Tuesday saw me with Jacqui and Dave for their pre-wedding at the Green in Chingford. We used the grounds of their church St. Peters and St. Pauls. This session was slightly different but nice for me as i tend to gravitate towards the gritty urban locations for pre-wedding sessions; but this time i had to use open space (which is a good exercise for me), i also used details around the church building.

The light was fantastic;  now i know why photographers in California always have kick ass images (well, talent does play an important part of course but still, great conditions don't hurt at all do they?)  now, if only it could stay this way until august ... [who am i kidding?  i'm  looking out the window as i type this, and the forecast from the perky lady on the BBC morning news is 'intermittent showers'  (that translates loosely as rain all day to you and me) which will carry through to the weekend...hmm]

anyway, here are some images from the session... 

See Slideshow HERE 

I met up with Ed and Chris in Bermondsey on Sunday for their pre-wedding session. We all under-estimated the weather... it was lovely, bright and warm but once the session started it rained and it was cooooold... but, we had a great session. Bermondsey was fantastic... we used the back streets; it was edgy with loads of colour and texture - just the kind of stuff i like.

Like my last pre-wedding session, i decided to keep things very simple... no complicated poses just great location, use of colour, texture and pattern; I find that this method works best for me and i get my best work, I suppose this is what they mean by 'finding my voice' because i absolutely love all the images from this session and i'm beginning to define my style of photography....

anyway, here are some images from the session... 

See slideshow HERE 

Sunday saw me with Cookie and Tola for their pre-wedding session at south bank.....

The clocks moved forward on Sunday so there was bound to be some mix-up...which there was, and from which we moved swiftly on from :)

I really enjoyed this session... and laughed a lot ....we went past the London eye, towards the Hayward gallery and also used the skateboard rink where i got some of my favorite images..... all in all, it was a fun day.....

thanks guys...see you in August!!!

hmmm...what can i say about this session.... it was fun!!!  I laughed a lot and sometimes forgot that Tatiana and Janos were clients..... Our session was around St. Paul's Cathedral and mainly in the Paternoster Square area.... not a lot of colour, but great shapes and forms to use as backgrounds.....

Normally, it takes about 20 minutes for most couples to warm up, losen up  and just get with the flow of having their pictures taken, but these two just jumped straight in ...and i can tell you now, there was nothing shy about Janos.. you've gotta love a guy who knows how to take advantage of any situation he finds himself in and also 'create' said situation if things are not looking favourable :) ... I must say, his 'diligence' led to some really great shots of both of them....I can't wait for their wedding in May....

here are some of my favourite images from the day:

SEE SLIDESHOW HERE

Sunday saw me in Convent Garden with Sandra and Jerry for their pre-wedding session.... I had initially planned to start the session at the piazza, then royal opera house and transport museum; why i actually thought that would be possible, I'll never know..... seeing as how whole world and their family plus tourists always converge there regardless of what time the day, or day of the week it is  :)..... anyway, I decided against it at the last minute as I felt traumatizing Sandra and Jerry so early on in the session was really not in anyone's best interest :)

we decided to use the back streets instead and it actually worked out quite well.....here are a few of my favorites from the session.....

See Slideshow HERE

Sunday saw me with Tamara and Michael for a pre-wedding photo session.  This session was slightly different as i was focused more on getting good portraits for both of them as requested as opposed to the artistic shots we photographers thrive on (it's funny how the things we photographers really love don't necessarily appeal to our clients all the time, hmmm...... ) I did however, get both of them using different backgrounds and loads of colour though....

here's the slideshow.... (sorry...i'm too lazy to tidy it up for the blog, I've just grabbed this one preapred earlier for Tamara and Michael)

On a sunny 8th of July, Vicky, Adrian and I were to meet up at St. Katherine's Docks in tower hill for their engagement photo-shoot; however, the tour de France gig was taking place (an event we were well and truly ignorant of....)  so St. Katherine's Docks was so not going to happen.... decided to take them on a walk through the back streets instead ....and it turned out so much better .

Adrian kept us in stitches.... I particularly note this fact because the first time i met him, my first thought was 'oh dear!!! I might have a problem.... he doesn't look the smiling type' so i was totally surprised by the fact that he was the one that just kept us going and he's such fun to tease as well !!!.....  goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover.....duh!!!

See more images on the engagement slideshow

My new sample frame came in this morning I could not stop jumping and screaming..... It is so exciting to see how my pictures look in a finished product as opposed to just prints.  My frame supplier is so fantastic! (i have to rave about them ..sorry!!!)  They are able to create bespoke designs of any mount based on the images I have chosen (for this one, I chose to have nine images in a frame), everything is done super fast and the finished product is delivered packaged in it's own carry case!!! ready to be delivered to my clients  without me having to lift a finger (except to spot check and make sure everything is ok before it is hand delivered to the client) ..talk about good service.... I love them 'cause they make me look good and i don't mind paying them what needs to be paid hence the prices I charge for my products.....It's the little things that count...... 

I love the white frame and mount combination...I wanted something different from the sometimes boring black and natural wood frames.....  I wanted the images to really stand out and I think the white frame and mount combination did this......

I get my signature stamp on there as well.......

Frame, just before the carry case is closed up for delivery to client.......

Right! off to continue with preparations for the Grand designs exhibition next week........

Once in a while, I tend to get comments about my photography pricing; and once in a while a member of the bride's family or a parent from a portrait session would complain about my reprint prices. (a bit pricey, rip-off and "outrageous" are my favorite comments so far) Luckily, these come just once in a long long while. I thought I would shed some light on the situation and show some examples of what I do.

as photographers, we tend not to show the 'less favorable' images because you do not pay us to show you crappy images which is why i think sometimes we get comments like : "all you do is just point the camera and shoot so why is it so expensive"; everyone can get their hands on a digital camera and sometimes semi-professional ones as well so sometimes photographers are seen as redundant. So, below are examples of images before retouching and after to prove that we actually do work!

The images at the top are straight from the camera without retouching; the second images have received some love specially from me in Photoshop........

straight from the camera with just a black and white conversion, this image looks fine...but, with a sepia conversion with a hint of blue as well as a contrast and sharpening, the image comes alive below.....

the image below looks great straight from the camera.....

but with a little work around the eyes, adding a slight blue tone, bumping up the contrast and slight sharpening and voila......

The following picture was taken on a gloomy winter's day...it was cold and there was a slight colour cast to the image.....

but with colour correction, bumping up the colour and contrast as well as sharpening.....

So, what is my point?  you can probably get your prints from Snappy Snaps (and apparently they also do photo-shoots as well) for next to nothing but for the amount of time, effort and skill spent in Photoshop to make your images look like what you want it to look, I really don't think the reprint prices are 'pricey'

I am more than happy to give my brides a disc of  unretouched high resolution images (after the album has been delivered) and include it if they ask ....so if you do not appreciate what i can do with your images, I still give you the option to get your images printed on your own. I will be posting more on this later.....

A week ago, I had an engagement shoot with Simon and Gemma in Cambridge. It's the first time I've ever been to Cambridge, and i really liked it there....It's busy enough for a London fanatic like me but slow enough to make you want to stop and explore....  The  photo shoot started off at the quayside and kept going....there were little streets everywhere, and we kept stopping or should i say i kept stopping them to take pictures.... It was a fun day. Here is a slideshow of a selection of images from the day.