Posts Tagged location photography
Ben & Barbara’s pre-wedding session in Southampton
Posted by Paul in For Website, Pre-Wedding on March 2nd, 2010
Is it just me, or do I appear to laugh for a living?
I don’t mean to sound criminally chirpy (believe me I’m really not – I do like to think I have a cool, dark and mysterious side though, admittedly, I could be well wide of the mark here) but there aren’t many things that make me happier than being out with a client and a camera. Being with my family is top of the list of course, just ahead of photography and closely followed by (in no particular order) Guinness; roast dinners; curry; snowboarding; skiing; loud music (Lady Gaga’s Fame Monster 2009 sounds pretty good at the moment with the volume pumped way too high); a hot beach (to be precise, a good book with a beer on a hot beach); Single Malt; mountain biking and maybe just a little traveling around the globe thrown in for good measure.
Actually, that now sounds like a very very corny CV. Still, it’s irrelevant as we’re working flat out at the moment and photography is pretty much the only thing I get to do. It’s a good job it’s high on the list then!
Ben and Barbara had the full force of me being chipper I’m afraid. I can’t help it. The weather for this, their pre-wedding shoot, was dire, but they’re very funny to be around so we just laughed a lot. And occasionally stopped to take a picture or two. Both Ben and Barbara (‘Bird’ to her friends – I had to refrain from using her nickname as if anyone overheard me pointing a camera and saying ‘that’s it Bird, you look perfect’…) are ultra-fit. I don’t mean kinda normal go-to-the-gym-once-a-week-and-play-squash-when-I-can-be-bothered sort of fit. I mean international yachtswoman (Barbara) and alpine mountain bike guide (Ben) fit. Which left me feeling embarrassingly out of shape. Still, I can take a good picture so, given both Ben and Bird are into their photography, maybe they forgave the eagerness with which I accepted a cup of tea after a couple of hours’ shooting!
It’s really nice when our clients are fun to be with like this. Makes the trip down to Southampton completely worthwhile. Even in the pouring rain.
Loved the shoot, love the images, can’t wait until the wedding!
Nancy, Phil & Oscar: Pre-Wedding session in Greenwich Park, London
Posted by Paul in For Website, Pre-Wedding on March 1st, 2010
I love working in London. I think I love it more now than when I used to travel into the city every day. And I loved it then.
There’s always a sense of style, of drama. A kind of feeling of history everywhere you look. And it’s utterly fantastic. The only other city I’ve loved working in as much is New York. Only for us, London is on our doorstep which makes things a little more accessible than The Big Apple!
It’s going to be great this season as as we have a number of clients in our famous capital city so I’m going nipping in and out a lot!
This particular shoot is with a couple whose wedding we’re going to be photographing at The Crazy Bear in Stadhampton. Now I’m always excited about our Crazy Bear weddings but with the added twist of working with a client in Greenwich, well, things couldn’t be better.
Greenwich park, like many of London’s vast green expanses, is simply fantastic to work in. Even with the world’s tourists – having seemingly broken into some kind of odd-ball clothing shop – amassing tera-pixel upon tera-pixel of self-portraits around you, the parks feel fresh and open – and quintessentially London. And with Canary Wharf and the Millenium Dome (or is that now the O2 Arena?) just in the distance you couldn’t feel closer to the vast metropolis.
I loved this shoot. Even in the pouring rain (have a look at some of the images!). It was a wonderful space to play. And, as is so often the case, the client – Nancy & Phil and their little boy, Oscar, were brilliant fun. A very very fine way to spend an afternoon in lovely company. Oh, and we captured some beautiful images too!
And, once we’d finished and packed the cameras away, we had the added benefit of nipping down the road to some of oldest (a.k.a. long-suffering) friends’ for bit of tea’n'cake. Had I not been driving, it would have been a beer. Or two. Still, pretty much a perfect end to a perfect day.
Amy & Jonny: Pre-Wedding shoot at Wendover Woods, Buckinghamshire
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle, Pre-Wedding on February 21st, 2010
OK, so you may have noticed our titles are quietly getting longer (and distinctly less ’snappy’) well, this is due to a push to help our rankings on web search engines. We recently won a couple more weddings at The Crazy Bear simply because the client searched for ‘Crazy Bear Photography’ and this blog came up on Google’s first page which is always good. We’re also recommended by them which is an additional help of course!
