Dave & Emma's wedding, Breadsall Priory, Derby - part one

Right here goes!

Emma and Dave chose a venue they were familiar with; Breadsall Priory - they apparently attended 2 weddings in one weekend at this venue last year............ not as over eager wedding crashers, but as wedding photographers!! Yes I was photographing one photographer getting married to another photographer! Argh!

After a relaxing childfree night at the venue, I met up with my assistant for the day, Andy; an up and coming wedding photographer, who proved to be a good model while we set up lights in the morning... Once we had blethered over coffee, we recced the venue together and found the stunning ceremony room; the black and white touches made us think we were in for a slightly different wedding dress on Emma....

We went to find the bride in her bridal suite getting ready. It was easy to find that room...My first glimpse of the dress proved to Andy and I's thoughts on a black and white dress were wrong!! I didn't get to see Emma much to begin with, I think the stress of the morning was beginning to get her a little. It was a little different being on the other side of the camera I think! She popped her head out of the bathroom every so often!

Emma was so sure that the bridal suite was going to be tidy for the photos..... hmmmmmmmm...It was a bit chaotic to say the least! There were lots of stunning ladies in this room, I was thinking the bride was going to be smothered by gorgeous gals! Dannii the youngest was just a doll! So many pretty ladies!

Mum and daughter, as stunning as each other, like sisters. How wonderful to have these ladies in your bridal party!
So many lovely ladies, what was the bride going to look like in that red dress? Check out tomorrow!

Dave & Emma's wedding, Breadsall Priory, Derby - sneak peak!

Just home, lots of post processing done last night in the hotel, and today on the 5 hour train journey home.

Here is a wee sneaky peaky; be prepared for a blogging spree on this wedding this week!

Greetings from Derby, England!

My feet ache and my back aches!

But all worth it for getting great shots at a fantastic wedding today!

But wow - stressful...,

All weddings are stressful enough, but when you are shooting the wedding of one photographer, getting married to another photographer..... STRESS!!

Even more so when said couple wanted top Australian photographer Yervant to do the job!!

Well, I'm no Yervant, but hopefully I did them justice!

Check out the blog over the next week for some amazing images (and an amazing dress!!)

Planning your wedding day, NMP magic.....

Last year I was assisted by a lot of newer photographers at my weddings. I am also a mentor on a professional wedding photographers forum.

One question I get asked a lot by up and coming photographers, but also by potential and current wedding & portrait clients is..

"How much touching up do you do to the photographs you take?"

It's a very BIG question, you look at some of the top wedding photographers and you will see some that do major retouching to their imagery, and some that do very little (or look like they do....)


Where do I stand?

Over the years, my style has changed.

When I first started shooting weddings 8 years ago, I was very much an advocator for the photojournalistic/reportage style of capturing weddings on film. I was also a very raw post processer, I wouldn't do much post processing at all to my images. I also did very little posing of my clients during the couples session.

These days I appreciate that a wedding day is that one special day that you are going to look your best and you want your images to show you at your best.

So minor re-touching on the skin, direction during the couples sessions, specialist lighting either natural or artificial; all these things that make your wedding day imagery with NMP that bit more special!

I will talk more about the couples session later...

Phoenix air base model shoot - part six

After the air base, before we finished the session, we went out into the desert.

As the sun set, we said goodbye to Faith and Dan, with many thanks for letting me try new techniques and have fun in the sun!

Phoenix air base model shoot - part five

Phoenix air base model shoot - part four

Yes they ARE standing on a plane! Fortunately one that is stuck to the floor, as an exhibition and not one that is just about to fly away!

Phoenix air base model shoot - part three

Back to Dan and Faith again!

The sun was shining big time, such a change from dreary Scotland!

So I made good use of the couples' sunglasses!

And how cool was the footwear of the day!

{blush}

"We would both like to thank you for the wonderful photographs you took at our wedding in St Andrews. We were so pleased with the results and everyone has commented on how professional you were during the day, and what a brilliant job you made of the final shots.


The DVD was perfect and your choice of music was very close to our hearts. Cant wait to see the final album and show your work to all our friends all over again!


Many thanks and best regards


Steph and Stuart.



PS We are now in receipt of of our full album and as with everything else, we are delighted with the results. In the process of showing the album to our friends and will definately have some print orders off to you shortly."

Phoenix air base model shoot - part two

Back to Dan and Faith!

We tried to get as close to the planes as possible, as they were doing training exercises just past our heads!

Despair- by David Pearce

Interrupting this model shoot to post a link to a very pertinent thread, written by a good fellow pro photographer friend of mine......

http://dpearce.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/despair.html

Phoenix air base model shoot - Faith & Dan at Luke Air Base

While I was in Arizona, a newlywed couple came forward for a model shoot, and boy what a model shoot..... I asked for a bride to model in Vegas, after the convention in Phoenix. Faith answered the post, saying she just married to Dan in Vegas in November, but was going to be moving to Phoenix, just around the time I was going to be there for the convention.

Dan is a fighter pilot, and was being moved to the Luke Air Base at Glendale. He managed to organise permission for us to shoot in and around the base, what a blast; here is a sneek peek....

David A Williams AIPP is coming to Scotland!

I am super excited about this; one of Australia's top photographers David A Williams is bringing his "Almost Alone" workshops back to the Uk and is coming to Scotland for the first time, in 2009 and he will be HERE, at the McLeod residence in April for his only Scottish workshop date!

Spaces are filling fast and I cannot wait for this special week. Having heard Mr Williams speak for the first time as a keynote speaker in Arizona last month, it is going to be amazing to have him around for 3 days, along with fellow professional photographers.

http://www.davidwilliamsseminars.com/2009Scotland-Fife.htm

Las Vegas model shoot - part four

Here is the last of the blogged images of this amazing session; I ended up with 118 finished images from one quick hour in the Boneyard -cool!

What was lovely that even before this session, Renata loved my work so much, she commissioned me to shoot an engagement session of her and her lovely fiance Justin which we did the following night, on the Strip!!

Renata is an actress, soon to be appearing in the "Lion King" in Mandalay Bay.

Check out the blog soon for those amazing photos!

Thanks also to my wonderful husband, for being a great assistant, light stand, go-fer, etc, etc.

After the session, Graham was allowed a couple of minutes to have a laugh!

More Vegas images to come soon, as well as Arizona shots.