Early Morning at Lake Esrum

Taken in the tiny harbour on Lake Esrum in Fredensborg, Denmark.

The Park is a Lonely Place in Winter

Photographing Weddings is Fun!

Although stressful at times, and tiring to shoot when it stretches to a 12 hour day, I have always enjoyed shooting weddings! I really love to work with people, especially people who are having a whole lot of fun themselves, and at weddings mostly people are very happy, relaxed and in a great mood.

Being properly prepared ahead of time takes most of the stress out of it, however no matter how well you prepare there are always going to be a few surprises along the way, but if you have done the groundwork ahead of time then you should be able to handle the little niggles that come along a whole lot better.

What has always helped me a lot is building a very good relationship with my clients ahead of time, so that on the day they trust me and don't have to stress themselves worrying about whether I am up to documenting their one off very special event that will (hopefully) never be repeated ever again. Some photographers can't deal with that sort of responsibility and hate to shoot weddings, but it is exactly that aspect that gets me revved up! Bring it on!

Premier Hotel, Cullinan South Africa

Bride and Groom Kissing outside the Chapel

An oldie from my days of film, and still one of my favourite wedding photos. I was shooting with a Nikon F801s camera and a Nikkor 50mm f1.8D lens, a real workhorse combination that served me well for many years!

I would still be happily shooting film but in South Africa it became harder and harder to find anybody who could still process film properly and without leaving smudgy fingerprints on my negatives. I think that as time went on and the old film guys who knew what they were doing in the darkroom retired they were replaced by anyone (young, cheap and inexperienced) who thought they could punch the right buttons on the mini lab machine, and the darkroom art died out.

This is the way of the world and unfortunately profits drive everything. Having recently moved to Sweden I have discovered that local processing labs simply don't exist, so film use seems to be off the cards unless I decide to process my own... C'est la vie, now I have been shooting digital for a number of years and the "old days" of film remain as a pleasant memory.

Venetian Painted Mask - a one light portrait.

Another version of a previous pic (in colour) from the same session that I posted here: Venetian Painted Mask

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikkor 18-105mm kit lens at 105mm with VR on, hand held, f/5.6, 1/200s, ISO200, Nikon sb600 fired into a bounce umbrella to camera left.

Tracks in the Wheat.

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX, CPL, hand held, f/11.0, 1/30s, ISO200, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Field of Wheat. (Simplicity Itself!)

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX, CPL, hand held, f/8.0, 1/100s, ISO200, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Grassy Simplicity.

Grass blowing in the wind, shot with a slowish shutter speed and hand held.

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX, CPL, hand held, f/18, 1/13s, ISO200, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Watery Simplicity.

More Simplicity...

Continuing with the Simplicity theme...

Hurrah for Simplicity!

As the old saying goes: "less is more"! :-)

Monochromatic Simplicity

Stripped of colour a little discarded moss on a wooden jetty becomes a thing of simplistic beauty.

Sometimes the Light is simply better without Speedlights!

It always pays to be looking out for interesting light, and shutters near sunset can be just the thing to add a bit of visual interest.

A Quick Portrait.

Took a quick portrait this evening, setting up lights, shooting and packing back down all done in about 20 minutes!

Nikon D90, Manual Mode, Nikkor 18-105mm kit lens at 90mm with VR on, hand held, f/11, 1/200s, ISO200, two Nikon sb's bounced into two bounce umbrellas, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Texture of Bark on an Old Oak Tree (five)

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX, CPL filter, tripod, f/10, 1/4s, ISO200, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Texture of Bark on an Old Oak Tree (four)

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX, CPL filter, tripod, f/10, 1/6s, ISO200, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Texture of Bark on an Old Oak Tree (three)

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX, CPL filter, tripod, f/10, 1/2s, ISO200, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Texture of Bark on an Old Oak Tree (two)

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX, CPL filter, tripod, f/10, 1/6s, ISO200, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.