Wedding photography for a perfectly simple wedding at Islington Town Hall and Almeida restaurant in Islington

"As my mother used to say - the more pretentious the wedding, the less likely the marriage to survive."

Oliver James - author and clinical psychologist

If Oliver James' mother is to be believed, A and D will be together forever.  As a female London wedding photographer, I have seen a few weddings and this one seemed so simple it almost brought tears to my eyes.  D seemed so happy and calm, it seemed like the marriage was the most natural thing in the world.

I met A and D before the wedding for a pre-wedding shoot, where we walked around and found a beautiful garden in Angel, North London to take the wedding photographs.  We tried a variety of couples poses on a sunny Sunday so that we could whiz through the them on the wedding day.  We walked to the Islington town hall and took some photographs by the grand entrance and next door on a grass lawn of a mansion building. 

On their wedding day, I met D at her flat in Angel, where she presented me with a glass of non-alcoholic champagne (which I would definitely recommend to anyone that doesn't drink) and introduced me to her parents.  We took a few family photographs outside the flat before I left to go to the town hall and photograph the groom and his family.

The total wedding party consisted of eight people, and it felt so lovely and intimate that I felt like one of the guests rather than the photographer!

As always, a sample of pictures are above and the rest of them are here.

Children's party photography in the Soho House Hotel

 

"The best way to make children good is to make them happy"

Oscar Wilde

I was recently asked to photograph a childrens' birthday party at the Soho House Hotel in Chiswick.  I arrived at the beautiful venue only to be taken downstairs to a lovely room for a party, but a photographer's nightmare.  There was next to no light and 30 dashing, jumping, excitable children that were not going to slow down for anything.  I grabbed my flash and decided to shoot a slow shutter speed with my SB800 speedlight flash turned down by one stop and reflected off the ceiling and the walls.  So above is a selection of the results.  The full selection can be found here.

The party itself was so much fun, and at one point when entertainers from Sharky and George asked if anyone wanted a sweet, I found my own hand in the air desperate for a tiny bit of sugary goodness.  Unfortunately, I couldn't compete with all of those seven year olds!

As a children's photographer, my mantra has always been to shoot a lot.  Children move around very quickly and don't often give you time to think.  I had also been asked my client for some slightly more creative shots that she could think about using in her living room.  With that in mind I decided to shoot some on really slow shutter speeds to show the children moving around and to try to create the atmosphere in the party photographs.

Balham Street Festival Photographs

"Don't buy the house, buy the neighbourhood" 

Russian Proverb

I don't think the Balham festival is known yet on the international festival circuit, but it certainly exceeded my expectations and gave Balham that 'villagey' feel that people often say describes it.  All the usual faces were there, including Gemma from White Iris Flowers, Dani from Corte Dei Signori, Ron from Robbies Photographic, and hundreds of others that had come to see the various entertainers. 

As I wasn't there as an official event photographer, I was able to potter around and take a few pictures of the comings and goings of the various people.  It was so lovely to have such a neighbourly feel to Balham and to see people mingling, meeting new people, laughing, giggling and sharing such a lovely day.

I had only recently been on the street photography course with Digital Photography magazine, so I was trying to put my new skills into practice to photograph the various people and expressions.  You can see the full selection of pictures here.

Family portrait photography at the "Lavender Fields"

In true man there is a child concealed - who wants to play! 

Friedrich Nietzche

 Having photographed the Corte Dei Signori at work (see previous blog here), Dani asked me to have a picnic with his family in the Lavender fields and then to take some family photographs.  Janet, Dani's wife has a great love of lavender fields and you can certainly see why.  The fields are incredibly beautiful, with endless rows of thick, bushy lavender.  I was expecting the smell to be slightly overpowering, but it was so gentle it provided for the perfect setting.  

As a London family photographer, I have worked in a variety of different places, but it isn't often that I see such a beautiful location so close to the center of town.  We had a picnic lunch of cheese and bread fresh from Italy that week.  

