Merry Christmas

Well, another year has flown by. It's been a lot of fun and I've had the pleasure of working with some really great people all year round. I'm off now to spend Christmas and New Year with my beautiful wife and two wonderful sons. I hope everyone has a great time this Christmas, relaxing and having fun with those who are most special to them. And I hope 2009 turns out to be a great year for all!

See you next year,

David

Hannah's Wonderful Portraits

I photographed Hannah during Elise's fortnight of work experience in October (you can view portraits of Elise in my post of 10 December). For this post, I'm featuring a small selection of images from the shoot. The main aim of the day was to give Elise chance to put into practice some of the things she'd learned during her time with me. But I didn't want to pass up the opportunity of taking some pictures myself. Hannah was a great model, very patient as Elise and I took our images. Here's one from the early part of the day, taken in Stockgrove Park:



That first shot shows off Hannah's amazingly blue eyes to great effect. Here's one with a much more urban feel:



Great lines in this image that draw you in to Hannah's eyes again:




Here's a nice shot, showing Elise at work with the camera - a bit of a moody pose from Hannah for this one:



A much happier looking shot, captured not in a field as it might at first appear but on a disused petrol forecourt of all places:



And finally a very relaxed image, taken towards the end of the day. My aim here was to mirror the colours in Hannah's top with the graffiti.

David

Sarah + Scott = Perfect Partners

Sarah and Scott's wedding at the weekend was a wonderful occasion. With a steely determination to ignore some of the year's worst weather, everyone had a great time. I started the day, as usual, with the bride as she got herself ready for the big day. I use the first part of the day to capture some of the details that will help couples to remember as much as possible about their day in years to come. This always includes a few shots featuring the bride's bouquet, and here's an example:



I suspect, however, that Sarah and Scott will have no need of an image of the bouquet to remember it by ... because having arrived at the church Sarah realised she'd left her bouquet at home. Brother-in-law Jeff was duly despatched back to the bride's parents' home to receover the offending flowers (hopefully dodging the speed cameras as he went) and so the bouquet took on superstar status even before most of the guests had seen it!

Before all that, though, there were portraits of Scott's stunning bride to take:



And, of course, images of Sarah's handsome groom to capture:



Once the ceremony got underway, it was conducted with excellent humour by David the vicar:



Another shot of the star of the show (oh, and I thought we'd put our bride and groom in this one, too):

You can't see it here, but this shot was taken in driving rain:

At the hotel, I asked Sarah and Scott to tell each other how much they love each other but with their eyes only - this always works a treat and, after the initial embarrased giggles have subsided, some deeply amorous expressions can be captured:

Best man AJ gave a sterling speech which, as can be seen here, was greatly enjoyed by the newly-weds:

Sarah and Scott had invited cover band The Blue Rinse to play at the reception, and they put on an excellent performance:

With the exception of the mad dash through my "confetti tunnel of lurve", this was pretty much the only outdoor shot of the day ... Sarah and Scott huddled under a brolly as the unrelenting rain drove down on them in the doorway of the Harpenden House Hotel:

But the rain didn't matter a jot in the end. Sarah and Scott had a marvellous wedding day and I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing them a very long, happy and romantic life together.

David

Elise's Amazing Portrait Shoot

A few weeks ago, Elise came to spend a fortnight with me on work experience. On her first day, we did my first ever Trash The Dress shoot which you can see if you scroll down a bit. Elise was a great assistant and took some gorgeous shots. The two weeks she spent with me were great fun and Elise showed gret aptitude for learning about photography, both as an art and a business. On her last day, we borrowed Elise's friend Hannah to act as a model while Elise put into practice all that she'd learned with me. I'll be showing a few of Hannah's portraits here very soon. But first, I thought I'd post a handful of the shots I took of Elise - who, as you can see here, picked up a hint or two about posing, too!



This one is just soooo cool - possibly my favourite from the day:









And I really love this one - the wall makes such a fantastic background:

David