September 2014

29 September 2014

Barn and Aimee - Handmade Love

At my first meeting with Aimee and Barn, the more they described their perfect wedding and I couldn't help but get excited about photographing it. There was a steampunk theme with elements of Assasins Creed with Alice in Wonderland and a secret woodland feel. Aimee was determined to make most of the elements of the wedding herself or source other parts through talented friends and family.

Following Aimee's updates leading up to the wedding was fantastic, chocolate skulls and buying trees, flavoured tea and boxes of wine.

Barn and Aimee completed the legal part of the marriage on the Friday in a small ceremony and then spent all of Friday afternoon and evening preparing the hall. Aimee's friends made an amazing job of dressing and lighting the hall. It was beautiful.

The morning of the wedding was quite hectic, final preparations of food and outfits but once the groom and groomsmen left for the venue, a nice calm spread over the house. Aimee got ready with the help of her bridesmaids and there was a beautiful moment while her mum helped her into the dress.

It was a beautiful day once we got to the Hoveringham Village Hall in Nottingham, the sun was shining and it was reflected in everyone's happy faces.

The ceremony was beautifully presided over by a friend of Aimee and Barn. I found out later that it was the first wedding ceremony that he had conducted but I couldn't tell at all.

The rest of the day was wonderfully fun, full of laughter. The evening brought cappoera, fire performers, glow sticks and lots of drinking.

I was lucky to be part of such a unique and wonderful handmade day.

Photography – Luna Photography

Venue – Hoveringham Village Hall

Hair and Makeup – Bridesmaids

Dress – Made by the Bride

Headdress - Emma Yeo

22 September 2014

Fashion Make Up

I can't stress how important a good make-up artist is. I've been so lucky to have grown my business alongside that of my best friend Sali (Ms Moo Makeup) that I never take their skills and vision for granted.

One day I got a message from a friend's sister asking to hire me for a photoshoot for her college portfolio. Sophie has been training in Make-up artistry while also working for MAC cosmetics, her inspiration was fashion icons and designers like Isabella Blow, Iris Apfel and Zhandra Rhodes. This meant off the wall make-up, hair and crazy accessories! I worked with Sophie to choose two local models to fit her brief and then we set a date.

The day went smoothly and the make-up was perfect for the brief. Sophie was over the moon with the final images and I hope we can work together again soon.

MUA – Sophie Jane Dalby

Models – Rose Desire Belle

                - Fleur Du Mal

15 September 2014

Mini Geek Boutique

There are many people now who claim to be geeks, but what about when you have a little geek of your own?

Tracy, the great mind behind Mini Geek Boutique, found that she couldn't fulfil the need for geek based clothing for her son Toby so she decided to stat up a business and make her own! 

Tracy is inspired by Comics and films but also touches on the areas of computing, maths, role play and space. This means that not only are her clothing and gifts fun but also informative and educational. The best thing of it all is that most of her designs can be personalised because I'm sure the young padawans are going to be more excited about getting dressed in the morning if their jacket has their name on it!

Working with kids on photoshoots isn't easy, but Tracy was clear that she didn't want the photos to be "too posed". The idea was to let each little personality shine through. So, as you can imagine, there was lots of running, jumping and face pulling. 

We all had a brilliantly fun day and the images show that.

Not only can you find Mini Geek Boutique online but you may see Tracy out and about at your local comic convention!

08 September 2014

Ben and Katie - Wollaton Hall

It's been a busy summer with my own bookings and then adding to that assisting Tim, it's been like a whirlwind!

This next wedding I was really excited about, I've taken a booking for the same venue in October so I was anxious to see how it worked for weddings. It is of course, the famous Nottingham landmark, Wollaton Hall.

The Hall was used in the filming of Batman, The Dark Knight as the infamous Wayne Manor so it attracts a lot of attention since the release of the film.

Even the wedding of Ben and Katie included touches that reflected the venue's connection to Batman. Ben had Batman socks, a money clip (that looked like a Baterang!) and a matching tie clip, which meant I obviously had to photograph them!

The whole wedding was colour themed yellow and blue too, the blue of the bridesmaid dresses was stunning.

The Hall is a beautiful backdrop for a wedding, the group photographs backed with the grand building and the perfectly tended gardens for the Bride and Groom portraits. As part of the day, it is standard for the Bride, Groom and photographer to be taken up to the roof for photographs. Such a beautiful view.

The Hall and Gardens are still open to the public while the photographs are being taken so I expected people and maybe the odd dog wandering around but what I did not expect was a man taking his parrot for a walk! It did keep the guests entertained for a while.

While the room was being turned around for the meal, drinks and canapés were served in the Orangery, a gorgeous glasshouse. I definitely want to photograph a fashion shoot in there when the flowers are all in bloom.

We were lucky enough to have perfect timing and view of the sunset that evening which put a great end to the day. I can't wait to be back there and photograph Zoe and Justin's wedding in October.

02 September 2014

Actor Headshots - Phantom of the Opera

When I first started photographing, my main forte was live performance. At the time it was mainly bands and live music which turned moved onto dance and events.

After a while, my business turned to portraits and weddings but I still kept photographing live events as a hobby.

Earlier this year, I was asked by a friend I would photograph the dress rehearsal of their amateur production of Phantom of the Opera which I jumped at the chance to do. I'd never see Phantom before and I have to say, I was blown away by it. The performance was wonderful and I'm not ashamed to admit I even shed a little tear!

The guys loved the images and I was happy (and unsurprised) to hear that they had sold out all of their shows. So much so, the show was asked back for another run last month.

The producer sent me a message a couple of days before the shows started a little flustered asking if I wouldn't mind shooting cast head-shots for the programme. Having shot actor head-shots before I had no problem with this and we quickly booked in for the following day.

The set up was a simple two light, white background and the final images presented in the traditional black and while.

I heard that this run of performances was even better than the last and I would recommend anyone that hasn't seen the Phantom to do so!