Happy Birthday to us!

The Edge Photography is 4 years old this weekend!

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported me since I had a pipe dream in my local pub garden in 2006.  I can’t believe where the time as gone.

Since my first wedding at Leez Priory on 1st July 2006 things have gone from strength to strength.  I am now recommended at 5 wedding venues and have made some great friends in the trade.  I can remember how nervous I was, I had been shooting weddings for years, but the first one for MY company, the butterflies were going ten to the dozen!

I have photographed nearly 200 weddings in the 4 years since conception, and I can honestly say, that each one has been special.

So here’s to the next 4 years…

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Greetings all, I do trust you all had a good weekend in the sun??

I had Yesterday (Sunday) off and found myself getting slightly toasted at the Ford County Ground whilst watching Essex in the Pro40 league – so I now look like a red Panda!

I have been looking for ways to improve the exposure of the blog – one way I’ve found is to link it through the power of Facebook.  If you click on the link below, you should be able to follow is on there too!

Back to my roots

Greetings bloggers!

I trust you all had a great weekend enjoying the sun?!  Well, I did.  I was only working at Essex Regiment Way on Friday, so I was VERY lucky to have Saturday and Sunday off work – so I had some friends over for dinner on Saturday and sat in the sun on Sunday.  I shall make the most of it however, it was my last full weekend off until NOVEMBER!

Not sure if you knew, but I was taught this trade on the decks of a cruise ship – sailing all over North and Central America.  Tomorrow (Tuesday), I am driving down the M3 to Southampton so see a few friends of mine who are based on the new ‘Celebrity Eclipse’ cruise ship.  Now this is a monster, 112,000 tonnes and over 1,000ft long!  I’ve not set foot on a ship since leaving ‘Celebrity Infinity’ back in September 2003, so I am VERY much looking forward to getting a guided tour.  One of a lucky handful, as the ship doesn’t take her maiden voyage until the end of the month.  It’s not what you know 😉

Don’t forget, I am still taking bookings for my portrait session on Sunday 16th May!

May Portrait session

I am pleased to say, that the next family portrait session will be on SUNDAY, 16th MAY 2010.

If you’d like to get booked in, then please feel free to email me to see what slots I have available.  30min sessions are only £80 and you’ll get to keep all the images taken on a disc, copyright free.

If you have a larger family group, or you’d like a portfolio shoot, then I suggest that you have an hour, priced at just £125!

I hope to see you there!

4,278….

…. is the number of images I took over the Easter Weekend!!!

I had an amazing time photographing weddings from Thurs – Sun over the Holiday weekend, and the weather behaved – sort of.

Thursday took me to Braxted Park, and the weather was perfect – not too hot, and not too cold, with a little bit of sun poking through every now and again.  Sam and Stuart where brilliant to work with, so animated in there approach and I was able to capture some stunning images for them which are available to view now on our recent weddings page on the site.

The Fennes on Friday, where the weather let me down a little bit.  It started off ok, but during the civil ceremony, we could all hear the rain on the windows!  However, Amanda still wanted to go outside to get a few shots on the bridge, and luckily, the rain held off for the 5-6 minutes that we were outside, but as soon as we went back inside to complete the shoot, the heavens opened!  All was not lost as The Fennes offers such great locations inside to make sure I still got some amazing images of Amanda and Nick, as well as the groups.

Three Rivers on Saturday was possibly the best weather over the weekend for me – bright and sunny with no wind.  Perfect.  Mary and Lee where so pleased that we completed ALL the photography outside with the sun on their backs!  I had photographed Marys brother’s wedding back in August at Leez Priory, so it was so nice to see the family again – they are such a nice group of people.  One of whom is a Scottish football legend!  Mary’s uncle, John ‘Dixie’ Deans, played for Celtic in the early 70’s  scoring a prolific 132 goals in 184 appearances.  The six goals he struck in a defeat of Partick Thistle is a post-war record for goals scored in a single game.  He is also the only player in Scottish football history to twice score a hat-trick in a major cup final, achieving the feat in the 1971/72 Scottish Cup final and the 1974/75 Scottish League Cup final.  A true football master, and truly nice guy!!

Easter Sunday took me to Friern Manor.  Started out quite gray and overcast with rain in the air, but thankfully it cleared up rather nicely for Michelle and Russell.  They both had a surprise in-store for their guests.  They had been having dance lessons 12 weeks prior to the wedding for the first dance.  It was amazing, as tight as professionals, and executed to perfection!  The smiles on their faces told one of relief that the secret was out, but also how much fun they were having!

All hands….

Happy Easter everyone!

I know, I know, I’m a little early, but this will be the only post I’ll be making until AFTER all the Chocolate Eggs have been eaten.

I have – as always – a very busy Easter weekend ahead.  I’m shoot weddings Thurs – Sun and four amazing venues.

Tomorrow takes me to Braxted Park, a truely stunning venue set in the Braxted estate in between Tiptree and Witham.  It has an amazing drive down to the main house, probably a good half mile – certainly has a ‘wow’ factor.

Good Friday takes me to The Fennes in bocking – quite possibly one of my favourite venues to work at.   It is a circa 1500 manor house in Bocking and a venue I have had the privilege to work at many many times.  I actually have one of my images in the bridal room where she gets ready!

