It has been a real privilege to be a judge for the Rotary Club competition – and a real challenge. The standard of the photography (and the volume of entries!) has been completely overwhelming and, if I’m honest, it was one of the toughest jobs I’ve done to help judge them.

So a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who took the time to enter or support the competition. Every single image submitted had real merit to it and each photographer should be hugely proud of the photographs they’ve created. For the winners a big ‘congratulations’ and to those who, this time at least, did not walk away with a prize – please try again next year as, on a different day, with different judges, you might just have made it.

Whatever happens, if this standard of photography in the UK can be continued, the state of the industry going forward will always be of the highest calibre!

And that can ONLY be a good thing!

Let us know what you think
Cheers
P.

PS. The copyright on each of these images remains with each contestant – thank you for letting us show them!

Anyway, this was the Henry Floyd school leavers prom at Woburn Abbey which is one of those iconic venues that cannot be surpassed on a gorgeous summer’s evening like this one.

We’ve been photographing the guys at the Henry Floyd for a few years now so it was really nice to catch up with familiar faces and wish them well as they head off to the strange and scary world of student life. When I say strange and scary life I do, of course, mean the four best years imaginable!

So, a night of revelry and photography! Another set of images that we are very proud of – not staid or too formal, just a lot of fun. And, thanks to the unusual occurrence of the late evening sunshine we’ve been having, a lot of pictures could be captured out on location which is ALWAYS my favourite way of working!

So to everyone who we photographed for the last time at HFGS, we wish you the very best of luck in your future careers – it’s been an absolute pleasure to have pointed a camera at you! And should, by chance, you ever need a portrait or wedding photographer…

Take care
Cheers
P.

This time it was musicians and performers in the gorilla enclosure. A heady mix! The gorilla’s didn’t seem particularly phased by it any way while some of the most talented performers in the world peered through the glass at them!

This ball was one of those that you just knew would be funny and the alcohol was flowing at quite a pace – something you might be able to spot from one or two of the pictures! I’ve always loved working with performing arts as there is a real vibrancy and energy about the characters involved. In this instance the talent ranged from musical theatre to violin, French horns and jazz guitar – all of it at the highest standard.

I really loved the entertainment laid on by the musical theatre group in between the meal courses – usually there isn’t much to photograph while people are sat at tables but this was completely different! The lighting in the room wasn’t great but with a little help from a remote-control flash gun I think we still managed to get a real sense of theatre in the images. Brilliant!

I really hope the images reflect just what a nice crowd this was and just how much fun I had photographing it!

And I’m really sorry to anyone who thinks they look a little drunk in them…

Let us know what you think.

Take care
Cheers
P.

I know our blog has been a little slow recently but that’s just ’cause we wrote our summer newsletter and we’ve been a little sidetracked with being out working with clients!

So, I have a bit of a backlog of interesting sessions to talk about but I’m going to bump one or two up the queue as they’re very much ‘of the moment’ – The Henry Floyd Grammar School Year 11 Prom and the Royal Academy of Music End of Year Ball (see later blog).

Now, I have to be honest, we don’t really specialise in events as such but it’s always a real pleasure when it’s for clients like these.

We’ve been photographing the Henry Floyd Prom for a few years now and I love it. It’s energetic (i.e. tiring!) and a load of fun – and we always end up with some fantastic images! We had a queue from the minute the doors opened until the end – when we grabbed a few of photographs of the D.J outfit (a crew called Diamond Cut if anyone’s interested – they were brilliant!)

So, to everyone who attended the prom last week a huge ‘thank you’ for being so hugely entertaining and for helping create another brilliant year of photographs. And to anyone who’s thinking of having an event but doesn’t think we’d do it? You can always ask – we might just say yes!

Now don’t get me wrong here – as anyone who has had the misfortune to be within chatting distance of me will attest – I absolutely love my job. I’m just saying I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as glamorous. Not in the ‘OK Magazine’ sense anyway.

However, this week does pretty much qualify.

It has been our great pleasure to provide the photography for this year’s Thames Water “Love Water Ball” in support of Water Aid – a notable charity providing the means for developing countries to have clean and safe water (something we take far too much for granted in this country I reckon.)

