One of the things that i love about being a photographer in Milton Keynes is the huge variety of locations and backdrops we have all around us, from grand country estates to woodlands and parks and more urban backgrounds.  It was the more urban feel that Sophie and Peter asked me to find as a backdrop to their engagement pictures, although we started a little more ‘country’ so we could include their dog (who took to modelling like a pro).  You’ll also see from these pictures that the English weather also played it’s part to add to the atmosphere.

I’ll be photographing Sophie and Peter’s wedding later this year, when the camper van will also be making another appearance.

I was asked, the other day, whether I found photographing newborn babies a challenge and I can honestly say that I don’t.  It is true that newborns may not smile or react or even hold themselves in the way that they will, even a few weeks later, but they have great big eyes that are endlessly fascinating, as are their tiny fingers and toes!  Just gorgeous!

I love to photograph newborns at home (it’s often part of a package that includes a pregnancy shoot and newborn shoot as a two for one) and to involve the whole family.  This was the case for baby Isla.  Photographed first as a ‘bump’ and then shortly after her birth together with he big brother, Mum and Dad.

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I have been lucky enough to photograph weddings in some fantastic locations and grand stately homes, but nothing quite prepares you for the sheer scale of photographing a wedding in a Cathedral!  Jenny and Pete are a really lovely couple and I was very aware that despite it’s grand setting this was their wedding day, so I really wanted to capture not only the grandeur of the setting but the intimacy of the ceremony.

Jenny and Pete emerged from the Cathedral to one of the windiest days I can remember for a long time but it stayed fine and so their plans to follow the ceremony  by a champagne reception in the cloisters (outdoors) and cake cutting, were able to go ahead.  Then it was all aboard a london bus and off to the wedding breakfast (more of that another time)

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Whatever the weather, ice-cream after a walk in Stockgrove Park, seems to becoming a tradition, and both Eloise and Charlie seemed quite keen on the idea after their photo shoot there a couple of weeks ago.  It was a glorious summer day the sort that, as a photographer, makes my heart sing.  The sky was blue, it was a bit chilly, but not enough to put Eloise and Charlie off, and the autumn was turning the bracken a fabulous golden colour.

The shoot was arranged as a present for the children’s Mum, so Eloise and Charlie were wearing the tops she liked best, and Grandad came along to join in.  I had been warned that Charlie had been developing a cheesy camera smile, and I think Charlie had been warned not to make it, so he spent the first few minutes avoiding looking at the camera!  But he soon got over it and was happily running around with his sister, until, of course it was time to stop and go find those ice-creams!

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Organising a wedding is not easy.  Organising one from a different country even less so, which is the challenge faced by Nicola and Wolfgang.  With half the guests travelling from Germany they wanted their wedding to be a taste of England and also to incorporate some of the German traditions the groom’s family would be used to.  So they got married in an English village church and rode to the reception ,in a country House (the glorious Chicheley Hall recently refurbished by the Royal Society), in a horse and carriage.  In accordance with German tradition the groom’s mother spoke during the service and afterwards there was the German equivalent of receiving line where the couple greeted their guests.

Surprises organised by the family are apparently another German tradition, and in addition to the horse and carriage,  I had been warned that all formal photographs need to be finished by 5 o’clock for the next surprise.  Morris dancers!  After which traditional cake cutting, although the cake had come from Germany accompanied by the groom and his father.  Wolfgang’s Dad told me later he thought that Wolfgang was more nervous about the cake arriving safely than he was about the wedding!

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From time to time, when I’m at an event, I run a prize draw.

Earlier this year I organised one at the Buckingham Country Show and Sophie’s family were the winners.  These pictures were all taken at their home, and as you can see Sophie was a real treat to photograph and and enthusiastic photographer herself, she tells me she like sports photography best.

With such striking looks I chose relatively simple backgrounds, and in fact the colours and light in the hallway turned out to be the location of some of my favourite shots from this session!

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This was the first engagement shoot of the autumn, in fantastic warm sunshine.

I know some photographer’s like to take an engagement or pre-wedding shoot at the wedding venue and almost use it as a practice run for the wedding itself, I prefer to see it as a getting to know you session and will almost always take them at a couple’s home or a favourite place.  It should be fun and most of all you shouldn’t have that ‘deja vu’ feeling on your wedding day.  Most of these picture’s were taken in the garden of Holly and Bradley’s gorgeous Oxfordshire cottage, or on a short walk down the lane near their house.  The late summer light through the trees was just about perfect and there was plenty of laughing!

I first met Holly and Bradley at his sister’s wedding, which I photographed at Stowe a few years ago.  They have a winter wedding planned, in London, early next year, which I’m really looking forward to.

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What I remember most about katie and Matthew’s wedding is all the personal touches.  The groom’s mini was the inspiration for the table names, the bride’s love of penguins made it onto the cake.  They got married at a golf centre, so naturally they spent the time waiting for evening guests on the driving range, and had spent some time before the wedding tracking down a purple golf club so that it co-ordinated with the colour theme!

To take full advantage of the vintage Rolls Royce that they had booked we did a location shoot to a nearby lake – much to the surprise of the local fisherman.  And of course I shouldn’t forget to mention Katie and Matt’s postman, who apparently made a special delivery on the morning of the wedding with the groom’s missing cravat (because he thought it might be needed!).

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One of the great things about a family portrait session is that it is often an occasion when all the generations of your family get together.  It maybe a special celebration, like a recent shoot I did at a Ruby wedding anniversary, that brings everyone together and the pictures are a result, or, as in the case, the shoot was an excuse to get four generations together.  The emphasis was on the female members of the family, Great Grandma, her daughter, her three granddaughters and three great granddaughters, so Grandad was a little out numbered!

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One of the things I promised myself, when I first started doing wedding photography, was that I would try my best to make sure clients didn’t have to wait months and months to get their wedding albums.  I’m still taken aback when I meet someone who says “I got married two years ago and I still don’t have my album!”.  Now I realise that there maybe a particular reason behind some of these stories, but if I can possibly help it that reason will not be me!  And so it it is that the summer is not only filled with new weddings to photograph but with the arrival of the courier bearing albums created from weddings earlier in the year.

This is Stephanie and James’ album from their wedding at Woburn Sculpture Gallery earlier this year.  A sumptuous setting they chose an equally sumptuous suede leather cover.  This is one of my favourites because it both looks and feels so luxurious.  I’m a great believer in having an album that feels as good as it looks!

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