Fun in the sun

Anyone who knows me and Anna will know that we L.O.V.E Devon and that we try to get down there as much as possible. You may also know that we take an annual trip to Woolacombe with a group of friends that I have known since I was a young teenager. This group are more commonly known as the “gang”. It’s not a proper LA-style-in-da-hood-hip-hop gang but there used to be about fifteen of us that hung out all the time when we were kids and the name just stuck.


These days the group consists of me, Anna, Emily (Anna’s sister), Matt & Steph, Mark (aka Gibbsy) & Ruth and their two children Molly & Drew and Sam (my sister) & Ade.

We’ve been going to the same caravan park at the same time of year for about ten years now and I look forward to it just as much every year. It’s a chilled week with lots of drinking in the local pubs and a fair amount of lying around/sleeping on the beach.


One thing you must bear in mind when reading this is that although our age range (for the adults) is from 23 to 42 we still act like teenagers. For example, every year I produce a mix album especially for the week, we often get t-shirts made and Matt and Gibbsy always pre-record a ridiculous radio show for us to listen to and laugh at on the journey down.


Since we started going away together Matt and I have always taken camcorders with us and in 2004 I put together my first little holiday video. It was very amateurish but a lot of fun to watch back and a great reminder of our stupidity. Ability and technology has moved on a little since then but I still create a little film reminder of the holiday every year.


The last couple of years we have taken our childishness to another level and started creating mock music videos. This is mainly to fuel Gibbsy’s passion for wanting to be a rock star and showing off. Sadly, his passion is not backed up by any musical talent apart from being able to excellently mime the words of the cheesiest rock ballad we can come up with.


I think you get the picture so I will stop waffling on and let you watch the films! The first one is our 2011 music video with the music provided by White Lion. Watch out for the tight red spandex leggings!!! :-)



This is the film of the holiday……good times!



Here are some images from me, Anna, Matt and Emily.

Wedding Preview: Suzanne & Stephen 17.09.2011

I know it has been a while since I have blogged a wedding… I have not been resting up by any means, my Mac and I have been getting a lot of alone time trying to complete all of my films from 2011. I’m nearly there now so I’ll be blogging all of my hard work in the coming weeks and have some cool stuff to share.

May I present to you Suzanne & Stephen! They got married in September 2011 at St Leonard's Parish Church staffordshire and then we went on to The George Hotel in Lichfield for the reception. Despite a freak rain shower just as we were doing the couple shoot (hence the umbrellas) it was a beautiful day. Suzanne & Stephen are the sweetest couple and were great fun on the day.

Thank you to my wonderful wife Anna for second shooting for me on the day.

Time Lapse - Woolacombe October 2011

Anna and I spent a blissful two weeks in Woolacombe, Devon in October of this year. In-between relaxing, going to the pub and taking long walks down the beach we managed to find some time to be a little creative and capture some amazing time lapses. It makes me want to get in the car and drive back there right now!!! Enjoy :-)

 

A Vintage Winters Tale

Last October Lauren from Grace & Gable approached me to shoot a behind-the-scenes film of a vintage winter-inspired bridal shoot. She told me that Adam from Rock My Wedding had recommended me, which was a pretty awesome complement to get. From the initial e-mail I was interested and it sounded like it would be fun and a good opportunity to do something a little different without the pressures of a wedding day. After a few conversations with Lauren and Adam from I was sold.

On the day of the shoot it was a bitterly cold morning but the sky was clear and the sun was making an appearance….perfect conditions for a frosty winter styled photo shoot. The location was the not-very-easy-to-find Wyre forest in Shropshire, it was a beautiful backdrop that added that little bit of magic to an already amazing set-up. The photographer for the day was Ann-Kathrin Koch ,she was a joy to work with and captured the day perfectly! In fact everyone I met on the day was lovely and I would love to work with them all again.

I have added a selection of the images Ann captured and at the bottom of the post is a full list of all the people that were involved with the shoot.

If you would like to read the full post from the Rock My Wedding feature click here

Styling and Design Grace & Gable and Invitation Only

Photography Ann-Kathrin Koch

Blooms The Flower Appreciation Society

Cakes Caroline’s Cake Company

Stationery Mae Mae Paperie

Christmas Tree Favours Thomasin Gautier-Ollerenshaw

Bridal Dresses The Wedding Club

Glitzy Headpiece Cherished Vintage

All other headpieces and Jewellery DC Bouquets

Make-up Jade Crean

Hair Georgia Morris

Crockery and Cutlery Wedgwood & Arthur Price

Candelabra Candelabra for hire

Lanterns Lombok

Mistletoe and Tree Bill White’s Nurseries

Accessories And so to Bed | House of Fraser | Westley Richards

Music Video Keshia - "Could You Try"

Keshia is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter who approached me last spring about doing a music video for her. The video is for the first release from her album Circles which was released in the summer 2011.


When Keshia first contacted me the album hadn’t been finished, so when we arranged to meet up to hear the new single and discuss the video I was unsure about what to expect. I had only previously seen YouTube videos of some of her live performances. After hearing the track I was really impressed, not only by the great voice and track but also by the maturity of the songwriting (she is only eighteen!).


We had a good talk about the concept of the video, and decided to include some dancing scenes as she is also a talented dancer – as if a good voice, good looks, a talent for songwriting and youth weren’t enough! This was going to be my first time shooting dancing like this and I was really looking forward to the challenge. We shot the video over two days. The vocals were shot in and around Birmingham city centre and the dancing was shot in a local studio. We found some awesome locations on the day in the custard factory and on the streets of Digbeth and after the first day’s shoot I wanted to get home and edit it straight away! I know it’s gone well if I get back and want to start working on it straight away! A few weeks later we shot the dancing scenes, this also went really well and was a pleasure to film! Keshia is a true pro!


After spending a couple of weeks editing it all Keshia was really happy with the results and it has already had over 1,100 hits on her YouTube channel! There is even talk about doing the next video in the summer as well.


Please check out more of Keshia’s music at: http://www.keshiaofficial.com/


I hope you enjoy the video

Wedding Preview: Sophie & Luke 02.09.2011

Sophie & Luke’s wedding  was a late booking for me; they hadn’t initially planned to have their wedding filmed and when they changed their minds it was getting close to the big day!

Sophie found my work through a mutual friend and got in touch. As it was all a little last minute I never got the chance to meet Sophie & Luke before the day so it felt a little strange arriving to film a couple I had only ever spoken to over the phone. However from the minute I met Sophie & Luke in the morning I knew they were going to be a great, fun couple to work with and it was going to be a lovely wedding. The church service was beautiful and following that we went on to Nailcote Hall in Berkswell for the reception. Both settings were perfect and the sun shone for them all day.
Sophie and Luke are an awesome couple and very much in love, I’m so glad I got to meet these guys and capture their wedding day.

your Comments are always welcome!

Wedding preview Danielle & kevin 23.07.2011

Danielle and Kevin, well what can I say! They are a super cool, fun and creative couple from Essex. You may have seen the short pre-preview that I blogged a few weeks ago. Here is the full preview, it was really hard to get it down to 5 minutes as there was so much great footage from the day.
The weather was great and the whole wedding was beautiful. Danielle had spent a lot of time making sure everything was perfect; her attention to detail meant that the day was a joy to shoot. There was even time for a quick trip to the local farm! Enjoy…