Had a good day at Frencham Ponds Hotel on 24th Jan 2010, what a beautiful hotel for weddings and civil ceremonies. A huge lake out the front with a small stream and a bridge to cross over for feeding the water birds. There is also a nice area round the back for photographs, a nice rural venue for a wedding or civil ceremony.

photograph of Frencham Ponds Hotel front view

photograph of a great wedding venue

photograph of rear of venue for wedding photographs

Sherfield school is a beautiful old building converted to a school that allows wedding receptions to be held at the school. Huge fireplaces and beautiful grounds give some stunning backgrounds to your wedding photography or civil ceremony photography. Call me on Basingstoke 01256 333205, your local female wedding photographer for quotes and a personal discussion.

There are some beautiful spots within the grounds of Trunkwell house all very close to the house so no long treks to get some nice photographs.Below are a couple of views of the back gardens:

At Trunkwell Mansion House, Mortimer near Reading, Berskshire they have the most beautiful room they use for the civil ceremonies, a real old fashioned fireplace and classic chairs with antique oil paintings on the wall. Below is a photograph of the room.

I have finally choosen the albums to replace those supplied by Spicer Hall field who recently liquidated, they are now populated and prices sorted ready for the new wedding fair season. Call me to arrange a time and date to view them. Basingstoke 01256 333205 or the mobile 07818 858217, photographs coming soon on the prices page to show youwhat they look like.

wedding album photograph layout

I went to the Brighton Gay Pride Parade on Saturday and had a fantastic time, what a great atmosphere there was, so much like a carnival and I got some great photographs here are a couple for now. There was a fun fair and a couple of stages with bands performing live music all free.

As some of you may have heard the album manufacturer Spicer Hallfield has liqudated. Most of my albums were supplied by them so I have had to look for a new supplier. I am very pleased to announce that I have chosen the Italian handmade albums supplied by Mario Acerboni. Beautiful albums that come in 4 sizes and 4 colours. All these albums have a one inch border around the pages and take real photographs as either montage prints or with overlays. Sizes are (approximate inches) 10×10, 8×8,  A4  and 7×5 colours are iced diamond (silver grey), perl (cream), black and burgundy, the iced diamond colour is only available in the larger sizes. I shall also continue with the madison albums which do not have a border and come in black or white covers with a window on the front for a small photograph and 3 sizes, 12×12, 10×10 and 8×8 inches (approx). For the top end packages I shall be using the Australian Seldex albums, these have printed perspex covers or brushed aluminuim covers and are large albums (approx 11×14 inches ) with real photographs with overlays on them. Coming soon I shall put photographs of each album on my website so that you know what all the terms mean and what the albums look like.

What a super unusual venue! Milestones Museum in Basingstoke is open for wedding receptions and events. You can wander amung the exhibits to your hearts content. They even open the 1940’s pub so that you have access to beer and spirits during the evening festivities, unfortunately the prices aren’t 1940’s! There are some great places to have photographs taken, like this one outside the green grocers.

Tylney Hall is a great venue for weddings as it has so much land with so many different features which makes for varied photographs (you don’t have to have the same background all the time). There are 2 stone pergolas with stone steps leading down to them whcih can make for some very different images, see the one below:

Panning is a technique used to give the idea of movment and to capture a fast moving object. It works best when the object to be photographed moves across in front of you from left to right or right to left. You focus on the object and follow it movement and at the appropriate point press the shutter to capture the object as sharp as you can whilst at the same time keeping the background blurred to give the idea of movement. It is very important that you follow the motion even after pressing the shutter button as with all sports the follow through is important. Getting the speed right is the hard part particularly with fast moving objects like sports cars. (also if you have Image Stabalisation on the lend with 2 types remember to turn off the horizontal stabilisation).

Below is a picture where the speed was just right the carriage driver is just sharp and the background is completely blurred.

correct panning

Below is a photograph with the speed too fast so nothing is sharp.

photograph too blurred

Below is a photograph where the panning motion was too slow (probably due to too fast a shutter speed) so the image is too sharp.

The above photographs were all taken at Farliegh House near Basingstoke during the carriage driving trials, the driver is Karen Bassett who was warming up before the cones part of the competition.