After lunch, I photographed the family in a variety of poses using a reportage photography style as well as a slightly more formal and posed style.  You can see the full range of shots here.  As a family portrait photographer, I find the best shots come from taking a step back and just allowing the family to play together.  My favourite shots are the more relaxed and natural ones where it seems that they are sharing a hilarious moment.

Bess & Jack's pre-wedding photoshoot at Christchurch in Wimbledon

"The most wasted of days is one without laughter" (E E Cummings)

I met Bess in a pub in Clapham to discuss her wedding day and to run through the timings, planing and ideas that she had generally and what she was looking for from me as a wedding photographer.  A couple of glasses of wine later and a lot of laughter we were marginally closer to forming a wedding plan.  (We had also hatched lots of other plans such as starting a POD to make sociable guerrilla bags, making cycle clothing and designing logos!!)

I first met Bess' fiance, Jack, at Christchurch in Wimbledon when he and Bess had come for their pre-wedding shoot (or engagement shoot as they are more commonly known).  Jack and Bess areare instantly likeable and the kind of people that make you feel completely at ease.  It felt like I had spent more time laughing than taking photographs.  I just love my job as a portrait and wedding photographer! 

Engagement photographs are a great idea for camera shy people or when timings are tight on the day as there is time to run through different couple's poses in a relaxed environment.  It also meant that Bess and Jack can see what works for them and how they want their wedding pictures to look on the day without taking them away from their guests for too long.  The engagement pictures can also be used on the wedding day as decorations, for example as the cover of the guest book or a framed photograph for all the guests to sign.

A pre-wedding shoot at the church is also a great opportunity to meet the vicar to check any church rules and how the service is to run so we can plan the church photographs.

The full selection of poses, from the more traditional styles to some funky ones involving gargoyles (!!) is here. 

I'm not the center of the universe!!?!

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." 

Bertrand Russell

The thought of photographing strangers on the street has always terrified me.  I have looked at professional travel photography with awe, thinking that I'll never have the confidence to photograph people that I don't know.  Steve McCurry's 'Afghan Girl' is always the portrait that springs to mind when I think of such photographs and how far I am from being that kind of photographer.

So when I saw a tweet from Digital Photographer magazine asking if anyone wanted a street photography tutorial, I jumped at the chance.  As I was waiting for Carlo (my tutor from The Round Peg) and Claire from DP magazine to turn up, the realisation of becoming a London Street Photographer for the afternoon dawned on me and I thought about doing a runner!!

When Carlo and Claire arrived, they were so nice I couldn't think about leaving (also they had wedged me in, so I would have had to leap frog one of them!). We spent the first half an hour discussing some of the theoretical side, such as the legal position and image rights.  In short (and having trained as a lawyer, this does not come easily to me) it seems (another lawyer favourite: never commit to anything) photographing people on the street is permitted as long as it is not for an excluded reason, such as for commercial photography purposes or it amounts to harassment.  There is a great article on Siromo Photo's website here that summarises the law.  Although from a bit of research it seems that the UK courts are taking a slightly more relaxed stance to the European Courts, and so we may see a shift in the UK towards furthering an individual's right to privacy.

Carlo gave me loads of other great tips (which you'll have to go on his course to discover!), but the main ones were really to smile and not to think that everyone is looking at me.  He pointed out that I am not the center of the universe (errr what!?!) and that most people hadn't even noticed me taking their portrait.

There was one situation where the people being photographed got a little angry (see the picture of the nice man putting his finger up at me!) but generally people were more amused than anything.  The people that noticed that I was photographing them, smiled or gave me quizzical looks; some thought they were in my way, so quickly moved.  I had a great time as a street photographer.  It is easy to capture relaxed and interesting photographs in London as there is such variety in people, places and attitudes.  

I got to put my training into action at the Balham Street Festival.... more to come on that in the future blogs....

Joss and Ed's wedding photographs

What can I say?  This was such a magical day and so lovely of Joss to ask me to photograph her wedding in Guildford, Surrey.  Joss spent the day telling her guests that we used to play post offices when we were little.  I'm terribly embarrassed that she remembers, because I was pretty strict about my post office and not letting anything get out of order.

