Trying something new - Jo & Lee

I'm a big fan of trying new things when it comes to creating art from wedding and portrait images and this year I decided to add a series of darker images to the collection.

I took a series of shots at Jo & Lee's wedding with this idea in mind and I got what I was looking for.

This image is an example of the more artistic imagery I am looking for - and the beauty of this is that this shot took about 30 seconds to set up, 30 seconds to edit in Lightroom 2 and 60 seconds to perfect in Photoshop - two minutes.

I created a number of other images in a similar vein and am pleased with how they all turned out. Of course it really does help when the couple are as good looking as Jo & Lee and the wedding venue as beautiful as Ardington House, outside Wantage.

My next wedding is next Thursday when I'll be shooting Katharine and Simon and am very keen to create a similar theme.

It can't rain all the time - Katharine & Simon

For the first time this year I've had to postpone a shoot due to really bad weather. Thankfully Sunday proved to be a lot nicer to us and it didn't affect the mood as Katharine and Simon came to the studio for their pre-wedding shoot.

I knew when I spoke to Katharine on the phone last week that we were going to really enjoy this shoot - I've rarely heard anyone laugh so much - even at my terrible attempts at humour. And, as you can see from the image, Katharine's laughter was infectious.

Both were great fun to shoot and I'm really looking forward to creating the same fun-filled images at their wedding.

Bride Over Duck-filled Waters

Congratulations to Jo & Lee who were married on Sat 7th Aug - and what a fantastic day it was.

I shot Jo & Lee's wedding freelancing for Blenheim Photography and had an amazing time doing it.

The weather report for the day was not good and looked to threaten the plan for an outdoor ceremony on the island at Ardington House. It was very touch and go and despite a number of showers earlier in the day it was agreed the wedding could take place on this beautiful location.

The bridge to the island was not only slippy but not that wide. Any slip one way or the other would have turned the wedding into auditions for the 2012 Olympic Swimming team - assuming the locals, in the forms of ducks and swans, would have let you do anything more than a doggy paddle to get back out. Fortunately, we all stayed out of the river.

After drinks outside Ardington House, speeches were made. Uniquely these were done outside and made a nice change as I got a lot of great shots using the natural light.

Jo & Lee, themselves, were very much up for the flow-posing shoots and we ended up splitting into three seperate sessions to accomodate the weather. I tried a few new ideas for the flow-posing images the result of which is above.

Everyone at the wedding was great fun - and for a moment I feared for my own safety when the "guys" swayed into me with threats to throw me in the river.

Add in croquet, football and a game of Aunt Sally and this was a great deal of fun for everyone.

Thanks to Jan of Blenheim Photography for the contract and thanks to Jo & Lee for being such a great couple.

The Freesias and Daisy Chain

After much soul-searching I decided to try macro photography and the question I had at the end was "Why did I wait so long?"

I spent a morning with my friend, Jan of Daisy Chain Florists, Quedgeley, Gloucester, shooting everything in her store.

I've attached a copy of the montage I put together to hopefully show how much fun I had doing this.

I am now looking at everything with a view to shooting it with the new lens - including insects and even objects such as golf balls and keypads. They all appear to be mundane until you focus right into form and light of the object.

There is the danger that I am going to turn into a macro-nerd but I'm sure my girlfriend, Jan (not the Daisy Chain one), will keep me looking at the bigger picture once in a while. Besides I don't think many Brides will enjoy 300 images of their eyes and nostrils in close-up.

Keep checking my Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/David-Gow-Photography/103472636371331?ref=ts - for more images. And please feel free to message me if you think I've gone too far into macro-land.

Shot By Both Sides - Ian & Jan shoot Sam & Annabel

Some weddings are so much fun and their venues so perfect that it's impossible to point a lens at any point and get a bad shot - Sam & Annabel's great day was one of those special ones.

The Kingscote Barn is an amazing venue with some incredible scenic backdrops. If you are looking for a venue I urge you to check it out.

Sam was, by far, the calmest groom of the year. He and his ushers and Best Man strode around the grounds and made the first shots of the day so much easier and fun for me.

Jan, from Blenheim Photography, and my girlfriend, was my glamourous assistant for the day and took some incredible shots of Annabel's bridal preparation.

The staff at the Barn were really helpful and even allowed me to stand above the ceremony which allowed me to get the shot above. It proves that to get the best of anything you need the help of everyone.

Annabel looked fantastic in her wedding dress and was accompanied by 3 bridesmaids who could easily have been in a Girl Band. Time to hand your crowns over Girls Aloud!

It was easy to see how much Sam & Annabel love each other from their flow-posing. They were so comfortable with each other that I only had to instruct where to stand for the shots - they did the rest.

This was wedding was incredible fun to shoot because everyone was having an incredibly fun time.

A real pleasure and I wish all the best for Sam & Annabel.

OK, Croquet - Sam & Lucia are Game

It's Saturday May 16th and you'd be forgiven for expecting a gloriously sunny day from morning til night. Instead the weather tried to dampen the spirits of Sam & Lucia - and after seeing how that wasn't going to work decided to ease up and let us all out to play.

Lucia played the modelling bride to perfection and loved the ideas of the day including sitting on a stone floor and walking up and down stairs until it became a great cardio workout. Lucia should release a DVD of that exercise regime.

Sam too played a great role as the Groom, with the heavy-mood shots as well as part-time bodybuilder as he held up Lucia for what must have been a good 5 mins without a break. Perhaps another exercise DVD to be released?

Sam & Lucia's family were great fun too and were very much up for all the group shots available while the sun stayed out.

The boys played a fine game of croquet on the Greenway Hotel green but someone had to point out that swinging the club with a golf swing was not only going to put you on a losing strea of this fine sport but was also likely to injure themselves and anyone within a 50m radius of them.

The after-dinner speeches were hilarious with the Best Man speech topping them all. If you ever have the pleasure of meeting Sam you really have to ask him to play you his band's version of "House of the Rising Sun". Britain really does have talent.

A Site for Sore Eyes

Well, its finally here - the new David Gow Photography website is finished and uploaded.

The site contains a number of portrait and wedding galleries from 2009 & 2010 as well as the fantastic Grotesque concept shoot with Jessie.

There are also links to the best companies in the wedding business as well as links to my Facebook, Twitter and, of course, Blogger accounts. Please feel free to be a "fan", "follow" and "follow" again on these.

The site design was done using the fine brain of Andy Doane of Enaod Designs at www.enaoddesigns.co.uk. My great thanks to Andy for his hard work and inspiration. I hope you agree that he did a fantastic job on this.