Edna and Dave's wedding

Last wedding of the year and what a lovely one to finish with! And the first time I have done getting ready with the bride through to post-dinner speeches all within 4 hours!

Edna of Georgia USA and Dave of Dalgety Bay, Fife were married at the Woodside Hotel in Aberdour with friends and family come from all over the UK and the States. Edna's wee boy Francisco looked very dapper in his black kilt to match Dave and Edna looked wonderfully classic and elegant in her gold dress and veil.

Best of luck living in the States Dave; I am sure you will have a fab time.





Have a great New Year eeryone; I am so excited to be photographing so many weddings and portraits in 2007!

"Breathless" takes your breath away!

Want something HOT for your Valentine?

"Breathless" sessions are HOT HOT HOT at NMP!

Want to give your husband-to-be with a wedding day present with a difference, or your long standing love a Valentines Day pressie to remember? "Breathless" sessions are glamorous female photographic sessions by a female photographer, but without the Page 3 glamour! Private personal photos for you and your husband to enjoy for years to come, "Breathless" sessions are done at the compact studio of NMP in Dalgety Bay.


The session can last up to an hour, with as many changes as you prefer. You can also provide props or use the ones at the studio. Previous personal props have included a football scarf, wedding veil and tiara, hubby's war medals, even a motorbike! (Use of motorbikes require the use of your own garage!!)







"Breathless" sessions have become very popular with Scottish lassies for several years now, some coming over 60 miles for their session! The work produced from each and every girl has been stunning, but very personal and private. The following pictures are produced publically on this blog by the girls photographed, as they gave me their kind permission to use them here. Normally "Breathless" sessions are private and not available for viewing without permission, so please do not worry about your photos being plastered over the WWW!

So what happens with a "Breathless" sesssion?

Well, when you book a session, all you normally choose is what kind of viewing you want; studio, private online or CD slideshow. All sessions include up to an hour of photography and your choice of viewing the finished results.

A session plus Studio viewing normally costs £60.
A session plus Online private password-protected viewing for 1 month normally costs £80.
A session plus your own personal CD, with all your photos set to music as a slideshow, PLUS all your photos as low resolution copyrighted images for web, email and viewing purposes for £140.
At your viewing, you can choose individual prints starting at £10, or a beautiful Italian hand-made leather album containing 15 of your favourite photos for £150.

BUT........

For January, Nikki McLeod Photography gives you the opportunity to partake in a "Breathless" session for a great reduced fee.

Book either
- a session and studio viewing with your favourite 15 prints in a leather album for £150; yes that's right, book a studio viewing session with album and get the session for FREE!
- a session AND CD AND album posted to you for £210! Normally all this would cost you £290! But book this special in January and you will get £80 off!

Sessions at this special price must be booked, paid for and taken between 27th December and 19th January, quoted "Breathless January special".
Albums are ready within 2 weeks of choosing your photos and must be chosen by 21st January.

INTERESTED? Email me on nmcleodphoto@aol.com spaces are LIMITED!

Sen and Michelle with Fides

In September I had the amazing opportunity to go to the wonderful country of Switzerland, and visit and work with the lovely Fides Scheifele Fierz of Weddings In Style. Fides and I have"spoken" a lot over the 'water-cooler' of DWF, a professional wedding photographers forum. And we always said to each other, that we should go and shoot with each other.

Fides let me know that she was in need of a second shooter for a wedding in September on Lake Geneva, and it was the same weekend as a totally cookin' wedding in Lausanne so I could second shoot at that one too.

Talk about ROCKING!! I had a ball! Fides and her husband and her daughter are just wonderful people and the weddings were just an unbelieveable experience.

The Lake Geneva wedding hasnt been blogged yet by Fides on her own blog so I better not put any of those images online just yet, but lets just say, I have NEVER been to a wedding where the drinks reception was held on a paddle steamer on a lake; the weather made the scenery so amazing.

The second wedding was Sen and Michelle's big day in a luxurious 5 star hotel in Lausanne, infact the hotel has been named Best Swiss Hotel! It certainly lived up to it's title, it was beuuuuuutiful!! And Sen and Michelle were the most loveiest, sweetest and good-looking couple I have ever met. They were so easy to work with, and so ameniable to getting loads of photos done. Fides and I got so many great shots from their wedding, even though the weather wasnt good to us, it didnt matter!

