Typically we photograph our bride and groom photo section at the reception, however we are never ones to miss an opportunity! At a recent wedding in Oxford, we took the chance to go off the beaten track and do some photographs at the grooms childhood farmhouse between the church and reception.

The groom was getting ready in the morning at the farmhouse and as soon as I saw it, I knew it would be the perfect choice. It is completely tucked away down a track really only suitable for 4x4s, but as soon as I saw it in the morning I knew that it would make for some amazing photos!

The farmhouse was beautiful - there was possibly TOO many good spots to do photos. We had time to get a really great variety of shots, and here are a few of my favourites.

We recently had the opportunity to do some shooting in Sri Lanka. On our down time, it was great to be shooting people and landscapes completely different to our regular work. It is such a beautiful country and due to the war and the tsunami deviation that affected Sri Lanka, it's great to see that its redeveloping.

Our main love was definitely the animals - every time we saw elephants or monkeys we kept trying to get better and better shots! The people of Sri Lanka also loved having their photo taken - just showing them the photo on the back of the camera always got a great smile!

We have had a lot of requests for a fine art section of the website that will allow us to sell these and many more as prints - we are working on it and hope to have it up and running soon!

Our very popular cherubs baby club has run for several years now with great success. New to this year, introduced by the Master Photographers Association, is the 'Cherub of the Year' competition.

We now have the opportunity to regularly enter our favourite photographs into this competition on behalf of the customer. All successful entries will go through to the final where the winning photographer will be crowned 'Cherubs Photographer of the year' and the customer will receive a £10,000 cash prize.

All cherubs club members who started the cherubs scheme after 1st March 2010 can be entered into this competition. We will submit our favourite photos each month and we will keep you all updated with the progress.

Here are a few examples of some newborn shoots we have done recently all of which have been submitted to this quarterly competition.

Hannah

It's always fun to do something a little different to my normal weddings, and my greek wedding with 260 guests last week definitely qualifies!

Andrea and Luke's wedding followed many of the greek traditions and it made for some really fun photographs. These included a fiddler playing for both the bride and groom in the morning for them to get ready with, and key family members circling them in red ribbon.

The ceremony was brilliant for photography (even though I understood nothing that was said!). There was a priest with what looked like a solid gold bible. It was also very interactive, with many people there coming up to join the bride and groom to do things such as change their rings around, write messages of good luck on a long ribbon attached to them and congratulate them at the end. It did mean that they walked out last through an empty church though!

I really wish I had kept an order of service so I understood the meaning of everything I saw a bit more, but I was so wrapped up in the photography I didn't think about it on the day. It would have made this blog easier to write anyway!

In the UK, a common concern for many brides is often the weather - its completely unpredictable! They may think they want bright sunshine, but often when it comes along its actually quite hard to deal with.

Luckily, for Chris and Jenny they had picked a great venue to deal with a really hot day. Oakley Court in Windsor is right on the River Thames, so there was a nice breeze to cool everyone down. There was also plenty of shaded areas for their guest to sit and relax. This is also another great reason to not add too many extra group photos to our small suggested shot list - it meant that Jenny and Chris had plenty of time to relax, get a drink and enjoy their wedding day.

Here are a few photos of everyone enjoying the sunshine!

We have been really excited about our latest wedding as it was hosted solely on a farm in Cambridge - definitely not one of our usual venues!

The farm is owned by the Bride's Aunt so incredibly personal to the couple and is usually open to the public as a campsite. The venue was a brilliant setting to this wedding. After the Bride and Groom had an 'official' register the day before they were able to have a bit more fun with their actual Ceremony.

This included the bride arriving on the back of a tractor driven by her brother, the ceremony lead by a university friend, and many other elements that made their day incredibly personal and momentous! We also had great fun with the photos by taking Kath, Luke and the wedding party all around the farm for some brillant shots.

Although this was a very informal wedding the attention to detail was perfect and the day went without a hitch. So relaxed were the bride and groom, they allowed us to put them into a wild field to take fantastic flower photos. In the evening the bride and groom put their complete trust in us again and posed amongst tractors and vehicles to get some stunning sunset photos.

I do love shooting weddings, mainly because of the heightened emotion and love that is involved. I know it sounds cheesy, but everyone is just so happy! It's my main purpose at a wedding to seek out all these emotional moments that are happening and capture it, so the bride and groom can look back for years to come and remember just how they were feeling on their wedding day.

This week I had the joy of photographing the wedding of a guy I have know since we were at least five! Its brilliant that we have stayed friends this whole time, and I am sure for many years to come.

I felt truly privileged to witness moments as a photographer that not all guests may see. I got to see first hand the look in his eyes when he saw his bride coming down the isle, and I did well up a little! I was so happy that we got that photo, so that we can share that feeling and moment with everyone who couldn't quite see it on the day, and to remember it from now on.

Here is that moment, as well as a few other special times that we got to share with Jon and Caroline. Congratulations guys, I am so happy for you!

I had the pleasure of photographing a charismatic 3 year old last week who after taking a beautiful photo of him as a guest at a wedding, his parents brought him back to us to create his first model portfolio.

Jayden was brilliant fun and thanks to lots of preperation from his mum had a fantastic wardrobe selection too. I noticed that Jayden's particular talent was his ability to follow instructions well, particularly by mimicking poses that I showed him. This meant that we were able to do a great variety of shots - perfect for model agencies.

