Wow! It's the BIG one this week!

Still ploughing our way through the wedding fairs, we are at one of the biggest shows of the season on Sunday.

It's the Dunkenhalgh. We'll be in our usual spot, on the left by the door.  It'd feel strange if they put us anywhere else now.

We call that our lucky table. It wasn't  so lucky last year when a light fell over and burnt one of our albums! We've got a whole new set of lights - and albums since then so no chance of any more mishaps in that department.

The fair (fayre?) starts at noon. As usual there will be lots to see, eat and try on. The fashion show will be at 2pm.

The lady who organises the fair saw a picture of our new puppy, Bentley last week. Completely fell in love with him and asked me if he could model for her. One of the suit hire places has a groom outfit for dogs. How cute would that be!!!

I did decline the offer, Since he's only twelve weeks old I thought his modelling career would have to wait till he's a little bit older. The poor creature could be traumatised for life if he was put through all that!

He is a handsome boy though, isn't he?

And this week's winner is....

Ahem.  The winner of the Manchester Wedding Show free prize draw is.......drum roll please.

EMILY HILL!!!!

Well done Emily!

Prescriptive or descriptive?

Welcome! Welcome! Come in, sit down and make yourselves comfy! An extra special welcome to new readers and those we've met recently at the wedding fairs.

Carrying on with our introduction from a couple of posts ago, I'd like to share with you our vision of wedding photography. 

When Bob and I got married 26 years ago, wedding photography was largely prescriptive. You got what you got and everyone followed the same formula.

You stood and posed in lines, slap bang in the middle of the frame with various family members for 30 or so photographs. Then, just as the fun was about to start the photographer packed up his tripod (yes, it was always a bloke and he always had a tripod) and off he went. That, as they say, was that.

In due course you got your thirty pictures in an album, one picture to a page, with tissue paper between the pages. Your album looked the same as your Mum's and hers looked like her Mum's.

Then along came digital photography. 

Once digital photography reached a standard as good if not better than film photography all sorts of doors opened. 

Photography no longer needed to be prescriptive.

Now it could be descriptive. 

Suddenly the rule was: 

There are no rules, be creative and go with the flow.

(Imagine me singing for joy at this point).

Photographers now had the freedom to shoot as much as they wanted,  allowing them to pick up on the mood, the feel and the sheer joy of a wedding. 

Reportage was born.

For the first time we could photograph all of the details, the tiny but important items that make your wedding uniquely yours. 

The garter that belonged to your grandma, the ring sewn into the lining of your dress or the antique lace that came from your Mum's wedding veil. We understand how important these things are to you.

They are your cherished memories, memories that you'll want to keep forever. By putting these photographs  alongside and complimenting your main photographs we can tell the whole story of your wedding in your beautiful and unique storybook album.

Bob and I don't claim to be truly reportage photographers as experience has taught us that most people still like to have a few formal photographs and we're always happy to do those for you if you want them.

However, what we prefer to do is shoot very natural, unposed  images, the ones that show you enjoying every single second of your wedding.

What do you think?

If this is February then that means we are exhibiting at The Triangle Centre in Manchester this weekend, then next weekend it's the Wrightington Hotel  followed by the  Preston Marriot on the 26th the  Dunkenhalgh on 4th March, Preston Masonic Hall 11th March and then last but not least, Kilhey Court on 1st April.

So many wedding fairs.

It's all becoming a bit of a blur at the moment, I'm really not sure where I am from one week to the next.

Of course doing all these wedding fairs means that all major dates are filling up fast so please don't delay if you're thinking of booking us for your wedding photography, I'd hate for you to miss the date because you weren't quick enough off the mark. It does all get to be a bit of a bunfight at this time of year.

I do love all the excitement of it all though and I certainly can't say that I'm bored.

Cake, fashion shows, jewels, shoes  - and me!

What's not to love about a wedding fair? Get your self along and say hello! While you're in Manchester you can do a bit of 'market research' aka*cough* shopping.  I think Bob's cottoned on to the fact that when i say 'researching the market' I actually mean shoe shopping.

We've got a new display banner for this year's shows.

Since our last  banner came to an untimely end after Bob had a bit of a tussle with it at a wedding fair last year we decided to get a super duper  new one.

Oh. Dear Lord.

It arrived today.

Millimeters are teeny little things!

I had no idea 1500 of them would be so very BIG!

At least you won't have any trouble spotting us.

Here's me in the office stood next to it two  minutes after it arrived. I still have the shocked grin on my face. It's huuuuuuge!

Lynsey and Matthew's Album

We love it when a couple's wedding alum finally arrives. In fact we probably look forward to it as much as you do.

Having spent ages designing it, and every one is totally unique, it's nice to see the finished article.

Lynsey and Matthew's album was the latest one to arrive. If you've been following us on Facebook you'll have seen that Lynsey was a bit excited about it's arrival. She was thrilled to bits with it - as we were.

