Wedding of the year 2009 results: congratulations to Jon and the boys!

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who voted in our 2009 just for fun best wedding photo of the year competition… we had a terrific response and it’s been really interesting watching those votes fly in from all across the UK and overseas, including votes from past and present clients, friends, families, our regular blog watchers, and a whole heap of other fellow photographers who contributed too… so thank you to everyone!

I’ve now tallied up the results and am pleased to announce the results as follows:

3rd place – picture No9 – Tasha and Dave seeing stars at Oaks Farm

2nd place – picture No4 – Helen and Liam only have eyes for each other

and…

1st place – picture No2 – Jon and his groomsmen… posing for all they’re worth!


Well done everyone, and thanks again for participating. I think we had some great pictures in the line up, and I could have easily doubled the entries with other favourites from the year too. Jon and Sarah keep an eye on your post box because there’ll be a lovely mounted print of your winning photo making it’s way to you very soon.

All the best for now

Rob.

Contemporary wedding photography for South East England

[...] **VOTING IS NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNER HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED HERE** [...]

Meryl and Andrew’s wedding at Ghyll Manor, West Sussex

Today I’d like to show you some wedding photos from our first wedding of the year with bride Meryl Young and groom Andrew Beard, who were married on Saturday 23rd January 2010 at Ghyll Manor in Rusper, West Sussex. And what a fantastic opener for this year’s wedding season… an awesome couple who were so warm and friendly that both Kevin and I felt like we were almost a part of the family right from the start. As you can see from the photo above, Meryl looked absolutely stunning in her wedding gown – and despite a natural aversion to being photographed Andrew looked incredibly at ease in front of the camera. We got some wonderful photos… so sit back and enjoy a few below, starting with Andrew looking very relaxed just a few minutes before the wedding ceremony:

Exquisite detail in Meryl’s wedding dress – gorgeous…

Ghyll Manor is a lovely wedding venue offering plenty of opportunities for some great wedding photography both indoors and outside in the grounds, so we took a few minutes outside for our formal group photos. I have to confess it was a bit on the chilly side out there… but here’s one bridesmaid who wasn’t going to let a bit of cold spoil her day..!

I just love it when people put their trust in me to take a great picture… and Meryl and Andrew certainly did that, adopting each pose I suggested in every nook and cranny we found – no matter how odd some must have appeared at the time! I hope you like the results guys!

The wedding rings:

And finally one last bridal portrait. I love this picture… so I hope you do too…

What a great couple. Meryl, Andrew thank you so much for being such good sports, we really enjoyed capturing the wedding for you. Have a great honeymoon and I’ll see you soon!

Rob.

Sussex wedding photography at Ghyll Manor

Julia de Gruchy - February 11, 2010 - 1:21 pm

What beautiful photos! I really love the photo of Meryl’s beautiful dress and the mirror shot, a small glimpse of what was to be a great day!

Melissa Dunn - February 11, 2010 - 4:41 pm

I agree! The black and white looks amazing! Such beautiful pics :-)

Meryl - February 12, 2010 - 1:40 pm

Thanks once again Rob for being the most amazing photographer and to Kevin for keeping us all laughing and organised! I love the photos on the blog and can’t wait to see the rest of them.

LSWPP awarded for wedding photography

I have to confess I’m not really big on distinction panels in general: my personal view has always been that if people love my photos that’s good enough for me… but I also realise that some people like to have the re-assurance of an official endorsement from a governing body – so after years of sitting on the ‘to do’ list, last month I finally got around to submitting my first ever qualification panel to the SWPP.

It was a bit of a strange experience really – although they’ve given me a number of gold awards, I’ve never actually put a panel together before and had pretty much no idea what a panel of judges would be looking for other than a very high standard of work throughout and the demonstration of both technical and creative abilities… so I simply put forward a selection of wedding images I personally enjoy with an element of variety in the mix, and submitted those. I’m pleased to say my submission was successful and I’ve now been awarded my licentiateship.

Robert Hooper LSWPP ;)

New blog theme… a work in progress

Hi all,

Recognise us today? It’s a new year and I think just about time for a new look to the blog  – so I’ve just been playing with a brand new theme for blog as of today. Plenty planned for the next few days too, so keep an eye on us and expect to see more changes on the way. Apologies in advance if I make a total hash of things and get some really wierd things going on in the meantime… I’m much better at operating cameras than I am customising websites!

Got a great wedding to post in a day or two, so be sure to check back soon.

All the best,

Rob.

SWPP Convention 2010: Intense!

Hi all,

We’re pretty fired up this week…

We just got back late Monday evening after an absolutely exhausting annual SWPP convention at the Novatel, in Hammersmith. Following a non-stop week of intensive education, entertainment, a few beers and far too much spending, Karen Kevin and I were pretty much fit to drop…

But what a week! Some of you will know this is a bit of an annual pilgrimage for us – the opportunity to see some of the very best photographers from all over the world all mixing and learning from each other. I’ve said it before but I really believe you should never stop learning – so we packed in seminars and workshops throughout until our little brains had pretty much turned to jelly. There were some great speakers this year, and an incredible amount of talent packed into one small area…

…but I simply can’t write this post without talking about the photographic genius that is Jerry Ghionis. Over the course of 5 days we got to see Jerry 3 times, and each time he both amazed and astounded us: I’m honestly not one to blow smoke up people’s rear ends – but this guy is simply so loaded with talent that if he weren’t also such a genuinely nice guy you’d just have to hate him! As it is though Jerry is both sincere and generous and shares so much of his himself and his knowledge that you can’t not like him – despite the fact that he has won and continues to win just about every international wedding competition he chooses to enter! Not convinced? Take a look at the following awards he picked up just last week at SWPP: Photojounalism photographer of the year, Fashion photographer of the year, overall SWPP photographer of the year, 16 x 20 wedding traditional print of the year, wedding contemporary print of the year, wedding pj print of the year, 16×20 overall wedding print of the year, wedding album of the year and overall 16 x 20 print of the year. Not a bad week. Did I tell you he was pretty good? We were kind of humbled..!

And Karen? Well I’m sure she just fell in love with him straight away;)

So there you are – a great convention for us and we all learned heaps: can’t wait to add some new tricks and techniques to this coming year’s wedding and portrait shoots. Karen has a very shiny new Canon 5DII that I’m already just a little bit jealous of and we’re all fired up and ready to go… so keep your eyes peeled over the coming months to see this year’s ideas coming to fruition!

Rob

Wedding photographer Surrey