I hadn't seen Joss for about 20 years (when we last played post offices!) and she had changed a little.  Aside from being taller (!), she was the most beautiful bride and so easy to photograph.  Joss and Ed got married in Guildford Registry Office which is a lovely little venue, with great light falling in through the window onto the bride and groom to help make the wedding album look even better.  

The day began with a couple of hiccups: the hairdresser missed her train, so off I dashed in the car to grab her, and bride's brother getting locked in the car and an emergency rescue mission being launched (i.e. his mum dashing back to unlock said car and whisk him back to the waiting registrar and bridal party).  But other than that, the day went smoothly.

The wedding breakfast was held at Gate Street Barn wedding venue in Bramley.  The Barn is tucked in the Surrey hills to give a very intimate feel, but with enough space to take lovely relaxed wedding photographs.  Fortunately, I grew up in the area so was able to be a Guildford Wedding Photographer for the day without getting totally lost on the lanes that aren't even on the map!!!

So as usual, I've posted a selection of the Guildford wedding photographs above, but the full album is here.

Wedding photography at All Saints Church, Putney and the Star & Garter

Juliet and Guy's wedding was superb and I hope you can get a glimpse of that from the wedding photographs.  This is just a tiny selection; the full set are here.  It began with the preparations at Juliet's parents' house in Putney, before moving to All Saints Church on Putney Common.  The weather was beautiful, Juliet looked lovely, and the champagne flowed.  The service was give by Revd Chris Eyden.  It was a really interesting service about the symbolism of hands in marriage.  Revd Eyden talked about the exchange of rings to be worn on the ring finger of the left hand.  The reason, he explained, was that traditionally the right hand was the stronger, fighting hand, and the middle finger is the strongest, the pinkie is the weakest, the wedding ring sits in between the two.  Revd Eyden suggested this might be to symbolise the protection that marriage can bring and the strength your partner can give you when you are at your weakest.  What a lovely and comforting thought.

Interestingly, there is some disagreement about which hand the wedding rings should be worn.  The belief that the ring should be worn on the left hand can be traced back to ancient Egyptian times.  Egyptians represented eternity with the sign of a circle, and they chose the left ring finger as they believed that the vein came straight from the heart and was therefore known as the 'vein of love'.  This belief then seems to have been adopted through the ancient Greek times to current times as we know them.

Way back when the symbolism began, the ring would have been made out of reeds, or other biodegradable material.  It wasn't until much later that precious metals were used.  Interestingly Irish folklore says that it is bad luck to have a wedding ring made of anything but gold.  So remember that one girls, when he tries to give you a Haribo ring instead!!!

The wedding breakfast was then held at the Star and Garter in Putney.  What a fab location!!  It is right on the river, with a beautiful room and lovely staff (who went out of their way to find me some delicious grub!)

Sun, Clapham Junction and Olives, what more could you ask for!!?!

Dani and Janet Signori make the best olive oil I have ever tasted.  I'm not far off believing it must be the best olive oil in the world!!  The Corte del Signori sells olive oil all over the UK, selling in various farmers markets in and around London.  Dani and Janet, husband and wife, are some of the kindest and most giving people I have ever met.  (Dani is also slightly bonkers - when I first met him he was wearing his ripped Ugg boots in freezing snow whilst concocting new and exciting adventures for how to finish refurbishing his idylic olive grove properties in Italy).


Dani asked me to photograph the Clapham market on Lavendar Hill.  As an event and portrait photographer I jumped at the chance to document his stall and the customer experience that he was offering.  He sells his award winning olive oil (judged 4th best in the country by the Daily Telegraph) together with honey, fresh bread, cheese and a delightful mixture of other delicious delicacies. 

The Corte del Signori's olive oil is also good for you!  Here's why:
- it lowers cholesterol
- lowers the incidence of heart disease and cancer
- and whilst I was at the stall, one of his customers swears by rubbing it on their skin!!!

