Naomi-Jayne and Simon certainly had Lady Luck on their shoulder when choosing a wedding date. After a week of rain, their wedding day was beautifully sunny all day! Here are a few photos from the day. Keep your eyes out for the full post later this month.

Faye & Rich got married in Thailand. On a beautiful island. With sand, sea & sunshine. I’m turning a subtle shade of Hulk as I type this. Thankfully they had a bit of a celebration back in good old Blighty for their friends and family and the lovely Hannah (from Lifeline Photography) asked me along to photograph it with her.

The evening took place at the Lakeside Tower in Nottingham, a beautiful venue with, funnily enough, quite an impressive tower! The reception was held right at the top of it too! Tres exciting! Anyway, without further ado, here are some of the photos from the reception.

Back in March I joined Andy (of Peacock Pix) to shoot a wedding with him at Moddershall Oaks, a lovely venue in the Staffordshire countryside. Unlike the weather you’ll see if you look out of your window today, back then we were treated to bags of sunshine and blue skies. I hope whoever picked their wedding date went and got a lottery ticket that night!

There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the day, to the point where you were hard pushed to escape the smiles, laughter and tears. A really fun day, which I’m sure carried on long after we’d gone!

This is the 2nd of two weddings I shot whilst up in Yorkshire working with Tux & Tales Photography. Great venue. Fantastic couple. Friendly guests. Top band. Quite a good day all round actually.

Last month saw me heading up to York to shoot a couple of beautiful weddings with Jaye & Matt of Tux & Tales Photography. Here are a few of my photos from the first one.

Last week I spent a morning working with a room full of very talented ladies on a bridal shoot for local dressmaker Laura Braithwaite (aka Tutu Designs). My friend Holly (an annoyingly talented fashion photographer) was kind enough to let me come along and shoot some behind the scenes stuff and to generally document the day and get in the way a bit.

Here’s the details of everyone involved:

Holly Booth: Photography – hollybooth.com

Laura Braithwaite: Dresses – tutudesigns.co.uk

Deborah Bennett: Hair & Make-up – deborahbennett.co.uk

Natasha Jane: Headwear – natashajane.co.uk

Jodi Lakin: Brunette Model – jodilakin.blogspot.co.uk

Rachel Bowler: Blonde Model

A couple of weeks ago I posted a few photos from the opening date of the Queens Diamond Jubilee tour in Leicester, which I was lucky enough to have been asked to photograph. As promised, here’s my pick of the other photographs from the day.

The Queen kicked off her Diamond Jubilee tour in Leicester this morning. I was lucky enough to have been contacted by a friend working at the Diocese of Leicester, asking if I’d like to spend a few hours taking photographs of the Queens visit to the cathedral. Needless to say I accepted.

Joining HRH on tour are the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton and the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip who had the crowds gathering hours before they were even due to arrive at the cathedral. The atmosphere at times felt more like a football match than a royal visit the crowd were that excited. There was plenty of entertainment to distract them throughout the morning though, with bands and orchestras taking turn to do their thing.

Anyway, I’ll be putting a full set up here one day next week, but for now, here’s a few to whet your appetite.

More info: http://www.leicester.anglican.org/news/details/diamond-jubilee-royal-visit-a-spectacular-triumph

After conducting an interview with Derby childrens author, Rob Simpson over e-mail I called in on him at his home in Derby to take some photos to accompany the article*. Half an hour or so into the shoot, his daughter, Grace, woke up from her nap. From then on, she stole the show completely. Despite being a little shy to start with, she still managed to harness her inner model and strike a pose!

*I help out with a local creative collective called Hatch’d, writing articles, reviews, helping organise local events etc etc. Here’s the full interview with Rob:
http://www.hatchdmagazine.co.uk/theatre-and-literature/qa-rob-simpson

I’ve heard this question asked by my couples, by friends & family, on the wedding blogs, on Twitter…you get the picture. And as you’d expect there are plenty of blog posts trying to answer this question. These are just my thoughts on it.

While I was setting up my business I was surprised at the cost of wedding albums, like I’m sure a lot of you are when you first see the prices. I couldn’t imagine what it was that made them so expensive. With the benefit of experience, I can now see clearly why these albums are well worth what wedding photographers are asking. Here’s a couple of the common questions about wedding albums.

Q: What’s the benefit of paying £600+ for an album from the photographer when I can order my own prints and do it myself?
A: The obvious answer here is time. But it goes deeper than that. Yes, as your wedding photographer, I spend a fair few hours on designing your album, but more than that, I use all of  my experience from previous weddings. I’m experienced in telling your wedding story through the images & layouts I use in your album.

As for the materials themselves, all of the suppliers I use for my albums and prints are available only to professional photographers. The album prints are printed onto a range of high quality papers that won’t fade or discolour like the cheaper papers you might find on the high street. The albums themselves are handmade to the highest standards. The end result is something that is not just a book of photographs. It’s something you’ll be proud to own and will want to keep looking through time and time again.

Q: Can’t I just buy an album, get my own prints done and do it myself?
A: Of course. There’s nothing to stop you from buying the DVD of your images and creating your own albums. What you’ll find though, is that there is a limited choice (if any choice at all) of page layouts. So you could end up with only a single photo per page. Or if you find a choice of layouts, you’ll have to decide on the different sized prints you need to buy, what order to put them on the page,  whether to mix colour and black & white….the list goes on. This is all work which I take care of when you order an album off me.

Q: Why should I buy an album when I can get a disc of all my photos for a lot less money?
A: Photos on discs have been around for a while now, thanks to the advances in digital photography. They’re widely seen to be a cheaper alternative to an album. However,  some of my couples who have only ordered a disc of images have admitted that despite their plans to get them printed and framed and to design their own album, they just haven’t got round to it yet. They end up putting the disc in a drawer and forgetting about it.

Also, a risk with only owning digital files is the ever changing world of technology. You never know when something new will come along and render all of your old digital media obsolete. As long as you have your eyesight you’ll always be able to enjoy your album.

Think about it like this; choosing a professional photographer and only ordering a DVD of images is like going into a restaurant and asking the chef to bring out just the ingredients. You have all the parts to make something stunning but you just don’t know where to start.

My point here isn’t that professional wedding albums are what every couple should have, but merely to illustrate the time, effort and care that goes into designing and creating them. Get in touch if you have any thoughts or ideas about this, I’d love to hear them (and maybe talk about which album you’d like for your wedding!).