The Memories Thru a Lens Blog

In one of my last posts I explained how I add my photoshop magic to my wedding photography and portrait photography and this post will explain a bit more about my style of photography.

Anyone who is looking for a photographer to capture their wedding day of the wonderful memories of their child growing up will often be asked if they know what style of photographer they are looking for; indeed I will often be asked what style of photographer I consider myself to be so that the potential client can weave their way through the field of potential photographers out their and pick the one that best suits what they are looking to achieve in their photographs.

When asked what my style of wedding or portrait photography is I would say I am bespoke and artistic, but why would I say this.

Firstly lets address bespoke; the dictionary definition of this is “made to order” which I feel couldn’t describe my service better, to me each and every client be it for wedding photography or portrait photography is different and deserves to be treated as such.  So I don’t head off to a wedding shoot or portrait shoot with a list full of poses that I use each and every time, instead I judge on the day and the person and adapt how I take photographs to that, so therefore each and every shoot is made to order.

So that brings me to artistic; now the dictionary definition of this is “having a creative skill” do I have creative skill in my photography?  Well that would be a question for my clients but what I do know is that I certainly put my own creative mark on all the images I take.  First its the actual shot being taken, how I do this is something I find very hard to describe I simply look around, look at my subject then look through my lens and out the shot comes.  Luckily for me its the most natural thing in the world to capture a photograph, a skill which I certainly cherish.  Next I edit the photo adding my photoshop magic, I guess this is where my creativity really comes into its own to make the shot a work of art that when my clients see it will love it and be proud to hang in on their walls.

To follow are  some images that I really feel are artistic…. enjoy!

Its been a busy few weeks with me, weddings and portrait shoots not to mention editing the images and of course designing the albums. I will post some images of the weddings and portrait shoots as soon as the clients have had a good look at them. in the mean time here is one little photograph of a gorgeous little boy looking like he has just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Anyone who has children will know as soon as you point a camera at them, or say smile you get an awkward toothy grin that the child believes is a beautiful smile but for the view of the picture not so much which is why I never tell a child to smile in their portrait photo, I let them do their toothy grin for a few shots to get it out the way, but then the real shoot can begin which is all about laughter and fun. It always helps to have a parent or parents beside me to get the natural expressions which is how we got this lovely like expression on this little ones face.

Its not often my friends ask me to take some photo’s of them, but when they do I really enjoy it. I love what I do and being able to do it for those close to me is great.

Its quite a strange feeling when something comes naturally to you, for me taking photographs, weddings and portraits in particular just comes naturally to me, I somehow just know what angle to take the photo from to get the shot Im after, what’s strange about it though is that not everyone can do it and before you realise you have a talent you believe that everyone can just get the photos right, just as you do. Now I’m not saying my friends are bad photographers on the contrary they often take some great pictures but I also know when I take some for them they love the photographs as they don’t feel they could have taken the same shot.

The only trouble is, unfortunately, my friends photos often take a back seat to my work so they normally have to wait a little while to see them, which is what happened when I took some portrait photos of one of my very best friends Jill. Mainly its because I always add a a bit of post processing magic to my photographs and it takes time to get them ready for viewing, I wont say how long it took me to get these portrait photographs ready for Jill as you will all think Im a terrible friend!

Im sure Jill thought they where worth the wait though….

OK so I think its safe to say that we have all had enough of the snow.  Whilst it makes a fantastic backdrop for wedding photographs and portrait photographs worrying that your guests won’t make it to your wedding is not a head ache any bride needs.

December is always a busy time for wedding and portrait photographers as more and more people are getting married in the winter months and of course families would like lifestyle portraits so they can give their friends and family the pictures for Christmas.

Winter weddings are definitely getting more popular and to be honest I highly recommend them, I myself got married on 22nd December.  The low light or in fact darkness can make for some great photographs.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to photograph a wonderful event at The Vinyeard, Stockcross.

Mark and Diane where celebrating their 10^th Wedding Anniversary, however Diane had no idea what was in store, she thought she was just off to the Vinyard for some Spa treatments and good food, how wrong she was.

As a surprise Mark had arranged for a celebration and a blessing, he had all their friends and relatives brought to the Vinyard on an old London bus and they all waited while Diane was pampered and prepared to walk down the isle for the second time.

The sun shone all day which was fantastic because the Vinyard has a lovely water feature at the front of it which makes a lovely place to hold the drinks reception while the string quartet played.

The whole day was fabulous and everyone young and old enjoyed themselves, so congratulations Mark and Diane for making it to 10 years I hope there are many more to come.

Two weekends ago I took some time off and my husband and I headed off to Venice.  Wow what a place!!

We had not been to Venice before so found it all quite amazing, the architecture is superb and the fact its all on water takes some getting sued to.  The weather was amazing hotter than I thought it would be which was lovely after being in cold wet England, still when it got all a bit hot there where plenty of bars and restaurants to park ourselves in.

We did the obligator gondola ride which was really relaxing and romantic, a little more expensive than we would have liked but hey you can’t go to Venice and not go on a gondola can you!!

There was so much to take pictures of to it would have been easy to only see it through my camera lens!

Well I don’t want to tempt fate announcing my joy at summer being on the way, but isn’t it glorious out there!!!

I don’t get much time to photograph for fun but when the weather is like this I love to get out and take some shots of stuff I wouldn’t normally do, i.e. not people!

So I’m jumped on a train to London for a bit of R & R or should I say shoe shopping and snapping, as there are two things in life I don’t think you can have too many of the first is photos and the second is shoes!!