York Wedding Photography

Albert Einstein said that "Imagination is more important than knowledge".  Who am I to question Alby, but even with that little gem, I felt that knowledge and imagination could be a great thing as a wedding photographer.  Instead of being a London wedding photographer for the weekend, I grabbed my passport, camera and cassette tapes to learn northern phrases and headed for York where I was scooped up by Hull Wedding Photographer, Andy Crozier.  Andy and I worked together many moons ago as portrait photographers in Canada.

I had a great day, learning about different ways of doing things, from little things such as coordinating the confetti shot to larger and more important things like always carrying a pen knife in your bag for whatever emergency arises.  Amy and Dan, the bride and groom, were really, really lovely people.  So happy and friendly (I think it's a northern thing). I've attached a couple of the wedding photographs I took on the day for you to take a look at.

Andy is such a great photographer and always has a great rapport with his clients so it was lovely to see him in action.  If there is one thing that I have taken away from the day, it's that being a wedding photographer is more than just taking photographs.  It's a about putting all the pieces of the wedding day together; co-ordinating all the parties, the reception staff, the caterers, calming the bride and groom, moving the day on at the right time, keeping guests informed and most importantly, knowing how to attach the wedding buttonholes!!!

Fitness Photography

 

www.alexharrisoncripps.co.uk/prince

Prince by name, body building Prince by nature!

I met Prince in the magistrates court in Kingston (no I hadn't been naughty - it was back when I was training to be a lawyer!) he was one of the security guards looking after a prisoner I was working with.  In his spare time he worked on his body.. and a lot of work he must have put in too!  To photograph muscles it is important to get your subject to warm up first to wake up the muscles to make them more prominent.  I felt guilty making him do endless press-ups, but he seemed happy enough.

These are just a few of the pictures I took in the studio that day.  We used a mixture of light sources, but I found that one hard light was enough to give him a mean angry face and defined muscles.  This kind of lighting wouldn't work so well for female portrait photography but it worked well with Prince's muscular body.  The problem is that Prince's character is so charming and quiet it didn't seem to quite suit him.  It was all I could do to get him to stop giggling and grinning!

Faye the beautiful actress!

Faye came to me to take some headshots for her acting applications and her agent.  She was such fun to work with, telling us hilarious stories as she was getting her make-up done and then being a great sport in front of the camera.  We worked on several different lighting set ups.  I used natural light from one of the windows for some of the headshots and then added a reflector for fill light.   We then moved over to the studio set up where I used a couple of soft boxes and a variety of backdrops.

It's all in the eyes for actors' headshots, and Faye's eyes were beautiful.  The most interesting thing about photographing Faye is that she looks so different in different poses, hairstyles and backgrounds.  Above is a selection of shots from the day, the rest of the photographs can be found here.

Interior photography for Hannah the yoga teacher and builder!

I met this very charismatic yoga teacher at a fair I did last Christmas.  She had more energy than most people I know put together, had a hilarious story about attempting to sell helium balloons on a windy day, which had me in stitches and knows her way around a car fuse box.  As well as her yoga business, she is also working as, well, a builder (I'm not sure if that would offend her interior design skills).  She needed some interior photographs for her portfolio so asked me to become a North London photographer for the day (a bit different from my usual portrait photography!)

She and Ash (her partner in business, life and crime (not real crime, I should add)) picked me up in their Land Rover, the genuine sort, not the Chelsea tractor sort, and handed me a coffee and muffin and off we went to this beautiful flat in Chancery lane. 


Interior photography isn't something I'd tried my hand at before, but I found it so calming.  There is none of the pressure of event photography and no need to rush, everything can be done in your own time.  I did miss the human interaction (that rubber ducky just didn't have any good chat!) but found the whole thing quite calming.  To top it off, Hannah and Ash gave me a beautiful green yoga bag that I'd had my eye on at the fair as a thank you.

Here is a picture of them hard at work.... their skill and dedication obviously paid off because their next door neighbours have asked them to interior design their flat as well!

Tikkis Mikkis in Paris!

