Martin and Karen Photography Blog » News

Please visit my new blog

martin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:18:14 +0000

I’m thrilled to finally be able to tell you that my new blog is now live, and part of our brand new shiny weddings web site.

You can find the new blog here.

Fabiana and Simon’s Wedding

martin — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 10:23:32 +0000

Fabiana and Simon were married earlier this year at the fabulous Castello il Palagio in the beautiful Chianti hills. Karen and I flew out the day before via Easyjet from Luton. It was a hassle-free trip and we were able to carry on to the plane all of our camera gear – always a big relief. We joined the eve-of-wedding party and from that point on we knew we were in for an amazing day. We weren’t disappointed! With a combination of great weather, fantastic surroundings and fun couple who loved their photography Karen and I were in heaven.

The resulting collection of pictures is one of our favourites and we weren’t surprised when Fabiana and Simon selected around 140 images for their album. We loved it so much that we made one for ourselves! It went down a storm at the recent National Wedding Show and everyone who visits the studio loves it too.

Here’s just a small selection of our favourite images from the day.

On a catch up mission

martin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:34:46 +0000

Karen and I are just back from a short summer holiday between weddings. Of course we are right in the middle of the wedding season, and that coupled with the runaway success of Alter Ego Portraits means this blog has been a little neglected recently. Well that is going to change because I have some amazing shoots I want to share with you. I’ll be starting with a quick catch up of some of this year’s pre-wedding shoots then sharing some truly spectacular weddings. Watch this space.

News update

martin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:01:23 +0000

Those of you that haven’t been following us on Facebook might have wondered why it has been so quiet in these parts recently. Well we haven’t disappeared! We’ve been busy meeting many lovely couples who are getting married later this year and are looking forward to photographing their weddings including some super new venues.

Most of the last month or so has been taken up with the launch of our new Alter Ego brand of contemporary boudoir and 1950s pinup style portraits. If you haven’t done so already why not check out our new web site at www.alteregoportraits.com.

Alter Ego has a Facebook fan page. If you are not already a fan sign up now for the chance to win a free photo shoot and album. We’ve already had one lucky winner from our first 100 fans. The next 100 to sign up will also have a chance to win.

As if that’s not enough there’s another chance to win a free shoot by entering a competition we’re running in conjunction with Northampton Image magazine. Follow this link go to page 81 and follow the instructions on how to enter. The main prize of a 1950s makeover and pinup shoot and album is worth £600 and there are five runners up prizes of the makeover shoot that’s worth £195. Too good to miss

That’s it for Alter Ego news on this blog. Normal business will be resumed shortly If you want to keep in touch with Alter Ego news remember to become a fan on Facebook.

Twenty Favourites

martin — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:34:55 +0000

Its the time of year for a little self indulgent retrospective. I just went back through all this years blog posts and picked twenty of my favourite pictures. I hope you enjoy seeing them again.

From Mandy and Dan's wedding, taken in the Henry Holland corridor at Woburn: This shot's been requested several times since by couples having a Woburn wedding, but this is my favourite version.

A poignant moment caught by Karen of the lovely bride Charlotte and her mum Sue at Rushton Hall a few minutes before her wedding.

Jamie determined to climb up a slide and of course not making it. The colours in this shot always make me smile.

A studio photograph of Ellie from a hair competition shoot for Toni Perryman. This shot won Toni the UK runners-up spot in the Goldwell Trend Zoom challenge and trip to the Las Vegas awards ceremony.

This image from Claire and Toby's pre-wedding set has grown on me and now ranks as one of my favourite couple pictures of the year.

An infra-red photograph of the Sculpture Gallery at Woburn taken during one of this summer's weddings.

From a shoot with Abby and Barney her super-tolerant horse. The dramatic lighting effect was achieved by using studio flash equipment of the sort more normally used on fashion shoots.

From Rosanna and James' pre-wedding shoot. I do most pre-wedding shoots at the same location so its always fun to find a new situation to make an image. Must have walked past this sign a dozen times before including it in a photo.

Taken at a school prom. Of course the lighting would have been more adventurous if we'd been in the studio but as one of 250 unique photographs taken in 60 mins in a hotel foyer this doesn't look too bad to me.

From Sue and Nathan's urban portrait style pre-wedding shoot. The first time this appeared a few people asked where it was taken: answer is The Hub in Milton Keynes by the fountains.

One of my favourite baby pictures of the year: Luke with his father Ed taken at their North London home.

I could have chosen any number of bridal portraits but this one of Lisa has to be my favourite. The eyes have it.

From a creative day (portfolio shoot): hair and makeup by Toni Perryman, Georgia was our model for the day.

Another shot of Claire and Toby this time at their wedding. This image is in danger of being overused It's been our main promo image for the last few months and from last week has been hanging as a 40" canvas in the venue's reception (Coltsfoot Country Retreat).

From a location family shoot

We only had one wedding with fireworks this year. This is from Sue and Nathan's wedding at Rushton Hall last September.

I love Kay's smile in this shot during her and Adam's wedding ceremony at the Greek Orthodox Church in Coventry.

From Alice's 'Love the Dress' shoot. She had an album of pictures from this shoot as a surprise Christmas present. Can't wait to hear what she thinks of it.

A young Masai taken during a photographic safari to Tanzania that I co-led for Gustafson Photo Safari

Finally a shot from Liv and Nick's snowy wedding last week taken at Woburn.

Studio in the Snow

martin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:50:37 +0000

We had another snowfall last night, great big flakes giving a covering of a couple of inches in the space of an hour or so. These were the Christmas card scenes that greeted us as we arrived for work this morning.

Award winning photography

martin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:37:34 +0000

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

National Wedding Show

martin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:52:53 +0000

It seems incredible that the wedding show season is upon us already. This year we are once again focusing our efforts on the prestigious National Wedding Show at London’s Earls Court. We had one of the busiest photography stands at last year’s show and incredibly we sold out all the popular dates within weeks of the show. We’re hoping for similar success this year and will have another tempting show offer to encourage clients to book early.

If you are coming to the show please do come and say hi! We’re on stand K58.

Baby Kaian

martin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:42:56 +0000

We were lucky enough to photograph Alex and Evonne’s wedding at Woburn in 2007. It’s still one of our favourite weddings and those of you that have been to the studio will recognise Evonne from the large canvas of one of Karen’s images from the day.

Evonne’s keen to remind me that she’s had the full set of photo shoots: pre-wedding, wedding, love the dress, bump and now their lovely new baby Kaian.

It’s always a thrill to photograph a new family and yesterday’s trip to their London home was no exception. The unconditional love between parents and a new born is palpable, and that’s what I try to bring out in my photographs. Not to forget cute little hands and feet and shots to show just how tiny a new born baby looks. Won’t stay that way for long

Here’s a few of my favourite pictures from the day.

New portraits site

martin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:45:16 +0000

I’m pleased to say that our new portrait web site is now live here www.martinplant.com/portraits and we have a new home page which has links to portraits, weddings and blog. I’m still seeing a few residual glitches after our hosting provider’s power outage earlier this week so we’re looking to change to a more reliable provider asap.

I’d welcome any feedback on the new site.