We don’t advertise anywhere (though look out for our new soon-to-be-branded Land Rover Defender!) so it’s always reassuring to hear that people are finding us online as well as through the many recommendations we get. And modifying our cryptic titles to be something a little more, well, useful is just another small step we’re taking!
Anyway, onto the subject of this particular blog: Amy & Jonny’s pre-wedding session at Wendover Woods. This Buckinghamshire setting (d’you see what I did there?!) is almost certainly our most-visited location along with Coombe Hill and our home village of Haddenham. I must make an effort to find something more industrial this year for our fashion clients but, well, if you have beautiful locations right on your doorstep then why not go with it?!
The weather wasn’t exactly easy to deal with – but it was suitably dramatic! Although the snow wasn’t sticking, it was coming down at quite a pace for a period!
Amy & Jonny are getting married at Nether Winchendon House later this year and we’re unbelievably excited about working with them both. So early this Saturday before the crowds arrived (actually, given the weather, I’m not sure there’d be much in the way of crowds except for dog-walkers, mountain-bikers and photographers but still) we found ourselves on the hillside of this amazing forest.
The session was brilliant fun (they brought their two very lively pet labradors with them!) and the photos are just what I’d hope for. Lots of character and a lot of fun. Can’t wait for the summer to photograph the whole family in such a wonderful setting as Nether Winchendon. Perfect.
Lucy, Steve & George: Photography session at the Mausoleum in West Wycombe
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle on February 20th, 2010
Ah, I’m sitting clearing up disks and backing up data. Not the most fun you can have but it’s absolutely critical (we had a disk fail a few weeks ago and, although we did indeed have everything we needed to recover the data, it was a nervous moment!)
It does have to be said that I’m pretty much as bad at cleaning up disks as I am cleaning up the desk around my Mac and printers – my biggest problem being I’ll find something interesting and immediately get distracted by it! Which is exactly what happened here – I was moving some files around and caught sight of these album files for Lucy & Steve.
Although most people probably associate albums with wedding photography, rather than lifestyle or fashion, we actually produce nearly as many lifestyle and family books. Why not? A lifestyle shoot does, after all, create a whole load of priceless images that are just as important, particularly if they’re from a family session, and will last a lifetime. And they look great in a beautiful album!
So here’s one from last year: Lucy, Steve & George. We photographed Lucy & Steve’s wedding so it was wonderful to see them again – particularly with the addition of George. We chose the location as the Mausoleum that rises high above West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. A stunning location! I loved this shoot and we have some truly gorgeous images of all three of them – particularly George who is a real character!
Just brilliant!
Cheers
P.
The Faulkes family in the snow.
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle on February 13th, 2010
So, have you ever wondered what portrait photographers do when it snows? I don’t mean a little bit of snow, I mean when it really really snows.
That was what had happened that this particular shoot. It had been in a diary for a while to photograh Rebecca Faulkes and her family over at their farm near Thame in Oxfordshire. and, much to my excitement (and hopefully their’s too) it had snowed! OK, so for anyone reading this in, say, Washington at the moment, it may not be quite the same snow that you’re currently experiencing – but the few inches we had, happily brought the country to its knees.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too much of a problem to get over there (our trusty old Shogun has done us proud this winter) but keeping everyone warm enough to be photographed was an entirely different matter!
Still, snow is such a fantastic environment in which to photograph – particularly for portraits – as it creates an unbelievably natural wraparound light. Just look at the portraits below to see what I mean. And, given it’s unbelievably rare in this country, it makes these portraits even more unusual and special! Though watching out for shivering, streaming eyes and runny noses was also a necessity!
I loved this shoot and I love the photos we captured.
Let us know what you think.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Posted by Paul in Chat, For Website, Personal on January 7th, 2010
So what is it about snow that brings out the child in everyone?
Since getting up this morning (at some ridiculous hour as the whole family had been excited about the new snow falls since it started last night) we have built a snowman (a grandiose 9ft specimen that was alarmingly phallic), thrown snowballs, tried to get an avalanche to occur off our thatched roof (with some degree of success I might add), been sledging on trays (and on a piece of old plastic and on a Land-Rover inner-tube), drunk mulled wine, driven the 4×4 to places other cars can’t get to (before drinking the mulled wine I should add) and generally behaved more like kids than our kids.