The ball was awesome. Now I’ve been to a ball or too but this was way out there. For a start, The Old Billingsgate in London is a magnificent venue with it’s Victorian facade, it’s huge gallery and a wonderfully atmospheric arched basement. Then add on that some unbelievable interior and exterior designs and two A-List acts (Michael McIntyre and Will Young) and you have pretty much a guaranteed atmosphere in which to raise money for an excellent cause. And so it proved to be!

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer client in Thames Water (one thing I’m extremely proud of is our ability to attract and work with some of the nicest people you could wish to meet and the guys at Thames Water – and at their production company for this event, Crown Business Communications – are absolutely amazing!)

For this job, we needed more than just me to be capturing images and so I was really thrilled to be able to add two hugely successful pro photographers – Dan Richards and Kay Young – to our regular team of myself, Kelly (my ever-patient assistant) and Sarah (my even more patient wife and business partner!) And, with 5 areas to cover and 1000 guests, we needed all five of us (and radio headsets – which, as Mr. McIntyre encouragingly pointed out, made us look somewhat like airline pilots!) working flat out to cover everything properly!

And, quite literally, we had a ball!

Though of course, the reality afterward is that we have just spent the past two days, battling the inevitable sleep deprivation, working through the 3000 or so images that we captured to sort them in time for all of the guests to log in (during their coffee-break of course) when they arrive back at work on Monday morning.

So, here just a few images from an absolutely amazing evening in London – enjoy!

Cheers
P.

This was the leaving prom for Waddesdon School which was held at the Bicester Gold Club. And it was awesome.

I’m always blown away by the job that the organising committees do in putting these things together – even ignoring the fact that the committee is formed entirely from the guys themselves which means that not only have they had to deal with the pressure of A-Levels and interviewing for universities – which would clearly be enough for most of us – they’ve also taken on the process of creating, planning and delivering a ball for 150 or so eager guests. Awesome. Seriously, this was a brilliant evening and that’s all credit to the guys that pieced it together.

We’re very lucky in that when we’re asked to cover something like a ball (which is not something we specialise in) we’re usually left to do it in our own inimitable fashion. Which is to say, VERY chilled. Actually, I wouldn’t take a ball on if that weren’t the case – the idea of static lifeless photos would drive me nuts. I know, I know, we do still have a huge white background but that’s just to give us a well-lit predictable area in which to mess around. And mess around we do!

The photos from this ball are fantastic. At least, I think that the photos from this ball are fantastic. The guys at Waddesdon were are really nice crowd – excited (who wouldn’t be?! It’s the end of school for good!), enthusiastic (possibly a little overly so in the case of one guy in particular – Sarah couldn’t stop laughing as she filtered the images out as he kept appearing. And reappearing. And then appearing once again. And once more for luck) and hugely amiable which actually makes the job of getting cool images really easy.

Nice way to spend an evening

Let us know what you think!

Cheers
P.

How could we forget? Went to sleep last night with the dulcet tones of a million bangers going off!

On Saturday I was down in Bristol working on a fireworks display with some really good friends of ours, Ben & PQ. I’ve known these guys for 20 years or so and you couldn’t meet two more talented and driven individuals. PQ commands huge respect as a producer at Crown Business Communications while Ben is now the partner in a really exciting fireworks company – Fuse Fireworks. And it was through this that I found myself in the middle of the Bristol Downs working on the Roundtable display – and, thanks to the weather, possibly the soggiest location I have worked on.

I was there firstly to help rig the display and then to capture some images for the guys website and brochures etc. The former task was relatively straightforward (I think I have a natural talent for belting things with a mallet – particularly when people with clipboards are guiding me with what to whack) but the latter, well that was a tad more er… entertaining.

The rain did come.

Now, usually, I’m pretty chilled about shooting in the rain but this was something else. Proper precipitation. In the limited light and with little else to go on, the usually infallible autofocus on our cameras was locking onto the raindrops rather than anything sensible. Actually, when I say raindrops, I am thinking more of large lumps of water hurtling heaven-sent down onto us. Switch to manual focus? Well, even that was tough as the water was getting onto the viewfinder making it nearly impossible to see clearly. I have a couple of shots where it looks like the type of star-filled sky you’d get from an overenthusiastic (and overly romantic) CGI special-effects unit. Think ET. But, believe me here, there was nothing starry or romantic about the sky. ‘Twas the light being refracted in the raindrops. Nice.

