Advanced Wedding Photography Workshop

Hi again.

I have just returned from a very good two days Advanced wedding Photography Workshop in Essex run by www.JeffTurnbullPhotography.com/  The first day included a wedding shoot on an extremely hot outdoor shoot with two models Rees Warren and Alex Lindsay. The shoot was at the beautiful location of Maidens Barn near Chelmsford.  To the great credit of Rees and Alex they bravely bore the high temperatures despite many of the photographers - myself definitely included - wilting in the heat.

I thought you might like to see a few of my images below.

Any further work of mine will be displayed on www.HeadlinePortraits.com/ 

     

Kieran and Carley's Engagement Shoot

Welcome back to my Blog

I was fortunate enough to be asked to do some engagement photos for Kieran and Carley last Sunday. I chose the beautiful House and Gardens of Wrest Park at Silsoe in Bedfordshire. Fortunately the weather was kind to us and we avoided a few dark clouds which were scudding around earlier. Wrest House dates back to the early 18th century and has 90 acres of gardens which were modelled by Capability Brown. He certainly deserved his name ! The estate is now owned by English Heritage.

Thought you might like to see a few shots from the shoot.

Many thanks to Kieran and Carley who made it a lot of fun and my very best wishes to them both.

I am looking forward to catching up on some more training over the next two months. When business is a bit quiet it seems like a really good investment of my time and helps me to keep up to date. On Friday I am attending a two day Advanced Wedding Course with Jeff Turnbull in Essex http://www.jeffturnbull.com/and then a one day Lifestyle course in June.




Over the last few weeks I have been making marketing visits and distributing advertising material in person to 23 different places in Bedfordshire to try to boost my Wedding, Lifestyle and family business. It is refreshing to have face to face meetings in addition to the usual viral and internet marketing. Expect the unexpected ? I had an enquiry from one to photograph her two boisterous dogs. Well - why not !!

A Portrait Shoot with Lisa and her Girls

Last Sunday I was fortunate enough to be asked to do a portrait shoot of some wonderful children named Megan, Aimee and Chloe with Lisa their Mum.  I had forgotten how exhuberant children can be but it was that natural exhuberance that I wanted to capture and which makes such shoots so much fun. Even the dog Zhuki insisted on joining us for a slice of the action after jumping over my softbox. I was obviously in the way whilst lying on her floor but luckily her nudging did not create the dreaded camera shake !  Actually she added a lot to some of the shots and together with Chloe they made a natural pair.

A very enjoyable shoot and thanks to Lisa and all of the girls who made it so. A few shots are below -

Country Therapy

Work has been a bit quiet for me this year and this has reflected on my blog activity. That is not necessarily a problem since I am fairly new to wedding photography and I would not expect to be so amply employed yet as some of my experienced colleagues and friends. Nevertheless I intend to keep chipping away at it and have no doubts I will increase my client base before too long.  Me downhearted ?  No..... not yet ! I have had some family business with my old folks to take care of for the last couple of months which I am still doing but once that is settled satisfactorily for them then it will be full steam ahead once again and I hope to have more time to boost my marketing in turn picking up more business. I believe I have my priorities right.

One bit of great news is that my youngest son just got engaged so I am arranging his engagement shoot which will be fun.  That gave me a good excuse to visit some possible locations. Anyway before I ramble on much more, I was driving along through Ashridge Forest in Buckinghamshire today and felt this strange compulsion to grab my camera and get out to do some shooting. It was very therapeutic to have the cold wind blowing in my face, away from habitation.  I have posted some of the shots below which I managed before my hands went numb with the cold.  Hope you enjoy them. Just in case you were wondering the last one is the Ashridge Memorial that was built in Honour of Francis, Third Duke of Bridgewater in 1832 . He was known as the Father of Inland Navigation in England. If you didnt know then its Ok, I didnt know either until I researched it !!!

Wedding Workshop

On Saturday I went to join Jeff's course and four others for a Wedding Photography workshop. A great day was had by all and a special thanks to the long suffering Nezda and Ben who were our models. Modelling outside in a bridal costume in December can get really chilly and poor Nezda started to take on a blue tint. 

We covered a lot of ground and took loads of pictures and here is a taster of some of my images which I hope you might enjoy looking at. 

The weather was kind to us during the day luckily but driving home in the evening it bucketed down making driving 'interesting'. 

So many thanks to Nezda and Ben and to Jeff for running such a good and enjoyable course.  


This month things are moving on well for me. My new logo is finished for Headline Portraits and the stationery will soon be delivered.


The website has been revamped and is now released. All in all, not a bad start to the month I reckon and looking forward to the future :)

November Roundup

November started off in great style with a course in Cumbria lasting three days. It was run by the Annabel Willams Studio CPT. Great course and fantastic trainers. Made new friends with like minded people whom I will keep in touch with. It is great when we all share the same enthusiasm. I recall going on courses in my Corporate days when it was an order to go. Maybe the guy despatching us then was also under orders but the motivation is not the same for the delegates. I will definitely be returning to the Studio - it is just a matter of when.  We were lucky to have escaped the bad flooding which the county is still suffering from so badly. 

Next on the list for November was a portrait session which went well. The main reason for the session was a framed picture for a Christmas present. What a good idea ! There were three people to be photographed but not all together. I had thought to shoot outdoors as I love ambient light but the light was going and the weather uncertain so I opted to play safe.  

Finally I assisted at a lovely wedding in Essex of Katie and James. I suppose I could have been called the lighting gaffer and used a really useful video light. I learnt a lot from Jeff who incidentally I met on the course in Cumbria and that experience will stand me well for when I do my own shoots probably january onwards. I do need Santa to be good to me as never feel I have enough equipment. Maybe he will read my Blog or maybe I am turning into an equipment junkie !

2009 What a year !

At this time of the year I usually look back and think what sort of year I have had. 2009 for me will take some beating. Last January I was in a job in Industry dutifully collecting my paycheck at the end of every month with that big Corporate umbrella over my head. All very nice and it felt safe. Now I am out in the world I have come to realise that I was not really in control of my life and the words 'Get a life' now have a new ring of truth.  Along came the accountants and like a flash flood all the security which I had taken for granted was swept away. Initially a numb feeling of disbelief set in closely followed by a great opportunity to panic. You tell your family as you reach for the calculator working out how long your financial survival rate can be.  Some are obviously more lucky than others in their financial circumstances and I place myself in that fortunate category. I came to realise that this could be the opportunity I needed to do the thing I have always wanted to do and that is my photography. Why didnt I take that chance earlier ? My year is like a hammock - July and August in the middle but we are now almost in December !!  Would I go back to the former job now in the unlikely event of it being offered it to me - thanks but no thanks. There is always a silver lining to be found somewhere but often we are too close to see it.  Yes 2009 has been a watershed year in my life but that life only seems to get better.  I am following my dream, I have additional friends and am thriving on new challenges. That cant be bad. For anyone in similar circumstances I can only say that once the emotional turmoil has gone there is usually a silver lining to be found somewhere even if it is just having more time to be with the family.  For me it was the opportunity to start my own photographic business and the determination that I will succeed however hard I am told it will be. I expect to be able to once again look back at the end of 2010 and I believe I will still feel satisfied with the decision I made in 2009.