A hot chocolate and an early night with a comic book (OK, I admit it. I’m showing my age. Of course, the kids would rather go to bed with a Nitendo DS) and the transformation would have been complete.
I know it’s dangerous, our heating bill will be huge and we’re all in danger of running out of gas (or milk for that matter – why do people insist on panic buying? One snowy day and the entire South East of England is risking a trip to A&E by bustling it’s way to whatever local shop is in reach to buy as much milk, bread and cat-food as they can carry home) but it’s just so lovely!
Oh, and it’s also a joy to photograph.
Enjoy!
PS. Photo credit to Jon Rowland for the shot of Sarah and I getting to grips (or, more accurately, failing to get to grips) with the large plastic sheet!
The Opening of The James Figg Pub in Thame
Posted by Paul in Commercial, For Website on January 5th, 2010
I do like a good pub. ‘No,’ I hear you say, ‘really?’ with just a modicum of surprise.
Yup.
Call me old fashioned but there are few places I find quite so convivial. So comforting. So British. There is nothing quite like finding yourself on a lazy afternoon with a well-pulled pint and a roaring fire listening to the background chatter of one of this nation’s greatest legacies. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: The Pub.
That being said. I do lament the smoking ban in pubs and bars.
Now don’t get me wrong here, I have never smoked and, not withstanding a suitably apocalyptic midlife crisis, I probably never will. But the smouldering presence of tobacco smoke in a public house or bar always seemed somehow, natural.
I know, I know, I love not going home smelling of everyone else’s smoke and not having to wash my jacket every time. I love not having a sore throat. And I love being able to actually taste my beer.
But, and here’s the thing, I’m a photographer.
And I miss the light.
I used to get so excited about that familiar smokey, hazy, drifting light. Some of my favourite images have been captured so simply with nothing more than a basic camera, a good quality 50mm lens (the staple of all 35mm photography until the new digital formats emerged), some window light and a creamy pint of Guinness. And just a smidgen of tobacco smoke. Sigh.
Still, I digress slightly in that I meant to write about one particular pub I photographed recently: The James Figg pub. The pub (previously the Abingdon Arms) has been in the middle of Thame ever since I’ve lived here but was old and tired (not in a good way) and so it was with some excitement that I was asked by Peach Pubs, who also own The Thatch, amongst others, to create some images of their newest pub for its website and to cover the inaugural night.
And I was right to be excited. What they’ve done is pretty much perfect: a good English pub serving great beer and great food (of the pie’n'chips variety at least).
And I’ve been back since for a quick half and it is still fantastic. The service is truly friendly and hospitable and the place was seemingly full – both of people and of atmosphere.
But, sadly, still no smoke.
Ah, well it’s almost certainly for the better. I just need to find new ways of recreating that wonderful light!
Krystina, Ryan & Jacqueline (with Max & Jet) at Little Marlow
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle on January 3rd, 2010
Well, a very happy new year (and new decade) to everyone! As I write this I’m sitting in a particularly early (and consequently deserted) Saturday morning train clattering lazily through a frost-bitten Chiltern landscape into London for the first shoot of 2010 – very excited to be starting the year at a run and the weather is simply gorgeous!
My new year’s resolution this year (actually, just one of my new year’s resolutions. If I’m being honest, of course, there are numerous including the obligatory lose weight, spend more time with my family/friends, sleep more, talk less but hey, who’s counting?) is to get on top of our blog. I should make it clear at this point that I love writing the blog. It’s like talking. But without the requirement that anyone stop and listen. It’s just that it takes time and time seems to be one commodity I never have enough of.
That is, unless, I happen to be sitting on a train whipping past the frozen pastures and woodland of this glorious landscape that we’re blessed with around here in Buckingamshire. Quintessentially English and breathtakingly beautiful. Maybe not as awe-inspiring as my native North Wales, but we really do take this gently curvaceous scenery far too much for granted. And, on a crystal morning like this, it’s tear-jerkingly pretty.
As it was just before Christmas (nice link huh? D’yer see what I did there?) when I set out to photograph Krystina, Ryan and Jacqueline – and two unbelievably well-trained gun-dogs: Max and Jet – on their family farmland above Marlow.
