This is the first blog post in quite some time (I steered myself away from time spent on blog posts at much the same time I stopped posting on social media), but as a return to the blog, congratulations to Will & Sarah! They were married on 3rd August 2024 in Sidney Sussex college at the University of Cambridge. I always love a Cambridge wedding and Sidney Sussex college is one of my favourites in the college wedding catalogue. Although it’s formal and old Cambridge, it’s super relaxed and always feels very personal. I was present on the day for about 4 hours, capturing all the key moments in the middle, most important parts of the day. I left them to have their wedding breakfast elsewhere and I sincerely hope fun was had by all! My wedding photography highlights follow:
I’m very excited to announce that one of my baby customers, Jonah Bignell from Trumpington in Cambridge, has been chosen as winner in the October & November 2021 Baby of the Month competition!
Awarded in early January, Jonah’s image was one of 5 winners. It proved popular with the Baby of the Month judges, who include a panel of five mums, five professional photographers, five judges from our competition sponsors, and votes received from the public on the Baby of the Month website.
Established in 2015, the Baby of the Month competition awards a £100 Boots voucher to five winners and culminates in the Baby of the Year competition, where Jonah now has the chance to win £5000!
I’ve entered babies into the Baby of the Month competition since it started, but I’ve only had a couple of runner-up images. Achieved a ‘winning’ Baby of the Month image is very exciting! The winning session with Jonah and Victoria was actually quite quick. Some babies turn up and perform. Jonah was full of expressions and variety, so the session was a good one.
Baby of the month sessions are available to all babies aged 12 months and under, so if you’ve got a gorgeous baby you think could be another winner, come and see me for a professional shoot!
Congratulations to Harrison & Katherine who were finally married on 31st October 2021 after a year of trying! And who doesn’t love a wedding on Halloween? Well, this particular Halloween wedding started in an almighty storm. I was really quite stressed about getting to the venue (the striking Pentney Abbey near King’s Lynn) due to incredibly high winds and torrential rain, but quite astonishingly, the moment I arrived, the sun came out. And it stayed out! The wind was strong all day which is always a photography bugbear, but the venue was brilliantly sheltered meaning the only hitch in the day, was the marriage itself! My wedding photography highlights follow:
Is it the Italians who say it’s good luck for it to rain on your wedding day? What if said wedding has already been postponed by a year? Double good luck, right?! After a 12 month wait, Josh & Camilla were married at Jesus College, Cambridge on Saturday 21st August 2021. There were no masks, no social distancing and it felt to me like an occasion to be enjoyed above anything else! Nothing was going to derail it, not even the weather. Yes, rain makes my life as a photographer difficult and much of the day was held indoors or under cover, but it was all good fun. I managed to shoot family photos under a marquee and got half an hour later in the evening to grab some damp bride and groom photos. Here are a few highlights:
Following quickly on from a heatwave summer wedding without a Covid rule in sight, I photographed a very different wedding day for Adrian & Seonaid. It was stormy, wet, we were confined to the church and masks needed to be worn. Although I was initially disappointed by this, the image set is actually very fitting. It perfectly sums up the unique times we’ve all been through. Adrian & Seonaid had already decided to keep their low numbers and I photographed only a small portion of their day. The ceremony was traditional and lovely and I managed twenty minutes in the drizzle with the newly weds outside St Andrew’s Church, Cherry Hinton. The following highlights could only have been shot in 2020/2021 and I think that’s what makes them special:
Where 2020 was tough for the wedding industry, I’d written the 2021 season off until all legal Covid restrictions could be lifted. After a few false starts, this finally happened on 19th July 2021. What an 18 months that was! Pain, frustration and disappointment have been shared with my wedding couples. I’ve felt for each and every one of them. Some have re-scheduled, others went ahead with limitations/limited numbers, others simply cancelled and moved on with their lives.
