Blog

Wedding/Walima at Zinnia Gardens, Banstead, Surrey

About a year ago, my sister in law tied the knot and they had their wedding reception (Walima) at Zinnia Gardens in Banstead, Surrey.  I have lived in Surrey for most of my life  but this was a new wedding venue for me.  Zinnia Gardens is located in Banstead, Surrey, just off J8 of the M25.  Check out their website for more information about them.

Weddings are held at a permanent marquee on the grounds and you are surrounded by flower gardens and lovely green fields.  Fortunately we had a lovely summers day with sunshine and blue skies, which is great news when you have an army of children!  Some shots from the day....


A Week....ish in Photography

I've become a blog slacker but am here to rectify that!  Some lovely stories from the past week...ish.

With My New DSLR, I'm Invincible!!

That feeling you get when you buy your first DSLR camera........  You are the Bear Grylls of photography!  Ready for anything Mother Nature has in store for you.  Alas, the truth is a little less, jumping into piranha infested waters, and more about waiting for your dog to stop sniffing his privates! 

This Norwegian advert sums it rather nicely!

 

How Much Do you Want to Spend on a Camera?!

I'm always surprised when I see people with top end cameras...... and jealous when they have better gear than I do!  However, I really do think that most people starting off in DSLR photography, would be wise to buy an entry level camera and spend the extra money on lenses.  Get to know how to use the camera first.  Learn about aperture, shutter speed and ISO first.  Play around with each one and see each one changes the exposure.  Camera bodies change every couple of years but decent lenses will literally last a lifetime.

This is a great article on what can be achieved using a camera costing £100 and comparing it to one that costs £1000s!

 

The Best Wedding Gift Ever??

Most people wait months, some a year, for their wedding albums.  Usually it's because after a few months of trawling through over a thousand images, the excitement just dies and choosing the images for the album becomes a chore.

This photographer, James Day, delivered a beautiful album at the end of the evening ON the wedding day!  The bride was his wife's identical twin sister, the groom was a fellow photographer and he wanted to surprise them with the ultimate gift.  Obviously something like this couldn't have happened without an entire team of people and companies behind it.  It's amazing what people can accomplish when we work together.  

Check out the story and images HERE.

It's All About Capturing REAL Emotions

How often do you stand your child in front of the camera, ask them to smile and then press the shutter.... only to then be disappointed by the fake smile looking back at you when you check the image on your computer?  

I asked Aaryan to smile and got this.  It's OK but the smile looks forced.

I asked Aaryan to smile and got this.  It's OK but the smile looks forced.

We always try to capture a genuine smile from our children but don't always manage it.  The secret to getting real emotion is actually really simple..... don't tell them to smile.  Instead just talk to your child about a subject that interests them.  If you start talking about something that they care about, Lego, Minecraft, Spiderman, Star Wars, Frozen. etc. etc. you will see their eyes light up and they forget about the camera.  Aaryan and I started talking about Minecraft and he immediately started to show genuine emotion.  I feigned ignorance about Minecraft (I didn't have to try too hard!) and started talking about how you go to the toilet in the game!  Hey, it's a legitimate question!  A few seconds later I got these images:

So next time you want to take a photo with real emotion, talk at their level..... toilet humour always works!