The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, to give it its proper name, is a small, exclusive and picky (their words,not mine) organisation whose motivation is to ensure that the standards of wedding photography and those that operate within it are maintained at the very highest level.

Each quarter they run a competition. The judging of which, is undertaken without the judges knowing whose images their are perusing, thus ensuring that all of the submitted images are marked on the image alone.

Suffice to say, it put a rather large spring in my step to learn that I recevied 4 placings in the latest round of judging. I was especially pleased that these placings were spread across four different categories of which I have made reference to below:

‘Emotional Impact’

‘Framing’

‘Getting Ready’

‘The Decisive Moment’

A couple of weeks ago, I trundled off down to Brighton for 4 days and 4 rather long nights to shoot the photojournalism workshop MYVision 2010. The workshop is the first of its kind in the UK and it is designed to ‘throw’ photographers out of their comfort zone by giving them an assigment that they would not normally encounter. It was my job to photograph these guys in action ‘doing their thing’ and there are plenty of examples of this on the MYVison website.

Below are just a few of my favourites from the week which was both challenging and rewarding and it was a privilege to be involved.

Iain giving out the timings of the assigments to his team on Sunday evening.

Mr brewery worker getting to grips with cleaning out the beer barrels……

….and Matt shooting him doing so.

Guy ‘on the buses’ or on route12 from Brighton to Eastbourne to be more precise.

Big Jim giving Steve some advice in Choccywocchdoodah..

Simon having a cheeky little sit down @ snooze b+b

Brighton on a beautiful winters evening from the pier.

The critiquing sessions drove many to seek refreshment and solace in a trusted friend!

Whilst for others, they just proved to be too much!

Lucy & Thomas were originally getting married in August this year but due to circumstances beyond their control, they re-scheduled their wedding  for last Saturday. Family and friends alike all pulled together to ensure that their big day was a huge success illustrating a how much can be achieved in such a short space of time.

As much as the band they booked were excellent, the highlight of the evening celebrations was Lucy taking to the microphone to serenade Thomas which went down a storm, and boy can this lady sing! 

Last Saturday, after a rather a foggy and gloomy looking start to the day, we were treated to some beautiful winter sunshine for Isabelle and Gorans’ day. After their chucrh service we headed off to Harrow school to shoot some images before dropping back down to their reception.

Isabelle and Goran originally got married in China on Boxing Day and due to this fact, Isabelle wanted to spend some time getting images that they would be proud to send back to the family and friends in China that were unaable to make it Saturday. Hopefully these will give everybody a snapshot of how happy there were.

I met Charley recently at the wedding of Nic & mark at The ICA and it became apparant she knows her stuff when it comes to inspirations for your wedding day etc etc. Full of useful little tidbits and info, her blog is well worth checking out on a regular basis for some fresh ideas and a rather unique take on wedding details. There is a link to her blog just over there on the right but should you not feel the need to move your mouse that far click here

For those of you who ask about the music that accompanies my gallery on the website, the rather talented Leddra Chapman is responsible for making it all the more enjoyable. Just a quick plug for her really, pleased as punch to say she has been been on ITV1 performing her single. If you hit the link to here you will be able to find out how to download her music etc.