On Wednesday July 21st, two days after restrictions were lifted in England, I photographed the wedding of Brandan & Emma and it was…. NORMAL! It was also brilliant. The Jewish ceremony and reception at Micklefield Hall had everything you’d hope from a good knees-up. It was hot, busy, hectic, there was live music, people danced, people hugged and there were no masks. Traditional Jewish wedding celebrations took place and even now, a few weeks later, it’s hard to believe it happened. I feel privileged to have attended one of the first normal weddings to take place in nearly two years. Congratulations Brendan & Emma, I’m thrilled your wedding day finally happened in the way you’d hoped! Here are some highlights:
To help us all to do our bit supressing the virus and to encourage a digital Christmas this year, I’m launching my most generous studio offer ever! For two weeks in December, my studio sessions are all FREE and my popular digital file options are HALF PRICE! Use this offer to share some timeless images of your family and children with those friends and family members you’re not able to see around the Christmas dining table this year.
7th-21st Dec
Book now, slots will go fast!
The Covid-19 crisis has impacted everybody differently. It’s disrupted us all in one way or another, but for some industries, it’s been a complete disaster. The wedding industry is certainly one of those. I’ve had to write an entire year off, as have many other small businesses. Weddings are run by many small suppliers who all run local businesses, or are self-employed and it’s meant for some really tough times. It’s been a total disaster for couples also. They have seen their (usually quite expensive) plans evaporate, or put on hold indefinitely. Many of these plans have been years in the making too, so no doubt it’s been an incredibly stressful time. So, what to do when your wedding day comes and there’s no wedding to celebrate? You can’t book a holiday, and until this weekend, you can’t even drown your sorrows at the pub! Do you stay in and be miserable? No! You book a medieval hand-fasting ceremony and invite two guests into your garden and celebrate your wedding day that way! I take my hat off to Zach & Adele who made the most out of the difficult corona-virus situation and celebrated on their wedding day, even if their real wedding has to wait for another year! It was two parts mad, one part crazy and many other parts really lovely. I had a great time and particularly enjoyed the stunning evening light in the Suffolk countryside afterwards. Some lockdown wedding highlights follow:
The Covid-19 lock-down hit the UK photography industry hard. When all retail shutdown in March, photography studios across the country closed their doors. I for one found myself staring at an empty diary for the first time in 13 years! Tough times indeed…
Now that the rules have relaxed somewhat and non-essential retail can re-open, I’m offering Covid-safe door step sessions for families and children. By coming to you and shooting on location, a safe distance of 2m+ is easily achievable and the equipment used is great for creating stunning images. I hope I can portray this strange, yet memorable moment in time for your family. Of course there have been many tough moments, but I believe we’ll look back fondly on more time spent at home, more time spent with the children and more time shared as a family, together. I’d love to create some portraits for you.
Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss shooting your family from the doorstep! More comprehensive location portrait sessions are possible too now that parks and gardens are open and groups of up to 6 (including myself of course) can meet. Get in touch and lets’ chat through the logistics!
I hope, like me, you’ve found ways through these difficult months (most likely with help from the lovely weather and in the knowledge that things will get back to normal eventually)? I’ve spent my time walking in the Cambridgeshire countryside, enjoying the sun and completely re-deigning my websites. I’ve also spent time making plans for how to best move forward and into 2021.
My return to work will be guided by client demand, but I plan to be available for bookings from 1st July.
I take the safety and health of my clients seriously and as I always shoot alone, social distancing is possible both within my studio and on location. As limitations on social gatherings slowly relax, shooting families on location will be a good starting point. I will soon offer ‘doorstep’ sessions as well as more general location sessions for babies, children and families.
In the studio, I plan to use equipment where 2m distance can be maintained at all times and I will provide hand sanitiser. Babies, siblings and small family groups will welcome following the guidelines, but as my studio is small, larger family groups will have to wait until the new normal looks more like the old normal.
Looking forward to 2021, I plan to shoot more wedding work. I’ve deliberately limited wedding bookings over the past few years, but look forward to helping out with the frantic 2021 wedding season and shooting more. My 2020 weddings have all been safely re-arranged, so please get in touch if you’d like to chat about my available dates next year.
