Sara & Jane brought their kids into the studio today for a portrait shoot to get a gift for their dad’s 60th. Four boisterous kids in one go are certainly a challenge but hopefully we got something for grandad!
Another new venue for me for the second wedding in a row and further afield too, this time at The Ashes near Stoke-on-Trent. The Ashes is a relatively new venue, with this being its first full year in operation, and is set to be a very popular wedding venue in that part of the country. The owners, Ben and Sarah, have tastefully renovated the courtyard barns and outbuildings around a 15thC manor house specifically to host functions and events and as such, it provides some great photo opportunities with the old house and outbuildings as a backdrop. We managed to dodge the showers all day and even had mixed periods of sunshine as well as heavy cloud which enabled us to shoot around the grounds. To see more pictures from The Ashes click here or to learn more about my wedding photography click here
A long haul down the M1 today to photograph what is probably the best bluebell wood in England! I’d heard about this place but wasn’t prepared for just how magnificent a view it would be and my jaw fell open as we drove alongside the beechwood to the car park. There were so many bluebells there that the air was heady with scent as we approached on foot through the fringes of the woodland.
I spent about four hours there and tried all sorts of different angles and viewpoints, using wide angle lenses to capture the vista and long telephoto lenses to compress the scene and intesify the density of the flowers. If I lived near this place I’d certainly have a bride and groom in there and I’d definately be shooting all my model portfolio stuff here and not in the windy, cold backstreets of Wakefield :¬o
Here are a few shots that I’ve manipulated in Photoshop for a bit of a visual effect.
I met up with Priscilla and her mother for a portfolio shoot in Wakefield city centre. The idea was to use the fabulous courthouse frontage with its great stone columns but, unfortunately, it was all boarded up and on the market for a leisure business opportunity! So, a quick scout round for another location found us in the cobbled streets around the back of the courthouse using County Hall as a defocussed backdrop to the photos. The weather was against us with a cool and very strong wind blowing through the narrow streets but we battled on and came up with these (and other images)! Oh! And did I mention Priscilla is just 15?! :¬o
And here’s one of Priscilla’s mum – Lesley :¬)
Had a brief interlude from weddings over the bank holiday and went to the North Yorkshire Moors with the family and as usual I couldn’t resist shooting a few steam train images! While not wanting to fill the blog with this kind of stuff, I thought I’d post this shot, done in the yards at Grosmont at 5am, as it’s one of my favourites from the trip. This is a steam train ‘blowing down’ – when they flush steam through all the pipework to clean out the crud. The train is engulfed in steam and disappears for a while before emerging again as the steam clears. Back to weddings later this week but the weather forecast doesn’t look good :¬\
Today I joined up with a few friends for a location model shoot near Castleford. I really enjoy these informal sessions as its all no pressure stuff and gives me a chance to practice different techniques and styles which will eventually spill over and get used in the weddings and other stuff I shoot. I especially spent some time messing around and getting jiggy with the flashes to turn a dark corner of a small pub into a warm, sun-filled exotic location :¬)
Book A SHOOT
Steve WoodI like the one with the youngest kid crying – nice contrast with the others smiling.