Early December was spent with new Mum, Emma, and her beautiful baby daughter, Annabelle, and niece, Ellie.  This was great fun and all very exciting and secretive as the photos were to be gifts for Dad and other members of the family.  Emma had the three square images put on canvas – stunning!

A few days later I woke up to snow ….. it was Charlotte and Luke’s wedding day!  The winds blew the snow away and the rest of the day was very wet – as you will see!  Married in the beautiful Bathford Church and then driven the short journey to Bailbrook House.  Ceilidh dancing and a disco to follow – fantastic! Lots of photographs below that tell the story of their special day – you can see the whole selection in the clients album area of my website.

From weddings to meetings for early January.  The head chefs and managers for Jamie’s Kitchens all had a meeting at the lovely Wick Farm and guess who turned up?!  Yep – Jamie Oliver and his very funny friend Gennaro Contaldo – it was the day before Gennaro’s birthday and Jamie had an amazing antique watch to give him, with, of course, a cake!

The last shoot of January was here at home with the beautiful bride-to-be Stella, with her fiance, Ross, and lovely Mum, Susanne.  Stella and Ross will be getting married in April with their reception at Guyers House.  We had a great time and got some gorgeous photographs ….

Stella and Ross’s wedding is going to be a spectacular show of colour including a red double decker bus …. can’t wait!

That’s the round up for now – looking ahead I will be exhibiting and looking to meet couples at the Guyers House Open Day on Sunday 19 February from 1~4pm – would love to see some of you there!

2012 is looking busy already with 12 weddings booked already, so the blog will be getting busy!  See you soon ….

Back in July I was working again with Allegra Blanchard, of The Dining Company, photographing table set ups for her website and advertisements – we had lots of fun and some great images for her ad agency to work with:

I am pleased to be able to announce who Mrs Secret was!  It was the fabulous mother of six (!) beautiful children, Kate Bullman, who commissioned me to photograph portraits of all the children individually (that took some organising!) and to frame them all as a gift for her lovely husband, Nick, for his birthday.  Stunning photographs I think you will agree!

Kate has had postcards made of the collection to send out with her change of address cards – the perfect way to show friends and family how the kids are doing!

I had another secret mission in August!  This time Beccy Gage asked me to photograph her three handsome boys as gifts for her husband for Christmas – the cat is now out of the bag, but hubby Rory doesn’t know which pictures he will be getting on Christmas Day!  The boys were fantastic and again, we got some gorgeous portraits of them all.  Poor Beccy has had a tough time choosing the pictures that she wants framed …..

September saw me getting busy again after the long summer holidays with several projects.  The first was the pre-wedding photoshoot for Lucie and Chris, who chose to use the Royal Crescent in Bath as a beautiful backdrop.  The weather held and we had a fun hour getting some great shots!

I had another pre-wedding shoot – this time it was Kate and Justin, with their beautiful children joining in (in fact, it turned into a portrait shoot for them!) – we went to the park and had a lovely walk and got some great shots into the bargain!

Looking forward to the big day for Kate, Justin and family next April, taking place at my local venue – Wick Farm in Farleigh Hungerford!

Soon after their pre-wedding shoot I was back with Lucie and Chris for their big day – a gorgeous day with Lucie getting ready with her family at Homewood Park,  the wedding ceremony taking place in St Nicholas Church in Bathampton and then back to Wick Farm for the reception.  A beautiful day for a beautiful couple!

No rest for the wicked!  October soon came round and I met Charlotte, a photography student, who spent some time with me listening to my route to becoming a photographer, and hopefully she picked up some helpful tips and ideas …?!  This was followed by a shoot which was thoroughly enjoyed by us both!  This was an ingenious 18th birthday present from her lovely aunt – Mary.

A couple of days later and I was out for a walk with Sarah, Chris and their cheeky Jack Russell, Scrappy for their pre-wedding shoot before the big day at Seend House next year.

I am looking to see which one these guys pick for their Signature Mount ….!!

Well that’s a round up of what I have been up to – all these collections are viewable in their entirety in the client album section of the website.  In the meantime I have been busy meeting lots of newly engaged couples and taking lots of bookings for next year, all of which I am very much looking forward to.  December has some lovely days lined up, a portrait sitting of a new baby and a wedding!  Happy Christmas to you all and I will be back blogging in the New Year ……

As I mentioned previously I photographed Rachel and Tom Rounds getting married in Chippenham and Guyers House, Pickwick, on what was the most amazingly hot sunny day – here they are:

We had a wonderful time choosing the photographs that went into their album and I had great fun designing it for them ….

Other projects are ongoing – I am still squirrelling away with Mrs Secret – I can’t let you see her photos yet as it is still a secret from her husband!  The brochure I have been photographing for and designing for Wick Farm has been printed and looks brilliant!