I’m not normally known for photographing animals but we’d been asked to create some images for Christmas presents – and I do like a challenge. And thank goodness or I would have missed some truly unique images.
The weather had been truly awful all week but, for this particular afternoon, the muddy grey December veil lifted briefly to expose that wondrous raking winter sunshine that you only get on a few days of the year. Couple that with three siblings who were fantastic company (no, seriously, we just laughed for two hours!) and two dogs that were the epitome of health and contentment (and, alarmingly, better behaved than my own kids) and we were on for one of those sessions!
Utterly stunning!
Claire & Nick’s Wedding at Kersey Mill
Posted by Paul in For Website, Weddings on October 12th, 2009
One of the joys of train travel (apart from the excitement of founding out if they have any refreshments or not) is that you do get an opportunity to sit and do stuff. And that’s an opportunity that is too good to miss.
We’ve been unbelievably busy this year and so it’s actually quite rare for either of us to get some (relatively) uninterrupted time to sit and write our blog. So I’m endeavouring to make up for that now with the aid of my trusty laptop and a free wifi connection.
Claire & Nick’s Wedding was held at Kersey Mill – a beautiful old mill and grounds that sprawl across the Suffolk countryside. We’d had this wedding booked well over year ago (and we’d been looking forward to it ever since!)
It was worth the wait. A beautiful day, a stunning location and a fantastic crowd. Claire and Nick looked like they were having an absolute ball, as did their guests. One thing that we loved about this wedding was the opportunity to grab some shots of the bride and groom in the grounds and the mill, in the most stunning summer evening light.
Not every bride and groom wants to go off on their own to create some images for the album, but Claire and Nick really wanted some cool images of the two of them. So, once the guests were happily consuming their way through Suffolk’s wine and spirits, we wandered off into the grounds to play in the most glorious evening light! The images, I think, speak for themselves (though you wouldn’t know it given how long my blog entries are!)
Let us know what you think!
Take care
Cheers
P.
Caroline, Ray, Emily and Lily at Coombe Hill
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle on September 27th, 2009
Ah, now this was one of those sessions.
The light, the location, the family. It all just fell into place and we had a ball.
Lily was clearly the star of the show and played for the camera from start to finish (it was hard to know when to stop as we could have carried on getting stunning images until it went dark!) but we have really lovely images of everyone both individually and as groups.
One of the reasons we like Coombe Hill so much (apart from the fact that it is generally a very beautiful place to be) is that there is so much variety in which we can capture images, from the grassy area as you go into the National Trust area, to the woodland, to the high almost moor-like area on the top to the deep forested area reminiscent of many a Hollywood Sherwood forest! And to top it all nicely, the last shot was taken in the carpark itself! No opportunity wasted!
Oh, and there’s nearly always an ice-cream van parked up there somewhere which keeps the kids and adults alike happy!
As I said earlier, this was one of those sessions!
Let us know what you think.
Cheers
P.
The Krauze Family
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle on September 10th, 2009
It’s late and I’m writing a blog.
I’ve just spent a very happy 20 minutes trying to get my head around my own Facebook profile and, much to my embarrassment given my technology background, failed miserably. I think have just asked quite a few people I know (and possibly one or two I have absolutely no knowledge of whatsoever) to be ‘friends’ of mine. If only real life were so easy huh? Just login and say ‘be my friend’. Actually, come to think of it, my boy Jake does exactly that – he simply walks into a situation – any situation – and excitedly makes new friends. Oh for the confidence of youth!
Anyway, unsurprisingly, I’m digressing. Back to the job in hand. (Is it any wonder I get behind with my blogs when I spend so much time talking about anything but the topic I set out to write about?!)
So, where was I? Ah yes, the Krauze family.
I wasn’t sure quite what to expect with this shoot as it was in a location above Nether Winchendon that we’ve never photographed before. I shouldn’t have worried though as the light was beautiful up there and we found an absolute wealth of locations in which to work.
At the end of the day this job is all about the light as that is, technically, all a photo is. A split second of light reflected from whatever it is your capturing. You’ve got to love photography for that utter simplicity.
I love these images for the characters in them though as much as the light. This was a fantastic session, full of energy and life and I think that it shows in the images. And just when I thought we’d caught everything, one of the lads pulled off the perfect ‘Dick Van Dyke’! A good day by anybody’s standards!