Here are some shots I took on the day

Thank you Sen and Michelle for allowing me to shoot at your wedding, I hope you love the shots!

More pictures can be viewed on Fides' own blog

http://http://blog.weddings-in-style.ch/

I would like to thank Fides for giving me this amazing opportunity, not only to shoot with her and get some amazing shots in the bag, but also for allowing me into her home, and showing me her beautiful country. Kisses to Nerissa!

NMP in the press!

It's the first time I have splashed out on a full page advert in one of the glossies, but this time I decided to bite the bullet and go for it!

So look out for Jill and Craig featured in the Best Scottish Weddings magazine, out now!

NMP was also featured in the local Dalgety Bay Diary, when the work I did for the "Multiplay" group. "Multiplay in the Bay" is a group formed by local mums of twins, triplets and more! There was a deluge of multiples in the Bay in 2004 and this group was formed in order for the parents to get together and give support to each other. For the past 2 years I have been asked to photograph the sets of twins for a fundraising calender for the group and it has probably been my most challenging of photographic jobs! This year was the theme of "Noah's Ark"!
If you want to buy a calender, contact Simone on simone@simodean.freeserve.co.uk

Gail and Derek's "Bliss" session

Today, the weather from the inside looked lovely. But boy, when you got out there, it was bleedin' freezing!! None detered, Derek and Gail and I spent a great half hour at the Dalgety Bay Sailing Club for a "Bliss" session.

With my Ultimate packages, you can choose to have a pre-wedding ("Bling") session, or a post wedding ("Bliss") session. Gail and Derek chose to have a "Bliss" session on the same day as the viewing of their wedding photos.

Gail and Derek's wedding photos are now online
here at http://www.nmcleodalbum.co.uk

Gail and Derek's wedding

Another blue sky, very unusual for November in Scotland, for Gail and Derek's wedding at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh. I was abley assisted by Martin Pettinger for this wedding, as it was going to be impossible to do getting ready shots in Portobello, and get back to RCP in time for the groom arriving!












I LOVED Gail's red heels, and boy were they high! I was well impressed that she and her bridesmaid could walk in them!

And the venue as always regardless of weather, is a fabulous place for photographs


















Gail and Derek were a wonderful couple to work with, and we all had a fun time.

Jackman is 2 today!

Two years ago I was here













giving birth to this!














Photo by Laura Novak Photography

Happy Birthday Jman love Mummy and Daddy!

Tanya and Keith's wedding

Wow, what is it with Scottish weather this year? Yeah it was cold today for Tanya and Keith's wedding but it was sunny, with blue skyes and stunning natural light. And this was after almost gale force storms first thing this morning!

And today was one of the loveliest weddings I have been to; a small number of personal friends and family members, a lovely civil ceremony at Dunfermline's City Chambers with a beautiful reading by the bridesmaid, and a reception at a quant country-feel town hotel in the Auld Mill Hotel. And the couple's children were just amazing, in looks and personality and temperament!!

We knew it would be unlikely that we will get outside for photographs in November and someone suggested to the bride that the Glasshouses in Pittencrief Park is a great venue for shots, and that person deserves a pat on the back! What a little hidden classic this was for me; just the right temperature for the bride and groom to relax for 2 secs for some gorgeous photos.
And the bride was just stunning! And the groom was not too bad looking himself either!!! Infact prior to the ceremony I managed to get a shot done that I have wanted to do for ages at the City Chambers; the boys in the middle of Dunfermline High Street! Enjoy EuroDisney guys; see you when you get back!

Sarah and Andy's wedding

I had 2 weekends off from weddings, was it a break?! No not at all; portrait sessions, album designs, album orders, print orders!! I need a 6 month holiday at the moment as I feel I am meeting myself coming back! But with another 2 weddings for November still to come, and a last minute booking for December then a wedding in January before wedding fayres and seminars, it doesn't look like I will be getting much of a break!

But it was nice to get back into the swing of a wedding for Sarah and Andy's big day at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh yesterday. This is a cool funky museum at the foot of Arthurs Seat right in the centre of Edinburgh so it offers all many aspects of city life as a background! One of them is the Scottish Parliament building which I had been given STRICT instructions NOT to have as a background in ANY of the shots! It made for a very difficult time for me, when we were outdoors as it is right beside DE but I think I did well!