Saturday takes me to one of my recommended venues, Three Rivers.  I really love working there.  Since being put on their recommended list back in 2007, I have has a great relationship with all the staff there making my time spent shooting there a pleasure.

I’ll be at Friern Manor on Easter Sunday, a little gem on the other side of Billericay.  This venue has an amazing garden area for photography, and if the weather decides to be against me, then there is a huge conservatory giving the illusion of being outdoors, indoors!

On an average of 850 images per wedding, I’ll be racking though over 3,400 images!

After all that – I think I’ll have the Bank Holiday off to rest back up all the images before I sit in The Cave on Tuesday and work my magic!

I would ask you ALL to do a little sun-dance for me tonight for the next four days to keep the wind, rain and SNOW away – it is British Summer time, right?

Back to normal

After the longest winter on record that brought nothing but Snow, Rain, Frost, Freezing temperatures, Wind, Soggy grass (yes, you could say I’m not Winters BIGGEST fan) this weeks wedding at Gosfield Hall was the first wedding since October 15th that I managed to shoot the entire day outside!

It was such a sigh of relief to get outside and take some stunning images for my couple.

The day started out quite gray and over cast, but the sun popped out and the outside temperature rose to a BARMY 15c.  So I managed to have my first walking outside shots without having to worry about the bride getting cold, mud on her dress, or her shoes filling up with water!  We did get a slight dribble of rain at the very beginning of the shoot, but thankfully it passed quickly and the sun made an appearance so we pressed on and managed to finish the bridal shoot and even stayed outside for the group shots.  Spring is on the way!  I’m VERY much looking forward to this weekends wedding in Letchworth for much of the same.

I hope that the dark days of indoor wedding photography have finished, well, until November at least!

All systems go!

Well, after a fairly quite winter- with just ten weddings over the period, things are now in full flow.  Our first wedding of the spring was on March 5th at Orsett hall, and its now all systems go until Mid-November!

Bookings are still coming in for this year, so I am still expecting a late surge for the much coveted Christmas dates.  Yes, I did say the ‘C’ word in Mid-March, but lets be honest – it’ll be here before we know it!

This week see my first mid-week wedding of the year at Gosfield Hall.  I don’t know if any of you have been luck enough to either visit or attend a wedding at the venue, and seen the bridal suite, but its amazing.  Quite possibly the best in the county, so I am VERY much looking forward to shooting there tomorrow.

This week also see the last of the wedding shows of the Winter/Spring that we will be exhibiting at.  We will attending ‘The Freight House’ wedding show in Rochford.

As you might have seen on Facebook, I have also been using a new camera for my weddings last week – so far, the results are stunning.  I’m now shooting on a ‘Full Frame’ digital camera.  For those who aren’t as geeky as myself, this basically means that the digital sensor is now the same size as the old 35mm film cameras, so it’s like going back in time, only not!

So that’s whats going on in the cave this week…!

A break from the norm

Well, what a week this has been.  Back to my roots!

I have been out shooting a few PR/Press jobs for various clients this week and it has not been something I have shot for many years.  I used to do the odd job back in the day for the Weekly News here in Chelmsford and the good old Essex Chronicle – but since starting up ‘The Edge’, I have had no real time for it.  However the phone rang on Sunday and my old Press mate was in a bit of a pickle and needed a hang.  He was suffering from the old ‘Three places at once’ problem.

On Wednesday I attended the London Indoor Schools Athletics Cup Final at the Lee Valley Stadium.  Two hours of madness!  Every event you can think of was taking place, and I have to cover EVERYTHING! Loved every minute of it, and you never know, some of the young athletes I saw competing may very well be flying the flag in 2012.

Today was a slightly less manic event – Essex and Suffolk needed coverage of the ‘turning on’ of a new water pipe in Ilford.  The pipe has been working for a month, but that’s just between you and me 😉

What I haven’t missed, is the deadlines that all the PR people live to.  “yesterday, please”.  Love it.

New Wedding Gallery

Happy Friday everybody!

As your week comes to an end, here in the batcave, we are preparing to start work for the week with a wedding at Prested Hall Saturday, and The Lawns on Sunday.  I’ve not shot at The Lawns before, but I have heard great things about the venue and staff there.

After a mad start to the week up at the ‘Focus on Imaging’ exhibition at the NEC on Monday, the week for me has consisted of me preparing new sample albums  and purchasing new equipment for my weddings this year.  As you can imagine, us wedding photographers rattle through a few images at each wedding – and my current camera is no different!  I took it through it’s 97,000 image during Fridays wedding at Orsett Hall!  Not bad for a camera that is just over 2 years old!

As I said, I have also been designing new sample album for showcasing at wedding shows and meetings.  You can expect to see our NEW digital storybooks within 3 weeks!

I have also updated our online Gallery.  I was listening to various photographers at ‘Focus’, and they – quite rightly – said that too many photographers baffle potential clients with a million images on their site.  So I have whittled the images from a whopping 174 to just 30 of my finest images for couple to look at on the site.  Check it out if you have 5 mins!