Madonna & Alex

The Pose

Its no secret that I'm not a fan of the stiffly posed wedding photographs. Do I do posed photo's as well as unposed? Yes of course I do, however if you look at my work compared to a lot, then you will see that people look extremely relaxed and happy. When people are relaxed with a tiny bit of guidance, they pose themselves naturally.
I cringe at photo's where its obvious that a photographer has used the following formula:-
"Groom you stand like that + Bride you stand like this + Bridesmaid 1 you put your hand on your hip + Bridesmaid 2 you hold this. ect ect" Do you know what that sum equals? A waste of peoples time.
Weddings are not photo shoots! The more time you take up setting up uncomfortable poses the more of their special day you are taking away from them.

Prabudh and Vanisha

Mr and Mrs Zorlander

I have stated previously that photographers are generally pretty poor at marketing. I have been terrible at it over the years, and sometimes its a wonder how I have been doing wedding photography for over 20 years.

Apart from a website and an ad on freeindex I do no advertising. Most of the time my clients come from word of mouth. Others have been lucky enough to stumble across my website. 

I believe there are some terrible photographers out there that are more successful than me due to their marketing skills being much better.

That's a shame really not only for me but for the couples that didn't book me for no other reason than they didn't know about me.

By far the weirdest way I have received wedding bookings is through something that has nothing to do with marketing at all.

In 2002, an amazing new gaming service began called Xbox live. This was something that allowed me to play games with friends that had moved away to various ends of the globe without leaving my sitting room.

What I didn't predict is that some guys I ended up playing with were people that I had never met before in my life.

Stranger was the fact that I have ended up doing a number of their weddings and am now good friends with them.

Below are a very few random pictures from a wedding I did recently at St Andrews which I never would have been asked to do if it wasn't for Xbox live.

A pre wed shoot on a cloudy day

We were warned of terrible weather this day! Possible storms and the shoot could easily have been cancelled. My theory was that you don't get to choose the weather on the actual wedding day so let's go for it.

Back to Portraits

Its been a while since I put any posts on here. I am currently getting back into the portraiture side of my photography and loving doing things in my style again. The trouble I found doing portraits is that I started to lose my own creative style. Everyone always had a specific idea of what they wanted me to copy. Let alone the bonny baby type photos people wanted me to do. So I knocked it on the head. Well I'm coming back to my portraits in my style. I will be re launching this side of the business very soon.

I'm moving!!!!

Well I move into the new Pad soon and after a very awkward heavy job of getting a bar pool table from a local rugby club and getting it into the new place. All is awesome!!!

A Boat Trip On Lake Ullswater

I was honoured to photograph a great wedding on Sunday at Inn on the Lake.
The weather wasn't fantastic but we were still able to venture out to take some great photos.
Another highlight was the boat trip which allowed everyone to see some amazing scenery. The photos below we're just taken on my IPhone.

The Constant

One of my all time favourite shows on TV was lost. This is taken from one of my favourite episodes. Desmond was one of my favourite characters who was trapped on the island after finishing with his girlfriend. He felt unworthy of her and decided to do a boat race around the world to prove his worth. He was shipwrecked for years but never stopped loving her. In this episode he was skipping around in time (I love stuff with time travel) and trying to make contact with his girlfriend in the past. He couldn't change the past as much as he wanted to.
Link below.

http://youtu.be/D-3i4EQ9DFE

The Game Changer

I've gone on previously about how true love is such a rare thing and how I always appreciate seeing couples that are truly in love. That's why doing wedding photography is so important to me.
You could be going through life quite content and then one person comes along like a tornado and changes everything.
That's what you call a game changer. Game changers are rare and often a scary thing to come across because it really does mean that you know that your heart is on the line from very early on. You could walk away from a game changer as there is great risk of being hurt. In my opinion it's something you should grab onto with both hands. The reward by far outweighs the risk. If it doesn't work out then at least you know that you were brave enough to try.
In my life I've only ever came across one which unfortunately didn't work out which is indeed heartbreaking. The fact though that a game changer never came along before or so far after is proof that it was still indeed worth the risk.
If it worked out for you and you're planning a wedding then appreciate every moment and congratulate yourself for taking that risk when you knew what was at stake.
And make sure you get me to do your photography! Getting uncle burt to do your photography is not a risk with any reward.

More Sea Adventures

Back out adventuring today.

Abandoned

I came across this abandoned hotel on my travels.
Very spooky and strangely the fan on the outside still whirred into action making me nearly jump out of my skin!!!

The Sea Adventures

I have been away exploring the coast this week quite a lot.
Feeling low and claustrophobic I felt the need to flee from Carlisle as much as possible. It was by no means a photographic project, but for my own sanity. However once I got out I used Photography as my therapy.
I'm sure I will look back at these photos and remember I was going through a rough time. I will also remember how much it helped to be out by the sea.