Faye and Matthew

Another crazy weekend with a fantastic couple. I met Faye and Matthew at the National Wedding Fair last October, when they booked me to photograph their wedding later this year. They are a great, fun-loving, couple that have made me laugh every time I have met them.

I made a special journey down to Cardiff to photograph them for their engagement session. It was a trip worth making, the weather was lovely, the traffic almost non-existant, and the locations were fantastic.

We started of in Cardiff Bay, were we took advantage of the architecture and stonework of the harbour. The crowds started to gather to watch us, while I was photographing Faye, Matthew was asked if she was famous!

We then made a short trip to a local beach, where we had a splash in a few rock pools, clambered over the rocks and finished witha stroll along the beach.

I had a great time, and I am really happy with the images, I just hope Faye and Matthew like them too. Look out for the wedding photos in a later post.

Jacqui and Martin

What a shoot, probably one of the shortest engagements shoots in history. Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Jacqui and Martin for the first time, and shooting a few images for their engagement session.

Jacqui and Martin were the lucky couple to have won the free wedding photos competition I ran last year at the National Exhibition Centre. The competition was run in conjunction with British Forces Radio, and was actually won by Jacqui's future Sister-in-Law, who then donated the prize the couple.

We met at the wedding venue in Hartlepool, which gave me the opportunity to check the place out for the wedding, and the couple looked through a selection of albums and chose the style they would like to have for their images.

The weather had looked a little grim for a few days, but we chose to give it a go anyway as there was a gap in the worst of the storm. All looked Ok as we strolled along the seafront, but as I raised the camera for the first shots the wind picked up and all hell broke loose. I managed to expose about 30 frames before we made a run for it back to our cars. In a matter of seconds we were all totally drenched.

I would like to thank Jacqui and Martin for their time yesterday, I hope the weather did not dampen the mood, and I hope you got home safely, if a little damp.

Crufts 2007

Being dog owners, Alison and I always look forward to watching Crufts on the Tv every year, but this year we decided to actually go and see it for ourselves.
It was incredible, thousands of people crammed into the immense halls at the National Exhibition Centre, all wanting to meet the dogs, watch the demonstrations and buy stuff for their pets. We couldn't believe it, at one point we were trapped in a queue for a pet toy stall, that we didn't even intend to visit, fortunately we managed to get out of the melee, and make our way to the main arena.

We arrived in time to watch an excellent demonstration by the RAF Dog Display team. The dogs demonstrated all sorts of agility demonstrations, climbing over high walls, along parrallel bars and even jumping over a guy reading the paper. I was a little disappointed they did not show the attack dogs bringing down an intruder, but I suppose in an enclosed space with 6,000 guests, might have proved a little dangerous. I also spotted the RAF Photographer, but I didn't recognise her.

After a little lunch, we had a look around the dogs waiting to be judged, it was great to see the owners preening the little Terriers ready for the judges. Most of the owners were extremely friendly, and let us meet the dogs, but one lady was obviously a little stressed by the whole situation, needless to say we did not hang around to be abused.

The whole day flew by, we both enjoyed it, especially the Discover Dogs area, which had over a hundred different breeds of dogs for the public to meet. Everything from the giant Mastiff breeds to the tiny toy section, they even had some very rare breeds like the Otterhound.
We finished the day collecting free samples from the food suppliers, I think Lucy will be fed for free for a week.

I am not sure we will both be going next year, but I will definately put in a bid to get a proper press pass, I feel a little project coming on