December might seem an odd time to do a pre-wedding shoot, but when your wedding’s less than a week away it seems a pretty good time to me   Liv and Nick lead very busy lives and this was the first chance we had to get together since they asked us to photograph their wedding next weekend.

It was  a typical December day for their shoot, cold miserable and damp turning to rain.  Not ideal you might think but I love working in those conditions.  If you can take pictures your clients love on a day like that you’re pretty set for anything that might happen on the wedding day.

Liv and Nick were great fun and didn’t mind the cold. In the space of an hour or so we made some cracking pictures.  Can’t wait to do it all over again on Saturday. Maybe we’ll even have some snow at Woburn for the reception

Most photographers seem to call themselves ‘award winning’. You’re never sure really what that means. Maybe that’s why we haven’t entered many competitions. Each month we see the results and think ‘we’ve got better shots than that’ yet we never seem to do anything about it. Until now. Lola decided it was time we entered a few images, a lo and behold we’ve won a few prizes. We entered  the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers’ monthly competition and we’ve won four gold awards. This competition differs from most because you are competing against other professional photographers. And it’s international (though most of the entrants are from the UK). We’ve won golds in four different categories so far.

First of the four is this shot of baby Mariella with dad, taken when she was six days old. I love this shot for its intimacy, and also the eye contact, which is hard to capture with a newborn baby. Although this looks like a studio shot it was actually taken at the client’s home, using window light only.

Next up is one of my favourite wildlife photographs. It’s not widely known that I lead photo safaris to Africa on behalf of a specialist USA-based photo tour company.  This one was taken on a tour to Tanzania. A few moments later and it was all over. Feel sorry for the frog

The next gold is a powerful and moving picture of a young Masai, also taken in Tanzania. The day before I’d run a ‘photographing people’ workshop for the tour participants, and one of the techniques I taught was shooting in to the sun when the the light is harsh and there is no shade. That technique works well here – I love the way the light rims her face. There’s a soulful look to her expression that really appeals to me too.

The final gold award (for now?) was for this image we took of Richard Ashcroft at a rock festival promoted by one of our clients. Photographing at a rock concert is a real eye-opener. You’re only allowed to be in the ‘pit’ for three songs so it’s a mad scrum with all the other photographers to get the best angles. Because Karen and I were working as a team the pressure was off slightly, so I could take a step back and look at what the lights were doing. Positioned myself carefully in a line with Richard and the backlight and this is the result. The lighting director should really get half this credit

These four pictures now go forward to the annual judging in January. Flushed with initial success I guess we’ll be entering a few more images next year

‘Love the dress’ is our take on the trash the dress concept. Instead of deliberately damaging your dress, we feature it in your own fashion-inspired photo shoot.  We met Alice when we photographed her with husband Ed and their lovely baby Luke. When I was at their home I noticed Alice’s wedding dress hanging up. She didn’t take much persuading to come for a photo shoot and another chance to wear it.  Alice was pampered by our hair and makeup artist at the studio before we headed off to some of my favourite urban and indoor locations.

Here are a few sample pictures:

Click here to see more ‘Love the Dress’ blog entries.