First Wedding of the Year

My wedding season kicked off last Saturday at a new venue for me, the lovely Beauberry House in Dulwich, London.
Although February 13th was a cold and damp day, Beauberry House looked fantastic for Jo & Rob's wedding, I bet a summer wedding here using the grounds would be great! However, on my trip to Dulwich I had driven through rain, sleet and a snow shower so I knew we (I was working with my great mate Mark Bothwell) would be working mainly inside the house. A spiral staircase and a bright ceremony room certainly gave us something to work with. After the incredibly brief ceremony we chanced a trip out side for the confetti and group shots. We just managed to get the confetti shot done and were just about to organise the first group, when it started to rain! The rain soon moved off over to Crystal Palace (its always bleak near Selhurst Park!) and the groups were done almost as quickly as the ceremony. Managed to find a quick five minutes to shoot a nice evening picture before the wedding breakfast and the temperature dipped below freezing!

Winter Olympics........In Milton Keynes!

Had an unusual job towards the end of last month. It was a PR job for Paddy Power (and I did meet Paddy Power, he's a real person!!!) photographing a skier that they are sponsoring in the run up to the Winter Olympics which start today. Nothing unusual about that, I'm sure Paddy Power (the company) sponsor a lot of different people and events. What made this a bit different was the fact that the downhill slalom skier comes from Ghana, Africa! Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, or the Snow Leopard as he's now know, is the first Ghanaian sports person to qualify for the winter Olympics. Now, in case your wondering, Ghana's average minimum temperature in winter is 20 with a record high of 38!!!! Surprisingly, it never snows. The first time Kwame actually saw snow was when he stepped of a plane at Heathrow ten years ago. He fell in love with the sport four years later when he started working at the Milton Keynes Snow Dome, where we were shooting the pictures. The day was also used as a media day, with national and international TV turning out for the latest sport oddity. During the press conference, Kwame was asked about being tarred with the same brush as Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican Bobsled team but he was quick to point out that he had, like all skiers in the Olympics, qualified for the Winter Games by meeting standards set by the International Ski Federation within the past year. He also said that some times he is so cold that he thinks he's getting frost bite! One last question from the floor, has he ever seen a real leopard? "Only in a zoo....." I'll be looking out for him in the next couple of weeks.

Catching Up...Weddings

Never seems to be enough time to do everything I'd like to do and the blog has fallen victim to my lack of time management skills, must make a late New Years resolution to update it on a regular basis this year!
I had a very busy '09 with weddings, meet some great people in some new and interesting places. I'm going to start my catching up with a wedding I shot in September at Skinners Hall, Dowgate Hill in London, or as their website's strap line calls it, the "The Country House Venue in the Heart of the City"! Bang on, its a cracking place! Dowgate Hill runs beside Canon St station in the City of London, with the Bank of England a couple of minutes walk north and the Thames a few minutes walk to the south.
A midday start as bride Helen didn't want any preparation's photographing, my first port of call was St Michael's church, two mins walk from Skinners Hall, which was Dick Whittington's church. I had just finished the detail pictures in the church as groom, David, arrived with his best man closely followed by the guests. Helen was fashionably five minutes late and after the ceremony the family group pictures were shot across the road in a small park. As the guests departed to Skinners Hall, we had a quick trip down to the Thames for a few relaxed pictures, then headed up Queen Victoria St to get a shot with the Bank of England in the background.
The day had been arranged by wedding planner Penny of Tigerlily Weddings (www.tigerlilyweddings.co.uk) who had everything organised, as we walked into Skinners Hall drinks were waiting for all of us! As Helen & David chatted to guest's, I got on with detail and candid images. My day ended after the first dance.
A fantastic wedding in a fantastic setting, I can wait for another wedding at Skinners Hall!