Greenhill Hotel at Wigton A Photographers View

Greenhill Hotel was one of the first venues I ever photographed a wedding at. I'm sure it must have been around 15 years ago. Its another venue that I tend to get booked to do weddings at quite a few times every year.
Its also a venue that I find incredibly easy to take photo's at. It has no lake near by or mountains but the grounds and the building itself provide more than enough backdrops for some great photography. I have also done many weddings here in extremely bad weather conditions and never struggled even at night to get the shots I needed. It is in my favourite wedding venues for this reason and the fact that the guy who looks after the weddings there is a pro! Its all fine having a venue that looks great, but without someone there who knows what they are doing, it can be useless. He is just such a nice guy and has been there for many years. There are some good sheltered spots here and the doorway makes sure that you can get the couple into some natural light without them getting wet or blown away! It has a great staircase with a big window for any closer portraits and the building is generally well lit while keeping a nice cosy atmosphere! I would imagine that there arn't many wedding photographers that haven't done a wedding at Greenhill Hotel as it is one of the most popular venues in the area.
Below is a little video of just a few photo's from Greenhills! I have put mainly indoors photo's on here just to show that its never the end of the world if the weather is not good.

Inn on the Lake a Wedding Photographers view

I always get excited when I am asked to do a wedding at the Inn on the lake. If you want a venue with gorgeous grounds, a beautiful lake and is surrounded by mountains, then this is the place for you.

No wedding photographer should struggle here when the weather is good. To be honest even when the weather is bad, this venue is well lit in all the right places. Although its always nice to be armed with a 1.8 lense it probably isn't needed here. Bedrooms have plenty of daylight streaming through the windows which makes the early stages of the wedding easy to capture using natural light.

Nobody wants bad weather, I am just confident that it is not difficult to capture naturally lit photo's indoors here. It would be a shame at a venue like this to miss out on some of the most amazing surroundings due to bad weather though.

The service at Inn on the Lake is absolutely fantastic! The guy who has been looking after the Bride and Groom the last times I was there is a top man! Very helpful and always there to help should anyone need it!Plenty of sheltered spots and so much variety of backdrops, posed photographs will never be difficult.

Inn on the Lake is a favourite wedding venue with many wedding photographers I'm sure!

Have a look at the slideshow with about 40 photo's from a wedding I did there.

Garrie & Lisa Highlights Dalston Hall The Movie

Here is the Movie I captured at Garrie and Lisa's wedding at Dalston Hall.

Garrie & Lisa Highlights Dalston Hall

Here are a small selection of Garrie and Lisa's Wedding Photo's from last weekend.
I found it almost impossible to narrow it down to these 80ish photo's
A Fantastic wedding at Dalston Hall. They both made the Photography so easy.

Some more kind words from my clients

Here is a few words from a lovely couple who's wedding I did last week at Dalston Hall.

When deciding to get married there are a couple of really important things to think about: the venue: the dress: the photographer. We didn’t know much about wedding photographers so found ours on the internet. Paul emailed us detailing all about his services and when we met him we immediately warmed to him and haven’t looked back. Paul is friendly, funny and most importantly totally reliable. On the wedding day he arrived as agreed and blended into the background, we barely noticed his presence ( he was there from getting ready until the last dance!). We have just recently seen the DVD and slideshow of our photos. They are amazing!! We absolutely love them, he totally captured the essence of our day. We would without hesitation recommend Paul to our friends and family.
Thanks again Paul
Best wishes
Lisa and Garrie
x

A City of High Flyers

I have been getting slightly annoyed with a new local magazine which I will not name just in case they sue my ass!!!

It portrays Carlisle as a City of High Flyers and Uber Cool people. It normally has articles on stuff like some guy with a sports car living in a penthouse suite along with Hello magazine style portraits. Its all so materialistic that it does nothing but make me angry!

The fact is, 90% of people in Carlisle are not like this. They are what I would class as normal people.

This takes me back to what I said about photographers concentrating far too much on the materials on a wedding day. The ever increasing amount of photo's of Jimmy Choo shoes!

I have nothing against people who put themselves forward as high flyers. I'm sure it is the magazine itself that asks to photograph them next to their sports car ect.

