Annemari and Pieter are a cool couple from Cape Town in South Africa. I’ve known Annemari for about a year now and she is a really excellent wedding photographer back in South Africa Check out her site here  http://annemari.co.za/. I’m always green with envy when I look at her work and see the weather and locations she works in. But she does envy some of the locations I have to work in as well and is quite happy to swap. So you’ve heard it here first and I will hold her to her promise

I was really pleased therefore when she asked me to take some portraits of her and Pieter around the streets of London. Back in South Africa the wedding season has more or less finished and will start again around October time. So they decided to make the most of their free time and pay a visit to London. Its been a pretty awful spring weatherwise but we were lucky as it stayed dry and most importantly I had flat light which makes things a hell of a lot easier. One thing I don’t envy about working in warm climates is the harsh and contrasty light, something which Annemari has to deal with a lot back home.

Here are some favourites from their session. It was a fair treck to cover as many as the famous landmarks as possible, lots of walking and underground trips. If I ever get fed up with photography I can always become a London tour guide ! I was pretty much shattered at the end but it was great fun and I was delighted with the results. So if you are thinking of having a photo session in London, before or after your wedding, please feel free to get in touch.

As usual you are welcome to add any comments below as well as on my Facebook page. Enjoy !

Many congratulations to Martha and Ben who recently got married at St Sebastians Church in Crowthorne, Berks. I was delighted to be their wedding photographer being so local to their home and venues. I started off as usual with some shots of Martha getting ready at home and it was good to bump into Joyce Connor and her daughter from Brides and Beauty who I last met at Rob and Abigail’s wedding in Windsor in November 2010. Martha looked absolutely stunning so Joyce didn’t have too much work to do ! Then it was a quick dash over to Crowthorne to capture Ben and the guests arriving at St Sebastians. April has been a pretty cold and wet month so we were quite lucky with the weather which on the whole stayed quite dry.  I therefore managed to capture the formal group shots without too much trouble although I did tumble over a gravestone and am still nursing a huge bruise on my right knee !

Martha and Ben had originally booked their reception venue for Wokefield Park. Unfortunately Martha’s parents and family who live in Zimbabwe were unable to make it. The reception will now happen in April 2013, exactly a year on. So it will not only be their official reception but also their 1 year anniversary – a real time to party, something I’m really looking forward to documenting ! Fortunately Ben’s parents managed, at very short notice, to book a small reception for close family and friends at The Forbury Hotel in Reading. So despite having to scale down their celebrations everyone still had a great time and now have the official party to look forward to in April 2013.

As usual the complete set can be viewed by clicking here.  You will require a password which is Ben’s surname all in lower case. Below you will find some of my many favourites so please feel free to add any comments, Tweet and to Facebook ‘like’. I will also show some on my wedding photography Facebook page. Please feel free to ‘like’ this page and also to tag yourself if you were a guest.

 Warbrook House is one of my favourite local wedding venues and it is here that I’ll be photographing Stephanie and Chris’ wedding next month.

So we recently decided to take some pre wedding shots here which is something I offer to all my couples. Here are some favourites from the session which was great fun but a little bit more difficult than usual. Steph and Chris wanted some shots with their new Beagle puppy (I think that’s what breed he is)  called Cooper. He was pretty lively to say the least and couldn’t be left alone for too long without running off. Anyhow you can see more shots of him below – cute or what ! In addition it was pretty dull and the light was fading fast, although you wouldn’t think so from these images thanks to some fast lenses (85 and 35mm). Then finally we had some heavy rain so had to end the session pretty quick. But by this time I had got the shots I needed.

I’m now really looking forward to Steph and Chris’ wedding next month and will of course blog my favourite images, so watch this space . More favourites can be viewed below so please feel free to add any comments and to Tweet, Facebook Like…… Enjoy

I was very pleased last month to have been awarded 8th place in the WPJA fourth quarter judging. This particular image was in the Food and Drink category. It was taken during Miriam and James’ wedding at The Bingham Hotel last October. The WPJA (Wedding Photo Journalist Association) is probably one of the biggest photography organisations in the world and receives more than 10 thousand entries for each of its quarterly competitions. So to get a placing in the top 10 is pretty good going.

This image in question says a lot about how I approach my wedding photography. I’m not one to sugar coat the wedding and I’m always looking for something different – behind the scenes, things that the couple and most of the guests will not see. This gives the viewer a more comprehensive impression of the day as oppose to seeing just the usual.

