Tuesday, January 31, 2012

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!

















Friday, January 27, 2012

Wow! We're at Park Hall!

Hello and welcome to our new readers.

We're on the brink of the wedding fair season again. The first one is this Sunday at park Hall, Charnock Richard.

All day today I've been 've been busily getting everything ready, polishing, primping and preening - and that's just on me!

I'm really looking forward to chatting with lots of brides - and just a few grooms this weekend.

Drop by and say hello, won't you?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Wow! It's a pot pourri of news

Well, golly gosh, is it that time again already?


We have our first wedding fair of this year on the 29th January. It'll be at Park Hall and I know that there's going to be a lot going on so if you're getting married n the next year or two get yourself down there for a lookie, you won't be disappointed - and it's always lovely to see you. 


As for us, we've just taken delivery of  another  new silver package sample album to show you. The new album is from Lynsey and Matthew's wedding last year. Fabulous wedding despite the rain that lashed down on us for most of the day. Did the rain stop play? Did it heck, everyone had a ball!


It was getting time to replace the sliver package album anyway as we like to have current  weddings to show you but we maybe had to get this one ready a bit quicker than we otherwise might have done due to the fact that the old one  came to  an untimely end at the last wedding fair when a  light fell on it and burnt a great big hole in it. 


Thank goodness Bob was on the spot or it could have been a very nasty incident indeed.  
Where was I while all this was going on?  


Ummmm...ok I admit it, I was at the other end of the room  sampling wedding cake. Well, I have to make sure it's good enough for you, don't I?  Anyway, all's well that ends well and we have a lovely new album out of it.


*****



Big announcement coming up:  TAAADAAAAAAAAA dada da da da daaaaaaaa!!!


AHEM * clears throat*


 " We at Wow! Contemporary Photography are pleased to announce that we are now able to take credit card payments."  Yaay!!  


We've also taken a bit of time over the quiet period to redesign our company livery. It's just in the final stages now so I'm really looking forward to showing you all that when it's finished. I got the letterhead proofs through today and it's looking pretty darned smart!! 


Things are a- changing here at Wow! Towers and it's all looking good.


*****

Nick and Jayne, one of our couples from last year, picked up their wedding album just before Christmas. 

Well, I promised you that you could have a look at it after they'd seen it so here it is. Hope you like it as much as they did. 























Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy New Year!

I hope this year brings you everything you wish for yourself but mostly health and happiness ( a bit of wealth wouldn't go amiss either) 


It's going to be a busy one, this year. So much to look forward to.


You know how you always see the 'round of up the year' programmes? Well, I thought I'd do a 'favourite photos of 2011' round up but I couldn't do it because there was waaaaayy too many favourites and I couldn't decide.  It would have been a massive post with about 300 photos in it! Every now and then I'll pop a few in as I'm working on them so you can see what we've been up to. 


The wedding fair season starts on the 29th January for us. We'll be exhibiting at Park Hall, that's always a good show so pop in to say hello, it's always nice to hear from you. 


In the meantime, It's all about album design. Last year's brides and grooms have now mostly picked their album pictures so it's head down and get designing for me for the next few weeks. That should keep me out of mischief for a while - that and the New Year get fit campaign.


See you soon!