Wedding Photography

Photography Alternative Review 2015 Part 2

January 11, 2016

Photography Alternative Review 2015 Part 2

So here’s part 2 of the Alternative year in review.. see here for part 1. I can only echo what I said before. Its been a fantastic wedding year. I’ve shot some epic weddings. I’ve met some great people! I’ve worked with some talented people and had a blast doing it. You can’t say more than that can you! Thanks to everyone past present and future in advance and retroactively for having me along and I hope you enjoy looking at something a little bit different from the usual traditional wedding photos. So don’t think you have to do what everyone else does.. be yourself it’s the way forward. Hogroasts are always a bonus, but, not essential.

So thanks again and hope you enjoy them and it brings you some smiles 🙂

Firstly here’s the video again for you scroll averse people

and here’s the epic part 2.. of course you can contact me if you’d like me along for your journey.

If you like you can buy me a cider too.

by greg

Wedding Photography Alternative Review 2015 Part 1

January 11, 2016

Photography Alternative Review 2015 Part 1

What an amazing year it’s been! I’ve shot some amazing weddings and also been along as second shooter for many other adventures along the way. It’s good to look back on the last year and share some alternative images, often its the big grand portraits that can look amazing. I think that a wedding is more than this, it’s about the interaction with people, it’s fun, it’s awesome. I’ve been all over the country (I call all my weddings overseas destination weddings), I’ve photographed my love of bacon, hogroasts, cider, shots. I’ve worn DJ’s, Suits, bacon bow-ties (custom made), wetsuits, swimming trunks amongst other things. I’ve climbed trees, crawled through bushes.. got soaked, fallen in rivers, jumped buildings. Photographed lego, cakes, delicious food, beautiful people along the way. I love getting those slightly strange and quirky moments that happen during a wedding and also get involved in the celebration. I hope this comes across in both my website and my photographs.. so without further rambling lets go! (there’s also a slideshow to save your scrolling fingers if you go right to the bottom). Thanks to everyone who i’ve worked with and photographed in 2015 and bring on 2016! Lets gooooooo!

Firstly here’s the video for you scroll averse people

and here’s the epic part 1.. of course you can contact me if you’d like me along for your journey.

If you like you can buy me a cider too.

Wedding

See part 2 here.

by greg

Liz and Carls intimate Hotel du Vin Wedding

January 2, 2016

Liz and Carls intimate Hotel du Vin Wedding

I love small intimate weddings, and the Hotel du Vin in Poole is a great location for a small intimate wedding. It was great to be back at St Thomas More RC church for the ceremony too and catch up with the wonderful Father there.

It was a true honour to photograph Carl and Liz’s wedding and little Jacob too. As always everyone was so friendly and it was fantastic to see everyone having such good fun too!

Congratulations on a wonderful wedding! I’ll leave you with this sneak peek!

Hotel Du Vin Wedding photography

Here’s one of my favourites from down on the quay

hotel du vin wedding

Liz and Carl outside the Hotel du Vin in Poole on their wedding day 🙂

if you’re planning on getting married in poole, then please get in touch to ask about my wedding photography

by greg

Claire and Tim’s Magical Christmas Wedding at Rhinefield House

December 24, 2015

Claire and Tim’s Magical Christmas Wedding at Rhinefield House

Wow what a great way to end this years wedding photography! Back to Rhinefield House Hotel once more to photograph the fabulous wedding of Claire and Tim. I first met Tim many years ago in a previous life when I used to teach at the Southampton University SportRec department. I was the fun chap who ran a lot of the circuit and exercise classes.. so I made everyone do pushups and lots of other fun exercises. It was great to be invited along to photograph such an AMAZING day. I was greeted on my arrival by a beautiful looking Claire and her stunning bridesmaids too! Best of all I was given a bacon tree ornament which is now hanging on my christmas tree 🙂 (*side note I like bacon and bacon products). Claires dress was stunning, with intricate lace details and sparkly bits! She looks absolutely divine in her dress too, and complimented by the red in the bridesmaids dresses too! A truly magical day.

The ceremony was at St Josephs Church in Southampton where the church was superbly made out. After a emotional ceremony it was back to Rhinefield house, we had planned to stop off for some photos but the weather had other plans so we decided to make use of the lavish interior of Rhinefield House hotel. We also made use of the staircase for the formal photographs which worked really well.

