Eleanor Jane

Louise & Darren

A couple of weeks back I travelled to the beautiful Gower coast to photograph Louise & Darren's wedding at the Oxwich Bay hotel - my first wedding of the 2012 season. I spent the morning with Louise and the bridal party at their house in the valleys and was really keen to get a shot of her outside the house before we left. I'm from the valleys too and there are streets of these old terraced miners homes up & down the hills so I was enthusiastic that we got this very Welsh shot! Just as we were leaving the sun suddenly peeped over the rooftops and created a tricky lighting situation but I think it worked out pretty well in the end.

Photography was restricted during the ceremony but the blustery beach location was very pretty, even on a damp afternoon, and we made the most of the shelter provided by the stone walled path that ran along the length of the sands. They're such a sweet couple and my good friend Andrew was the best man so it was lovely to be working alongside friends... and I briefly got to wear a top hat! Andrew's speech was hilarious, I could hardly take photos for cracking up! Congratulations Mr & Mrs Martin and thank you for making my first wedding of the season such an enjoyable one.

Links 30.04.12

♥ Have you ever heard of Kickstarter? It's a website which provides a platform for creative types to propose project ideas and raise the funds necessary to bring them to life. Every funding pledge is rewarded with goodies related to the project in some way, whether it's a limited edition print, a book or even a high tech gadget. I'm a bit behind on this as the project that first drew me in - Love Ever After - has now reached its funding target, but there are tonnes of other exciting things going on. Help someone reach their goal today or pitch your own idea.

♥ How the world's first rock concert ended in chaos. Sounds like a riot!

♥ I LOVE this project. Graphic design student Jirka Väätäinen creates beautiful images of Disney princesses as if they were real live women. My favourites are Cinderella & Snow White.

♥ If you're having a tricksy Monday and need to put things in perspective, here's an amazing & humbling reconstruction by NASA of the first ever Earthrise to be viewed by man. The famous picture was taken by William Anders in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission and I have a feeling I might have seen the camera he used, or at least some of the photography bits & pieces, while I was zipping around the US Astronaut Hall of Fame in Florida last September.

♥ I'm on a real Joe Bonamassa trip at the moment (woooo! Joe Bonamassa!). A couple of days back I saw some great shots of him by a photographer called Christie Goodwin - check her out - his official tour photographer. Wait, official tour photographer? This is VERY exciting as I didn't realise photographers still did this anymore! I know I had my little Opeth UK tour adventure last year but that was kind of different as I was there on a feature for Guitar World... but to be hired by the band? Awesome! It's so '70s rock & roll and embodies everything that is thrilling & alluring about music photography. I would love that gig!

Meena & James: Wedding Ideas Magazine

Just a quickie post today to thank the lovely Wedding Ideas magazine who very kindly featured Meena & James' big day in their most recent issue. It's always a pleasure to see my photography in this cute little mag so I was very excited when the postman popped my copy through the door last week. It's a fun read even if you aren't planning a wedding and the editorial team are ever so friendly which I think comes across in the writing. Check out the May issue (108) - available now!

Ffoto Week 23.04.12

1. My friend Andrew very sweetly remembered my enthusiasm for the Apollo missions after my visit to Kennedy Space Center last September and bought me this book - Moon Dust. It's about how the only twelve men ever to look back on Earth from the moon were affected by the experience and the strange paths their lives took on returning. It's fascinating (obviously!). Coincidentally, Brian Cox tweeted this yesterday - Dr Harrison Schmitt, the lunar module pilot from Apollo 17 (the last Apollo mission to land men on the moon), is giving a lecture at a high school in Yorkshire. Tickets are £60 but he'll also have his picture taken with you for £20... which I think is a little bit strange. Space veterans seem to pop up occasionally signing autographs for a fee at events, even Star Trek conventions! Why do they need to raise personal funds this way? These guys have been to the bloody MOON! THE MOON! Anyway, I'm space rambling now...

2. Apparently those Mini Eggs came in a re-sealable pack. Hah! For Easter Peabrain and I took Pierre on an impromptu trip to Glastonbury. Pierre did not like it. Not one bit. I did though! We had a yummy lunch at the Rainbow's End cafe (always rammed but hugely generous portions of tasty veggie food & kind of overpriced but delicious elderflower cordial), bought some jewellery in Crystals to replace my missing earrings (which of course, I found moments after returning home) and had a stroll up the Tor. Peabrain, forever wearing inappropriate footwear, did it in chelsea boots.

3. A short column in the VOICE magazine about my portrait photography featuring one of my outdoor family shots from this session. Here's hoping this summer isn't a total wash out as I'm keen to do more of these.

4. Spot Flatface, the world's most socially repressed cat.

5. Wedding season is in full swing and I'm super busy editing everything I've shot so far, including a beach wedding in the Gower and a huge celebration at a local church on Whitchurch common in Cardiff. I'll share soon though, promise.

6. Amateur Photographer magazine recently gave my website five out of five stars on their reviews page. For a brief moment I was worried the inference would be that I was still an amateur myself but it's actually a really nice little write up and I'm very grateful for the exposure. Thanks guys!

Finally, here's a song for you!

Joe Bonamassa LIVE

Despite his presence in pretty much every single music magazine in the flat, it's taken me a while to notice Joe Bonamassa, probably because I've spent the past 18 months stuck in a hair metal loop! Then about a month ago I picked up one of his CDs and since then he's been my new favourite. From the videos and interviews I've seen he seems like such a sweet guy (by all accounts he's charming) so when I realised he was touring the UK I'd hoped to be able to shoot a few portraits and a rig tour. Sadly that will have to wait til next time (damn!) but I was able to get in the photo pit at the Birmingham NIA gig and stay for the rest of the show which was such a fun night, even if getting up to dance was banned!

