Latest weddings

After a long absence from the blog, I am finally about to start posting again. The absence started with being off ill and in hospital part of April and May. We then were very busy over the summer and had a great season photographing some amazing weddings.

I was on holiday in July and got some great shots in Sardinia and Italy which there will eventually be a blog entry about. July also saw my daughter, Natasha graduate with a first class honours degree in Accounts.

August was another eventful month with Natasha getting married, my friends, Alan and Jill also getting married, a trip on the Orient Express, and lots of interesting commercial assignments.

September saw far has also been a very busy and eventful month starting with Offshore Europe, then Sandra and I getting married in Edinburgh on my birthday on the 6th September, my daughter Brittany’s 18th on the 8th, and lots of great weddings and other assignments. I have spent a lot of time this month on a new on-line ordering system which we are very excited about. We are currently beta testing with 8 Bride’s to get their feedback. There will be a post about this very soon and the most recent wedding on Friday is on-line using the new system.

Our new website is being created at the moment and will feature some fantastic new wedding and portrait products.

On the technology front, we have been upgrading to Apple’s new operating system, and I am using the latest Macbook Air (the best Mac I have ever owned) so there ill also be some posts about this for anyone interested in how we utilise technology.

This is only a brief summary of what has been happening at aberdeenphoto.com since April while the blog has been neglected. Therefore there is no shortage of content for the blog and I just need to make time to try and post at least once a week.

I am very encouraged by how many people read my blog and have been surprised how many emails I have had asking when it was going to be resumed. To be honest, I was using the blog to create posts to use as links in emails to give information relevant when quoting or emailing and did not realise how many people were reading it.

I realise now from the number of emails that I have a lot of people following my blog and viewing our wedding photography from the blog links and therefore I have listed all our weddings here as well as on our website.

Look out over the next few weeks for lots of "catch up blog posts"
 

April 2011 weddings

April 29th – Alana and Don at the Town House and the Marriot (Formal)

April 30th – Debra and Andrew at Pittodrie House (Formal)

April 30th – May and Derek at Norwood Hall :: Formal,  Informal

May 2011 weddings

May 1st – Michelle and Gavin at Craigiebuckler Church :: Formal, Informal

May 7th – Deborah and David at Drum Castle (Formal)

May 14th – Katie and Steven at Gerard St. Baptist :: Formal, Informal

May 28th – Fiona and Brian at The Old Mill Inn :: Formal, Informal

May 28th – Claire and Luke at St. Palladius Church :: Formal, Informal

June 2011 weddings

June 3rd – Anna and John at the Old Mill Inn :: Formal, Informal

June 3rd – Sian and Scott at Palm Court Hotel (Formal)

June 4th – Lucy and Rudy at The Douglas Hotel (Formal)

June 11th – Natalie and Allan at Maryculter House (Formal)

June 11th – Jeanette and Eddie at The Old Mill Inn (Formal)

June 11th – Alison and Alex at Craigieburn House :: Formal, Informal

June 11th – Donna and Lee at Northern Hotel :: Formal, Informal

June 24th – Louise and Gary at The Old Mill Inn (Formal)

June 25th – Joanne and Stuart at Pittodrie House Hotel :: Formal, Informal, Speeches and dancing

June 25th – Gwen and Steven at The Maryculter Church (Formal)

July 2011 weddings:

July 9th – Sarah and Gavin at the Marcliffe :: Formal, Informal

July 11th – Darlene and Drummond at Drum Castle and Norwood Hotel :: Formal, Informal

July 14th – Kathryn and Alex at Norwood Hall (Formal)

July 15th – Emily and Scott at Kings College and Dunecht Estate (Formal)

July 16th – Angela and David at the Old Mill Inn :: Formal, Informal

July 16th – Gillian and Mark at Belhevie Church :: Formal, Informal

July 17th – Elizabeth and Andrew at the Winter Gardens (Formal)

July 22nd – Karen and Ian at The Old Mill Inn (Formal)

July 23rd – Emma and Mathew at the Holiday Inn West :: Formal, Informal

August 2011 weddings

August 5th – Nicola and Neil at Winter Gardens :: Formal, Informal

August 6th – Jacquie and Steve at the Old Mill Inn (Formal)

August 6th – Emma and Kevin at Pittodrie House Hotel :: Formal, Informal

August 11th – Natasha and Jason at The Marcliffe (Formal)

August 13th – Jackie and Mike at the Northern Hotel (Formal)

August 13th – Laura and Keith at Cults Parish Church and Marcliffe (Formal)

August 18th – Debbie and Graham at Winter Gardens :: Formal, Speeches and Dancing

August 19th – Jill and Alan at The Marcliffe :: Formal, Informal

August 20th – Stacey and Norman at the Marcliffe :: Formal, Informal

August 20th – Kim and Gary at the Old Mill Inn (Formal)

