The ceremony took place at St Mary’s church  Crossthwaite and the wedding party moved on to Fell foot park on the edge of Lake Windermere.

We were there to take the photographs and  you can see the highlights

by clicking here.

We will be there to take the photographs with our great mate Steve Barber photography.

Here are a few pre wedding photographs I took the other day at lake windermere.

A full post of what promises to be  a fantastic day will follow.

We had a great day – the ceremony took place at Our lady by the wayside church in Grasmere and the reception was held at the Merewood country house hotel in Windermere.

Lily Sadin who you may remember as one of our students came as my assistant.

A big thanks to her for doing a great job and for remembering the soft mints!

For those techys out there we used a Hellios 44m-4F2 58mm prime lens for most of the bride and groom portraits.

I just love the rich and textured quality it provides and the movement in the background when I open the aperture fairly wide.

It also produces gorgeous light effects especially shooting into the light although this is difficult to control.

The full gallery containing all the photographs can be found in our client area.

Click here for the highlights.

And we met Ryan and Lisa for the first time at Michelle and Andrews wedding some months before that.

We are beginning to feel like part of the family….

Gemma and Chris held their ceremony at the very wonderful St Cuthbert’s church in Aldingham on the coastal road between Barrow and Ulverston.

The wedding party then moved on to Broadoaks Country house hotel here in Windermere.

On the way back from the church we stopped at the beach to take a few portraits. The light was wonderful and Gemma and Chris relaxed with a glass of champagne.

Our great friend Steven Barber came along to help us out – he was with the grooms party before the service and we worked together at the church and also afterwards for the beach portraits.

I love working with Steve – as well as being a great photographer he is also great company –  we would like to do more together and are thinking of creating a special package to offer our wedding clients.

Keep your eyes peeled for Russell and Steve’s BIG PACKAGE!

You can see the highlights here and the full gallery is now up on our password protected clients area.

Gemma and Chris highlights

On Saturday we photographed Gemma and Chris’s wedding with the help of our great friend and brilliant photographer Steven Barber.

More of this in our next post………

Sunday took us to Linthwaite country house hotel in Windermere for Claire and Ian’s wedding.

This time I was helped out by the very talented erinbrowne.

Erin is what my dad might have called a bright young thing. She is full of energy and questions and has a fantastic eye and a style of her own.

She loves to make photographs that have a dreamy blown out quality.

She has a day job at the moment but  I suspect very soon she will  give that up and concentrate on being a  full time professional photographer.

She has the talent.

I met Erin after she commented on some photographs we took last year at Andrew and Michelle’s wedding in the lake district.

On her blog she had written something I would like to share about the value of photography and why it is such an important part of her life…

‘…to capture and forever hold the memories that time can force us to forget…”

Well said erinebrowne, Mr Kodak will be smiling!

You can see the highlights here

What have you been doing this week?

Well when we first got here we helped on a commercial job for a travel firm which gave a good insight into the business. Then in the afternoon we learnt about aperture and played around with what different aperture does to a photo. One day we were given 11 themes to interpret and get photographs of. The themes were; Love, Colour, Monochrome, Light, Shadow, Texture, Beautiful, “the real Amy”, “The real Izzy”, “Future Amy” and “Future Izzy”. This kept us entertained for most of the day, it was a real learning curb and we both really enjoyed it. I think that tomorrow we are doing some studio shot’s, which should be good.

Colour by Amy

Texture by Izzy

What have you enjoyed most?

When we did the project where we took photographs based on themes, it gave us a chance to be inventive, original and to try out our own ideas. It also meant we thought more about the actual pictures we were taking, the composition of them and the effect which they have.

Shadow by Amy

Amy by Izzy

Is there a specific type of photography you like?

Amy: I particularly like portrait photography because you can really capture people’s beauty and experiment a lot with different filters, aperture, surroundings, they can be really fun and full of movement.

Izzy: I like portrait photography too; you can really portray the personality of a person, they don’t just have to be sit around and look pretty- although you can still be pretty obviously, but they don’t have to be serious, they can be fun and lively, you can really experiment and be inspired. I also love travel photography, the colours are often so vibrant and it can really give an amazing insight into the culture.

colour by Izzy

Titanic by Amy

Do you have any photographic influences?

Amy: I really love shots of the countryside and Lake District; they’re really beautiful and inspiring.

Izzy: There is a book I was given a few years ago about photography, which is one of the main reasons I got into it as a hobby. I am often inspired by other hobbies and interests of mine.

Do you enjoy living in the Lake District? – and if so, why?

Amy: I do, because there are lots of experiences and activities to participate in. It’s a beautiful part of the world.

Izzy: I do, most of the time… it’s beautiful, but it rains so much! But other than that it’s great, especially if you like the outdoors.

Peaceful by Amy

Shadows 2 by Amy

Beautiful by Izzy

Jetty by Izzy

What have you learnt in your time here?

We have learnt about aperture and depth of field, light and shadow within photos. We also thought about how to make people feel comfortable when having photographs taken. We learnt to work the big posh Canon cameras and about processing photos. I could go on but to keep it concise we’ve learnt a lot.

Which pictures do you like and why?

Amy: My 3 favourites have to be the one I took for “Beautiful” I love how the low aperture means you really focus on Izzy’s face and the shadow from her hair really frames her face nicely in the light. I also like how natural it looks, no extreme make-up to pull your attention away. I really like the one’s we took on our first day, when we were by the lake, the surroundings are so beautiful and the dull colours compared to bright clothes contrast really effectively. There is one that Izzy took of me on the jeti that I think is really striking as well.