Thanks for your support at this difficult time and I look forward to seeing people in the studio, out and about, or at a wedding very soon.
Congratulations to James & Camilla who were married on Saturday 24th August 2019 at Norwich Cathedral. Although I’ve been super busy over at www.stillvision.co.uk and shot very little wedding work this year, I make exceptions for cathedrals! James & Camilla’s big day also landed on one of the heatwave weekends of the summer, making it extra special. Out of nowhere, I had an absolute scorcher to deal with! At times, the day felt like a royal occasion, at others it was an incredibly chilled out and friendly party. There were lots of laughs and plenty of cathedral locations to explore. The day ended with the most unique and memorable first dance I’ve ever witnessed (and that’s saying something). James (a Norwich football fan) and Camilla (a Chelsea football fan) are classical singers and (as already hinted) football fans. Their guests were treated to some all singing and all dancing, football themed operatic Mozart! Amazing and was I under the impression that music and football never mixed…. My Norwich wedding photography highlights follow:
How about that, I’m straight in with a sneak preview post for 2019! This doesn’t mean I’ll be more active on here, or on social media, however. I still think we should all do less of that! This session was the first of the year for me and for a family I have photographed a lot. This is their baby number 3! I trust that everyone had a great Christmas period, managed a bit of a break and are braced for whatever 2019 throws at us all. Happy New Year!
Although I’m not really using much web and social media to promote my business, I’m still here! I’m super busy over at StillVision Photography and the studio is almost fully booked up for Christmas. I have just a few slots left in the last week of November and first week of December. Any takers?
These sneak preview images are of a gaggle I photograph regularly. I also found out during their session that number 4 is on the way next year. The gaggle is about to get bigger!
Congratulations to Sam & Katherine who were married on Saturday 11th August 2018. After the predictable sunshine and heat of May, June & July, August ended up a rather sketchy month for weather. The morning was bright and sunny, the afternoon was cloudy and by the evening, it was raining! But nothing stops an English summer wedding! Sam & Katherine's big day was held at Girton Parish church, so this was one very local wedding for me (I could have walked it from the studio)! The reception, drinking and partying happened at Rectory Farm, a short drive away. My wedding photography highlights follow:
I'm having a funny year when it comes to blogging and social media. I'm of the belief that we should all do far less of all of it and spend more time enjoying the real world (and really, who actually reads my blog?)! But with that said, online sneak preview images are a great way to share a few highlights of photography shoots and weddings. These preview images were shot a couple of weeks ago on that one weekend when the weather broke. So yes, a wet weather wedding in one of the driest summers on record! Despite the unfortunate timing, it was a great wedding to be a part of and I wish Carl & Kirsty every happiness in the future. Here are their wedding photography highlights from Woodside in Kenilworth:
I've been very on-off with what and when I post sneak previews of this year, so here's another first in a while post! This morning I was with 14 month old Grayson who was a combination of almost every baby I've ever met: Shy, clingy, smiley and crazy, all at once!
I've had a bit of a pause with social media and blogging and all that time sapping IT stuff that comes with running a business, but doesn't necessarily result in me booking work... But I've made an exception today! Let me introduce baby Jake. What a cutie!
Here's another baby from my week in the studio. This little one was a real sweety. She was another smile-shy baby (although I got a cracker right at the end), but with those big eyes and chubby cheeks, I'm not sure it matters right?!
Today was one of those days where I had to work hard for the smiles! Luckily, both of today's babies were super cute smiling or not, so it didn't really matter. That said, I feel that I could do with a lie down. This little guy found his session super interesting and offered up the rarest of smiles. He wasn't upset, just interested. He'll definitely be a clever one!
This afternoon I had the pleasure of photographing a wildly happy little girl! She came to see me with Mummy and was one of the most smiley babies I've photographed in long time. At least she was for the first ten minutes anyway! Things changed half way through, but it was nice to see something a little more pensive from her. My baby photography session highlights follow:
