Wednesday 30 September 2009

Wedding at the Queen Hotel in Chester

We are both looking forward to Saturday 3rd October 2009 (good grief, it's nearly another birthday for me) when we are photographing the wedding of Heather and John.

The ceremony is at the magnificent St Werburgh's Church in the centre of Chester and the reception is not too far away at the Queen Hotel.

Should be a great day and the weather forecast is good (keeping everything crossed guys)

This week..

We've been very busy this week. We've finished editing the photographs from Angela and Howard's wedding on Saturday (26th Sept 2009) and have been finishing off the final edit and 'polish up' of some images we are supplying to a tourist board for a forthcoming promotional leaflet and brochure.

It's actually very difficult producing this sort of photography. Any organisation wanting to promote a town or city obviously wants it to look it's best which means clean, uncluttered streets and blue skies. Of course, living in the UK it's almost impossible to judge when these three situations come together which can and does make life very difficult.

On Thursday, Neil's sister has her baby (whoo hoo) so we are no doubt going to be travelling over to Liverpool to visit her and the little 'un (my money is on a girl but we shall see) but first of all we are off to Manchester Airport for a commercial photography assignment for one of our regular clients.

Saturday the 3rd October (good grief, it's almost my birthday again) will see us at the wedding of Heather and John at the magnificent St Werburgh's Church in the centre of Chester followed by the reception just down the road at the Queen Hotel.

As I write this, Neil is looking at holiday company websites. He should be so lucky!

Tuesday 29 September 2009

Forest Hills Hotel ♥ Angela and Howard

As mentioned in our earlier blog entry, Saturday saw us covering the wedding of Angela and Howard.

The ceremony itself was at the famous church of St Peters at Aston By Sutton in Cheshire. This church has an incredible history and is in fact a Grade 1 Listed building. The reception was at the Forest Hills Hotel in Frodsham in Cheshire.

Everybody had a great time and the weather whilst not sunny was at least dry and quite mild.

A bit of advice for the guys though. Next time you are caught short before a wedding ceremony, make sure you go for a pee behind a thick bush and not one that everyone standing in the road can see through - I have the photographic evidence!

As usual, a few of the hundreds of photographs we have taken on the day.

Howard and his two best men anxiously wait for the arrival of the bride

Angela walks up the aisle with her father

A confetti moment. I love lots of confetti!

Angela with her bridesmaids

The boys whilst still fairly sober

More photographs from the The Forest Hills Hotel and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Monday 28 September 2009

Playing with trains again

A few weeks ago, I reported our visit to the nearby town of Llangollen and the great day we had travelling up and down the Llangollen Steam Railway during their Autumn Steam Gala.

We enjoyed it so much that when we heard about the Severn Valley Railway's Autumn Gala we couldn't resist and so Friday 25th September 2009 saw us travelling south to Bridgnorth.

What a fantastic day! Neil and I know very little about steam trains but you don't have to just to soak up the atmosphere when being close to and travelling on these magnificent locomotives. The sights, sounds and smells really stir the imagination and when these huge noisy beasts pulls into a station, you almost believe you can hear Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in one of their scenes from "Brief Encounter". It is so evocative of a bygone age.

Anyway, enough of the romanticism, here are a few photographs I took on the day.

Locomotives in the sidings at Brignorth Station

A locomotive enters Highley Station

And the same locomotive steams out of Highley Station

Another locomotive enters Bewdley Station

Friday 25 September 2009

Wedding at the Forest Hills Hotel

Had a nice break last week so we could spend a few days in the university city of Cambridge but back to normality this week and on Saturday, we are looking forward to the wedding of Angela and Howard.

The ceremony is at the historic church of St Peter's, Aston on Sutton and the reception will be at the Forest Hills Hotel in Frodsham, Cheshire.

As usual, we'll post a few photographs from the wedding on this blog in due course.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Sailing down the river...

We've just got back from a few days in very sunny Cambridge.

Cambridge has to be one of the most beautiful towns or cities in the UK and when the sun shines as it did for us, there can be none finer.

If anyone has invented a better way to relax than to sail slowly down the River Cam on a punt, sun blazing down, a glass of something cold and ever so slightly alcoholic in your hand and the only sound that of ducks and the occasional Moorhen, then I have yet to hear about it.

Back to normality today but here are a few photos of a couple of the iconic landmarks photographed during our visit.

King's College Chapel (Cambridge University)

Bridge of Sighs (St John's College, Cambridge University)

King's College Chapel (Cambridge University)

Bridge of Sighs (St John's College, Cambridge University)

Friday 18 September 2009

Welsh Rugby Hero - JPR Williams

One of the absolute delights of our job is that from time to time we get to meet some really important or famous people.

