The beautiful setting of Meldrum House was the venue for Laura and David’s wedding on Saturday (31st July). The weather was mixed and we had several showers but managed to get most of the photographs taken outside. However some of the shots I had planned had to be omitted as the rain became heavier just as the bridal photography was finishing. Milly, Laura and David’s 1 year old daughter, was not keen to smile even with the Grandparents and Aunty Nicola making faces and noises behind me. Although she would not smile, her blue eyes were amazing, and she obviously got this from her Mum who was very easy to photograph.
Sadra was assisting me holding the brolly over laura and David until I was ready to take the photographs. Lukas was taking the informal photographs and stayed until after the speeches while I stayed on to photograph the first few dances. Lukas headed back and he and David worked until very late on Saturday night and had the "formal" images from both weddings on-line while the wedding receptions were still in full swing. we were all in early on Sunday to get the rest of the images on-line. Sandra and I got a lovely meal in the beautiful drawing room of Meldrum House. While having the meal, I prepared a small selection of images on my iPad and showed them to David, Laura, and some of the bridal party. It is always very gratifying to get good feedback and everyone was delighted with the images. Although it was quite a long day and hard work, I really enjoyed it, and although I work long hours, weekends, and evenings, I am very lucky to do something I love even more now after 33 years as a professional photographer. Click here for the formal photographs, here for the candid images, and this link for the dancing. Below is a slideshow of a selection of the images.
Michelle and Chris at Kings College and Norwood Hall
Friday was a beautiful day for Michelle and Chris’s wedding at Kings College. We started taking photographs at 10.45am of Michelle getting ready and then met the boys at the St. Machars bar in Old Aberdeen,and finished the photography of the dancing at 11.30pm. Although it was a long day, Michelle and Chris were a great couple to work with and it was a good fun wedding to photograph.
The photographs getting ready are not on-line as Michelle wanted them kept private but all the others are available at the links below:
Michelle sent me a very nice email as soon as the photographs were on-line on Saturday.
"Hi there Neil,
Thank you so much to both you and Sandra for all your hard work at our wedding. The photographs are fantastic, I am delighted with them!
We’re all packed and away to leave now… will be on touch when we get home.
Thanks again. Michelle 25th July 2010
Below is a slideshow with a selection of the photographs.
This slideshow is for a wedding on the 29th May at the Altens Thistle. We went to Cove Bay and Laura very bravely walked to the beach which is a stunning setting. It was so bright that it made it difficult for the photography but it was worth it for some of the shots captured.
For the last two years we have been creating slideshows of selected weddings and putting them on-line as an alternative way to viewing some of the images set to music. I am going to be extending this service and we have been experimenting in delivering them in high quality to view on a computer or TV screen (via DVD or on a memory stick). When this product is ready, it will be offered for all weddings including past clients. We currently use YouTube to present these on-line and an example from Claire and Stephen’s wedding is below. There has already been a blog post of their wedding – click here for this entry.
I have just finished a set of photographs for Nu-Style for a metal fabrication brochure. There was a long list of buildings and projects that used their products for eaves, soffits, ducting etc. There was also workshop shots and shots of the products taken in the yard.
For these, I took the shots in good lighting and then we created "cut-outs" of the items and replaced the background with a white background and used a drop shadow which made them look like shots taken in the studio. Click here to see examples of these or this link to see some of the workshop shots. Most of the shots I was able to get in the right lighting but for one or two of them, we needed Lukas’s Photoshop skills to enhance skies and lighting. For the workshop shots I used 2 or 3 flashes (Nikon SB-900 and Quantum TD5) and used gels to add a bit of colour to the background. There were also one or 2 buildings where I took several upright shots and then "stitched" them together in Photoshop CS5. Click here to see a selection of the shots. more…
Another day where I had to contend with sun, wind, and rain. However St. Machars Cathedral is a great setting and we took most of the bridal shots inside after the service until the showers passed and then I managed to get some shots at the door when the clouds passed over the sun. I also took a few shots with Jennifer and Nicky inside looking back out the door which I think is nicer than the other way where you get the black doorway. Others were taken at the gate, either backlit or in the shade of a tree just inside the gate.
i arrived at Pittodrie and it was a nice sunny day, although a bit windy. The service was to take place outside in front of Benachie which is a stunning backdrop for a wedding service. At just after 2.00pm when Marion arrived, the rain started and all the seats and guests had to be moved inside. Fortunately it was a passing shower and by the time I photographed Marion and her Dad in the drawing room, the rain had passed and the service took place outside. After the service it was very windy and I consulted with Marion and Christopher but they really wanted to have the photographs outside, even if they were to be windswept. Even on the windiest day, the wind will subside and we managed to get a range of shots without them looking too windswept. I finished by taking some inside in the drawing room which is also a nice setting.
Marion sent me a very nice e-mail after the wedding – see below
"Hi Neil,
Just thought I’d send you a quick note to say thank you very much for Sunday, we had a great day. You made us feel very relaxed which we really appreciated and lots of people raved on about what a great job you did for us. We have had a wee look through the photos and are looking forward to choosing our prints when we get back from Hawaii. Many thanks, Marion and Chris McLaughlin"
on 13th July 2010
I am about to have several posts on recent weddings which tells only part of the story and the links are to previews. It is when we design albums that the images selected by the couple are edited to a higher standard. Then when the pages are designed, the finished product starts to take shape. Therefore as well as posting details of the wedding photography, I will start to post albums that we are working on. Here is an album of a wedding we photographed back in 2007
One of the advantages or possibly disadvantages of leaving our images on-line is that our clients can order their albums whenever they want, although we suggest it does done within six weeks after the wedding or it keeps getting put off as was the case with Morag and Ross – see the email below.
On Sunday night, Sandra and I along with friends Angela and Alister Sinclair and their son Don, went to Edinburgh Castle to see the incredible Mick Hucknall and Simply Red in what is going the their last year of touring.
Although a relatively short performance of just over 90 minutes , Mick played a very upbeat set full of energy, and the huge crowd spent most of the concert on their feet singing along with one of the best voices in the music business.
Sandra and I saw him in Glasgow last year when he played much more ballads and used backing singers which was very different to Sunday night but his voice was as impressive as ever.
We had seats relatively close to the font and using my favourite 70-200VR11 lens on the D3s, it was easy to get some good shots. The 80-400 would have given me more flexibility to get a range of shots as almost everything was taken at 200mm, but at the expense of the f2.8 aperture and the super sharp images of the nano coated VR11. After the concert, we went for a late dinner and I downloaded a few images from the compact flash card to my iPad and had a short slideshow complete with Mick singing to show my fellow diners in 15 minutes. The images on this post were sent from my Ipad so are exactly as they were taken with no adjustments or any enhancement.
Click here to see more images uploaded to gallery. The rest of this post (click on more below) includes a slideshow of images set to Mick singing live.
