Nicola and I had been looking forward to Louise & Geoff’s wedding at Hillbark Hotel since we first visited it back in May. The weather teased us all day, but it ended perfectly. It was a lovely setting, I think I will be better off letting the pictures speak for themselves…

We had a fantastic day, and the fireworks at the end really were the icing on the cake. If you would like to see more shots head over to Louise & Geoff’s Wedding Website where friends and family can view the whole set, watch the slideshow and order prints. A massive thank you to Louise, Geoff, their friends and family as well as the lovely staff at the Hillbark Hotel

A couple of weeks back I got an urgent email from Cherylynn of Focused On You, every Wedding Photographers nightmare had come true, she has broken her foot and had weddings coming up. One of the things I love about being in a network of like minded photographers is that there are always people out there to help you out. This time I was able to offer to photograph Anna & Gregor’s wedding in Cherylynn’s place.

I only did the shooting, Cherylynn is doing all the editing, but I thought I would share a few images here. It was very interesting for me, having never met Anna & Gregor before. Luckily I did have time to visit the Church and venue a couple of days before. We soon got to know each other and ended up with the most fantastic weather.

St Giles Church at Skelton is lovely, made from the left over stone from York Minster, it was packed out with Anna & Gregor’s 89 guests.

Then onto Burn Hall, you wouldn’t have thought we’d be out on the lawn a few hours before this was taken!

I can tell you that these were proper Scotsmen, that’s not a pair of boxers, but the Scottish flag under Gregor’s kilt!

Off for some couple shots…

Burn Hall is one of those places I’d like to go back to, so many places to explore!

I always think it’s those in between moments that are best.

It was lovely to spend the day with Anna & Gregor. It was nice to help out another photographer, and quite the challenge to fill the boots. It was fun to do, and if it should ever happen to me I know there is a happy bunch of photographers out there willing to jump in and make sure no brides day is ruined, you all know who you are, you guys rule!!!

I met up with Nicola & Alex for their pre-shoot in the Castlefields area of Manchester. This is a fantastic part of Manchester and one used by a lot of photographers, and for good reason. Within a short walk there are a massive number of locations, almost too many!

It was a typical Manchester summers day, grey but bright, and we set off in search. I like to use the couple of hours I have during these shoots to get to know the couples a little more, it helps us all relax with each other and I think get much better pictures on the day. I also like to show people that often the less they try the better the pictures will be, just relax and enjoy the moment. We all have a fear of photographers I think, just like dentists it;s something we pick up at school. I try not to be like the scary wedding photographer you hear about, I like to enjoy the day and become part of it.

We had a lovely time and I am really looking forward to their big day in the new year. Here is just a small selection of what we got…

We recently joined Louise & Warren at the lovely Heaton House Farm for their wedding.

It was our first time at the venue, and the weather wasn’t doing us any favours, it has been purpose built for weddings so there are still lots of opportunities for some great photos. Quite kindly a Tractor had been placed on the hill, which was a nice touch.

Here are just a few moments we captured during the day…

The Tree is an integral part of Heaton house Farm, the view from the new Bridal Suite as prime view of it and the Hills beyond.

A quiet word in the ear

The girls were collecting their own video diary of the evening, even in the rain!

If you would like to see a few more shots, you can watch Louise & Warren’s Wedding Slideshow…

A big thanks to Louise, Warren and all their fantastic guests for making us feel so welcome and sharing their big day with us. Also a big Thank You to the lovely people at Heaton House Farm for looking after us so well, we hope to see you soon

Whilst really busy with weddings and the like, it’s always nice to take a day off and head for the studio for a fun day of messing about and trying new ideas. I had recently seen a video shot by Lee Morris of fstoppers.com fame (a most excellent place to hang out for us photo geeks), that really got me thinking. Lee took the equipment he already had and set out to prove to himself that he could create great images using gear that at first thought may not be up to the task. He chose to shoot with his iPhone rather than his DSLR!

I loved the idea, and even as I was still watching the video I knew I had to try something similar myself. I already had the studio time and Mike, Stef, Cara and Lauren were all up for giving it a go. I’ve been using an LED Video Ring Light from eBay while working on VideoJunkie projects with Stef and thought that this could be a chance to use it in a new way with my spanking new iPhone 4. I also have the luxury of having a Profoto Proring available so I could shoot similar shots “with the proper gear” and see how they stack up.

On the left is the original iPhone image (just cropped a little) and on the right is the edited version, I’ve not done too much to these images, just basic Lightroom adjustments and a few tweaks in Photoshop.

This is one of my favourite shots out of the 80 or so we took. We only spent about 30 minutes on the day as we had other things we worked on, but I found shooting with the iPhone really easy, I was left wondering why I couldn’t do touch to focus on my 5D Mk II in video mode I have uploaded the full resolution untouched version of this picture, you can download it here. If you want to have a go at editing it yourself please feel free, post me back your images and I’ll put them up on here for all to see.

I found that sometimes the metering was a little slow in the uptake, but I like the effect that gave. Focus was very quick as Stef moved around. The images are lovely and sharp, I think I am right in saying the iPhone 4 is locked at f2.8 and doesn’t even have a traditional shutter mechanism, impressive stuff in such a tiny space.

So we moved on and shot with a similar setup but with Profoto gear and the 5D Mk II. I was using a fresnel lens off to one side as well as the ring. mainly at first for focus assist but I liked the effect so we kept it on. It was in place for the iPhone shots too, but the ring light is very bright even on it’s lowest setting so you don’t really see it as much.

So, can we all see the difference when shooting with the “proper gear” ??? Of course we can, I’d be bloody upset if I couldn’t !!! I don’t think I’ll be rushing out and shooting weddings with my iPhone, but it has been fun to see that you can get some amazing images from something you carry about in your pocket all the time. It has also taught me that I can manage with the gear I have, and no impressive purchase can hide the fact that it’s the concept, lighting and model that make the shot, not how much you paid for your gear. So I recommend that you get your camera phone or point and shoot out and give it a go.

Check out the video we shot for videojunkie.co.uk for all the low down…

For those of you interested in what I was doing with the iPad, I am using the WiFi grip for the 5D MkII to transfer the images to an app called ShutterSnitch. No other access point or PC/Mac is needed the file is transferred from the camera direct to the iPad, very cool! It’s something I’ll continue to use with commercial clients and kids photography, it worked flawlessly all day, the battery life on the iPad is immense. To edit the images on the day we used Photo fx Ultra, I can’t say I picked that for any other reason than it’s price point and the fact it was in the top ten when I was looking on the iPad apps store that day. It works really well for a quick and nasty edit.

I thought I’d share some more images taken during the day of Cara, quite new to modelling and certainly new to the Ring Flash, but I love the jumping shots we got…

So there you have it, our fun day in the studio. A massive thanks to the whole team, great effort guys

I am slap bang in the middle of the busy season right now, I have so much to blog but so little time!

I used my day off yesterday to squeeze in a little bit more shooting for videojunkie.co.uk This time unfortunately without Stef on set with Kasiuss for their new Rock Video of their awesome track Wonders Prevail. They had an impressive crew and wanted to document the whole process, it was fantastic to be a part of it.

I know it’s going to be a few weeks before I get the chance to see the final video and edit together my Behind The Scenes, so here is a little preview to wet your whistle…