Stacey - Old Pier Dover

One of the risks with a December photoshoot is that it is going to be cold and it certainly was. The old pier provides some shelter from the rain but the sea wind blows straight through broken windows.

The bad news about this location is that they are planning to paint the interior - not good for us!!

Thanks to Chhimmi Gurung for make-up on this occasion

One of the images is also now pride of place on my portfolio site.

 

And finally a studio headshot to end the day and warm up a bit!!

Chhimmi has put a little writ up on her blog

Marley

I was in the studio working on some lighting set-ups, Marley kindly stepped in to be an impromptu model.

Ella at Dusk

Photography: Dover Design Photography
Make-up: Make-up by Gem
Hair: Amanda Dodd from the Vanilla Rooms
Model: Ella Mae
Cape & Costume: Mascarada Fancy Dress

 

Check out the Crucifix Catchlight in her eyes .... 

Fashion in Black and White

Catherine - Ballet Dancer

A shoot around Dover with the beautiful Catherine. These are just a small selection of digital images, Thomas also shot many more on medium format film.

Published

It is always nice to get a few images published and today we had two ....

A fantastic wedding that was published in the print edition of Wedding Ideas Magazine has now been added to their website.

And .. our images were used in a blog post by the wonderful Alexandra at Bijou Bride

Video Montage - Wedding Photographs

A short selection of images from recent weddings which will hopefully give you some idea of our photographic style. You can view more wedding images by clicking the ‘weddings’ tab above.

The music is a recording of Panis Angelica recorded by the hugely talented Jennifer Brisk. Please see Jennifer’s website for more details.

Processing for a 50's look

Like most photographers I shoot everything in RAW, we then process the digital negative and export images as JPGs. The question is how far you go with the processing? My approach has always been a light touch - trying to keep the image as real as possible. If you look around the trendy wedding blogs you will notice many examples of highly processed images - in many cases desaturated and given a retro look and feel. I actually quite like some of them but can't really bring myself to process in this way. It seems kind of wrong to me.

I recently did a 50s themed shoot in a transport museum. My intention was to produce black and white film noire style images however on seeing the pictures I needed to keep them in colour but the colours I love seem to detract from the retro-ness of the images if that makes sense? Anyway I have taken a couple of images processed them in my normal way and then gone for the retro look. In both cases my neutral processing is in the middle. What do you think?

You can see more images from the shoot on my wedding photography website.

Jennifer Brisk - Classical Singer

I meet loads of people at wedding fayres, they are always a great place for networking and this Sunday was no exception.  At the Your Gorgeous Wedding Show in Dover we were entertained by a captivating classical wedding singer, Jennifer Brisk.  I was delighted on Monday when Jennifer called me and told me that she needed a publicity picture at very short notice.  Jennifer has been chosen to sing at the prestigious International Green Awards at London’s Natural History Museum on 24th November 2011.  She urgently needed a picture for the cover of the event brochure.  In a very limited time we managed to get a selection of images capturing the green theme – these are a some of the images that have already gone to the publishers.

If you are looking for Soloist for your wedding or event please give Jennifer a call.

If you are looking for publicity pictures yourself then please give me a call

1950's Fashion

 

To view more visit Kent Wedding Photographers

Time for a change

I have neglected this blog for a while but now the wedding season is over I am going to try to add more content. At the moment I am working on a new portfolio website - I want people to see that we do much more than just weddings.

Take a look - tell me what you think??

Alan Langley - Photographer

Hannnah - Abandoned Farm

Lara - A 60's shoot

Poison Ivy Photoshoot

 

And for the Photography geeks - have a look at the ivy shaped catchlight....

Court Stairs Manor - Bridal Fashion

Kent Wedding Photographers

Enefelde Cottage

Birds

A couple of bird pics - one taken in my Dad's garden the other on our Sunday afternoon walk.

Fashion Photography

My first experience of fashion photography - see our business site for more info.

Lightroom File Handling Workflow

A few people have asked about our basic file handling workflow so I thought I would post it on here.

To simplify file handling and allow folders to be backed up easily I prefer to create a new Lightroom catalog for each project. The benefit is that it creates a standalone back up which can be stored externally and accessed from any machine. I am not saying this is the right method or best practice but this is what I do.

1. Create Folder in Pictures Directoy named YYYY-MM-DD with description ie: 2010-10-18 Sharon and Brian Wedding.
2. In new folder Create new Folder - RAW
3. Manually copy files from Memory card to RAW folder.
4. Drag main folder to Places in Finder sidebar. (This step makes things easier in Lightroom)
5. Lightroom - Create new Catalog (File/New Catalog)
6. Select location for Catalog as the new folder ie: 2010-10-18 Sharon and Brian Wedding.
7. Import RAW files from newly created folder into light room.
8. Process files in Lightroom
9. Export JPGs into specific folders within master folder. eg. Blog Exports, Facebook, Hi-res, Lo-res
10. Copy new Folder to external drive and initiate back-up to secondary drive. (I use Sync LE)

Strike at Dover Christ Church Academy

Pupils at our local School have gone on strike. Over the summer break the school formerly Archers Court became the Dover Christ Church Academy. Along with the new name came a number of other changes including an unpopular split lunchtime. The pupils have been actively complaining and petitioning to resolve the situation but today decided to go on strike. My picture shows the head Teacher with much on his mind.