Even better than that, we occasionally get to meet people that have had some special place in our lives and for me, one of those people was a sporting hero from my youth, JPR Williams.

Today we were commissioned to photograph him on behalf of Arriva Buses who have named their newest fleet of 15 buses after Welsh Rugby Heroes and JPR Williams came out on top as the greatest Welsh Rugby Hero of all time.

What a thrill to meet and talk with this great man and he was so friendly and accommodating to the demands of this particular photographer.



Wednesday 16 September 2009

Going by tube

YouTube that is.

We've put a small selection of photos from a number of our weddings at various popular venues into video format and put them onto YouTube. If you are interested in having a look, then simply click here to go to our YouTube Channel.

On the tube

YouTube that is.

We've put a small selection of photos from a number of our weddings at various popular venues into video format and put them onto YouTube. If you are interested in having a look, then simply click here to go to our YouTube Channel.

What a hoot!

Oh good, the corny blog titles are back.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that some of our library of Owl photographs are being used by a Calendar company. Now they have decided the ones they want to use, I can post a few others as I promised I would.

I first became interested in photography as a very small lad because of my interest in Natural History.

It was a way of me showing the creatures I discovered to my father who was unable to accompany me on my nature rambles because of a severe disability.

My love of nature has never left me and when I get the time, I like nothing better than to get out and about and photographs the natural world.

More of our Natural History photographs can be seen on our main website by clicking HERE

Tawny Owl chick

Barn Owl on fence post

Barn Owl on fence post

Barn Owl in the snow

Monday 14 September 2009

Wedding at Ruthin Castle

Our second visit to Ruthin Castle inside of a week and our third wedding of the week (phew) but what a high note to end the week on.

The first thing I have to mention was Nadia's wedding dress. I have never seen a dress quite like this. It was so different that when I first saw it I was completely blown away. It was truly magnificent with incredibly ornate beading and the most amazing deep red trim to the body and forming part of the train.

The weather was glorious as it has been all week and add this to the mix of a great couple, fun, friendly friends and family and the wonderful setting of Ruthin Castle in Denbighshire then you have all the necessary ingredients for a terrific wedding (which this most certainly was).

As usual, I can show you a few of the photographs from the wedding. We'll post a few more photos over on our wedding blog at www.barrieneilweddings.blogspot.com

Ruthin Castle ♥ Nadia and Ste

Our second visit to Ruthin Castle inside of a week and our third wedding of the week (phew) but what a high note to end the week on.

The first thing I have to mention was Nadia's wedding dress. I have never seen a dress quite like this. It was so different that when I first saw it I was completely blown away. It was truly magnificent with incredibly ornate beading and the most amazing deep red trim to the body and forming part of the train.

The weather was glorious as it has been all week and add this to the mix of a great couple, fun, friendly friends and family and the wonderful setting of Ruthin Castle in Denbighshire then you have all the necessary ingredients for a terrific wedding (which this most certainly was).

As usual, I can show you a few of the photographs from the wedding.

The civil ceremony at Ruthin Castle

Signing the register

Just lazing around

Look Nadia, someone has pinched my pint!

In the gardens at Ruthin Castle

More photographs from the Ruthin Castle and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Saturday 12 September 2009

Big boys train set

We don't know much about trains but like most people, there is a certain fascination with the old steam trains that were once a familiar sight on Britain's railways.

Therefore when we heard about the Llangollen Railway Autumn Steam Gala, we just had to pop over yesterday (Friday 11th September 2009) and travel on some of these wonderful locomotives.

With the weather being so kind, we had a terrific day topped off with eating rather too much at our favourite restaurant, The Corn Mills.

Here are a couple of photographs from yesterday


Wedding at The Lion Quays Hotel in Oswestry

Another day when the sun shone strongly enough to melt the tarmac (and we haven't had many of those since June of this year). Thursday 10th September 2009 and we were photographing the wedding of Lindsay and Keith.

This was a truly "international" wedding as the couple married at the gorgeous St Deniol's Church in our home town of Hawarden in Flintshire, North Wales and the wedding reception was at the Lion Quays in Oswestry, Shropshire, England.

Lindsay's dress was so feminine and suited her to perfection. I'm no dress expert but the tight bodice giving way to a scalloped effect looked absolutely stunning. The bridesmaids, groom and ushers were dressed in brown (very popular colour this year) and the flowers were a really striking bright orange.