I was lucky enough to be sitting on one of the tables and got to chat to many of the guests during the delious meal! Everyone was so friendly and happy! I love my job!

After some great speeches it was time for the first dance where Tim and Claire performed an excellent dance routine! We were then followed by some amazing fireworks, which despite it being raining everyone came out to witness, with barely a chance to catch our breaths it was mince pies, hot chocolate and chestnuts and time for more partying! What an amazing day and what amazing family and friends attended to witness Claire and Tim get married. Truly an honour to attend and a fitting finale for my year!

Anyway this is a very small selection of photographs from the day – stay tuned for the full set and feel free to share and comment below!

Claire and Tims awesome Christmas wedding sneak peek images

Bridal Party at the Alter in St Josephs Church Southampton

My wonderful Bacon tree ornament gift!

Wedding breakfast ready setup for christmas wedding with big christmas tree

Tim and Claire kissing in front of Rhinefields House huge Christmas Tree

Claire and Timmy Relaxing in front of the Christmas Tree

Claire and Tim kissing with a santa hat on the dancefloor

Groom and Me towards the end of the evening 🙂

Fireworks at Rhinefield house

Special thanks

Special thanks to all the staff including Gareth and his team at Rhinefield House hotel for being so fab as always.
Michael Judd for being a great toastmaster as always and mentioning me in his speech 🙂
The cake maker for an amazing creation (Chalming Cake Design) and florist for doing such and amazing job too!
The caricaturist for creating some amazing works of art too!
The String quartet for making such amazing music.
And the bangin’ DJ’s (The Celebration Roadshow )

by greg

Which Sony A7 is best for me?

December 4, 2015

Which Sony A7 is best for me?

As someone who has been shooting with the Sony a7s, a7-ii and a7r2 for quite some time now both with native Sony FE lenses and adapted Sony and Canon, Sigma EF lenses people keep asking me which a7 camera is best for them, what is the best adapter, what other lens options are they? Can they use their existing canon or nikon lenses?

Also you can read about my first year using sony commercially in the studio and at weddings.

So I made a little video to help explain and also this blog post to go along with it to help explain some things in more detail with links where appropriate.

Firstly heres the video:

Which is the Best Sony for me?

TL; DR just tell me what to buy

In Summary here’s the pro’s and cons of each Sony a7 body, so pick your body depending on your needs, all great options, with slightly different strengths and weaknesses.

Sony A7s

Buy this if Low light and video mainly are your usage and you don’t care about in body image stabilisation (steadyshot).

Pros

Silent Shutter (burst)
Best High ISO
Video
4K (external)

Cons

No Steadyshot/IS/VR
Relatively low resolution in comparison
Lowest DR of the A7 series
No internal 4K
No uuncompressed RAW

Sony A7s-II

Buy this if Low light and video mainly are your usage and you want in body image stabilisation (steadyshot).

Pros

Silent Shutter (burst)
Best High ISO
Steadyshot/IS/VR
Video
4K internal video
uncompressed raw option

Cons

Relatively low resolution in comparison
Lowest DR of the A7 series

Sony A7-II

Buy if you want a good all rounder a7 camera and don’t care about super high ISO, 4K video

Pros

Steadyshot/IS/VR
Good DR
Good IQ and normal ISO ranges
Phase detect AF with third party/adapted lenses
uncompressed raw option

Cons

No Silent shutter
Weakest high ISO IQ of the a7 series
Medium DR of the A7 series
Weakest Video of a7 – no 4K

Sony A7R-II

Buy if you want the best all rounder a7 camera and with good high ISO, great DR and 4K video

Pros

Steadyshot/IS/VR
Best DR
Best IQ at normal-mid-high ISO ranges
Best AF coverage
Phase detect AF with third party/adapted lenses
Silent shutter (single shot)
Good video options including 4K
uncompressed raw option

Cons

No Silent shutter burst mode – single shot only
File sizes in uncompressed are huge 80+MB can cause slow buffering
Potential to overheat in Video modes

Hope that helps you in your decision buying process feel free to ask more questions below.

by greg