St Martin, Shotesham

I wanted to take my daughter out for a walk today, after running a few errands with her in the car though, she had other plans, and decided to fall asleep.

I didn't want to disturb her, as it was quite windy out, and I was sure it would soon wake her. So instead, I took a drive around home, and went to a spot I had biked passed many years ago. At that point, the ruins of St Martin church, just outside the main village of Shotesham, was undiscoverable, mainly due to the fact it was covered in foliage.

As described on the billboard next to it, it had been cleaned up in 2012, revealing the beautiful remains. With Ava still asleep, I snuck out the car to take a few photographs. My battery ran out on my last shot (what an amateur!) so I need to go back someday, especially in different weather conditions, my creative brain was going crazy!

But here are a few I took today, and in case anyone wonders how I got the long exposures, these were taken with a tiffen 10 stop filter. Something I've not had a play with for a long while, so was good to give it another go.

Shotesham

We took our daughter out for a walk at the weekend over at Shotesham. A wonderful little village, which has the Boudica Way as part of its footpaths.

A very photographic little place, with every house as unique and as beautiful as the next. It was a good chance to test out my newest purchase - the Panasonic GX7 with it's 20mm 1.7 lens. With Ava strapped to my front, it was easy enough to get focus on composing shots. I think this one here was my favourite. Mainly because we're always encouraged to break 'the rules' of photography; whereas this image follows those rules, and gave me a really pleasing image.

I'm quite fond of the trees and path leading you, and the deeper you look, you then spot the church in the distance, which is in itself, being covered by the rolling mist.... I'm not being too boastful, am I?!... Maybe you have to sometimes when you're pleased with a shot.

Iceland Revisited

A couple of years ago, Heather and I stopped off in Iceland for a mini moon between our weddings here in England, and in the US.

At the time, I went through most of my photographs, but after going through my 'archive' I thought I would have a look at some I never touched. Here are just a few - mainly taken at Thingvellir, which shows off the Mid Atlantic ridge - it's incredible, all Geography school trips need to visit. This also makes me want to go back more than ever... especially before it gets saturated with TV crews filming the next big thing...:

Tim & Olivia Wedding

A belated update to my blog, but as I can schedule my posts, I can be sneaky and make it look like it was posted the day after the wedding...

The last wedding of the, was a lovely coastal one at The Cliff Hotel in Dunwich. Heather was at home with Ava, so I was all alone for this one. I knew the groom previously, as I used to play football with him, and he was at school with my brother. I also knew a lot of the guests for similar reasons.

Despite being at the end of summer, the couple had stunning weather. It was very difficult not to join in with the guests and sit outside with a cold beer... it was very tempting!

I know Dunwich reasonably well, and had scouted out the area again a few weeks earlier. I was also so pleased that despite it being a difficult walk to the beach, the bride and groom were very much up for having some photos taken down by the sea.

With a tinge of sadness, this was our last wedding of the year, but a thoroughly enjoyable one to be a part of. Below I have shared a few photographs, and can't wait until wedding season starts again next year (diary is already getting filled up!).

Poppy & Jon Wedding

Our second wedding of the year, was of the lovely Poppy & Jon.

Their wedding was at St Mary's Church in South Walsham, and their reception at the local village hall. My usual assistant, Heather, was at home looking after our newborn, so my brother Matt stepped up to help out. I don't mind photographing weddings by myself, but it's really nice to have someone else with you, to catch bits and pieces you may inevitably miss, and also, to bounce ideas off.

Everything about this wedding was absolutely lovely. I think it sums up how much everyone was fond of the couple, when I was waiting for the brides arrival (who was a tad late after forgetting their flowers!). There were people in the churchyard waiting for her arrival, they weren't guests for the day, but knew of them both (mainly through Poppy cutting their hair) and they just wanted to see her on her wedding day.

I will let the photographs do the rest of the talking. More and more, I enjoy being part of peoples special day, to see everyone having such a good time is lovely company to be in.

It must also be noted, that this is the first time I've been asked to create a Church selfie... maybe the start of a trend??