Vick & Dans Wedding

Vicky and Dan were Married in Red lake Telford, and the Day reception was held at Ludlow Castle, with an evening reception at Fishmore hall. The castle provided some brilliant photo opportunities and one of these is shown below, more to follow.

This photograph was taken on the steps to the inner section of the castle. It was also the first wedding i had shot with my Nikon D7000.

Jenni & James Wedding

Spent the day covering the wedding of Jenni & James at Old Colehurst Manor which is near market Drayton.
More information and photos to follow, but for now one image;

This was taken in the hallway prior to the service which was held in the upper part of the gatehouse.

Andy & Cheryl's wedding

Very enjoyable day spent photographing Andy and Cheryls wedding recently. Day started getting shots of Cheryl and her bridesmaids getting ready;

Followed by the church service, with photographs taken during the ceremony and outside the church;

Followed by a quick drive down to Ironbridge for a few photos;

Then onto the valley hotel for the reception.

Now the album is complete and should be going off to printers in states tonight.

Help for Heroes retrospective

The charity ball at the Park Inn in Telford for Help the Heroes was a great success not just for me, but for the charity as well, raising lots of money for this excellent cause. Guest of honour for the night was Corporal Ricky Furgusson who received the military cross for his actions in Afghanistan. A very un assuming and friendly guy.

Photos didn't start picking up until about an hour into the event and then we, myself and Jon Watkiss, had a queue forming and worked very well together shooting and selling photos we had taken up until gone 1am on Sunday morning. After taking costs for the printer, paper and a small amount for ourselves, we were very happy to be able to donate £100.00 at the end of the night to the charity.  I am looking very much forward to the next charity event.

The only downside of the night which has turned into an 'upside' was i discovered why my Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 lens when attached to the camera was always over exposing. I assumed in the states that the reason highlights were blowing was due to the very wide light gamut, but trying to set my camera up with the studio lights everything was over exposed. The little lever on the back of the lens that controls the blades is very sluggish. Lens back at Sigma and i managed to get the 3 year extended warranty authorised before it went back.

Help for Heroes

Big night this Saturday, 18th June. I have been asked to attended a charity ball raising funds for the 'Help for Heroes' charity and take portrait shots for the guests. I don't have anyone in my family who are in the forces, but I do hold this charity close to my heart. I used to watch the images of those poor service personal arriving at RAF Lyneham and then been driven through the crowd lined streets of Wotton Basset and feel the families pain at what they had to endure. And its no better for those coming home physically or mentally wounded, live's shattered by war. So I hope my little contribution will go some way to making someones life that little bit more bearable

Telford Juniors Ice Hockey Tournament

Spent the 4th and 5th of June shooting 1500+ photos at the Telford Junior Ice Hockey Tournament, some of those games were really exciting and the level of hockey was a great surprise. We are going to have some excellent 'Brits' coming through soon. From a Commercial point of view, not sure yet whether it will provide any income. CD sales were slow on the Sunday, maybe should have set up the stall on the Saturday as well. The computer has now finished 'De Noising', level fixing and sharpening the images, so they will be up on photobox  ( http://www.photoboxgallery.com/TJIHT ) soon. The organisers will then email the teams managers and then we will see what happens with, hopefully, a lot of sales.

*** PHOTOS SOON

Togging in Tampa Bay

During our family holiday to Florida, I had previously managed to obtain accreditation for an NHL match between Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers. It was a shock when we arrived to find I would be shooting rink side with the media team, including Scott Audette.

To start with it was a trip to their 'den', equipped with TV feeds from the games, cameras and lenses and a couple of ibooks/imacs to upload their shots straight to the NHL websites. Next off for some food, which I wasn’t looking forward to as my money was upstairs with my son and the rest of the party who had been given VIP Guest passes, but I didn’t need to have worried, I walked into a fully staffed restaurant where their were four/five entrees, starters and deserts. People in here were top management, NHL referees and Time keepers.

 Once it was time to go and shoot the match I was given my own shooting hole, Home end and off I went. The lightning in the rink was amazing and I could shoot at iso400 1/500 @ f5 instead of my usual settings at Telford of iso1600 1/320 @ f2.8-f3.2 if lucky. So was a very very happy snapper. Meeting the players and getting a few autographs at the end of the match was a fantastic finish to a day I will never forget.

A fair few of my shots have been used on the http://insidehockey.com/ website, and i will need, when i have time, to go through the Panthers players and submit them as well