August 20th – Joanne and Lau at The Pittodrie House :: Formal, Informal

August 21st – Jill and Alan at Maryculter House Hotel :: Formal, Informal

August 26th – Vanessa and Jeff at Palm Court (Formal)

August 27th – Pauline and Scott at the Hliton Double Tree (Formal)

Karly and Ally at the Holiday inn, Westhill

The last wedding I photographed before being off ill was Karly and Ally’s. I photographed Karly’s Mum and Dad’s wedding over 24 years ago when Karly was three and cried the whole day. This time round Karly looked beautiful and was very easy to photograph. We took the photographs at the park across from the hotel and were fortunate that the weather forecast was so accurate. The forecast was for rain at 4.00pm which was when we had scheduled to complete the photography outside. We had just finished and were back under the canopy (for the confetti photograph) at 4.00pm when the rain started.

The park at Westhill does not have a lot of features but we got some nice shots. May favourite shot of the day was the walking shot above. I set Karly and Ally up on a path with and asked them to walk towards me and had them looking towards me and at each other. The 70-200 lens and a shallow depth of field work well but it is the great expressions that make this my favourite.

As we were booked to stay until the dancing, I also photographed Karly and Ally at dusk as  they had seen dusk shots, I had taken of the hotel for their website which we designed and produced for them (click here to see the website). They had Chinese Lanterns for this which you can see in the shots above.

While waiting to do this shot, I prepared a small selection of shots as a slideshow on my laptop which I showed to the top table and some of the guests. You can view all my images from the wedding here, and the link to David’s set here.

I got very nice emails from Karly and both Mum’s – see below

"Hi Neil
Huge thank you to both you & David for the fantastic photos to both took (formal & informal) and also for putting every one at ease. It will be really hard to choose, there is not one bad one.
Yes!!!! Neil bet you never thought 24 years after you took our wedding photos you would be taking our daughter Karly,s. That says something in its self.
Thanks again. Fiona & Graham King"

"Hi Neil,
I am Allys mum Janis from the Holiday Inn on Sat, the pictures are amazing, is it possible to have an album made up for myself? …..
Many thanks, Janis

"Hi Neil
Just catching up on all my emails now as back from our honeymoon.
The picture all look great, we are really pleased with them. We both had a fantastic day and couldn’t have wished for a better day.
Kind regards, Karly"

Liane and Andrew’s wedding

On Saturday (16th April) I photographed the wedding of Liane McRae, who I first photographed over 30 years ago (not giving away Liane’s age) in her ballet outfit in the studio with her sister, Gemma. Her Dad, Alan McRae, is a good friend and client (Alken Construction) and I was delighted when Liane asked me to photograph her wedding. David and I took over 2000 photographs and the first gallery is now on-line, and the rest will follow later today. Click here to see the first gallery. There is a short slideshow below with a small selection of images before any editing.  This was prepared on Saturday night to show the bridal party.

A few of the shots used in the slide-show are in the gallery below.

This blog post will be updated again when the finished photographs are on-line.

Re-touching

This post is to showcase what is possible with Photoshop. Julie, the Bride asked if it was possible to have a second version of the image above without de Broy. This was not particularly easy as de Broy’s head and body is in front of the fireplace and painting, both of which are very intricate. However, Lukas, our in-house Photoshop guru created exactly what was required.

To achieve this, he first cut the lady out. then found another image where you could see the fireplace and painting that the Groom was in front of. He re-sized and adjusted it in a separate layer, and then removed more of the Groom, before replacing the lady in his place and adding an arm. He also re-touched out a blue book that was on the bottom shelf creating exactly what Julie wanted.

As I have said many times, we would much rather get everything we need and get everything right "in camera" but is very useful to have Photoshop and Lukas’s considerable skills at our disposal.

Heading

Below are the pages of an album design recently completed which is currently being printed and bound in Italy. We were very lucky with the weather on the 13th November and despite it being cold, got a nice range of shots at Castle Fraser – click here for the blog post.

Amy and Michael have been great clients to work with, and Amy has been so enthusiastic about the album and had a lot of input in the final layout. For the final viewing in my office, we had Amy, Michael, both Mum’s and Dad’s, and Granny’s. The response of everyone to watching the pages set to music makes all the effort worthwhile.

Amy has been so complimentary about the photography and the album and nothing gives all of us a better feeling than getting positive feedback – see emails from Amy below

"Hi Neil,
We’ve just picked our favourite photos. It’s been a hard job because we
love them all! …… Thanks again to you, Sandra, and David for all your hard work, we’re delighted with the photos!

Kindest regards, Michael and Amy" on 18th November2010

"Hi Neil,
We are delighted with the album, all the changes are perfect!
Can we make an appointment to come in to sort out the front cover,
parent albums and …..
Thank you again to everyone for all your hard work, we love the album!