Izzy: Out of the photos I have taken I think my three favourites that I have taken are my one for “Beauty”, I love the amount of light reflected in Amy’s eyes and I think the low aperture really draws you towards the centre focus of her eyes. Another of the ones I’m quite proud of is one of the one’s we did on the first day when we were just starting to learn about and experiment with aperture and Amy is sat on a wall. I love the abstract tree in the background and I think the monochrome makes it look even better than it would in colour. My final choice is the one for my future, which as is obvious from the picture I did not actually take simply as it was not possible so got Amy to take for me. I think the almost aged appearance of the photo contrasts the fact that it’s meant to be my future really well. I also think the wooden background and the muted colours, other than on my earring and top make it a really interesting image.

Future!

Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you very much for having us Russell! It’s been really fun and inspirational. It’s been a brilliant week.

We uploaded some photographs of her recent sitting here.

She came back to us after having a first session some years ago when she was very young and before her gorgeous curls had grown.

While she was here for the update we arranged for her to come back with her older sister Ellie.

This was Ellie a few years ago…

You may have guessed that Ellie is very active and loves the outdoors!

She was barely aware of us when we took the first set of photographs.

We have noticed that this changes  as children get older and they often become a little bit more self conscious.

So, when the day arrived, we all thought it would be a good idea for us  to head down to the lake and spend some time relaxing outdoors before spending a short time back in the studio.

Here are just a few of our favourite photographs from the session. And in a few of them Ellie (and Masie) forgot we were there!

They were awful.

Actually, they were worse than awful, as my mate Dan kept saying.

“That was really really really really bad”. He said.

“Really?” I said…. teeth gritted, wondering exactly how bad four really’s really is…

“Well, put it this way, I think our under 12′s could do better!”

During the  drive home, partly, I think to cheer me up and also to change the subject, he suggested I join him  for a blogging workshop the following day at The Langdale facilitated by The Quirky traveller  Zoe Dawes.

So the next day I cancelled my plans and drove out north past the western shores of Lake Windermere and hooked left at Ambleside and headed into the beautiful Langdale valley.

I had a great day and learnt a lot. The workshop was excellent and the opportunity to hang out and share ideas with others was refreshing and stimulating.

In fact you you could say it was  really,really, really, really  good!

We admit, we’re not the cheapest family photographers around – but we believe that truly beautiful, and professional, fine art family photography is a very different animal to the formulaic work so commonly available nowadays.

To work the way we do requires an awful lot of time, experience, money and commitment. The resultant portraits are exquisite and stand to become the most precious heirlooms our clients possess.

The families we attract are certainly discerning, but they aren’t all wealthy or affluent. This is a luxury service we provide and parents will budget and save to be able to come to us and have us make photographs showing their children as they really are, rather than them feeling awkward, looking unnatural and bad-tempered for being prodded, posed and instructed to “stand like this”…

We listen when you describe the type of art and imagery you love, and we spend hours, individually processing every digital file we select for your viewing until it’s “just so”.

Our clients know all of this, and that’s why they choose to come to us. They appreciate the time we spend with them, the experience they have with us, and the quality of the fabulous products we provide.

The type of photography we produce is a luxury and our clients know this too. They’re not snaps, they’re beautiful pieces of photographic art, hand printed by a local independent printer with over 20 years experience and who uses only the very best quality inks and papers.

We spend time with you; gently guiding you through the selection process, even arranging to come and visit your home to make sure you don’t choose erroneously. These photographs are going to be on your wall, probably for the rest of your life – you’ve got to get it right.

Our frames are all hand-made to order for each individual portrait, because no two are the same and, when completed, they’re personally inspected by one of us to ensure they make the grade.

Unlike other high price items, like cars, plasma TV screens or designer clothing, we remain secure in our knowledge that as the years roll by and all those items lose value and prestige, your family photographs will do the complete opposite – they’ll become your most admired and most treasured belongings.

Our service and our work are unique. In a time where mass-produced, low-cost products with a short life expectancy are marketed and sold, we stand, heads held high and proudly proclaim that we’re different.

We stand by our belief that our work, making beautiful photographs of your family, is precious beyond words and that it isn’t expensive at all – it’s priceless…

Megan.

Our friend Lily assisted on the shoot. Well, last weekend lilly came along to help out on the wedding too.

Matt and Katie live in London but Katie’s uncle has a holiday house in Windermere and so they are able to visit the lake district often.
They were married at Our ladies by the wayside church in Grasmere and the party was held at Broad leys WMBRC.
Matt and Katie have been together for nearly 12 years and are very comfortable in each others company although they told me when we first met that they didn’t really enjoy having their photographs taken (who does?) but felt that they would be comfortable with our style of unobtrusive wedding photography.
After they had viewed the pictures we made of them for their pre wedding shoot they sent us a lovely message saying how delighted they were with the photographs.
In fact when we arrived at Broad leys on the morning of the wedding with their signature print the whole of Katies family commented on how wonderful they thought the photographs were and couldn’t wait to see how  the wedding pictures would turn out!

No pressure then…..

Here are a few of my personal favourites from the day -the full gallery of 250 photographs is on our main website client area. And you can see an extended gallery here.
Katie and Matt came to view them yesterday before they headed back to London – we turned them around in less than 2 day which was a record for us although we did consume far too much red bull to keep energy levels up! I am pleased to report they were both delighted with the results.