Sarah had very sensibly worn a wool shawl over her lovely dress and Andy looked very dapper in his suit and again we were SO lucky with the weather! We were outside for bridal formals for going on to an hour and it was fantastic! Mind you Sarah and I did have red noses at the end of it and it is the first time I have heard a bride asking for a hot chocolate as her first married drink!

We had beautiful light and a funky building and a couple SO very much in love with each other, tears were shed a number of times over the day (and that included the photographer too!)

CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Yes it's that time of year again!

Thinking of Christmas?

With Nikki McLeod Photography, you can take advantage at this time of year with special vouchers for past valued clients.

There is a 10% discount card, and a special on Christmas cards.

If you are interested in receiving either or both of these cards, please email me your snail mail address and I shall post them onto you!


PS/ For those wedding clients in their 6 month period of ordering, if you require your wedding photography order back for Christmas, orders are required by the following dates;


You need to order & pay for your order before the dates stated

- Aussie and Viva albums; November 1st

- A la carte albums/parent albums; November 15th

- Individual prints, canvas etc; November 30th

Parent albums must be ordered with or after the bridal album.

ANY ORDER RECEIVED AFTER DECEMBER 1ST IS NOT GUARANTEED TO BE WITH YOU FOR CHRISTMAS! That includes pre-paid packages, like Aussie, French and Viva, that just need your file numbers.

DON'T DILLY-DALLY!!!

Hilary and Steven's wedding

Culross Abbey has always been one venue I have wanted to shoot a wedding at; it looks just a stunning venue. And when you are lucky to get a beautiful sunny day in October for a wedding there, it all mounts up to a glorious day for the happy couple, which in this instance was Hilary and Steven. Only thing that is a BIG shame about shooting there is the fact the photographer is not allowed in the church at all when the bride walks in until the couple walk out again. Oh well, so many good photographic opportunities lost.............

I haven't had a chance to work on any of their Abbey shots yet but here are a couple from their reception venue, the Garvock House Hotel in Dunfermline.
From beautiful natural sunlight...........














to funky artificial tree lighting!!

Suzanne and Warren's wedding

I am not religious, but someone somewhere was looking down on us yesterday and blessing us with glorious weather for Suzanne and Warren's beautiful wedding in Edinburgh. The bride arrived at Greyfriars Church in raindrops and stepped out with her new husband into glorious sunshine. Quick formals, before an amazing trip to a loch beside Arthurs Seat, where the swans swan, the sun shone, and the couple just hugged and kissed and laughed all the time. The light was amazing, and it was great to have another long veil! And this time we had amazing wind too!!




Infact the first thing that Suzi said to me when she stepped out the car at the church, was "look Nikki, a long veil! I read on your blog you like them!" (Nice to know that someone does read this blog!)














At the Radisson SAS on the Royal Mile, we had some glorious natural light coming in from the windows. Suzi was just stunning and both her and Warren were fantastic for giving me so much time for photos.

Jill and Craig's wedding

Jill and Craig were married at one of my favourite venues Forrester Park Golf Resort near Dunfermline. I have been there many times now and still love it; there are just so many great places for photos, inside and out!

The weather was kind to us on the day of Jill and Craig's wedding, though the ground was too wet for us to go out on the golf buggies. But we still got outside for some fabby shots of the couple who were crazy with and about each other, and it shows in the shots!

Nikki and Fides rocked Switzerland!!

Here I am in Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, absolutely exhausted, but still buzzing from a fantastic weekend with Fides of www.weddings-in-style.ch

Two great weddings, well over a thousand images in my roller-bag so I'm gonna be busy with editing them, plus my own clients to see who are desperate to see their shots from the past month or so, plus lab work, plus album design..................


I need to sleep first!

Caroline and Joseph's wedding

It is always nice to book a wedding on the recommendation of a previous bride; Caroline and Joseph booked me on the word-of-mouth recommendation of Pamela and Darren Black who were married last year at the Keavil.

Caroline and Jo had a lovely ceremony at the Pitbauchlie House Hotel in Dunfermline, and it was nice for me to have a really local wedding (ie only 10 minutes drive!) for a change. I love to travel but it is nice to just jump up the road every now and then.