To me, Bonamassa seems like the kind of musician who you could actually hang out with and photograph in an unpressured, natural way - kind of how Linda McCartney shot his buddy Eric Clapton for the cover of Rolling Stone (& pretty much everyone else she shot really) in the sixties. About her approach, Paul McCartney says, "You always felt like you were just having a conversation [with her]." It was quiet, thoughtful, almost serene. But I guess photography doesn't often work that way anymore. Which is a shame because when I discover an artist like this I get a little feeling of how awesome it could be. (This is coming entirely from inside my own head though so he might actually hate having his picture taken full stop!) Anyway, I'm getting off topic so here are some photos:

Links 30.02.12

♥ 45 Ridiculous Pictures of Boy Bands with poses that seem to be straight out of the naff family photography rulebook. Oh the '90s! Why didn't we realise how bad they were at the time?! I think I recognise one of those Hanson posters...

♥ Dammit. I wish This Wild Idea had been mine. 365 days traversing America telling the stories of every day people. Perfect.

♥ In Beyond Caring Paul Graham documents the bleak reality of unemployment benefit offices during the early 1980s.

♥ Shooting the Lamborghini Aventador with Blair Bunting. That's the biggest soft box I've ever seen!

♥ Somebody's Mother. Drug dealers, backstreet abortionists and a deadly femme fatale: Fascinating mugshots of women prisoners from 1920s Australia.

The Cherry Beats

Check out this promo shot I took recently for my favourite retro rock & rollers, The Cherry Beats; a quintet of polite, clean-cut young gentlemen who play all the most danceable hits from the '50s & '60s. If you're looking for a wedding or a party band there are a few song samples on their website to get you in the mood and they're even playing a gig in Tycroes this Saturday so you can experience a full set before you book. They'll have you up & bopping all night long even if you're the photographer and are supposed to be working...

Ffoto Week 26.03.12

The sun is shining (yesterday I wore SHORTS!), wedding season is about to kick off and I've just entered what are probably my final weeks of being a platinum blonde before I relent and take on a hair colour that's easier to maintain. Exciting non-hair related change is also on the horizon and SPRING IS HERE AT LAST, woohoo!

1. While the rest of the world forgets about 35mm film at an alarming rate (even the pro lab in Cardiff has sold their processor) I have been spreading the negative love on ffoto walks with my Peabrain. I love film and would much rather use it for snaps & holidays & well, anything that isn't a commercial job. It's getting harder & harder to find somewhere that will develop & scan it (& do it well) though so if anyone has any recommendations, I'd be grateful to hear them!

2. Their first anniversary is just around the corner but Em & Marc's wedding is the latest to be featured in my Real Weddings column in VOICE magazine. Oh and on the subject of weddings, I'm currently updating the gallery on my wedding website so if you happen to visit and things look a bit jumbled up, don't be alarmed!

3. Yogi Tea's spiced licorice tea is my new favourite and every bag comes with little words of encouragement. It's currently 'buy one get one half price' in Holland & Barrett and goes amazingly well with ginger biscuits, but then, doesn't everything?

4. Check out this cutie from a recent shoot with boutique babywear specialists, The Flower Stork. We're photographing the pink items on our baby girl model tomorrow so I'm looking forward to a morning of rolling round on the floor like a fool!

5. From plump little babies to Welsh rugby legends, last week I also photographed Shane Williams at the Osprey's training ground in Neath. He was lovely, absolutely the sweetest guy. We did a few promo shots in the changing rooms (nothing risqué though!) for a new dairy called Proper Welsh and I'll hopefully be able to share a few with you soon.

WHITESNAKE - TOTAL GUITAR

Whitesnake YEAAAAAAAAH! When jobs like this come along the only way to prepare is to listen to Still Of The Night on repeat and hope the reality of the gig exactly matches the video (which it totally did by the way!). Although I got to shoot the show, Total Guitar actually sent me to photograph guitarist Doug Aldrich's rig earlier on that day. Ahh, lovely sweet Doug Aldrich with his awesome hair & shiny trousers... so genuine & humble & friendly. Here's a little fact biscuit for all you '80s nerds: Doug used to be in the band Lion who performed the theme to the original Transformers movie - listen here! We also got to sneak into David Coverdale's dressing room for a quick interview which was a little bit of excitement! Photography was understandably forbidden but what an awesome project it would make to go inside the dressing rooms of legendary rockstars. If only!

Also, I had a good chat with a photographer called Vince who I met in the pit but I managed to lose his email address so Vince, if you read this, please get in touch? I'd love to see your shots.

Links 10.02.12

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo

♥ A Beautiful Mess gives us five tips for shooting perfect outdoor photographs.

♥ Famous photographers pose with their most iconic images in Tim Mantoani's new project which archives photographic legends. He shot the whole thing on 20x24 Polaroid at $200 a pop!

♥ For all the wedding photographers out there looking to give their business a little kick, Rock & Roll Bride shares how to get the best out of exhibiting at a wedding fayre.

♥ Some strange soul has scanned the entire Argos catalogue from the year I was born and uploaded it onto Flickr. There are bad dinner services galore, clunky cameras, a whole page of typewriters and really really ugly duvet sets.

♥ I just had to quickly edit this post to share a beautiful project called Love Ever After with you (thanks to Debs from Belle Amour for alerting me to it). I spent most of yesterday evening blubbing my way through the last few episodes of the BBC drama 'Call the Midwife' so am well up for some sentimentality today!