Professional commercial, portrait photographer West Yorkshire, covering Wakefield, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Pontefract

Richard & Tina at Wentbridge House Hotel

May 29, 2011

Today’s wedding began in the elegant surrounds of Oulton Hall where Tina had made bridal camp ahead of the wedding at St Helen’s Church, Hemsworth and then on to Wentbridge House Hotel for the reception and celebrations. Oulton Hall is such a fabulous place for bridal photography and we made the most of the balcony and stairway, dodging guests from other weddings and causing panic to another photographer who was expecting his bride on the stairs any moment! With some great bridals on the flash cards, we headed off to meet Richard and the rest of the guests at St Helen’s in Hemsworth where we set about the shots of the boys. The wind was getting pretty stiff by this time and it was fairly whipping around the church by the time the bride arrived and I knew it would be an issue for the guests and for the confetti shot! Wind is pretty much a spoiler at a wedding as invariably it blows veils and hair in the wrong direction whichever way you seem to stand, and combined with rain as we had when we got to Wentbridge, its pretty much a showstopper! After a few group shots indoors we managed to get out for some bridal party shots but the cool temperatures and the wind made for it to be a short session. Fortunately, the early evening turned out fine with some glorious evening sunshine which allowed us to get the big group shot with everyone on the lawn and a few more shots of the couple before heading in for the party.

To book me for your Wentbridge House Hotel wedding, just call 01924 229800 to arrange to drop by to look at some albums and have a chat.

Wakefield wedding photographer covering wedding at Oulton Hall and Wentbridge House hotel and providing wedding photography services in Leeds, Wakefield, York, Harrogate and Huddersfield

by John

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Alexis & Karim at the Met Hotel, Leeds

May 28, 2011

This is a very brief entry on today’s triple venue wedding at Wakefield Town Hall, Sam’s Chop House, Leeds and finally down to the Met Hotel, Leeds for the evening reception as its getting late and I have to charge camera and flash batteries for tomorrow’s Wentbridge House Hotel wedding! I got soaked just loading my camera bag into the car this morning but, fortunately, by the time I got to Alexis’ house the heavy showers had all but blown themselves out and throughout the rest of the day we had sunshine mixed with a very heavy breeze. Alexis and Kas were married at Wakefield Town Hall before driving in a vintage Daimler to Sam’s Chop House in Leeds for the wedding breakfast. The guests were transported to Sam’s in a couple of vintage buses, a double decker and an old single decker Guy bus. I rode on the single decker with the guests and arrived at Sam’s just in time for a quick shoot with the bride and groom before they went in for the meal. After the wedding breakfast, the buses collected the guests again and transported them down to the Met hotel where we had another session but this time with the bridal party as well as the couple. The brief I had been given was for a reportage style wedding with not many formal shots, in essence, just to try and capture the day as a fly on the wall photographer. Bit of a departure from my style of commercial wedding photography but I’m happy with the shots and here are just a very few to give an idea of the style and type of photos we shot. More to come but its a packed few days with weddings, boudoir and a prestigious commercial shoot back to back over the next four days!

To book me for your wedding call 01924 229800 or visit the website for details.

by John

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Lighting demo at Wakefield Camera Club

May 24, 2011

I’ve been a member of Wakefield Camera Club for a long time now and I never imagined when I joined in the 80s as an itinerant nature photographer, that years down the line I would become a pro photographer specialising in portraiture, fashion and glamour. I still shoot a lot of wildlife images, and in fact I’ll soon be in Bulgaria for some hard core bird photography, but I mostly shoot people these days and its a big depature from my early ambitions as a photographer. Anyhow, every couple of months the club runs a lighting demo and I usually front it, taking along a model with me and showing a lighting set-up. Last night was no different and I used a simple three light set-up to shoot Terri Valentine, a girl that I shot a few months ago in the studio. Once I’ve set up the lights, explained why and taken a few sample shots to show how to get on with a model, I hand over to the club members who then take it in turns to shoot the model. Ergo, I only end up with a few shots each time and usually they aren’t well composed due to rushing. Last night, as ever, I only ended up having shot 10 frames, none of which I’m happy with, but here I’ve worked one up to show the results.

Portraiture lighting demonstration to camera clubs by professional Wakefield based fashion and glamour photographer John Gardner 01924 229800

by John

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Kimberley & Martin pre-wedding shoot at Woodlands Hotel

May 22, 2011

I met up with Kimberley and Martin at Woodlands Hotel today for a pre-wedding shoot. Woodlands is a new venue for me so the meet-up gave me chance to have a look at the venue ahead of the wedding in early June. It looks to be a great spot for a wedding shoot but I hope the gale force winds we battled with today have long gone in time for the wedding! Just a few for now as I’m really busy catching up with edits at the moment ahead of this week’s shoots!

To book me for your Woodlands Hotel wedding, call the studio on 01924 229800 or visit the website for details.

Woodlands Hotel wedding and pre-wedding shoot by Wakefield based West Yorkshire wedding photographer

by John

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Introducing Noah

May 21, 2011

Miranda and Adam were in the studio 7 or 8 weeks ago to do a baby bump shoot and today they were back with little Noah, just two weeks old. He was really cute and very well behaved throughout the shoot which makes a change as new born baby shoots either entail a great deal of sleeping or screaming! Here’s a couple of high key shots for now and I will try and put some more up soon, but I’ve just been so busy of late I have to catch up with edits before the next bout of shoots!

To book me for your bump to baby shoot, just call 01924 229800 or visit the website for details

by John

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Headshots for Jark Recruitment

May 19, 2011

I was in Kirkgate today at the Wakefield offices of Jark PLC, a recruitment agency with offices around the UK, to shoot some head shots of their sales team. Every other Thursday, the sales team meets up at the Wakefield office to do some tele-marketing and my brief was to record a busy sales day. I used the long end of a 70-200 f/2.8 to compress the scene and also shot fairly wide to dissolve the background distractions but I was forced also into shooting fairly close with a wide angle, something I don’t usually do in portraiture unless I’m going for something really dramatic. Wide angle lenses, although capturing the whole scene, have a nasty habit of distorting things that appear close to the lens whereas the telephoto shots do the exact opposite and flatten the perspective giving a more pleasing feel to the picture. Here’s a few shots of the Jark boys and girls hard at work on the telephone.

To book me for your commercial photography requirements, call 01924 229800 to discuss your requirements.

Corporate headshots and commercial photography by Yorkshire comercial photographer John Gardner

by John

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