We had amazing natural light on the day; I took this shot in the bridal suite and Caroline just jumped on the bed and totally worked it for the camera!

And yet I just HAD to ask the receptionist to move in order to get this shot behind the reception desk; totally using the artificial light to great advantage.

Emma and Colin must be one of the quickest couples to order their album; they viewed their photos at the studio Friday night, today I received a cheque for a Viva album and CD only 4 days later! I am so excited about the new 'Viva' album; it gives me carte blanche to design an album with no input from the clients at all, and there are SO many fab shots with Colin and Emma's wedding I will have difficulty in choosing!

Shoes!!

A thread on a digital wedding photographers forum about high heels made me realise I live my fetish for high heels through my brides. I have some weirdy condition which makes me doublejointed and all my ligaments are looser than they should be, so I can't wear high heels or I would constantly go over my ankles.

So I LOVE to photograph my brides' shoes; this is one of my favourite shots of recent, from Emma and Colin's wedding;


Talking of Emma and Colin, the lovely couple returned from Antigua looking mightly brown and refreshed after their honeymoon. They came to the studio last night to see their portfolio of their wedding day and they loved the results!! I then got another email from the lovely mother of the Groom Mrs Davidson (senior!) this evening;

"hi nikki,colin and emma popped in last night to show us the cd of the wedding.Fabulous/funny/and every bit what we expected and far far more.

I will be sending your web page details to relatives/friends all over the globe who are waiting with great anticipation to viewing the happy day.

Thank you very much for all your time and patience in providing such wonderful photos of a very very happy day.

from Liz/Jim Davidson(now Davidson senior). "

Lisa and Colin's wedding

Lisa and Colin were lucky to have a glorious day for their wedding; and Lisa was just stunning in her halterneck dress. I loved the colour of her brother's bedroom wall, when she was getting into her dress; it gave me some funky natural but contemporary shots! I love it when I can get shots like these without actually having to pose anyone, these shots for me are always cool!

I always say to my couples that despite what you may think, you don't actually want a REALLY sunny day on your wedding day. From a photographic point of view, it gives you harsh shadows and makes people squint, so especially for the group formals you have to find shadowed areas. But when it comes to the bridal portraits, I like to work with the sun (when we get it!) rather than against it, and I knew when I saw the length of Lisa's veil that I was gonna pull a cool shot out of the bag! Note to future brides; I LOVE LONG VEILS!

A great party was held at night and fantastic photographic results are in order! Enjoy Mexico, guys!

Sally and Phil's wedding

It is a honour to be asked (and paid!) to photograph a wedding and therefore all weddings are special, but occasionally for personal reasons, some weddings are extra-special.

Sally and Phil's wedding was one of these extra-special weddings, as Sally is actually a very good friend of mine here in the Bay.

Sally and I met at antenatal classes in the autumn of 2004 and we both gave birth to our children within hours of each other on 22nd November 2004. Along with Diane and her twins born a couple of hours previous to Jack and Rosemary, we have all kept in contact and watched our children grow up together.

When Sally announced that she was FINALLY going to get married to her long term partner Phil this year, I was over the moon for them both and helped Sally with some of her wedding plans, including visiting a wedding fayre in Edinburgh to look for wedding photographers. It was a great honour when she then turned around and asked if I would photograph their big day!

And what a big day it was! In resplendent red, Sally struck a glorious note in her Chinese tea dress, Phil looked dapper in his suit and Rosemary was just gorgeously cute as usual.

And at night, my wee man had a ball, in his kilt!

Lovely comment from America - {blush}

I received Kelli and Euan's order for their wedding photos this morning, via their lovely mother. American Kelli and Scottish Euan had the most stunning wedding at Dalhousie at the beginning of the year and it was wonderful to meet the american side of the family after so many emails back and forth! Euan is the brother of Jenna whose wedding I shot a couple of years ago, whose picture I use a lot; the one of them in front of the loch at Culcreuch.

At the end of the order from Cindi Mother of the Bride, was this lovely comment.

