Charlotte & Allan Engagement Session

We met up with Charlotte and Allan at Compton Acres, it's a great venue for photography and since their wedding will be there it allowed us to hear their ideas for using Compton Acres and it's stunning grounds for their wedding photography.

It's April so there was some rain to contend with, between showers we got some beautiful images :)

Charlotte had requested a special image, a nighttime shot set against the backdrop of a lit building. There's plenty of options around Dorset but we suggested Rhinefield House in the New Forest. Rhinefield House is well known to us and is very popular for New Forest weddings so we knew it would be great for the shot Charlotte had in mind.

After Compton Acres we stopped off with Charlotte and Allan at the Cat and Fiddle for a bite to eat while we waited for it to get dark. It was a great opportunity to get to know them both better and by the time we were done eating the light outside was perfect for the second part of the shoot at Rhinefield House Hotel.

A great day and some stunning images :)

Mel & Lee Engagement Session

This April seems to have every seasons weather, some really hot days, some snow and yes a lot of April showers!

Tyneham village between Corfe Castle and Lulworth Castle was the venue chosen by Mel and Lee for their engagement session. The village and chalk downland around the Purbeck Hills, were commandeered just before Christmas 1943 by the then War Office for use as firing ranges for training troops. Approximately 200 people were displaced, these days it is almost a tourist attraction, only accessible when the Army is not using the range.

Normally if the weather isn't looking good we're happy to reschedule but Mel and Lee were adamant they didn't mind a little rain so we went ahead and it brightened up nicely as the afternoon went on :)

Teri and I are looking forward to a less than usual wedding in June, the wedding ceremony will be held in Portland Castle and Mel and Lee will be dressed in full Medieval costume. That's neat but the best thing is all guests will be dressed up as well, I think Teri has promised for us to go in Medieval garb also (let's hope there's no incriminating pictures taken of me!).

Claire & Darrell Engagement Session

Teri and I are often asked if we can include family members in the engagement sessions we offer, our reply is always YES!

We visited several locations, the last image was taken at Kimmeridge Bay which created just the right backdrop. The roman villa location is actually Upton House between Poole and Wareham, as well as being able to book weddings at Upton Country Park the house and gardens are open to the public and managed by the Poole council.

Claire and Darrell are big Starwars fans (well Darrell more so as when we first met he showed us his lightsabre!) needless to say their engagement session was going to be a lot of fun :)

**Update** Claire and Darrell's wedding images are now online Star Wars Wedding including Clare's Pink Wedding Dress! :)












Family members Mavis and Flo















Yes, it's our homage to the Starwars poster featuring Mavis as Darth Vader and Flo and Mavis together at the bottom as droids! The idea for the image was Teri's but Claire and Darrell were enthusiastic and totally up for creating a fun image, great fun! :)

David Gets His 'L'!

David is now a qualified member of the Master Photographers Association having submitted his qualifying panel at Focus On Imaging 2008 Europe's biggest annual imaging show for members of the photographic community.

The Licentiate (LMPA) award represents an established level of skill and competence and was gained by submitting a panel of images from recent weddings. The panel is then judged by respected members of the MPA and the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP).

David's panel was of sufficiently high quality to be featured in the Master Photographers Association magazine as a two page spread showing all David's images and a page of text about how we work. His panel is also 'on tour' and will be shown all around the UK in talks given by the MPA to photographers who wish to become qualified.

Well done David! He worked really hard throughout 2007 and the recognition for his work is very well deserved :)

*Special mention to mutli award winning Dorset photographer Kevin Wilson, his experiance and skill mentoring both David and I over the last few years is something that has helped us grow as photographers, thank you Kevin!

A small selection of David's LMPA qualifying panel images below :)