Maybe it seems I am Jealous of their expensive cars and Penthouse suites. Maybe there will be an article on me and my Ford Mondeo Estate and pictures of me in Heartbreak Hotel playing Mario Kart(The building which contains the flat I live in is nick named Heartbreak Hotel, as anyone who lives there has had a failed marriage!)

Or maybe I will use the picture below which portrays me as some kind of Pimpish Uber cool dude that drives a sports car and likes to read razzle and smoke cigarettes!

Truth be told, I neither own the Honda S2000 or the copy of Razzle and the real me wouldn't have a cigarrette hanging out of my mouth. I am just the none materialistic guy who refuses to pay more than £500.00 on a car.

I'm a guy who loves taking his children to the Zoo, gets far too excited over a new purchase of an ironing board or Tumble dryer.

I have my luxury's like most people, but none are so obvious like a sports car and I dont think I would be allowed into their club or the magazine.

I am a successful photographer, but I dont think this means I should pretend to be somebody I am not.

But if I did maybe the photo below is how they would show me in the magazine!

Latest Dalston Hall Wedding Update

I went through all the wedding photography in greater depth from my latest wedding at Dalston Hall and I am over the moon with the results!
Not only that, I started putting the little movie together and I am stunned at the quality of it!
I used the D90 handheld as it really was just used to pass time in between my shooting the photographs.
I can see very little jello camera shake effect at this stage. Although once its on the big screen it may be more apparent.
As I say, I am a wedding photographer not a videographer but I have always had an interest in movies.
Its movies from which I get most of my inspiration for my still images.
I wont be posting anything on here until the couple have had their viewing, so you will have to wait a couple of weeks to see the results of both the still and movie photography from the day.
My brother is a very talented videographer so I will get his feedback after I have finished editing the movie.
So far looking at the still photography I have done from this wedding "They are fantastic!!"

Sun in Cumbria????

I was shooting a wedding yesterday and it has to be the first wedding in a long time that has had fantastic weather. It was at Dalston Hall and it was superb! The ceremony was held outdoors and I was hired to stay right through until the first dance. Once again on the evening it was a difficult task to capture moments without flash. I am still searching for a camera that is going to make my life easy in such dark atmosphere's. The Nikon d3 and D700 would do the job. But I think I would prefer the Canon 5d mkii.
Strangely the Nikon D90 didnt find it as easy as my old 20d did. To be honest I prefer Canons focusing system. I had to switch to manual focus as the D90 just didnt know what it was doing.
Regardless of this as usual I believe I have captured their whole day beautifully.
I also had a bit of a play with the D90's Movie function. I will be putting a little movie together as soon as I can and after the couple have seen the movie and their photographs I will post them on here for you to have a look at.
Don't worry I'm not turning into a Videographer! I just believe I am there to capture a wedding the best I can with the tools that I have. If this means just a little bit of candid movie to compliment my still photography then so be it. I really am going to have to invest in the 5d mkii just for the extra iso and the function that allows you to snap away while you are taking movie.
Maybe next month!!

British Weather will never get in the way

Here is a very short snapshot of a Wedding I did recently when the weather was horrific.
This is just to show that the British weather shouldnt spoil a wedding day or the photography.

2nd Time Lucky!

Although I photograph a lot of weddings of couples who are getting married for the first time, I also do a lot of couples that are getting married for a second time.
I'm doing quite a few this year and in no way is it less important than someone who has never been married before.
One of my friends is getting married again this year and he's younger than me!!!! So its not unusual for someone to get it wrong even while they are still young.
I admire people that get married again, as sometimes their heart was once broken and it has took somebody really special to help heal those open wounds.
Many people never get married again. Many of these people have had their hearts broken and will never take the risk.
I love a quote that my friend advised me of once.

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."

I think some people misunderstand this quote and think that it means to have a care free attitude. I think it means that we should not put up barriers to keep us from something or someone that would make us happy.

Kind Words

Below are some kind words from a recent wedding I did. Like a lot of weddings in the uk the weather was pretty bad. Fortunately I have done so many weddings in bad weather this is never a problem.

"On our wedding day we had the worst weather imaginable, but you did an amazing job.
We couldnt believe how fabulous the pictures were, and they were a great reflection of the fantastic day we had.
Thanks for keeping us laughing throughout the day!"

Vikkie