On the list to photograph weddings at Portmeirion

If you fancy an amazing venue, why not get married at Portmeirion? It's the most incredible place, with a list of recommended photographers that includes us. We've dealt with them frequently over the last year, and we can honestly say they are one of the very best wedding venues in the country.

Wedding testimonials

Tidying up the office I came across two cards that I'd not seen. Both these weddings were in Summer 2009.

Hannah and Adam won the Wyvern FM Runaway Bride competition, so they got us for free, but they didn't actually choose us so it could have been a disaster. But it wasn't:

When we first met you at the Runaway Bride Auditions immediately we knew you would both be our photographers at our wedding, to capture every special moment. This was without a shadow of a doubt even if we hadn't won the competition!

We really cannot express our thanks to you for all your hard work, not only on our wedding day but also in the build up to it! We are thrilled to have met to! And we are pleased to help you in any events you may have in the future. Hannah and Adam Newton-Smith

Christina and Kevin wrote:

We just wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you so much for our fantastic wedding pictures. We are really pleased with them all, so natural and flattering they tell a story better than any video - plus none of the cringe-worthy bits! Every aspect of the day was captured so beautifully, we couldn't have wished for anything better. Enclosed is a small token of our appreciation. Love and best wishes, Christina and Kevin Quinn

And the gave us a voucher for some wine! Blimey!

So what makes us different to every other (arrogant, self-absorbed, prima-donna, grasping) wedding photographers? We work as a genuinely equal professional couple, which reduces all the stress. We capture both sides of the story without changing the events, and we give you all the photos without trying to ring more money out of you later or discarding your precious moments.

Simple really, and it's why we photographed (unobtrusively, sensitively and inexpensively) three times as many weddings in 2009 as in 2008. Why not give us the opportunity to quote for your big day?

Lutes are cool

Rachel was commissioned to take these pictures for local lutenist Liz Pallett. Liz's text when she received the pictures:

"Rachel, I think they are really FAB!! Some are just stunning! Just what I was after. I'm over the moon!!"

It really helped to have a tight brief - Liz knew exactly what she wanted and Rachel got it.

Wyvern FM runaway bride Hannah and Adam's Big Day!

Yep that's JD coming between the happy couple.
Confetti Time
Oops a bit more lippy!
Alysia interviews for JD's show.
True love.

On the cover of Worcestershire Life!!

This month's Worcestershire life has a few of our pictures on the front cover! Fleet street here we come.

Actually, photographing dogs is tricky, so we done good!

Megan Baker House Photography Exhibition at Malvern Theatres

The Megan Baker House exhibition has hit the road, and is on exhibition for the next month at the prestigeous Malvern Theatres.

The Theatres is a lovely modern light building, and about 700 people a day pass through it's doors, so we hope they like the pictures.

It makes a change from teaching photography courses!

Megan Baker House Photography Exhibition

An exhibition of our work opened last night before touring England, and we feel the need to tell everyone about it! It's for charideee, so we don't like to talk about it, but we spent a week (pro bono) at Megan Baker House, where they use conductive education to help people who have been brain injured - perhaps by cerebral palsy, head injury or Parkinson's Disease. Megan Baker House provides conductive education this for free, and people travel there from all over the country to re-learn how to use their limbs. They have no funding from central government, and constantly need to publicise themselves and their work.

To find out more about their work have a look at www.meganbakerhouse.org.uk

The exhibition will be touring to Malvern, Worcester, Hereford and Liverpool, among other UK cities.

We photographed the clients using very wide apertures to accentuate their individuality and to blur a cluttered background. It's a working space, not a studio! The trick to this was not making it look like torture, but not making it look easy either.

Caro Sweet

We were asked to photograph the famous sculptor Caro Sweet's open evening for Worcestershire Life at her studio in Bransford. What an amazing woman! It's fascinating to see such a diverse collection of sculptures! It also turned out that we know each other...how fab to hook up again!

Rocking Piano Man at Linton Festival!

Linton Festival is fab! We were photographing for next year's publicity. Set in the grounds of a pub, the atmosphere was electric, and despite a few drops of rain, nothing dampened the spirits of the bands or the audience! We were particularly chuffed with these photo's of The Rocking Piano Man, Matthew Lee and his band. We think they really capture the atmosphere!

Abbeys and Cadillacs

A bit of wedding photography from yesterday - Christina and Kevin at Pershore Abbey. We love this kind of stuff.

Dog Photography

Worcestershire Life magazine asked us to cover the Three Counties Championship Dog Show (Gundogs). Here's Indra, owned by Rita Abbott. She's a Spanish Water Dog...having a bad hair day...or is it a good one?

Here is judge John Barber hard at work.

German Shorthaired Pointer "Monti" (kennel nane Jennaline John Twirlswell JW SHCM) waiting to show.

Bob's amazing panoramas

Robert Bilsand (www.panoview.co.uk) took these astonishing pictures for our Thursday night group. It's the Malvern Hills (both sides in one picture) from the same spot in day and night. See if you can spot the train!

More rather good photography course pics

Sorry to say we've been pre-occupied with getting our new venture photography made simple (http://www.photographymadesimple.co.uk/) up and running. We did take a group of students from one of our existing photography courses out to photograph landscapes - look at what David and Mike got on a beautiful afternoon in Worcestershire.

Photography Made Simple is up and running!

Our new series of one day photography courses is now available. Have a look at www.photographymadesimple.co.uk

We have six different courses at twelve different locations. We have some of the loveliest locations in England (and the loveliest location in Wales) We're really looking forward to these courses, which begin in July.

Hope to see you there!

Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb Pictures

People pictures are what we normally do, but Worcestershire Life asked us to cover the Hill Climb, so we took our 15m telescopic mast, and a bag full of cameras

It always rains in North Wales

Don't believe the hype! Portmeirion, near Harlech sticks out into the Gulf Stream and has nicer weather than is entirely feasible.

Holy Grail/Da Vinci code mystery solved!!

Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire has beautiful gardens and a well known but never decoded encrypted bit of sculpture known as the Shepherd's Monument, which bears a strange reproduction of the famous Poussin painting Les Bergers d'Arcadie (known to many mystery researchers under the name Et in Arcadia Ego). I can announce that today we have decoded the message beneath. Not very interesting actually.