Some of you will have already seen it as we were thrilled enough with  it  to get a copy made for ourselves to put on the display at the wedding fairs.

Talking of wedding fairs - we are exhibiting at Manchester Wedding Show at the Triangle Centre in Manchester on both Saturday and Sunday this week.

Po in and say hello, put your name down for the next prize draw, grab a spot of lunch and do a bit of shopping. You could make the whole day of it!

You have to love Manchester!

And the winner is......

And the winner of our  park hall wedding fair prize draw is...........

I'll just let the tension build for a moment as I rustle the gold envelope with the winner's name inside it  *rustle rustle rustle*

Kate A!!!!!

Congratulations and well done,  Kate!!!

I'll be contacting Kate by email to let her know she's the lucky winner of an engagement portrait shoot and a framed 8 x 12 inch framed print.

Thank you all for coming to chat with us and for entering the draw, sorry you didn't win this time but you can have another chance.

We' ll be at the triangle Centre in manchester on Saturday and Sunday next week for the manchester Bridal Show so pop in, say hello and you can enter again!

You have to be in it to win it - as they say.

Getting To Know You

What can I say? I loved the wedding fair at park Hall on Sunday.
It was busy, lively and fun with lots going on and soooo many people stopped by for a chat. Thank you, we had a brilliant day!


As we met so many people, I thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves properly. 


So. Who shall I start with? Well, me I suppose as I carry the title of, 


'The Photographer'

*Takes a deep breath*


My name is Lesley  ( can't think of anything else to say here so I'll move swiftly on )


Did I always know I was going to be a photographer? 


No! It almost happened by accident. I always knew there was an artist inside me but I couldn't find the right medium to bring it out. I'm rubbish at painting and can only draw stick men, it was so frustrating!  Eventually, someone shoved a camera into my hands and that was me hooked.


After attended lots of evening courses at college, I set up a darkroom in the upstairs toilet at home and soon friends were asking me to photograph their weddings - and then I realised.......... this is it! This is what I'm meant to do! I absolutely love weddings! 


"Blimey" I thought, "If I'm going to do this I'd better learn how to do it properly." So, with amazing support from the husband, Bob, I sold my business  and went to university full time to get a degree in photography.  the rest, as they say, is history.




Off duty I like to borrow a dog,  and get out walking.


not just any old dog, this particular dog. She belongs to my son, she's my best walking buddy, 

Of course, while I'm out I still have a camera with me.  here are a few of my favourite off duty photos from last year. 

Yeah, I know, they're a bit odd. That's my job, you see, to notice what you won't necessarily notice and make a picture out of it. My absolute favourite  in this bunch is the union jack photo.  


Incidentally, who says you need a big, fancy camera to take photos? With the exception of the black and white shadow picture, these were all taken on my phone. 



So, moving on: What about Bob, then?

 Well,  I fell on my feet when I found him, he's my soul mate and my best friend as well as my business partner and all round good egg.  

This is us just before our 25th wedding anniversary:

He's a qualified videographer and techno wizard, anything to do with technology fascinates him. 

Not a full time photographer like me, he runs our other business, the one that keeps the wolf from the door.  He also  comes along to weddings  as my second photographer. While I'm doing the more formal photographs, he can usually be found lurking in a bush with a long lens on getting some stunning candid photographs, it's that videographer's eye, you see. 

He usually comes along to the  wedding fairs  as well and he's the one who produces our  amazing slideshows. Give him some photos and some music to work with and he'll produce a slideshow that will melt your heart. The man's a genius!  (ok, I might be a bit biased on this bit).  

It's also Bob who gets your galleries online and takes care of the website, in fact, he does most of the 'back room' work leaving me to concentrate on the photography. 

When Bob's off duty he spends most of his time - on the computer.  

Third, and newest member of the team is our daughter, Carla. You see, it really is a family business.

Assistant photographer and part time model for me, she always joins in enthusiastically when I come up with  another bonkers ideas for a photo shoot. The latest one was  for a Wonder Woman type shoot - except I wanted it to be slightly different and have her boobs shooting flames! 

 most people would have run, not walked, in the opposite direction. Carla just went for it even though she was terrified.  What do you think?

It took us ages to get it all together. What you can't see here is all the fire extinguishers and fire blankets being held just out of shot. she was incredibly brave to do this one, even though she was terrified you'd never know to look at her. 

I'm not even going to mention the 'Ophelia' type shoot we did. I'm sure she thinks I'm trying to kill her! 

Carla has been involved in photography in one way or another since she was tiny. In her time she's been involved in all sorts of weird and wonderful shoots which gives her an amazing insight both into the business and  the artistry of photography - and  as an  ex art student she has a brilliant eye for a photo.  Like me, she's mad about weddings and is really enjoying her  apprenticeship as a wedding photographer under my watchful eye.

So that's us.  I hope you enjoyed our little biography. 

Tune in again later in the week and to discover  about our vision of photography and how that relates to you.

Bye for now!