A Woodland Wedding of Wonder

At the weekend two very lovely people that I am delighted to call friends got themselves hitched. I snapped away throughout the day and saved some of the pictures to share with you here...

Self-penned vows under boughs

Gathering for group shots...

The bride and bridesmaids made all their own bouquets and the groom and best man made their own buttonholes!

Just lovely

The bride and groom

THERE WERE SOFA SWINGS IN THE WOODS

Bridesmaids of beauty (above and below)

More wonder and gorgeousness than you could shake a stick at.

Kate Tempest at Frank's

I try hard not to play favourites among photoshoots and to love them all equally. However there are those shoots where location, subject, lighting, (or maybe just the stars) align and I particularly like the results. A month or so ago I shot the poet, rapper, soon-to-be novelist and all round brilliant Kate Tempest for her forthcoming show Brand New Ancients (at Battersea Arts Centre in the autumn). We went to the top of the multistorey car park in Peckham, now reincarnated as the brilliant Frank's Cafe and shot at dusk, as the lights were beginning to spark and the twilight lay luminous violet across the city. After shooting there we scampered down onto the streets, surprising the good shopkeeps of Rye Lane with Kate's rhymes. Below, the top image is the one BAC chose, plus a few of my faves.

And here's one of me in action - I wasn't trying to match my trousers to her top, it's purely accidental!

Recent work

A small selection of shoots for various clients...

 

Production photography for Battersea Arts Centre (above, the company is Forced Ents), and The Yard in Hackney Wick (below).

Below: documenting the opening of the permanent installation of Peckham's Peace Wall, initiated and curated by Peckham Shed inclusive theatre company. (You'll see more of my shots on their website).

Below: Poet Michael Rattigan, shot for independent press Rufus Books.

Below: the brilliant Samantha Mann (this became publicity for creator Adrian Gillott's Edinburgh show).

Some of these shoots happened a ways back but I get quite behind on posting work images; many of them have a lead time of several months and I can't really upload them until they've been released by the client.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a lovely city, all tall Georgian terraces, broad boulevards and steep hills, meaning that looking down a side street almost always reveals some new pretty view.

Please see previous post on hipster holiday snaps for info on how to take shots just like these.

Posting will return next week with a round-up of recent work for clients, which I've been a bit neglectful of updating.

Croatia Part the Third (the favourites)

This looks like an abstract painting; the light top right is the sun streaming into a cave on the island of Biševo where the water glows a deep and ethereal blue.

Croatia Part the Second (the favourites)

This image isn't really anything special photographically speaking but is my second favourite for the simple reason that it's from a really wonderful day we spent island hopping on a speedboat, swimming in coves with yachts, seeing dolphins breaking the water, drinking fresh orange juice and failing to climb hills. It's sometimes worth remembering that photos can just be lovely aide-memoires.

Croatia Part the First

Or, how to take the perfect set of hipster holiday snaps...

 

Marjan Forest is a lovely place for a walk.

 

All the leaves are shaped like hearts.

 

And there's some rusty training equipment in the trees.

 

 

We ate a LOT of sladoled (ice-cream).

None of it looked like this guy though.

 

Split's a bit gritty.

Ex-communist relics hanging about.

1. Buy some expired rolls of film at the market for a pound a pop. (You will later find out that two of them are covered in scratches and dirty streaks of chemicals but don't worry, this is all part of the master plan).

2. Only carry your old Russian camera around with you. Make sure the strap breaks at some point, plunging your camera to the uncarpeted floor of your bedroom and ensuring the already dodge winding mechanism will remain that way forever. 

3. Forget what ISO the film in your camera is, meaning your usually pretty-accurate use of the sunny f16 rule falls by the wayside and half the roll will be wildly underexposed. 

4. Don't be bothered to clone stamp all the dust off your images.

5. Write an ironic blogpost about your pictures, and love them anyway.