"Thank you again for your beautiful, outstanding work. I wish we could have afforded a copy of all of them - You do fantastic work. Just Amazing. You made the day wonderful and it will be more than a mere memory in our minds - if the photos just look a fraction as beautiful as the internet shows them and your sneaky snaps are as cute as they look - I think we found the perfect photographer - although we had to choose from many miles away!!! You were great to work with and we consider you a new friend."

Kirsty and Andrew's wedding

In stark contrast within 24 hours, Kirsty and Andrew had fantastic sunny weather for their St. Andrews wedding. They even gave me an hour of bridal contemporary photography by walking along to St Andrews Castle, and we enjoyed the ruins and the sun. The day finished with a stunning sunset, which we nicked onto the Links for a quick shot of.

Gail and Andrew's wedding

Gail and Andrew from Glasgow chose to have their wedding at the beautiful Barony Castle in the Scottish Borders town of Peebles. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us, but we still managed to get some fab shots, and it was such a great day all round. Gail and Andrew were such a fun couple, always laughing and giggling for the camera, it made my job very easy.

I'm going to Switzerland!

I am SO excited! I am going to assist and second shoot at 2 weddings in Switzerland next month!

On the on-line photographers forum I am part of, I have "met" some lovely people; one being Fides in Switzerland who does amazing work http://www.weddings-in-style.ch/

She was asked by a couple over there to photograph a wedding but Fides was going to be without her assistant husband on that day, so I was asked to come over and be that assistant and second shooter!!

And Fides says she has a wedding 2 days later around Lake Geneva and I can be assistant/second shooter at that one too!

Flights were booked tonight, so excited as I have never been to Switzerland before, and I am dying to meet Fides; we have talked several times on the phone so I KNOW she will be a lovely person!


And tonight I received a lovely email from the Mother of the Groom from Emma and Colin's wedding;

"hi nikki couldn't believe you had two pictures of the happy couple on visiting your page for prices this afternoon.they are fab i think we are going to have a hard job picking some.thank you for making us so at ease when you were taking the photos not an easy thing to do.
looking forward with great anticipation to viewing all your pictures.thankyou again.
[colins mum]."

It's so nice to get lovely comments like this!

Emma and Colin's wedding

I KNEW Emma and Colin's wedding was going to be gorgeous; good-looking couple, cracking contemporary venue, so all we needed was good weather!

Bah humbug! Why do we have to have Scottish weather!? We did manage to dodge the rain for some formals and bridal shots outside, but no walk along the beach which was sad............

Emma and Colin were married at Orroco Pier in South Queensferry, a contemporary hotel, restaurant and bar, which has a cracking view out on the River Forth and the Forth Bridges.

We did manage to get amazing contemporary shots outside the toilets of all places, I had spied the amazing lighting in the corridor at the recce I did with the couple and knew we would get great shots there regardless of the weather.

Their wedding was beautiful, Emma had the most amazing slinky dress (oh to be young and skinny again!) and I am sure they are currently having a BALL in Antigua!

Good weather tomorrow please!

Here's hoping for good weather tomorrow for the wedding of Emma and Colin, as we have the use of a gorgeous beach as well as a contemporary hotel for photos!

Shooting in America!

Been busy recently, too busy to log into here! But now for an update!

Just back from America, where I got the opportunity to second-shoot a wedding with a top-class US female photographer called Laura Novak of Laura Novak Photography.

I am a member of a wedding photographers forum on the Net and have come across some excellent female wedding photographers around the world, whose work I admire; for example;

Laura Novak Photographyhttp://www.novakphotography.com
Allegra's Studio http://www.allegrasstudio.com
Susan Stripling Photography http://www.susanstripling.com
Jessica Claire Photography http://www.jcsphoto.com

While Graham my husband was working in Boston, MA, I thought it would be great to organise a trip out to see him, and shoot a wedding with Laura who is in Philidelphia, just an hour's flight from Boston.

What a FAB day I had with Laura.

The wedding was just a riot! On the beach, the photographers joined the rest of the congregation and left their shoes at the beachside and shot the whole wedding bare-foot! I fried alive, it was so hot, I was glad I had put on sun-screen! The couple Shannon and Bill were just the lovliest couple going, and their wedding was stunning! I cannot WAIT to see the final results!

Before the wedding, Laura did a beach photo session with Jackman, myself and my husband Graham. Look at this!

and this one is one of my favourites! Isn't my boy cute?