I also do landscapes and sunsets...

...when I can!

I know this is a wedding and portrait blog. But someone asked me the other day if I do other forms of photography. 

The short answer is "YES!"

The middle length answer is "Yes I do when I can find time or I see a particularly inspirational landscape in front of me or an intense sunset"...just like the one below which was taken barely an hour ago which in turn made me get on this blog.

Glencoe, Scotland (March 2012 when we passed through it on the way to a wedding up in the western highlands)

Glastonbury Tor, Somerset - Summer Solstice 2012 (typical UK weather) 

Sunset over Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, Spring 2009

Somerset in snow, Quantock Hills, January 2010

To see more of my landscape and sunset work click this sentence.

Many faces of Steve !!

I know I said the next post would be about CHRISTMAS but I had to get this one up here first!

Long time friends (and pretty much family) TEAM INNALLS tried to have a semi serious family shoot in the studio the other day.

Steve likes think he's a bit of a joker and insisted on pulling all sorts of daft faces throughout the shoot.

Seems like his look hasn't changed much from last year when Steve thought he'd go for this look...turns out he makes a pretty good zombie!  FIT !!

Hi (!!) to all the blog viewers from around the world!!

After seeing the blog view counter go up and up and up over the last few weeks I thought I'd have a quick look at where people are viewing from!

Hi to those in the UK - my main audience, thank you ! 

Hi also all those in the USA, Canada, Holland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bermuda, Germany, Dominican Republic, Ukraine and South Africa! 

Next post I'll be uploading some photos from all the Christmas portrait shoots we've been flatout with in the studio for the last couple of weeks!! 

In the mean time, here's a funny photo of a horse from the wedding of Denise & Bruce - an awesome Australian couple who came over to the UK for their wedding back in September (before I was blogging all the weddings we shoot).

Keep spreading the word and the love please

Oliver Hellowell's Photography Exhibition

This weekend, from 6pm on Friday you have the chance to view the work of 16 year Oliver Hellowell.

He's an inspiring young man with downs syndrome who's dream of being a photographer combined with a love for wildlife and the outdoors has lead him to to take some amazing photos. 

In turn has challenged the beliefs of some people...people who believed someone with a disability like Oliver's could never achieve.

Come and see for yourself!

Friday's launch event opens at 6pm.

Postcode for your satnav: TA7 0LN

Our Premium PhotoBooks

I thought it might be good to do a promo video showcasing one of our clients Premium PhotoBooks.

We shot Craig & Louise's wedding up in their home town of Beaumaris on Anglesey (North Wales) and at their reception at Seiont Manor in Snowdonia.

The Premium Photobooks include a FREE professional design service by skilled designers to create stunning storybooks from your photographs, finished by expert printing and hand-binding of your albums. Choose from eight sizes of Premium Photobooks - all with pages that lay flat to create stunning edge-to-edge panoramic spreads.

After our Brides & Grooms have received their photographs on DVD they can being the not so easy task of choosing which photographs to include in their album, but there's no rush! One couple have only just ordered their Premium PhotoBook, nearly 2 years after their wedding!  Once chosen we shall get your photographs to the designers. You can chose from 3 design styles and also get to approve the design before printing, or easily request changes.

Printing of our Premium PhotoBooks is no ordinary feat. Printing, laminating and hand-binding are all parts of a 23 stage process that ensures the hard-bound Photobooks are as handsome as they are durable.

Your Premium Photobook design is printed onto professional silver halide photo paper using state-of-the-art digital printing press.

Thin sheets of PVC are then inserted to ensure the finished pages are rigid and infinitely more robust than lower quality photo books. This also means that when your Photobook is open the pages lie flat - the design is displayed across the entire spread, creating a stunning, edge-to-edge panoramic effect.

Finally your front and back photos are mounted onto the covers then sealed underneath a clear crystal acrylic to provide protection and an ultra-stylish finish.

If you're getting married and need photographers we can shoot your wedding anywhere in the world! Drop us an email with your wedding details!