A commission I undertake every year now is the Year 6 Leaving Book for the pupils of Paragon School – I put a book together with an individual portrait of each of them, pictures of them with their pals, class photos and a year photo – Mums and Dads have been busy ordering them and the children love getting each other to write messages in them and sign their books!

Photography is such fun ….!!

I have also had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Laura and Stephen Bradbury on 7 May at Wick Farm – their Queensberry album is already in production!

Many thanks to the Murray family for inviting me into their home and garden, and taking me on an amazing walk in Monkton – my dog Smudge now enjoys it on a regular basis!!  Anyway, you can see for yourself the portraits that we came home with – following a two hour viewing Mum and Dad still can’t decide which ones they want and how many canvasses or frames they want, or maybe an album ….!!

I have been very busy with lots of enquiries for weddings in particular over the next year and am pleased to say that many of them have converted into confirmed bookings and look forward already to spending time with my couples as their weddings approach!

The latter half of February and the early part of March were spent travelling, and then the photography kicked in!

Terry Moore, our amazing drum teacher from school asked me to photograph the children doing African Drumming for some of his promotional material – it was great fun to listen to and I love the shots we got!  What do you think ….?!

I was commissioned by the lovely Gemma Walters to take some headshots of herself and her assistant, Hannah, for her website and brochures.  We had great fun in the streets of Bath and got some great shots:

I also spent a wonderful morning with lots of children at our school, The Paragon, whilst they were planting bluebells in support of The Children’s Hospice South West, which is their chosen charity.  A cheque was also presented to the Hospice for money that was raised at the school’s recent ball, sponsored, as you can see, by Crisp Cowley.

I had lots of fun with my friend and client, Allegra Blanchard, in the Fat Fowl in Bradford on Avon, setting up dining collections that Allegra’s company, The Dining Company, will be selling shortly online.  As you can see, she has some fab ideas – a table out of Africa, a seaside collection and a 1960s style table that makes me think of Mary Quant!

yum – hard to choose a favourite!!  Fun website photography – I love the opportunity to get really creative with the camera!

A large chunk of March was taken up with the marriage of Rachel Ward and Tom Rounds – they were truly blessed with one of the most beautiful March days for their wedding in Chippenham and reception at Guyers House, Pickwick.  I can’t show you any photos yet as the newly weds haven’t had their viewing yet and it is only fair that they see them first!!

I have also had lots of fun working on the brochure for Wick Farm – collating all the images and text and laying it out ready for print – hopefully they will be in circulation soon.  Like designing albums, this is one of my favourite parts of my job (as well as getting out there with the camera of course!!).

Coming up – I have a few projects up my sleeve (as well as having all three children home for the whole month ….!) and will be exhibiting on Sunday 17 April at the Glencot House Spring Wedding Fayre near Wookey Hole in Somerset, organised by Aspirational Weddings – perhaps I will see you there?!

I have been busy with lots of enquiries for weddings over the last couple of weeks, so the diary is looking quite busy!  And I have been getting myself sorted for some wedding fayres in the near future.  I will be at Wick Farm’s Open Day tomorrow – 20 February – so come and see me and some of my work and albums!  It is always lovely to get to meet lots of excited brides and grooms getting lots of information for their forthcoming weddings!

I was busy this week taking some portraits for Nick Bullman of CheckRisk for his website – they came out really nicely ….

I also spent a fun afternoon at Wick Farm taking some photographs for their forthcoming catalogue – some lovely detail shots that I think will work really nicely for them …

Looking ahead I am excited to be exhibiting at the following:

Wilton House Wedding Exhibition on 20 March from 12 noon – 4 pm

The Manor House Hotel in Castle Combe on 27 March

March also holds an exciting day for Rachel and Tom who are getting married in Chippenham followed by a reception at Guyers House.  I am very much looking forward to capturing their special day for them!

I am looking forward to seeing the new Guyers House brochures when they come out – I have been busy doing the photography for their project.

For now though, I am excited to be joining my family in France where they are skiing – I fly out tomorrow night and will be away until Sunday 27 February, so until then …

I spent today at Ston Easton – a gorgeous wedding venue set in the countryside with fabulous gardens and house – I was at a wedding fayre organised by loveactuallyweddings and it was very busy and I met some lovely brides and grooms-to-be – a couple of whom only got engaged yesterday!!  So for the next few days I will be touching base with them and helping them sort out what they want from their wedding photography.

I am also in the middle of a project with a friend who wants me to photograph portraits of her children in secret for a birthday present for her husband – sounds easier than it is – lots of children!!

Anyway, that’s it for today – I haven’t seen the kids all day and have been working at the fayre, so I think I deserve a sit down and a glass of wine!  Cheers ……