As I mentioned earlier, the sun shone brightly all day which is great for the couple but a nightmare for photographers but we've some fantastic photographs which the happy couple can enjoy after their return from the west coast of the United States and Hawaii (I wouldn't mind being there myself right now)

We'll post a few more photos over on our wedding blog at www.barrieneilweddings.blogspot.com

Lion Quays ♥ Lindsay and Keith

Another day when the sun shone strongly enough to melt the tarmac (and we haven't had many of those since June of this year). Thursday 10th September 2009 and we were photographing the wedding of Lindsay and Keith.

This was a truly "international" wedding as the couple married at the gorgeous St Deniol's Church in our home town of Hawarden in Flintshire, North Wales and the wedding reception was at the Lion Quays in Oswestry, Shropshire, England.

Lindsay's dress was so feminine and suited her to perfection. I'm no dress expert but the tight bodice giving way to a scalloped effect looked absolutely stunning. The bridesmaids, groom and ushers were dressed in brown (very popular colour this year) and the flowers were a really striking bright orange.

As I mentioned earlier, the sun shone brightly all day which is great for the couple but a nightmare for photographers but we've some fantastic photographs which the happy couple can enjoy after their return from the west coast of the United States and Hawaii (oh to be there myself right now!)





More photographs from the Lion Quays and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Friday 11 September 2009

Wedding at Ruthin Castle

It makes no difference how many weddings you photograph or how often you may go to a particular wedding venue, every wedding is different simply because the people are so very different.

The wedding on Wednesday (9th September 2009) was certainly no exception and the wedding of the lovely Charlotte and Roger was one that everyone who attended will remember for a very long time to come.

Set in glorious Ruthin Castle, Charlotte and Roger decided to use the Medieval Banqueting Suite for their ceremony and reception. This is a wonderful location for a wedding ceremony and reception if you are looking for something a little bit 'different'.

Reflecting the Scottish side of the family, Roger and his grooms men and father wore magnificent tartan outfits whilst the star of the day was undoubtedly Charlotte and her incredible black and red wedding dress adorned with the most amazing fascinator, jewellery and bridal bouquet all designed and made by Charlotte herself. She is one very talented lady.

The weather was the nicest I remember since back in June. It was lovely and warm (but not too hot) and sunny sunny sunny (although it has to be said, us photographers would rather have flat grey skies to stop the harsh shadows and squinting but it did give us some wonderful blue sky backgrounds).

We'll post a few more photos over on our wedding blog at www.barrieneilweddings.blogspot.com

Ruthin Castle ♥ Charlotte and Roger

It makes no difference how many weddings you photograph or how often you may go to a particular wedding venue, every wedding is different simply because the people are so very different.

The wedding on Wednesday (9th September 2009) was certainly no exception and the wedding of the lovely Charlotte and Roger was one that everyone who attended will remember for a very long time to come.

Set in glorious Ruthin Castle, Charlotte and Roger decided to use the Medieval Banqueting Suite for their ceremony and reception. This is a wonderful location for a wedding ceremony and reception if you are looking for something a little bit 'different'.

Reflecting the Scottish side of the family, Roger and his grooms men and father wore magnificent tartan outfits whilst the star of the day was undoubtedly Charlotte and her incredible black and red wedding dress adorned with the most amazing fascinator, jewellery and bridal bouquet all designed and made by Charlotte herself. She is one very talented lady.

The weather was the nicest I remember since back in June. It was lovely and warm (but not too hot) and sunny sunny sunny (although it has to be said, us photographers would rather have flat grey skies to stop the harsh shadows and squinting but it did give us some wonderful blue sky backgrounds).

Here are a few photos and there are plenty more to come when we have finished the mammoth task of editing them all

Charlotte arrives with her father for the start of the ceremony

The exchange of wedding rings

Charlotte and Roger outside Ruthin Castle

More photographs from Ruthin Castle and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Exciting news - Wedding DVD

Some exciting news for those getting married.

All the couples we photograph automatically receive their proof photographs as prints, uploaded to the password protected "Client's Area" of the website (so all of their friends and family can see them wherever they are in the world) and also as a slideshow presentation on CD.

We particularly like the Slideshow as it means you can see the photographs on a computer screen at large size and you can of course supply copies of it to your friends and family and even email it to them.

Now we have moved on a step and with immediate effect, we will be supplying a DVD based video presentation of all of your photographs in addition to everything else just described completely free of charge.

This presentation is a video of your photographs that you can watch, pause and rewind just like any other file you watch on your television. This is a fantastic step forward as you can see yourself in all your glory on your own television set in the comfort of your own home whilst perhaps enjoying a glass of something chilled (I like the idea of that!).

