Hertfordshire wedding photography | Wedding Albums | Emma and Kris

I thought that I would post something a little different to what I normally show today! It is all very nice putting up what may be seen as some of my favourite images from a wedding day....but what do they look like when all put together as a gorgeous album. Below is a copy of the page layouts that went in Emma and Kris's album. They were married in a lavish ceremony at the Sculpture Gallery, Woburn Abbey in Beds. Emma was so cool to work with and was a bit of a show off in front of the camera, which suited my style of wedding photography a treat!

The first and last images below are the opening and last pages in the album. All following images are 2 page spreads (so imagine a line down the middle where the album closes). I have had to do the double page spreads slightly smaller so that they will fit side by side on the 800pxl wide space for my images. They still give you a great idea into how I design my albums with the aim on bringing the best out of my photography. The size of this album is 14"x11" and when I get a chance I will post an image of the outside cover that Emma and Kris chose.

Portrait Photographer of the year | MPA Contemporary Portrait Photographer of the Year

Wow!

I did it again!

Following on from the success of last years MPA (Master Photographer Association) Contemporary Wedding Photographer of the Year and Under 5's Photographer of the Year, I have now added Contemporary Portrait Photographer for 2014.

It is pretty cool picking up awards for my wedding photography, but to be fair, weddings are my day to day work and I have now been shooting them non stop for the last 31 years. So it is a bit of a buzz to pick up a top award for my portraiture. Back in the day though I can remember winning my first Kodak Gold Award (The 'Oscar' of the social photography genre), closely followed by three more and all four were for my portrait work!

It can feel like a bit of an ego trip when entering and winning awards but in all honesty it is the process itself that is worth it. The winning is the glitter on top, but without pushing yourself to enter and striving to create something a little different you could very easily go stale. It helps me focus and keeps me shooting in a way that is still relevant, not just within the industry but to the many new wedding couples, new mums and dads and families that just simply wish to have a beautiful portrait to hang on their wall or a stunning wedding album to cherish for years to come!

Ok, I can go on for many paragraphs about the whys and what nots of entering photographic awards but you would become bored very quickly (if not already), so here are some of the images that I entered this year. I was lucky enough to pick up quite a few merits in several different categories, including 2nd in the 10 from 1 wedding portfolio and a 2nd in the Classic wedding.

Contemporary Portrait Photographer of the Year 2014

Silver Award - 10 from 1 Wedding Portfolio

Silver Award - Classic Wedding

Merit Awards

A few of my other entries.

Hertfordshire portrait photography | Pre-wedding portraits | Katie and Stuart

A handful of images from Katie and Stuarts pre-wedding studio shoot taken recently. I have their wedding coming up this weekend at the outstanding Brocket Hall. Hopefully the weather improves for them as it has been rain, rain, rain for the last several weeks. They will have the golf carts at the ready to whisk us off to some of the key locations come Saturday. I might bring my wellies though ;-)

Hertfordshire wedding photographer | Coltsfoot Country Retreat wedding part II

Here is part two of the wedding of Claire and Tim at the fabulous Coltsfoot Country Retreat. There are many more 'featured' photographs in this series, several of which are my personal favourites from what was a truly spectacular wedding. It was a no expense spared affair that even included an appearance by the one and only Alex Buchanan, the highly talented singer from BBC1's 'The Voice'. Alex was in Jesse J's line up and made it to her final three in the popular tv show. If the truth be known I think he had the kind of voice that should have gone on to win. Check out just how good Alex is here.

Claire and Tim certainly got in to the mood of the wedding when they hit the dance floor later in the evening, and even as I was packing up my gear and preparing to leave later in the night, they could be seen throwing some lively shapes to the super cool sounds of Alex and his 14 piece band. If I did not have a wife and three boys to get home to I could have quite easily stayed and joined them on the dance floor...and showed them a spot of 'dad' dancing!!

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Enjoy this second instalment from this snazzy wedding.

I love photographing weddings at Coltsfoot Country Retreat!