Sorry.

I know they don’t look so succinct as they used to (they once had nice punchy titles like ‘Em & Her Friends’ or ‘Nancy & Phil’ or ‘What a wedding!’) but, in these days of Google, Yahoo and Bing (Bing? Bing? I ask you…) we have to make sure that the title says exactly what it does on the tin. And this particular blog is about Emma’s 16th Birthday and the photo shoot that she and 4 friends had with us. In Haddenham. And at Whiteleaf in Princes Risborough. Hence the title.

Sorry again.

But it does work – it makes it much much easier for people to find us. And that’s good. At least from a readership point of you if not from a readability one.

So, anyway, back to this fantastic shoot. I loved it. Emma, Tabby, Libby, Rosie and Megan were really up for it and so we spent a very happy few hours messing around with the camera – and the outfits ranged from casual (well, casual in a very ‘Hollister’ kind of way – you gotta love that Abercromby & Fitch look!) to the utterly beautiful: prom-dresses and wellies. Oh, and umbrellas on a hot sunny day. A particularly fine combination if you ask me.

I love party shoots like this: they’re funny, energetic and hugely creative. And we provide a load of nibbles out (it’s great having a working relationship with Cadbury!) which ALWAYS go down a treat!

The weather was beautiful – though as a hayfever sufferer it caused me a lot of grief – and the images we have will stay with these guys for many years to come. Which is never a bad thing.

Let us know what you think.

Take care
Cheers
P.

Getting images without London’s great and good in the background was equally challenging – at least without walking for miles – but we managed pretty well! Charlotte and John are lovely so it was a real pleasure to do this session in spite of the madding crowds.

Can’t wait to photograph their wedding at the Crazy Bear a bit later in the year!

Let us know what you think
Cheers
P.

Luckily for us, Mark and Chandima opted to have their pre-wedding photography there. A fine choice sir!

The guys first met in Oxford which made a really romantic/nostalgic location for them to have their session. And it just so happens it’s one of the most photogenic locations on earth. That said, we specialise in portraiture (rather than city-scapes) so the biggest challenge was to focus on the couple rather than getting sidetracked by Oxford itself! Note to self: go back and photograph there when I’m on my own time!

Anyway, this session was fantastic. Mark and Chandima are lovely company and so we chilled and chatted our way through the city and down to the meadows beside the river. The sun shone and, in this early part of the season, it wasn’t too busy for us to get quiet gentle imagery in amongst the bustle.

Can’t wait to photograph their wedding at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons in just a few weeks!

Let us know what you think

Take care
Cheers
P.

The Bluebells aren’t with us for long – and this year they appeared like some girl-band diva at an after-show party. Which is, to say, late but (at least from an aesthetic viewpoint) well worth the wait!

For those with a good memory, you may remember we photographed this family back in the January snow so it was nice this time to have some colour!

Lovely session (the parents enjoyed a bottle of wine while we worked our way through the stunning woodland) and I think we have some really lovely, distinctive images.

Let us know what you think!

Take care
Cheers
P.

This was the second of Shelley and Alex’s first year’s photography sessions and it was an absolutely lovely session. Olivia is that bit older and is just gorgeous – big blue eyes that she fixes on you – and the photos say it all.

Like all our First Year’s packages, this was photographed in Haddenham which continues to be one of our favourite locations. It has to be said, this is quite lucky given it’s where we live and work, but still.

I’ve utterly loved working with these guys ever since I first met them years ago to photograph their wedding. A truly beautiful wedding in Silverstone. And now look, we’re photographing them with the first baby who is rapidly growing up!

This is the second of their three sessions and already you can see how quickly Olivia has changed. By the time we finish the third session at the end of the year, she’ll be chatting up the boys and discussing the merits of X-Factor. Ah well, maybe I exaggerate just a little. Nonetheless, it’s going to be an absolutely beautiful set of images that, when they’re all put together, will truly capture the magic of that first year in any baby’s incredible life.

And how priceless is that?

Let us know what you think.

Take care
Cheers
P.x

The sun shone, the coffee shop was open and I had the loveliest clients to work with on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning.

Sometimes I wonder whether we shouldn’t have more urban, edgy locations for our shoots but, when the day is like this one, there is really nowhere better to be than on the top of Wendover Woods’ stunning slopes looking out over the Chiltern Hills.

We chatted, we captured images, we drank coffee, we chatted some more, we drank more coffee and it was an absolute pleasure! We really do have the nicest clients you can imagine.

A really beautiful set of images (and even the dog, Nellie, was photogenic!)

Ah, life is good!

I don’t want to talk about politics or the economy (am I being naive in thinking it’s looking up?). I don’t want to talk about the state of customer service in the UK (terrible if my experience with Orange is anything to go by – it was only thanks to a very lovely and diligent Ellie that I managed to get my phone working again after numerous attempts at the hands of various call-centres and the shop in Aylesbury – which, incidentally, I will be avoiding from now on) or the price of fuel (huh? it’s £6 a gallon – six flippin’ pounds!). Nor do I wish to be seen to be moaning about the huge great caverns that have opened up in our roads (a couple of these wouldn’t look out of place in a blockbuster disaster movie: 2010 The Days After The Snow…) or the fact that someone keeps parking (badly) a great dirty truck outside our front window.

Nope. That would be all too much like being a grumpy old man. An urge that I am, at least for the time being, resisting – though it has to be said my resolve is sadly waning. So I shall keep those little gripes to myself and continue to only chat about stuff that makes me smile.

Such as this particular shoot with the The Elders (the family, that is, not our village leadership.)

This was the second session of their three over the year and I’m loving every second of it.

The twins have grown considerably – even in the short time since the first session. But, then, that is why we hold three sessions over 12 months as you really do get to record quite a change in that all important first year. Would make a wonderful album!

And I think that is a nice topic to be blogging about

Let us know what you think!

Cheers
P.

In actual fact, we’ve been off and running since January. We don’t really slow down as such – though we don’t shoot as much ’social’ photography (lifestyle/weddings etc.) in the winter as we do in the summer, we’re constantly busy with commercial and fashion. But it’s all around now that the pre-wedding photography gets well under way.

Our pre-wedding sessions are a key part of the full wedding packages in that they provide a really nice opportunity to get to know our clients (we’re going to be working with them for a year or more from booking their wedding to the excitement of delivering the final album so it’s good to get at least a little familiar!) and to grab some pictures of them as a couple or a family.

This is one of those sessions and it was lovely. Victoria currently lives in the North of England so she’d travelled a long way down for the session but I think it was worth it! Both she and Samuel were easy to photograph and really nice, chilled, company. And the sun shone! As always, I get stupidly excited about photographing the wedding once I’ve been through the pre-wedding images. I can picture how the guys will look in their wedding attire and I start to get a sense of the type of day they’re going to have. I think this is going to be a truly great one!

Let us know what you think

Take care
Cheers
P.

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!

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.