At every wedding I normally take a break no more than 15/20 minutes as I’m always looking for something new and interesting to capture. In this case I decided to go out into the kitchen as the guests were in the middle of the meal with not much happening. Then I saw the group of waiters hovering, ready to go. The light was also great which I think makes this image stand out.

More images from Miriam and James’ wedding can be seen here http://www.neilpalmerweddings.co.uk/2011/12/wedding-photography-bingham-hotel-miriam-james/

Here’s a few nice words from Sam and Chris whose wedding I photographed at Northcote House in February

Neil…. they are absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!   They are all we ever hoped for and some more!  You’ve captured us, our day and our guests so well… so many shots that just speak a thousand words, I am sooooo glad and so pleased   thank you thank you thank you (repeat until you are bored!)

You have managed to make our day come alive again, I guess that although we were the centre of the day at the time, we missed everything on the periphery, but with what you have done, the whole thing comes alive again.  We are so chuffed!

Thanks very much Sam and Chris. It was a real pleasure to photograph your wedding at Northcote House, one which I really enjoyed despite the the sub zero temperatures ! Keep in touch and thanks again,

Neil.

It was back to Henley On Thames once again for Katherine and John’s engagement session. I’ll be doing their wedding photography at Gaynes Park in June so this was an opportunity for a trial run which is something I offer to all my couples. We chose Henley as its roughly halfway between us. Katherine and John had also seen some previous shoots I had done here and liked the look of them. On my last shoot here we experienced some pretty cold weather and snow so it was a nice change to have some warm, spring like weather this time. Here are some favourites below so please feel free to add any comments -

Here are some favourite images from Martha and Ben’s recent engagement session in Henley On Thames. I will be doing their wedding photography at Wokefield Park next month. In fact its my next one after 2 earlier this year at Hengrave Hall and Northcote House.

We’ll be hoping for slightly warmer weather than we had here ! As you can see it was bright and cold with a thin layer of snow which gave me some really great light to work with. I do enjoy winter shoots but have to say I’m now looking forward to the spring and short sleeve weather. Below are some more favourites so please feel free to add any comments.

Many thanks to Vanessa and Gavin for this card I received recently. I did their wedding photography at Hengrave Hall this January just gone.

Thanks once again Vanessa and Gavin.

I love winter weddings and we certainly had a winter one for Sam and Chris. Probably the coldest day this winter but it didn’t dampen the spirits or fun but in fact did the contrary as you can see some great snow shots below. By this time my time was just about up but more importantly I had to leave as the weather was getting worse and I risked being snowed in !

Great credit must go to Sam and Chris for arranging the venue at such short notice as their original one went bust 2 weeks earlier ! And also credit to Northcote House as well for laying on such a great day in such a short time.  Because of the cold we could only do a few formals at the Church and had to do the rest at Northcote once people had thawed out. Fortunately they didn’t want too many formals which allowed me to fully concentrate on my usual documentary style.

This was such a fun and cool (in more ways than one) wedding which Mark and I really enjoyed. Sam and Chris are such a great couple (and Reading FC fans !) and really made us feel at home and allowed us to just get on with what we do best. So many thanks again and for the kind words as well which I’ll publish soon. So please feel free to have a browse of my favourites below and feel free to add any comments. The complete set can also be viewed by clicking here with a password  – Sam’s surname followed by Chris’ all lower case with no gaps. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Enjoy

Many congratulations to Vanessa and Gavin who recently got married at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk.

This was my first wedding in 2012 and probably will be one of my longest journeys as well. Anyhow it was good to be back shooting again after my my last wedding in November. So not too long a break and its always good to get a few early winter weddings under your belt before the summer madness begins.

This was my first ever wedding at Hengrave Hall and it turned out to be a fantastic location with lots of space, interesting architecture and, from a photographic point of view, great light. This is what you need more than anything in the midst of winter and we were lucky with some decent and fairly mild  weather.

Vanessa and Gavin got ready seperately a few doors away from each other so I could easily cover this before the civil ceremony downstairs. Then later in the afternoon a blessing was held in Hengrave’s own church adjacent to the main building. And then it was back again to the main building for drinks and canapes followed by the wedding breakfast, speeches (with some interesting stick on moustaches !) and finally the band and dancing.

Overall a real fun and intimate wedding one that I’m sure the guests and I thoroughly enjoyed and will remember in years to come. An excellent start to 2012 so thank you Vanessa and Gavin for having me. The complete set can be viewed by clicking here and you will need a password which is Vanessa’s surname followed by Gavin’s, all lower case with no gaps. As usual you can see some of my many favourites below so please feel free to add any comments.