His good behaviour, charming character and gorgeous looks meant that he had some brilliant shots and we are certain he is going to do well. You saw him here first!

The gap between the end of the ceremony and the start of the wedding breakfast is a great time for guests to mingle and enjoy a drink and canopies. However at our recent wedding they also had the great idea of providing some other forms of entertainment.

We had another great wedding at Englemere, Ascot with fantastic weather. The bride and groom provided giant garden games to keep the guests, of all ages, entertained.

They thoroughly enjoyed these games and we had a great time photographing them. My assistant and I had to take quite a risk in our positioning to get some good shots, but it was definitely worth it!


Here are a few examples, and one of my many favourites of Ross and Sarah.

We only have a few spaces left for this years Free Portrait day on Father's Day, 20th June.


This promotion has been incredibly well received and we now only have 2 spaces left, so do not delay.

A free portrait day is a new concept where we arrange one location, on one day and book in several one hour photo shoots - all free of charge. All you have to do is pick your hour slot and meet us at the venue for a free location shoot.

The very prestigious Royal Berkshire Hotel, Ascot will be the venue for our photo shoots. This is an arrangement exclusively with us and we are pleased that we can start the scheme at such a fantastic venue. To add extra incentive The Royal Berkshire have agreed to give 20% off your final food bill for all those who book a portrait day and would like to stay on and eat (applies to restaurant and bar food). There will also be live Jazz playing on the terrace all day.

So for a fun day of photographs, food and music contact us now.

To book all you have to do is:

• call us to pick an appointment slot, leave a £50 deposit which goes towards your photos
  
• meet us at the Royal Berkshire, Ascot on 20th June 2010. We expect this day to be fully booked so please arrive 5 minutes before your assigned time as if you are late we will not be able to extend the shoot.
  
• You will then have a one hour slot where after a quick chat we will explore the grounds and do as many different shots as we can. This should be a really fun day for all the family and produce some really great photos. 

Call 01344 870033 or email hannah@artisstudios.com


Below are some photos from around the Royal Berkshire to give you a taster!

The 15th May saw a beautiful sunny day and we had the pleasure of shooting another wedding at the Royal Berkshire hotel where we are recommended photographers.

After a fantastic pre wedding shoot we knew Kate and Mark would be great in front of the camera. We were particularly impressed with how Kate's natural elegance was heightened once she was in her amazing wedding dress. The way she naturally held herself inspired us to incorporate the elegant statues found in the grounds.

Overall it was a fantastic day and the bride and groom clearly enjoyed themselves.

We love so much about weddings but especially the variety that it brings, no two weddings are ever the same! We had the pleasure of shooting a more 'low-key' Civil Partnership recently in beautiful Chippenham, Wiltshire.

The couple lived in a fantastic farm house that made the perfect setting for their special day. They had attached a massive marquee to the back of their house that overlooked the hills. Despite raining all day the marquee had floor to ceiling windows that showed the full view and let in so much light, that the weather barely affected us.

We have included some photos to show off the set up and to show that low key setups can be just as fantastic as large, elaborate weddings. There are a few from their pre-wedding shoot as well to show the amazing transformation of their garden!

We love to allow a good amount of time for the bride and groom photos at a wedding. This gives us the chance to get really creative and the bride and groom to have a bit of time together during their otherwise hectic day.

For our recent wedding at Warbrook House hotel, Eversley, Phill and Helen had scheduled plenty of time for afternoon drinks with their guests and enough of that time for us to explore the grounds for photos. The fearless bride even walked over a tiny bridge (no more the 2ft wide) in her dress and heels, to walk right to the end of the lake to get some stunning shots.

Pre-Wedding meetings are so important to discuss these sort of shots and timings, and we love it when couples are open to our creative (and sometimes slightly daring) ideas to get great photos!

I do love it when a plan comes together! I had a great wedding on Saturday at Wiston House is Sussex. The venue was absolutely gorgeous, and what was particularly great about this venue was the lighting. The room where the speeches and dancing were held had large archway windows, which made for perfect side lighting.

Just before the first dance, I noticed that the DJ had some spotlights which are absolutely perfect for lens flare shots. For a perfect lens flare photo we needed the right amount of natural light, right size and angle of the spotlight and the perfect lens on to capture it at the right time. All these things came together beautifully for Sharlene and Mark's first dance and I really loved the results.

Here are a few dance photos to share, included my favourite lens flare and dip shot!

Picking how to display photos can sometimes be a complicated as picking the photos themselves. As many people cannot pick just one image to display, one of the more popular products we can suggest to our customers are montages. This can include anywhere from three to nine images displayed as a set, framed for the wall.

The last few weeks have seen a lot of people going for four image montages as they can be displayed either four images in each corner or three smaller images next to one large. We've been so pleased with the results we thought we would share a few with you.

For one couple who came in as an engagement present from the parents, they were spoilt for choice so got 2 montages, one for them and one for their parents. Another was for a family that came in as part of our cherubs baby club scheme - I particularly love the hands shot in this montage! There was also a family with two lively boys that won a voucher with us at a silent auction who did a great montage.

They are all so different, but tell such a great story. Most got these pieces as part of our montage package that also includes another three 6"x8" prints and two 8"x10" prints so great for those who want lots of photos!