Amy" on 10th March 2011
 

Julie and deBroy on 19th February 2011

Saturday was very wet, windy, and almost all Julie and deBroy’s photographs had to be taken inside at Norwood Hall. Fortunately this Victorian mansion has lots of character and is a good venue for photography, both inside and out. de Broy got photographed with his son, Damien, his Best Man, at the front door and at the bottom of the stairs. David was upstairs photographing Julie getting ready while I photographed all the guests, also at the bottom of the stairs, before Julie came down and got photographed with her flowergirls and Kenny (who was giving her away) before going through to the service.

After the service, Julie and deBroy received their guests in the new bar area in Norwood while I set up my lighting in the library. I was using a Quantum T5DR on a stand with an umbrella triggered by an on camera Quantum Trio which has the built in radio transmitter. Setting the camera exposure to use some of the warm available light, and throwing newspaper on the fire just before the exposure creates good warmth combined with the  "studio quality" lighting. more…

Using Photoshop to create shots

This is an example of an everyday request. At Ted and Kathleen’s wedding on the 27th November, I took lots of requested group shots and all the ones listed by Ted and Kathleen, but not every option can always be covered. The couple who are either side of the Bride and Groom, in the larger group shot above above, wanted a shot of just themselves with Ted and Kathleen. It was relatively easy to crop the group of 4 as an upright shot and we could have just went close to the shoulders and "cloned" out anything noticeable. However by finding another similar shot where the fireplace can be seen, Lukas was able to "put back" the fireplace by combining the shot on the inset.

The end result is indistinguishable from a shot I might have taken. I often make the point that I like to do everything in the camera whenever possible but having Lukas, an exceptional Photoshop professional, as a key member of our team is a great asset. He is probably wondering why I am featuring such a "straightforward" task as he does this type of job and much more complicated ones everyday but I know this example will be useful to show clients what is involved.

The most important thing is that the client liked it – see the email received.

Thanks Neil,
That is absolutely brilliant. Be in touch after our holidays
Regards Ted & Kathy

Mairi and Martin at Haddo House 

On the 4th December, David, Sandra, and I set off for Haddo House for Mairi and Martin’s wedding. With a lot of snow on the ground, I decided not to take my rear wheel drive BMW and instead we took Sandra’s Audi. We got stuck once but eventually got to Haddo on time only to find that the drive was blocked and cars in front of us were being towed by a 4 wheel drive vehicle. The service started late but everything went well and as Haddo is beautiful inside, we had plenty nice spots for the photography. 

Click here to see the formal images and here for the informal gallery.

Mairi and Martin were happy to go out into the snow for a few shots and I took some facing out to the grounds and some back towards the beautiful building.

The only problem is that the lights to the right of the door were off (see above). Mairi and Martin wanted to use one of these for their Thank You cards so Lukas used Photoshop to "light" the right hand side area which greatly improved the image – see below.

aberdeenphoto.com stand

We have had a very busy two days at the wedding exhibition at the AECC and have around 60 couples who have asked for more information.

We had a draw with a prize of £500 off any wedding package and the winner was Gemma Smith who is getting married in November this year. We have decided to offer all other entrants £50 off any package if the booking is confirmed before the end of February. This combined with the fact we are holding off increasing our prices until 1st March makes our packages very good value. The price is fixed at the time of booking so if you book for next year (or even further ahead), you will paying 2009 prices in 2012!

We had a simple design for the stand which featured eight large framed prints, a display of recent testimonials, and some information about our offices and studio. Although I love black and white and some of the more "moody" images, I decided to go with shots with lots of colour and impact. I was surprised at how many people commented favourably on this style of image including two Grooms who were keen photographers and asked about my "fill flash" technique. At a wedding, there is a wide range of styles taken, particularly if it is a 2 photographer package but I used this style on the stand to hopefully give it impact.

This year the exhibition moved to the large arena at the Exhibition Centre and I think everyone agreed this was a better venue. The fashion show had seating for over 700 people. Before and after the fashion show they showed a slideshow of ours (see below) and a short film by Mark Stuart (Mark Stuart Films) which was excellent.

Wedding Exhibition this weekend

David and I have spent the last few days preparing for the wedding exhibition at the AECC this weekend. We had planned to use a single large print of 1.8m x 1m for each of our panels but the company printing them for us had a problem with their large format printer so we had to change our plans. I managed to buy 12 large 34 inch square gloss black frames with mounts and inner frames for 24×24 inch prints. We do not normally print square and I was surprised at how many images looked good cropped to a square format. I have chosen shots that have strong vibrant colours. Although I love black and white images, this is used by a lot of photographers and I want to showcase the kind of images I like which have a good balance between available light and flash.

 The exhibition at the AECC is by far the biggest and best wedding show in Aberdeen and if you are getting married it is well worth a visit. It is open from 10 – 5 on both Saturday and Sunday. We are stand A8 and I would be delighted to see you.