At the tail end of last year, I shot the wedding of Eleni and Tim in Bedfordshire and the month before that I had undertaken a family shoot with Eleni’s sister, Maria, her husband and their two children. Following on from the wedding, Eleni booked me do a complete family lifestyle shoot as a present for her parents, Julie and George. I don’t work from a studio, preferring instead to use the great outdoors with all its beautiful colours and natural locations - I think it makes for more relaxed subjects and consequently, better images!

It was a blustery day when we all set out but as soon as the sun broke through, the clouds disappeared and the temperature warmed up nicely. We met at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire and wandered around the grounds of the famous gothic-styled house, famous for its appearances on TV (The Avengers) and in many films, including Batman.

Here are some of their images…..

I was asked ages ago by friend and fellow Wedding Photographer David, if I would be interested in flying out to Sorrento in Italy and covering an Irish wedding with him….difficult decision, huh? We flew out last weekend and having left a sullen-looking London behind at a measly 8 degrees, we were delighted to hear upon landing at Naples that the local weather was 24 degrees and sunny! Friday afternoon was our recce for the wedding in the beautiful village of Positano and afterwards we sat eating pizza by the beach and reflected on how we could get used to the Mediterranean way of life! Saturday arrived and the day of the wedding between Bairbre and Gerard. I was asked by David firstly to concentrate on all the local details, loads of which you will see here. I don’t normally ‘do’ landscapes, but iI was inspired by the local scenery - and yes, the man waving madly at the camera in the first image is David. Part Two of this fantastic wedding to follow!

This was the view down to the church in Positano from the hotel where Bairbre was getting ready

These strange heads were dotted about all over the hotel and the grounds - I loved the fact that every one was different and had been lovingly brought to life with clothes and jewellery etc! The male one was even wearing a tie - the best thing was, no blinking!

I say new - it’s actually about 20-odd years old, but I already love it and I haven’t even shot anything with it yet! This was an impulse purchase on Ebay this week - I’ve never used a Polaroid camera before (but have featured in plenty, growing up with photographers for parents) but I’ve always loved the kitsch look to the images they produce so I had a quick whizz around the web and discovered that this model was pretty damn good. It has autofocus (at 4ft and further - any nearer and things are gonna look a bit fuzzy) and (gulp) a built-in flash! The Polaroid 600 film is not being manufactured any more (however, after a long campaign by its supporters it will re-enter production next year) but I managed to find some for sale online with a use by date of Nov 09 - should be interesting.

As yet, I am planning to ration my use of the beast, as the film is bloomin’ expensive but I think it will be useful for the odd kooky and fun shot of couples prior to the ‘real’ shoot, whether it be a pre-wed or a wedding.

Here’s an image of the beast I took earlier - no, it’s not taken with another Polaroid camera - I’ve just ‘mocked’ it up to look like it was. It looks like something out of 1978! Hang on, it is something out of 1978…..