Tikkis Mikkis in Paris armed with a couple of French phrases and a Nikon D60 (nice and light for travelling)!

Tikkis Mikkis became a Paris Photographer for the weekend of the marathon and photographed the marathon runners (well two runners in particular, known as G and F). The day was beautiful and I cycled around on one of the hire bikes that you can rent for an hour or two (called Velibs) gasping at sites such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

Photography in the Notre Dame Cathedral was a bit more challenging as there wasn't much light and I wasn't carrying a tripod. I took some slow shutter photographs whilst zooming in on the windows. We even had a mini Paris Tikkis Mikkis photography course in the Cathedral for G & F to have a go at zooming and rotating the camera whilst on a slow shutter. Digital photography is great for learning as you can see the instant results and learn what effects changes to different settings make. I've included one of the shots below as an example.

I want to Belly Dance....!

Fleur Estelle, international Belly Dancer, needed a London event photographer to capture shots of her show, Tikkis Mikkis went along to the University of London Union to document the event. I was completely blown away and had to keep reminding myself that I was there to take pictures and not just to stand in complete awe of the beautiful dancers. The belly dancing classes must be amazing to produce such a well choreographed event.

The Bedlehs, or traditional suits, were all completely individual and made the acts with more dancers seem even more impressive. There were all different types of belly dancing, from Tribal Fusion to Bollywood Fusion, from beginners to advanced. The finale was a dance by the three belly dancing instructors. They had the most beautiful silver fans to make a truly dramatic end to the show. Here is a small selection of the pictures I took. The rest can be seen on the Tikkis Mikkis site here.

Sanaz the beautiful belly dancer!

So there's Sanaz, she's beautiful and she's a belly dancer and even better still, she wanted her picture taken! So Tikkis Mikkis teamed up with Lara Myles and her amazing make-up skills (obviously not that I'm saying you needed it Sanaz!) and this is a tiny selection of what we ended up with. Sanaz and Lara were so much fun to work with (although Lara kept pulling faces at Sanaz to make her giggle, so she might have to sit on the naughty stool next time!).

Sanaz brought along some traditional music to belly dance to. (I didn't notice that it was only 3 tracks on loop though!)

Thanks so much Sanaz for being so beautiful and Lara for doing such fab make-up.

Crouch End to L.A.

Lindsay Lucas-Bartlett asked London Portrait Photographers, Tikkis Mikkis to take some shots of her that were a little bit different, edgy and would look fun on her new website.

Lindsay asked me to come up to Crouch End to photograph her in woods and tunnels (errrr.... really? I vaguely remember something about not going into the woods with strangers Lindsay).

It gets worse....I randomly opened the book Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK and found that Crouch End was listed in there!!! Hmmmm!?

So, off I trotted to meet a stranger in the woods in one of the worst places to live in the UK. Excellent....

It turns out that both Crouch End and Lindsay are lovely. Lindsay was a lot of fun and not someone anyone should be afraid of going into the woods with (!!).

Lindsay has since moved up in the world of acting and is now living in L.A. Although, I'm sure she's missing those 'urban graffiti tunnels' that she was so fond of.

Lara the fab make-up artist (I'll post her latest work if I get permission from the model) and Lindsay together with a friend of hers from Greece.

London Photography

With the sun shining, for the first time in what seems like ages, London Photographer Tikkis Mikkis took off with camera in hand to try to capture some of London's sights but from a slightly different angle. Battersea Power Station was the first stop..... I obviously had ideas above my station, as I tried to persuade the guards on the main gate that they should let me in to take some pictures. It would have made a great location for a trash the dress shoot. Surprise surprise, the guards were having none of my chat, and nor was the receptionist in a new build with what looked like a great roof terrace. So I made do with a pub balcony and a bench by the side of the road!!!

Next stop was to take photographs of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. But on the way, I came across these crazy guys jumping great distances onto various different posts.

You can see that the aim was to land on that tiny black box at the side of Albert Embankment!!!

And so, on to Big Ben and then the London Eye.