And we really didn’t want the usual ‘fireworks in the sky’ type of shot either – there are plenty of those already – so setting the camera on a tripod and forgetting it wasn’t an option. The brief from the guys was to get something a little different. So two of the crew (Harriet and Nick) stood through the display to see if we could get that little something extra. I have to say the guys were brilliant as it’s not everyone’s idea of a fun night out to be stood out in the lashing rain while someone tries to get a shot of the back of your head. One I owe them.

So did we get just a few shots to make it all worthwhile?

Yes, I think we did – not lots, admittedly, but just a couple that will stay in our portfolio and will almost certainly enter a competition or two. And the cameras will dry out eventually.

Cheers
P.

PS. If ever you’re looking for a fireworks company, these have to be the guys to go to. Amazing.

A really fantastic couple of hours spent over in Godalming photographing a wonderful birthday celebration. The house (as it was last time I was there, photographing Justine and her family) is still stunning and the weather was, yet again, gorgeous. Some people are blessed I reckon!

Had a ball shooting this event as everyone was there to relax and have a great time. Mission accomplished by the look of things!

The food and the catering looked mouthwatering to put it mildly. It was all laid on by Gilly and her team from The Great Big Event Company (including a very amiable and gifted chef brought in specially from London). It was truly a spread fit for the occasion! The last images I captured before packing up the gear were of a room full of people enjoying a fabulous spread in each others company. Perfect.

Let me know what you think.
Cheers
P.

This was Catharine and Jon’s engagement celebration (with just a hint of Catharine’s birthday thrown in for good measure) with their family and it was an absolute ball!

Jon proposed to Catharine in Italy, on bended knee and with an applauding (or, more probably, a-whooping-and-a-hollering) American audience by all accounts. Romantic fool. Puts the rest of us to shame.

Still, I do love the small role that we play in all this – capturing timeless images of families, kids and couples that leaves a wonderful legacy to stay with people for a great many years. At least, that’s my view. Admittedly, I may be just a little biased!

It’s always fun shooting a family gathering as we can get some really nice images out of it without necessarily having to stage the setting in any way. Though, of course, some of these photos are clearly a little more posed than others, they’re still really chilled and natural. And, these types of shots make really beautiful small coffee-table books to relive those moments over and over (or possibly bore your friends with over and over!)

On top of all that, everyone made me feel unbelievably welcome and Catharine’s mum played a wide and varied selection of music from the er… 80’s. Now THAT’s What I Call A Shoot!

Cheers
P.

We have photographed the Butler family quite a lot over the past few years, and it is always an absolute pleasure to work with them. I know I bang on about how nice our clients are (that, and the state of the weather of course) but I genuinely do have what must be the nicest set of clients around! And they invite us to parties

Anyway, this particular event was Dom’s 21st (Happy Birthday!!) and I was there just to capture a little of the spirit of the celebrations – and believe me, it did appear to be a proper party!

As we had a prior booking on the day, I couldn’t get there until the very end of the evening and so it was, with no small degree of trepidation I might add, that I found myself arriving right into the midst of things – a party that had been in full swing for the previous 4 hours!

Luckily this is the Butler household and their ability to hold a party and fill it to the brim with a heady mix of unbelievably friendly people is second to none – at least in my experience. So, when I arrived, everyone was clearly having a magnificent evening and made me exceedingly welcome. Which is always a good start!

Although one or two guests did look suspiciously to have enjoyed their evening just a little more enthusiastically than others (they were particularly difficult to keep locked in the viewfinder due to their somewhat unpredictable swaying and may well have gone on to rue their uncurbed enthusiasm the following morning), we have some images that hopefully squeeze into a picture just what an amazing time everyone was having!

Here are just a few of those images – please forgive me if any look like I was trying to hold a camera steady on a bouncing dance-floor but that’s exactly what was going on. And it was brilliant!

Let us know what you think.

Cheers
P.