{Commercial} Harvington Pre-School

Last week I spent the morning with the lovely children (and staff) of Harvington Pre-School to capture some new images of them doing what they do best... learning.

When Liz (The Pre-School Manager) contacted me to ask if we could meet to discuss this shoot she had in mind, I was delighted to accept, as this is the local Pre-School to where I now live and I wanted to help them with their goals.

They needed some new imagery for a flyer that they would like to produce, that they are going to distribute far and wide, to raise the profile of the Pre-School in order to "recruit" more children. They are a little village Pre-School that goes through cycles just like any other Nursery/Childcare establishment, but because they are so small, they seem to feel the pinch more than the larger settings. They beginning of the school year is historically a quieter time of the year for them and then they seem to grow as the year progresses.

They will also be using the images on their website to replace most of the ones that they've taken with their own cameras.

Harvington Pre-School is a registered charity and from what I've seen, are a fantastic setting for any child to attend!!

They do loads of extras like;

Fun French

Fun Spanish

Signing

and the absolute icing on the cake - Forrest School!

Any child will be lucky to have received such a good foundation before they go to school!

Here are a few of my favourites, so please leave me a comment and let me know what you think...





























Commercial Photographer Worcestershire

{Baby} Freya - 6 month session

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to go back and photograph Baby Freya for her 6 month session in Gerrards Cross at her Grandma and Grandad's house.

You'll remember this beatiful little girl from her 3 month session - here.

Now I'm going to do this post in 2 parts, because the shoot had 2 distinct parts...

The first part was of Freya in her christening gown.

This gown is unique and truly spectacular, so I asked Keely-Ann (Freya's Mum) about the history of the Christening Gown, and this is what she said:

"...the christening dress is a family heirloom on my father's side. We understand it was made for my grandfather by one of his maiden aunts, thereby making it 100 years old.
It is totally hand made and stitched and has been worn by four generations, my grandfather, my father and aunt, my sister and myself, my neice and now Freya."

I absolutely loved the delicacy of the fabric and the lovely little details on the gown, and I think she looked pretty as a picture! I'm really glad that her Mum decided to include it in the shoot, as they now have a beautiful record of such a special event.

Here are a few of my favourite images with the gown, so tell me what you think!
(the rest of the shoot will follow shortly)













Baby Photographer, Beaconsfield

{Inspiration} Unique invitations for a quirky couple!

I stumbled across this blog post via somebody I follow on twitter (I've forgotten who now :( sorry!), and I was blown away by the detail and effort that this couple put into their wedding invitations.

Jodi & Kurt are photographers themselves (in Virginia) and they are getting married on the 15th October (TOMORROW!!)

Here is a little image taken from Jodi's blog, but please read the whole post here and if you are anything like me and like crafty things, let the drooling begin ;-)



They even created a wedding film, which you can view on her blog, or you could just watch it here...
(super cute alert!!)

a slice of invite from Jodi Miller on Vimeo.

{Headshots} Moira Bailey

I first met Moira at a breakfast networking group in Stratford-upon-Avon a little over a month ago. During my 60 second talk I covered the importance of having a good headshot to represent you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and of course your website.
Moira's company is The Professional Woman's Coach and she is based in Warwick.

(I am writing a seperate post to cover all the point that you need to consider when evaluating your photo, so watch this space if you are in doubt...)

Moira came to have a chat to me after the meeting about the photograph she is currently using. It was taken by a newspaper photographer in 2004 for an article. Although it is a fairly decent photo, and she has had a number of comments from people recently about it.

Comments like:

that they didn't recognise her from her photo, or

that she looked much younger in person than she does on her photo

Of course in the last 6 years things have changed, not only styles of photography, but also clothes and Moira has changed her hairstyle. So we agreed to do some headshots to better reflect her look and style in 2010.

Moira also asked if I could capture a couple of images of her talking to a colleage for use on her website, so we incorporated that into the shoot as well.

These are the new ones we've created.













and this is the photograph that Moira has been using until now...

Which do you prefer?
And would you rather do business with Moira now or then?



Commercial & Business Portrait Photographer, Warwick

IPhone proposal in Movie Theatre - AMAZING!

I have just been sent a link to a video posted on YouTube by "chadwildclay", and I think this is truly amazing!!

It took him 4 months to do this, and I had a lump in my throat watching it.

In my book this guy gets 110% for originality and creativity, and I think everybody should see it and pass it on, especially to guys that are thinking of proposing to their girlfriends ;-)

Let me know your thoughts!

{Engaged} Emma & Rob

At the beginning of this week I travelled down to Cliveden for another shoot, but this time it was for a Pre-Wedding Shoot.

Emma and Rob are getting married in 2 weeks time in Marlow, and due to a couple of complications, we had to wait until now to do the shoot.

We had a little sit down in The Orangery (café) while we discussed the final arrangements for the day. We even came up with a couple of extras, like a bottle of bubbly for the car, that got added to the details of the day. With the admin out of the way, it was time to do some photographs.

Emma was a little nervous to start with but after a lovely chat about what she likes and dislikes, and anything that makes her feel uncomfortable, we soon overcame the nerves and she visibly relaxed as the shoot went on. Now when the wedding day comes we've already got this shoot to refer back to and I'm sure you'll agree that they will be just fine on the day.

Here are a few of my favourites from the shoot...

















Cliveden Wedding Photographer

{Married} Beriah & Darren - Fulham Palace, London

Last month (on my birthday) I had the pleasure to photograph Beriah and Darren's Wedding at Fulham Palace in London.

For those of you that can remember the competition I ran back in January (see here), Beriah and Darren were the winners.

I started off the day with Beriah getting ready at their flat in Putney. The girls were fantastic and they even had a bottle of "sparkly" and some yummy snacks on the go while they were getting ready. The overall feeling was very laid back and relaxed, which I loved, as there were hardly any nerves getting in the way ;-)

I left the girls to apply the final finishing touches, while I made my way to Fulham All Saints Church to go and meet Darren and the boys. The church was impressive and the ceremony very special, but the icing on the cake for me was the atmospheric Fulham Palace.

The couple walked from the church to the venue, through Bishops Park, which gave them some time alone, away from the crowd. We stopped a couple times on the way to take some photographs before rejoining everybody in the fabulous courtyard at the Palace.

The reception was truly wonderful and the food fantastic, and it was apparent that all the guests were enjoying the celebrations.

It was a beautiful setting and a lovely group of guests, and I felt honoured to have spent my birthday with them on such a special occasion.

Here are a few of my favourites from the day...























































Church: Fulham All Saints
Venue: Fulham Palace
Dress: Pronovias
Caterers: Party Ingredients
Performer: Becki Biggins
Cake: Groom's Mum
Flowers, Stationary and Decorations: Made by the couple themselves!

{London Wedding Photographer}