Let us know what you think.
Cheers
P.
Oliver Peyton in St James Park
Posted by Paul in Commercial, For Website on September 8th, 2009
It’s not every day you get to photograph a restaurateur. Particularly not a great one like Oliver Peyton.
I have to admit I wasn’t certain who he was initially but when you real off the fantastic restaurants he’s been responsible for (Mash, Coast, The Atlantic Bar and Grill, Admiralty, The National Gallery dining rooms, Inn the Park – the list goes on) that you know exactly who he is – and I have had many a good night in the venues he’s been responsible for. Ah, those were the days! He’s also one of the judges on the BBC Great British Menu programme so if I ever sat down to watch the telly…
Anyway, I met Oliver at his Inn The Park in St James Park to get some images for use in Owner Manager magazine – the official magazine of the Small Firms Association in Ireland.
Before I had met him, I knew his time was tight but when he arrived 15 minutes late, it rapidly became a shoot that we’d need to complete under a load more pressure than I’d hoped. Still, it was a gorgeous day in a London park so I just sat and soaked up the fantastic atmosphere. All good.
When Oliver bowled up we had an extremely rapid session (I think it lasted a total of 20 minutes) and we created 40 diverse images ranging from the cover image on a black background through to some really enigmatic images of the man himself on the balcony of his restaurant. Fast, yes, but creative. The images have turned out exactly as I would have wished (and they’re now in the magazine) even allowing for it being such a short session.
And Oliver is an absolute character – the man is a live-wire and very funny! So it was 20 minutes of photography with chat! And he seemed most pleased with the fact that I had only ’stolen’ 20 minutes of his valuable time.
And who can ask for better than that?
Let us know what you think!
Cheers
P.
Donna & Phil’s Pre-Wedding Session
Posted by Paul in For Website, Pre-Wedding on September 7th, 2009
OK OK, I admit it. We’ve already shot Donna & Phil’s wedding (it was last week and it was utterly gorgeous!) I’m trying to catch up on our blog backlog and their pre-wedding session was so lovely, it would be a shame not to give it a mention!
This was one of those pre-wedding sessions that we’ll remember I think – beautiful venue (Hunton Park in Hertfordshire), stunning weather, great company and a really very nice pub snack (at the Clarendon – a venue I can heartily recommend!) to break the session up nicely. I think my family may have thought I had managed to get lost on my way home given I was missing for the best part of 5 hours! Still, it was worth it as the pictures are beautiful and besides, Donna and Phil are really lovely to be around which made it a thoroughly enjoyable way to while away a sunny June Sunday!
Ah, I do so love my job. 
Erik, Nicky, Holly and Ellis at Coombe Hill
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle on August 3rd, 2009
I have photographed Erik, Nicky and their family a couple of few times now and it just seems to get better each time!
We chose Coombe Hill for this particular jaunt and it was a great choice. The light up there is always different, always exciting and this day was no exception. You can see it in the photos we have (note that the bluey green images are created using a hi-power video light. A neat little gadget that gives us some wonderful images!)
I love these images – particularly the really panoramic wide-crops. I have always had a thing about cinema-style images and somehow these photographs just lent themselves to it. Beautiful.
We’ve just finished designing a gorgeous album from the images from this shoot and I’m hoping to be able to show it online later. We’re hugely proud of it the way it’s going to look – it’ll be an absolutely stunning family book!
Let us know what you think.
Cheers
P.
Neil & Nikki Pre-Wedding Session
Posted by Paul in For Website, Pre-Wedding on August 2nd, 2009
Ah, this was just magic. One couple very much in love, their wonderful character of a boy and some beautiful weather. Marlow is always a beautiful town but, when you’re having such a ball it seems somehow even nicer.
Neil, Nikki and Tom were fantastic to photograph – very easy going and very much a close family unit. Tom, in particular, loved being in front of the camera and the photos we have of him are just stunning. It’s going to be an absolute pleasure to photograph their wedding!
PS. I should just add that we had the pleasure of photographing Neil and Nikki’s wedding on Saturday (we’re a bit behind on our blogging – but I didn’t want to miss this one out) and it was every bit as gorgeous as we knew it would be!
Recent Comments