Claire and Rob are from Kendal but now live in Manchester so it was only natural that they would want a lake district wedding.

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.

Michelle and Tom are getting married here in the lake district on Saturday.

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.

Here are some of the highlights from Becky and Gareths lake district wedding.

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.

We met Gemma and Chris at Ryan and Lisa’s wedding last year which was held at Hipping hall just a short drive from our base here in the lake district.

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

Last weekend we had back to back weddings.

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

Remember Katie and Matt? We blogged about their pre wedding sitting a few weeks ago.

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.

My Mum turned seventy at the end of November and I am not too sure who it was that felt more unnerved by the event, her or me? How can that have happened so quickly? Was it really twenty years ago when we  took her to Blackpool to celebrate her fiftieth with a ride on the big dipper and a night out at funny girls? As somebody might have said once you can’t help getting older but you don’t have to get old..

To celebrate this year we had a family party with a real lake district theme. Mum’s favourite ceilidh band Striding edge got everybody dancing and our friends from Cowmire hall provided  mulled cider which went down a treat. I was not allowed to take photographs as I had promised to man the bar and help cook the cumberland sausages for the lake district themed supper and also dance on request with (in no particular order) my nieces,  my Mum (three times!) , my Sister , my Nephew and  my wife Pippa.

Thankfully the only promise I had to make to our 3 sons was that I would’t make them dance although they were unable to resist my Mum’s request as, after all, it was her special night.

For a surprise present we made Mum a book featuring photographs she has collected over the last seven decades.

I scanned the images and debated for a good while if I should clean any marks and scratches and folds using photoshop. In the end I decided to keep them very much as they are – I liked the feeling of them being handled and imagined each mark had it’s own story – a sort of memory on top of a memory.

Pictures looked at and shared and stories told becoming an occasion in itself.

When we were young we would look at them and learn about our past and hear stories about our family. Mum bringing down the big box marked ‘family’ from a tall cupboard. “This is one here is your Great Grandmother on the family farm where they lived  in Someset … this my dad –your Grandfather and me taken just before the war on a holiday by lake windermere …Look at you as a baby!”…We would wonder at them. These people frozen, in this moment, in this other time, years before we were born. Our fingers marking them as we passed them round.

You can preview the book  here . And  below are a just few of my personal favourites…

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and, due to the huge response drawn by some photographs we shared of a recent engagement shoot on our Facebook page, we thought we’d help you start getting in the mood for love by sharing some of our other favourite pre-wedding images here.

We’re known for being photographers who work with children, families and photograph weddings. However, why shouldn’t a couple – young or old, married or not, with children or without – also come and treat themselves to having some beautiful photographs made ?

Some families, who come to us to have a large family portrait made, also ask for images of individuals and for smaller group photographs taken. So, we’ve also included selection of favourite images of stolen moments on a busy family shoot that show it doesn’t matter how old or young you are, love really is all that matters..!

Throughout February, we’ll be giving away a bottle of Champagne to all couples who book a photography sitting so feel free to get in touch – and don’t worry if it’s a surprise treat.

We’re good at keeping secrets !

We haven’t blogged for so long – we have lot’s of catching up to do!

Here are a few images from a summer wedding we photographed at one of our favourite venues here in

The lake district – Gossel ridding

Gossel ridding really is one of The Lake District’s finest houses, built in 1908 by the owner’s (TV producer Charlie Pattinson) great grandfather.

The location is great, a short walk away from Bowness on Windermere, the design – breathtaking, oak carvings and glossy wooden floors mixed with crisp white linen furniture from B&B Italia.. The attention to detail from Teddie Pattinson who designed the interiors is perfect.

In fact Charlie and Teddie are friends of ours and we have been lucky to spend some fun times with them there with our own family.

My wife Pippa spent many summer days playing hide and seek in the gardens with Charlie and his sister Lucy

and so it was lovely to see that Zoe and Rob had organised a treasure hunt for the children during the hot afternoon of their wedding.

Before that there was a fantastic meal prepared by Rob. The wedding ceremony took place in Kendal.

give us a clue

Rob and Zoe

Sally, Sophie and Lily have been with us this week on student placement.
They have been a great help during a busy week.
They have worked on post production work from a recent wedding and also assisted Steve Barber our foto imagica colleague on some product photography and with some portraits of our friends from Ibex Internet.
Oh, and they have also made a video and taken one or two photographs themselves………

They answered some questions to let people know a little bit about themselves and what they have been doing:

Continue reading “The Three Amigos!” »