Halloween Wedding !!

 

When the call came through from Carl's father to book I was really excited to shoot our first Halloween wedding!! 

 

 

 

As soon as I heard that Carl & Clare had EVERYTHING themed including all the guests being asked to wear red and black I knew it definitely wasn't going to be your average wedding especially when I found out Metallica was on the cards somewhere along the lines!  BRILLIANT!

They arrived together at Bridgwater Registry Office in a beautiful 1963 Rover 110. Clare was dressed in a tight, body hugging black, ankle length dress with black roses and detailing around the neck, her hair curled with a black fascinator, a stunning red rose bouquet, her custom Dr Martin's and a black Metallica emblem necklace.  

Carl was in a black suit, red shirt and black tie, contrasting with his Bestmen in black shirts and red ties. 

Clare's Maid of Honour, Tara, was dressed in a red and black dress and silver and red necklace, matching earrings and a red rose corsage. 

The Bridesmaids were Carl & Clare's daughters, dressed in knee length red dresses with black swirly rose patterns, black tights, black cardys, red shoes, red mini rose bouquets and cheeky smiles!

Walking down the aisle to "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica with her father and her 2 girls in front, Clare looked as calm as when they arrived to the venue. Carl, stood at the front with his 2 Bestmen definitely looked the more nervous of the couple!  

 After the Ceremony the couple walked out to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" again by Metallica.


 

As the couple's wedding reception was at the Castle Club in Bridgwater I had suggested we shoot the group photographs in Bridgwater's King's Square, a beautiful square of Georgian buildings with a small park in it's centre which I knew would look amazing at this time of year with its abundance of autumn leaves from the ancient chestnut trees.

 

 

After the group photos it was starting to get a bit chilly but Carl & Clare were still game for some photos so I grabbed some relaxed shots of the happy Halloween couple walking through the park in the autumn leaves and around the side streets of King's Square as they walked to the Castle Club for their reception.

 

The reception was done up with Halloween decorations, carved pumpkins on all the tables as well as sweets and treats! I especially loved their cake, again in their theme - very dark chocolate icing and red rose petals topped off with awesome and very accurate models of Carl and Clare handmade by Tara the Maid of Honour.

 

Congratulations to Carl & Clare!

Test photos!

These are test photos from my Vest Pocket Kodak (c.1925) mounted (as per the previous post) on my modern Canon 5d mark2.

 





I have to report that these photos are disappointingly good quality! It works for everything from portraits to macro & arty abstract to landscape and focuses by sliding the lens on the rails forward and back. 

 






I was hoping for ghosting, light leaks, flares and at the very least ridiculous vignetting! None of which are apparent to the extremes I was hoping for :-(   The worst thing about this lens is I've cleaned the glass and I can still see black spots and various marks on the photographs.   

 
For me this lens' strongest feature is it's ability for close up portraits and macro shots. The aperture is controlled by spinning a disc on the front of the Kodak lens that literally has 4 different diameter holes in it (1-4 although I'm not sure what these reference to regarding f#). What I can see is that due to round apertures the bokeh is really quite nice as it's not dictated by the number of blades as per more modern lenses.  As it was pretty dank and grey out today I kept the aperture wide open on #4 but I still had to crank the ISO so that's why some of the darker photos might look noisy if you're pixel peeping. Ctrl Click (MacOS) or right click (windoze) to "save as" to view the Shutter and ISO on each photograph.

None of these photos have been near photoshop (apart from to go through my droplet to make them a more web friendly size).  The photo of my daughter to the right was an in camera sepia effect.

All in all this lens actually works very well if you can manually focus and definitely got a few odd looks and started a couple conversations when in town and in the coffee shop. 

I got the EXIF data from Simple EXIF Viewer - available for free.

I think I might have to try fitting another of my vintage cameras to the 5d to see what happens. STAY TUNED! 

In the mean time, if you have any friends or family getting married, anywhere in the world don't hesitate to get in touch (I promise not to use this setup ;-) )