As I say, it's completely free and I hope will be a welcome addition to the service we offer.
www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Wedding DVD

Some exciting news for those getting married.

All the couples we photograph automatically receive their proof photographs as prints, uploaded to the password protected "Client's Area" of the website (so all of their friends and family can see them wherever they are in the world) and also as a slideshow presentation on CD.

We particularly like the Slideshow as it means you can see the photographs on a computer screen at large size and you can of course supply copies of it to your friends and family and even email it to them.

Now we have moved on a step and with immediate effect, we will be supplying a DVD based video presentation of all of your photographs in addition to everything else just described completely free of charge.

This presentation is a video of your photographs that you can watch, pause and rewind just like any other file you watch on your television. This is a fantastic step forward as you can see yourself in all your glory on your own television set in the comfort of your own home whilst perhaps enjoying a glass of something chilled (I like the idea of that!).

As I say, it's completely free and I hope will be a welcome addition to the service we offer.
www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Monday 7 September 2009

Three Weddings

Sounds like a poor man's version of the Living TV program we were featured on a a few weeks ago (see previous blog entry) but in fact refers to the fact that we have three weddings this week.

The first is on Wednesday (9th September 2009) when we will be photographing Charlotte and Roger's wedding at the simply magnificent Ruthin Castle in Denbighshire, North Wales. Charlotte and Roger have opted for a Medieval themed wedding which Ruthin Castle produces so well. Should be exciting.

The very next day (Thursday 10th September 2009) we will be with Lindsay and Keith when they get married at our local church, the beautiful and famous St Deniol's Church in Hawarden. The reception is at the Lion Quays in Oswestry, Shropshire.

The final wedding of the week sees us back at Ruthin Castle again for the wedding of Nadia and Stephen (a 'conventional' wedding this time).

We are both looking forward to all of them as we love photographing weddings and I'll post a few photos here in due course as usual

This week.....

Another busy week in prospect.

We are currently beavering away trying to complete the edit on the 1400+ photographs taken at Ita and Greg's wedding on Saturday (see previous entry on this blog). Hopefully we will have that completed today (Monday 7th September).

Wedding wise, we have 3 this week. Two are at the same venue (Ruthin Castle in Denbighsire on Wednesday and Sunday) and the third at the Lion Quays near Oswestry in Shropshire (Thursday).
It's going to hectic but should be fun as we love photographing weddings.

On top of that, I've been asked to supply some Owl photographs to a public relations company so I need to find the time to send them those this week (I'll try and get to post a couple on here)

Sunday 6 September 2009

Wedding at Albright Hussey Manor

As I mentioned a few days ago, yesterday (Saturday 5th September 2009) saw us toddling down to Shropshire to photograph the wedding of the gorgeous Ita to her lucky fiancé, Greg.

The ceremony was at the beautiful St Peter's Church in the wonderfully named town of Myddle not far from the venue for the wedding reception, Albright Hussey.

The bridal preparations took place at Albright Hussey Manor and the hour or two I spent in the bride's room with all of her fellow Irish bridesmaids, her mother and flower girl. It was so much fun I am surprised any of us managed to make it to the church (and if anyone has spent any time with a bunch of crazy Irish women out to have a good time, you'll know what I mean).

But make it we did and luckily, so did the groom although prising him away from the attractions of the nearby Red Castle pub was a little trickier than first thought.

Beautiful church as I say and a great service followed by a wonderful afternoon at Albright Hussey and once again, the weather behaved itself.

Have a great time in Dubai Ita and Greg and for now, here are a few of the photos from your wedding day.

We'll post a few more photos over on our wedding blog at www.barrieneilweddings.blogspot.com

Albright Hussey Manor ♥ Ita and Greg

As I mentioned a few days ago, yesterday (Saturday 5th September 2009) saw us toddling down to Shropshire to photograph the wedding of the gorgeous Ita to her lucky fiancé, Greg.

The ceremony was at the beautiful St Peter's Church in the wonderfully named town of Myddle not far from the venue for the wedding reception, Albright Hussey.

The bridal preparations took place at Albright Hussey Manor and the hour or two I spent in the bride's room with all of her fellow Irish bridesmaids, her mother and flower girl. It was so much fun I am surprised any of us managed to make it to the church (and if anyone has spent any time with a bunch of crazy Irish women out to have a good time, you'll know what I mean).

But make it we did and luckily, so did the groom although prising him away from the attractions of the nearby Red Castle pub was a little trickier than first thought.

