. 


I'm not going to share the family shots, except this one, because I LOVE it. Uncle Richard gave Beccy away, and this shot, well see for yourselves........


I'm going to finish with two shots of the happy couple.....



Beccy, Tom, Thank-you so much for allowing us to document your day! Have a wonderful honeymoon!

C
xxxxx







Thursday, February 9, 2012

Somewhere Woody!

Last Sunday I had a shoot with little K. I know her VERY well (she's my cousin) ;). When her mum and I asked her where she would like her shoot to take place her response was "Somewhere woody". So me, mum, K's little brother T, K, and dog Lilly headed to Spring woods. This location is on my doorstep, and I know it well, so I was really looking forward to getting there and shooting some cool pictures.

We'd had snow the night before, and though most of it had melted, there was just enough on the ground in the woods.

K is an adventurous sort of girl, happier climbing trees and exploring the world. She loves wildlife, and is not afraid to get dirty. My kind of girl!! (She's also amazingly pretty and photogenic - not sure where she got those genes ;-p).


At the start of the shoot K was VERY nervous around the camera. I decided the best way to deal with this was to let her do her thing and just follow her with my camera clicking away. This method resulted in a lot of shots like this one:


K discovered a pile of old logs, and as she set about exploring, I really started shooting....



After a mini snowball fight K made a mini snowman (like I said not a lot of snow left, just enough)


We were shooting in the late afternoon, and as the sun started to set we got the most amazing light! By now K was more relaxed with the camera, as you can see...



On the way back to the car I asked K if she would hold her brother's hand. Lilly also wanted to be in on this action and we got the quintessential brother/sister shot


Mum wanted to get a shot of both kids and Lilly together, this proved an incredibly difficult task! NEVER work with children and animals ;). I know mum is probably going to kill me for this, but I couldn't resist sharing this out-take, it made us all laugh! (Poor T). 


C
xxxx