Ellie and her bridesmaids walked to the church for a lovely emotional wedding and as you can see below, Ellie and Richard smiled happily throughout!  Richard drove his wife to the hotel in a rented Morgan and they stopped off on the tidal road at Aveton Gifford for a bit of time out and some filming by Sarah and Ray from Ray McShane Films, true professionals who we thoroughly enjoyed working with.  Nina and I had a lot of fun all day too.  Thanks Ellie and Richard for investing in us.

Here are a few of my favourite images telling the story of their day from the 500+  Devon wedding photographs we delivered!

Dear John and Nina,

We are VERY pleased with the photos. The colours are so bright and vibrant – well suited to our Moorland setting. You have captured some lovely emotions as well as amazing moments – even some that we missed on the day. The way that you went about your work was professional and unobtrusive. You were also patient while we were disorganised, which is much appreciated!
We feel that the way you helped with our planning of the day using your experience was invaluable.

Thank you for capturing so many excellent memories of our day.

Anna and Tom

Hi John,
Your photos were top quality and a perfect selection of moments from the day.  A welcome source of experience, you were not only a pleasure to have with us; you also helped us to ensure that the day went smoothly, and offered very helpful snippets of wedding day advice when needed! Unobtrusive throughout you are a relaxing guy to have around, we had a great wedding day and now have a great selection of natural pictures of our big day to match.
Very many thanks John,
Steph and James

Dear John and Nina,

Our very first meeting with you instilled enough confidence in your talent and experience for us to know we would definitely be hiring you! It was very important to us that whoever we chose needed to know how to get the lighting perfect as the venue is very dark and it was mid winter. Seeing your portfolio took any of these worries away! Through our chats and planning meetings your wedding experience actually helped us shape our day and gave us ideas that we hadn’t really thought about including before.

It was lovely having two photographers; knowing that nothing would be missed. You and Nina’s style is exactly what we wanted, unobtrusive but organised, fun and relaxed but ensuring that any more formal shots were as painless and smiley as possible. For a bride, who actually doesn’t like having her photo taken, Nina made me feel relaxed and really captured the whole experience of getting ready. Every opportunity and the smallest details were remembered and can be treasured forever. Your experience and style has beautifully captured the very essence of our day and the fun and fabulous feeling we both felt all day shines through in our pictures.

We can’t stop looking through our slideshow and everyone who has viewed them has commented on how brilliant the photographs are. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend you both and want to thank you so much for all your help, advice and giving us such wonderful memories from our wonderful day.

Many , many thanks,
Dee and Mike
X

The ceremony was emotional, fun and beautifully lit with candles and smiles.  A warm and cosy winter wedding was celebrated by all.  The weather was kind too and Steph and James took some time out down on Polhawn’s beach where I was so pleased to capture images of a couple so, so much in love.

I’ve always believed that change is good.  But I am also fearful and resistant to change.  I suspect that I am under the thumb of the Change Equation:
D is dissatisfaction with the present
V is a vision of how things could be
F is knowledge of the first practical steps, and
R is the resistance to change

Change will only occur if
D x V x F > R

Well, the Foundation Workshop Team Leaders and Mentors must have heard of this equation ‘cos on day one of my assignment I went out into the field, snapped away, came back and had my work ruthlessly critiqued.  A massive Dissatisfaction for me with my work from the day.

However, my Team Leader Sergio, helped by Mentors Daniel and Katrina and assisted by Gulnara, showed me a Vision of how things could be as the critiquing sessions went on long into the night.  Sergio has a wonderfully clear, concise and constructive way of explaining why an image “is nothing” and why I was just taking pictures.  He explained and showed us that by using our eyes, head and heart we would be making pictures – “working it, working it, working it”.

So back out into the field I went on day two with a vision in my head of how things could be and some clear plans of what I was going to do differently.  Yes, I felt better in the morning, I was looking and thinking more but the self-limiting beliefs that I couldn’t really do much better were still there.  Resistance was still there.  Then Daniel arrived on site.  Daniel with all his knowledge of the Practical Steps required for change.  And he didn’t just talk to me or look at my images, he practically shoved me closer to my subjects, he chanted relentlessly “keep shooting, keep shooting, move closer, work it, work it”.  He led me, he encouraged me, he praised me, he taught me.  ‘Training requires the presence of the Trainer’ and Daniel was so wonderfully present.  I was now making images that were new to me and I could feel my new Knowledge changing my view though my viewfinder.

At one point as I was shooting the fueling of an airplane with Daniel chanting his mantra in my ear I actually felt my Resistance collapse.  An actual physical feeling in my stomach.  I welled-up.  I knew I was changing and change felt very, very good.

So thank you Foundation Workshop for changing me and my photography.  Thank you Team Sergio and Huy and all the students and staff at FW10 who helped me in so many, many ways to move forward.

My assignment was at Granbury Airport, a small sleepy city/regional airport populated and visited by folks with a love of airplanes and a love of flying.  Everyone I met was welcoming, understanding and interested in what I was doing.  I am only posting one image from my experience here as the Workshop doesn’t want future attendees to have too much warning of what is to come!  This one image, for me, is my Pièce de Résistance. Why?

Because this is that point on day two where I was shooting and working it and my Resistance collapsed.  The image didn’t make it to my slideshow presentation at the end of the workshop but to me it was the point at which I knew I have the eyes, the head and the heart to make great photographs.

It’s going up on the wall.

The weather was kind too and we caught a romantic sunset down on the beach.  Thanks Dee and Mike for investing in Nina and I to capture so many lovely wedding memories and moments.  We had a great day too.  Here’s a few of my favourites images from your wonderful day.