Beautiful church as I say and a great service followed by a wonderful afternoon at Albright Hussey and once again, the weather behaved itself.

As usual, a small selection of photographs from the wedding to be going on with whilst we get to grips with editing the other 1400+ from the day.

Albright Hussey in all it's glory

Ita and Greg's wedding service

On the bridge at Albright Hussey

The very beautiful Ita

On the mat at the Albright Hussey Hotel

More photographs from Albright Hussey and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Friday 4 September 2009

Wedding photography slideshows

We have just added an exciting new feature to our wedding website.

After we have photographed a wedding, we supply all of our clients with printed proofs of all of the photographs we have taken along with JPEG versions of the proofs and also a slideshow of the photographs. We also upload all of the photographs to a password protected Client's Area so that all of your family and friends can see the wedding photographs, wherever they are in the world and at any time of day.

This slideshow is our personal favourite way of viewing the photographs as it means you can view them on a computer screen at a large size and can easily move from one to another or allow the slideshow to simply go through them all whilst you just lay back with a glass of wine in your hand (bliss).

We have now created a page on our wedding website (link) that allows you to download a small sample slideshow from a number of the most popular wedding venues in our area. As I say, it is only a sample slideshow from each wedding venue as the full set will contain between 450 and 600 photographs and the file would be took big to download!

If you are interested in having a look, simply click here (this will take you directly to the Slideshows page).

Wedding photography slideshows

We have just added an exciting new feature to our wedding website.

After we have photographed a wedding, we supply all of our clients with printed proofs of all of the photographs we have taken along with JPEG versions of the proofs and also a slideshow of the photographs. We also upload all of the photographs to a password protected Client's Area so that all of your family and friends can see the wedding photographs, wherever they are in the world and at any time of day.

This slideshow is our personal favourite way of viewing the photographs as it means you can view them on a computer screen at a large size and can easily move from one to another or allow the slideshow to simply go through them all whilst you just lay back with a glass of wine in your hand (bliss).

We have now created a page on our wedding website (link) that allows you to download a small sample slideshow from a number of the most popular wedding venues in our area. As I say, it is only a sample slideshow from each wedding venue as the full set will contain between 450 and 600 photographs and the file would be took big to download!

If you are interested in having a look, simply click here (this will take you directly to the Slideshows page).

Thursday 3 September 2009

Wedding at Albright Hussey

We haven't been to Albright Hussey for some months so Saturday's wedding of Ita and Greg is particularly exciting.

Albright Hussey is a fantastic old country house near Shrewsbury in Shropshire that is now run as a very high class hotel (the Sultan of Brunei once stayed there!).

As usual, we have everything crossed hoping for good weather and look forward to seeing everybody on Saturday

Wednesday 2 September 2009

The party's over.....

September swept in on a tide of the heaviest rain I've seen for a very long time (it certainly did in our part of the world anyway!) and we have just discovered that our house isn't quite as waterproof as we had thought (and hoped).

On a positive note, as much as we love summer and the warm weather and blue skies (not that we saw much of it this year), we also love Autumn (or Fall as our North American readers would have it). There is nothing quite like romping through woodlands on a crisp and dry autumn day, kicking up leaves before coming home to a nice hot cup of coffee and wondering how it was you didn't see that pile of doggy poo under the leaves (yuk!).

Anyway, talking of smelly things.. autumn also means it is political conference season.

All of the main political party organisations in the UK will have their conferences in late September nicely scheduled so that they don't clash with each other. These wonderfully stage managed affairs are dreadfully popular with the party members as they can appear to be doing something worthy for their chosen party when in reality they are looking forward to a few days debauchery at the seaside (my opinion only of course - I'm probably wrong!).

With our press photographers hat on, we are likely to be covering the Conservative Party Conference this year as it is being held 'on our patch' as it were (Manchester).

Joking apart, the conferences are great for us as photographers as we get to meet all the big wigs that either run the country, would like to run the country or pretend they would like to run the country but know they don't have a chance of ever doing it.

Anyhow, to get a flavour, here are a few photographs from previous conferences and for complete political neutrality, I've selected a couple of photos from each of the three main UK partys and they are displayed in no particular order.

Rt Hon. David Cameron MP

Ex Prime Minister, Tony Blair

Nick Clegg MP

William Hague MP

Ex Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith MP

Dr Vince Cable MP

Rt Hon. David Cameron MP

If you want to see more political photographs (who wouldn't) or indeed examples of the other sort of press and event photography we undertake, have a look at our press and event photography website which you can get to by clicking here