On Friday I had a great day in Richmond photographing the wedding of Clare + Pete. The weather, surprisingly, didn’t turn out to be much of an issue at all – there was heavy rain at times during the day, but none of them disrupted the plans. The ceremony was in the Octagon room of the Orleans House Gallery which was full of natural light even with the threatening clouds, the sun briefly shone for a few of the group photos outside, then the boat trip over the river to the reception venue of the Bingham Hotel was dry before the next downpour.

This being my first wedding for a while (I’ve stopped doing weddings as I prepare for my own), I was horrified to find out 3 days before the wedding that I had only got one camera film left, so it was a hasty scrabble to get some spares. It’s sad that getting black and white film is no longer as easy as walking into a high street shop. So that was the first minor mishap – the other one was that I found that the head of my monopod had a crack. Not wanting it to fail in the middle of the wedding I put it under a stress test (i.e. I shook it and twisted it a bit) and lo and behold it fell apart. Bit of a shame, but in the end I didn’t really need it anyway.

I’ve talked previously about the weight of the Nikon D700 and all of my other kit at weddings, so decided this time to weigh the kit that I carry at a wedding. 10 kilograms. That’s 2 DSLR bodies, 1 film SLR body, 5 lenses, 2 flashes, 16 AA batteries, 4 DSLR batteries plus a few odds and ends. Carrying that around with me means that weddings are basically a workout!

But back to the wedding and the photos – it was a great day and lovely to share it with Clare + Pete. Only 2 to go before my own!

This Easter I had a great break with my family and my fiancée’s family at Penhurst Retreat Centre in East Sussex where my fiancée’s parents are wardens. It was a double celebration – focussing on the resurrection of our Saviour and also helping my Dad celebrate his 60th birthday.

The weather wasn’t all sunny…in fact there was quite a bit of dullness and rain, but Penhurst is so beautiful, no matter what the weather is like. We had a chilly picnic on the beach at Norman’s Bay one day, and a soggy walk up Tent Hill on another as well as a drizzly sunrise service on Easter Sunday. The rest of the time it was great to just hang out at the retreat centre.

Whilst there, I took the opportunity to take some photos of some of the rooms, trying out my new Nikon D5100. Well…to state the obvious, it’s not my D50 and it’s certainly not my D700. Although the spec is higher than the D50 that I’ve loved for the last 6 years (more megapixels, a video mode, higher ISO settings and live-view), it feels a lot more amateurish. I can’t change timer mode to use a remote or ISO or white balance any more without digging into a menu and there’s no LCD screen on top to give me a quick view of settings. It might just be me getting used to the controls, but I would prefer the above functions instead of the ability to switch to “colour sketch” mode easily or flip out the back screen. I’m not complaining, after all this is a fantastic starter DSLR, but it’s not quite delivering for me in the usability stakes!

Anyway, back to the weekend – view a gallery of the photos taken this Easter

It’s a bit late to be announced, but srphotos.co.uk turned 5 on 1 April this year. I’ll admit that I’ve been a little quiet on the blog in this last year and actually not a massive amount has happened in the business. I’ve taken photos at 4 weddings in various occasions which were all great occasions, and the sun shone for all of them too which was a bonus. My plan to lead more photo walks didn’t really get off the ground, however I got out with my camera more than I have in previous years – mainly with my fiancée. More time with the camera + more time with my fiancée = only 29 blog posts in the last year!

And the next year? Well I have a couple of weddings that I’m taking photos at before my wedding in September, then my own wedding (which I’m not photographing – my good friend and great photographer Tom Dauben is doing the honours), then another booked afterwards. I’ll not speculate what might happen to the business after that; getting married will be a major change and will most definitely take priority. But for now – roll on the 5 year celebrations!