Christmas Flowers in the Cotswolds

I mentioned a month or so ago that I had been working on a shoot with Flowercube (great florists who we bump into often when shooting Cotswold Weddings). The aim of the shoot was to create a set of beautiful Christmas table decorations - one of which I have included above. These were taken for Cotswold Style magazine, which is one of the best lifestyle titles that we have seen. So if you are in the Cotswolds, look out for a copy & get some inspiration for your Christmas flowers... and let me know what you think about the flower shots!

Boudoir Competition Launches in Bath & Clifton

Really pleased to announce that we have launched our Boudoir competition in 'Bath Life' magazine today. The first prize is fantastic - an overnight night stay at the wonderful Charlton House Hotel, followed the next day by a full boudoir shoot, with the brilliant Julie Johnson taking care of make up & hairstyling. To enter, you need to pick up a copy of Bath Life or go to their website (Bath Life or Clifton Life) for your chance to win a prize worth more than £1,100.

Wonderful West Country Weddings

Living in such a beautiful part of the country, we often have couples visiting from outside the area for their wedding. If you are pondering a west country wedding, we can definitely recommend it! Besides great cream teas and real farmhouse ciders to encourage you back for the all the planning meetings, we also have some stunning venues. This shot was taken at Bishopstrow House in Warminster; but have a look at Charlton House, Pickwell Manor and Ston Easton Park too - really, we are so spoilt with great places here... always remember that if you are planning a wedding from a distance and need help with recommendations for florists, stylists, etc, ask us and we'll put you in touch with people we have worked with and can recommend.

Pickwell Manor

Just planning my next trip to Pickwell Manor, and as mentioned before, I have to say that this is such a fab venue. Surfers beaches on the doorstep, beautiful Devon countryside & a wonderful welcome. Anyway, planning the visit brought Angus & Charlotte's wedding back to mind. I love the attached shot. Not sure whether it will make sense as a small image, but the back lighting adds a great texture and I've cross processed it to bring out the detail of the light. I don't tend to use cross processed images in an album as they tend to be one offs and can conflict with the other images - an album should sit together as a portfolio so one of the design skills (we do all of our design in-house) is to create a collection of images that work in harmony. So cross processed images are usually for frames and canvas prints. Anyway, long story short. Love the image. Brings back memories of a fab couple, great day, great place...

Winter Portraits in Bath

I love this shot: its got a lovely wintery, almost snowy feel to it. It was actually taken a few weeks back when we had the gorgeous Autumn weather, but using the deep greens of the tree as a backdrop has created a great background. Big, bright colours can add so much to a winter portrait too, so if you are planning to book a session, have a look through the wardrobe for colours that will zing off the page.

New Photo Workshops

Are your snaps missing their crackle and pop?

If your camera has been banished to the back of the cupboard, now is the time to set it free! Perhaps you have a big family gathering on the horizon or a holiday of a lifetime; maybe you will be treating yourself to a fancy new camera for Christmas and would like to know how to get the best from it… Andrew will be hosting a number of training workshops this spring, starting in Bath, followed a few weeks later by an event in the Cotswolds. Andrew’s courses have been very well received and the feedback from the last workshop was that all who attended would recommend the course to a friend. Its fun, its jargon free (mostly) and it will reignite your passion for photography.

Email Andrew's studio to find out more.

Portrait Models Required

I was looking through my library today and came across this image from a portrait shoot in Bristol Docks. It reminded me again just how dramatic winter light can be. This was captured at about 4pm - a fairly civilised time, whereas in the summer it would have needed to be much, much later! I'm really into exploring the creative potential of mixing flash and ambient light and this image shows just how dramatic the portraits can be. I'm always on the look out for models to swap time for images, so if you would like to be considered, please contact me via my website and send an image with brief contact details - I look forward to hearing from you!

Weddings & Weather in Bath

Still buzzing from Saturday's wedding - what a fab time! We haven't quite finished the processing for the actual wedding, but I've attached a picture from the pre-wed shoot, just to set the scene. The dark clouds and heavy showers promised gave way to a sunny, still (but cold) afternoon - the light was gorgeous and Jenny, our bride, was even willing to risk her beautiful, beautiful dress by walking in the leaves to capture the last of the autumn colours - it is always brilliant when we have a bride willing to try something a bit different. Winter weddings will always present a bigger challenge, but when the light is right and you have a perfect couple as we did on Saturday, winter weddings can be quite magical.

Wet Weather Weddings in Bristol!

Lots of couples ask 'what happens if it rains on our wedding day?' Well, bad weather does sort the 'men from the boys', or (recognising there are some female photographers too) it does separate 'those with experience from those who don't' (less catchy but more inclusive!). But beyond that, the light will be lovely & soft, which always makes for great pictures and we've taken some lovely bride / groom & brolly shots - it makes for a very different collection of images and often even more creative that usual as different visual solutions are employed. So we always reassure our couples that whatever the weather, we can deliver a great set of pictures - just celebrate the day for what it is.

But all of this is leading up to a very useful bit of information that I was given whilst on a shoot recently. Apparently, THE website for accurate weather forecasting is www.yr.no Its Norwegian (you probably guessed that from the 'NO' bit), but there is an English language service and it covers the uk and is spot one... So, when I'm shooting my wedding this saturday, I'm expecting a clear day, clouding over with rain from 6pm (when the guests are eating their meal). I'll let you know if the forecast is accurate!

Wedding Flowers

Had a great shoot today, producing a selection of flower images for Frances at Flowercube. Frances is such a talented florist - we met originally at a wedding at Kingscote Barn in Tetbury (lovely venue and fab people!) and started talking. Anyway, long story short, we work together every now and again, producing images for the local lifestyle magazines - always great fun and always a buzz to see my images published! I can't show you pictures from today's shoot yet, but the attached is one of the images from a summer 'picnic-theme' shoot. Capturing gorgeous flower shots is always part of our wedding coverage, so do ask if you would like to see more examples.