What a waste of a beautiful dress..

… to lock it in a cupboard never to be seen again after the wedding day!

Ok, so this “Trash The Dress” thing is misnamed. We don’t want anyone to trash any kind of dress. We want them to get back into that one dress they love so much they chose it for their wedding day.

We want them to take their time getting photographs they maybe couldn’t get on the actual day. Maybe it rained all day. Maybe the venue was limiting. Maybe you just wanted to spend time with your guests rather than spend hours getting the kind of photos you actually hoped for. No problemo!

Just like Samantha here, there is absolutely nothing to stop anyone getting back into their wedding dress for a photo shoot where timings, weather, guests, location and dirt on the dress no longer make a shred of difference.

I love these shoots. They’re great fun. Sam & Monty made my job easy too, bringing both their wedding outfits and and totally going with some of my weird ideas

Here are a few of my faves from the day…

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Elliott’s 4th birthday and Jonas’s 1st birthday (they’re 10 days apart) with a party at our home.

Evelyne went above & beyond the call of duty arranging something a little different. The AMAZING cakes & sweets were made by The Boutique Baking Company and all these photos were taken by our talented and lovely pal, Emma Case.

This party was also featured on the lovely Belle Bébés blog

Thanks to everyone who came along and made the party so much fun…. We have the best friends!

Occasionally I get asked to shoot corporate headshots. I usually say no as it’s a little dull and not really my style.

On this occasion I was free and the shoot was local so I decided to say yes.

Little did I know that Syd Ewart is not exactly your typical suit-sat-behind-a-big-desk kinda guy. In fact he’s an accomplished musician and songwriter who just happens to have a “proper job” on the side. He needed some simple headshots to show one side of his personality but gave me free reign to do something a little more interesting too.

Check out his studio of old school synths, toys and a lot of wires!

A great shoot with a very cool guy.

Karen & Paul get married in 2 weeks time in Birmingham and it’s a wedding I’m really looking forward to.

They’ve asked me to shoot it on my own, which is unusual for me but I’m relishing the challenge.

Both Karen & Paul are very creative people and, as such, are perfectly happy for me to be as creative with their wedding images as I like. I have a feeling it’s going to be a fun day for me. And hopefully a perfect day for them.

For their engagement session we headed to Sutton Park, close to where they live, and enjoyed some fresh air as the sun began to dip in the sky…

Last night I popped in to Birmingham’s Glee Club to photograph the fantastic Ani DiFranco.

In the days before the gig I’d mentioned to a few people that I was going and I was surprised how many people had never heard of her. For a Grammy Award-winner who has released 20+ albums and is described as a “feminist icon”, I thought she was more famous.

The gig was great but I was very restricted from a photography point of view, only being able to shoot from one side of the stage in a packed out room. I like the images I got but would have liked a little more variety.

Some of you reading this blog will remember that late last year I flew over to Las Vegas to shoot Kerry & Dave’s wedding.

While I was (not really) in the neighbourhood, I decided to jump on another couple of planes and head out to the beautiful location of Solvang, California to spend a day with one of my favourite photographers…. Jose Villa.

I’ve been an admirer of Jose’s work for a long time. He shoots exclusively on film and the way he uses light and manages to capture beautiful images of people and details (and quite a lot of horses) means that I check his blog all the time and was just a little excited to spend a day in his company on one of his one-on-one workshops.

On the day I met Jose and his partner Joel at their home and was made to feel more than welcome. Jose is a super-chilled and friendly guy who is extremely generous with his knowledge. Over the course of the day we covered a huge amount, from how his business runs, how he attracts the right kind of clients and how he gets his weddings featured in magazines and on wedding blogs such as the massively popular Style Me Pretty. He also told me about educating clients about lighting, how he finds great light for his shoots and all about his pricing structures. We looked through his beautiful albums and he looked over my own work and gave me some honest and useful feedback.

After lunch we headed up into the hills near his home with a couple and I got to see Jose at work. We even drove past Neverland on the way! The most nerve-wracking part of the day was when Jose handed the reigns over to me and I shot the couple as Jose watched. Pressure!

I had such an amazing day and would like to say a huge thank you to Jose for his inspiration and for making me so welcome. He even took some photos of me and sent me the prints after I returned home. Thanks Jose. I hope to meet up with you again soon.

Here are some of the images I took on the day, plus one of myself taken by Jose (you may have seen it before – top right)

And here’s some I grabbed of Jose doing what he does best…

And finally.. me by Jose.

We only have one wedding during November and it happens this Saturday.

Clare & Martin have been together a while now. They have two great kids who are possibly more excited than anyone about the wedding

I met up with the family earlier this week for a shoot in their local park. More a family portrait session than an engagement shoot, and that was just fine with me.

Yesterday was our due date for the new baby. Weird considering he’s now a month old already!

He’s doing great though. Sleeping well and happy (asleep) most of the time. His big brothers keep wanting to play with their new little brother and our family feels just a little more complete. Our house, however, is feeling somewhat smaller!

To celebrate Jonas being here for a month we took time, on a rare Saturday off, to take some new photos.

If you missed it, you can still see the slideshow from when he first arrived by clicking HERE

In ten days Anna & I will be jumping on a plane and heading up to Edinburgh for our first ever wedding north of the border.

A wedding at a Scottish Castle. We’ll be in our element!

Lou & Steve’s engagement shoot happened a little closer to home though, on a Sunday afternoon in Birmingham…

At the end of June I was lucky enough to finally photograph my favourite band. Twice!

You may have already seen the photos from Belfast Odyssey Arena and, since then, I’ve had a few messages from people waiting to see the Hyde Park photos. So here they are

It’s always a bonus when you get great support acts on the bill, and I was delighted to see another of my fave bands added to the bill… The Gaslight Anthem

Always fun and entertaining… The Hives

The main support was Ben Harper, who was joined on stage by Eddie Vedder for a cover of Queen’s Under Pressure.

And then it was time for the main event… And this setlist..

It was good to meet up with a few friends at the gig too. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Friday

And here’s a photo of me doing my thing, taken by Kerrang! photographer, Chris Casey.

Many thanks to Jen at Rock Sound and Ali at LD Communications.