Wedding Photography in London & Home Counties by See Me Photography

Privacy Requests

Sep 1

Posted by Gary in Photography, Wedding Photography | No Comments

I wish to write a few lines about a recent wedding I photographed and on which I am still working.

A lovely afternoon and obviously a very meaningful event for al concerned.

I’m hoping to post some images at some point but the couple have made a request (which I fully respect) for privacy in this case.

Their wishes are of course paramount to me and we have agreed on negotiating the release of one or two shots later on…

They fully understand I need publicity to survive and to showcase good work.. but at the same time its their event and discretion is required..

I’ve had to do this in the past with military weddings for obvious reasons of security…

You.. the client are the most important part of the process..

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Why I love my MAC

Sep 1

Posted by Gary in Photography | No Comments

Greetings.. sun is shining and its a brand new day.. Its been a busy time so I haven’t had as much room to post on here as I would have liked and I STILL have some new sample albums to make for Le Gothique and others!!

My lovely wife Jane and I just got back from a week on a narrow boat and I will post a few of my more creative shots from that trip shortly.. but I digress.

I want to thank Steve Jobs and all at Apple for their brilliance at making an operating system that works so beautifully!

Why do I say this? Well, I just put to bed my kids ageing iMac and dragged a PC out of the cupboard to keep them going for a while and I’ve spent HOURS getting the damn thing to install all its drivers, find the remote printer on the network and all the other

rubbish Windows does.. I could never run a business with that kind of hassle!

Installing a network printer is childsplay on my Mac.. but on windows..oh no!! I physically had to drag th printer to the computer first so it understood what I was going to do.. then finally after lots of googling etc it now works and they can send documents wirelessly to the inkjet in my office.

Love Apple..

Gripe over…

Girl in a Purple Dress

Aug 12

Posted by Gary in Model Portfolio, Photography, Retouching, Wedding Photography | No Comments

I do love this shot.. improvised at The Noura. I don’t know her name but she really photographs well..

Beautiful Guest at Noura Restaurant

Zakir and Najwa Celebrate at The Noura Restaurant

Aug 6

Posted by Gary in London Wedding, Photography, Portraits, Retouching, Wedding Photography | No Comments

I was contacted some time ago by the very vivacious Zina who was looking for a photographer for her sisters wedding party at the elegant Noura Lebanese restaurant in Picadilly. We met along with Zakir and Najwa who are the lucky couple.. and decided on party shots and a little something special in the shape of a portrait booth.

I set up wireless flash in the front of the reception area with two brollies and after photographing all the happy guests enjoying fabulous food and music.. I was soon swamped with eager portrait candidates…I am including a few shots below to give you a flavour of what we achieved on the night. I was fed a vast and very delicious meal by the Noura staff.. can’t recommend the establishment highly enough.

Zakir and the very elegant Najwa were both very sociable hosts and I thoroughly enjoyed shooting many many shots throughout the night.  Portraits are a great love of mine as I worked in a studio in Bromley for Smile Portraits back in the early 1990’s.. I remain committed to giving 110% on every job.. and I have spent teh past week retouching hair and skin on the main portraits as part of my service and desire to provide the very best for my photography clients. See Me Photography is all about elegant, stylish images.

Zakir and Najwa

Zina -Glowing Colours

Najwa

Zakir and Najwa


Englemere House

Jul 25

Posted by Gary in Photography, Portraits, Surrey Weddings | No Comments

Whew.. its been a busy time! Summer has really fallen upon us and I’ve been out shooting weddings in the hot weather !  Last weekend I was priveledged to photograph the marriage of Hayley and Alistair at the lovely Englemere House in Ascot, Berkshire.

We’d already taken prewedding portraits at the location so the good angles had been worked out and all that was required (other than the wedding party) was good weather.. which we were fortunate to get on the day.

Hayley and Alistair’s wedding was one of the most relaxed and enjoyable events I’ve ever taken.. with such a friendly ‘vibe’ it was really wonderful to be  a part of their day. The speeches were tremendous too..I had to keep reminding myself to stop laughing and take pictures!

I’ll soon be ready to post their private online gallery but in the meantime I’ll put a few pictures here to represent a sample from the day.

I think they showed what can be done when the bridal couple are really ‘up’ for their photographs and prepared to try things they wouldn’t ordinarily do… in fact Alistair was more worried about his dancing skills than posing for photographs..(you did fine Alistair..!!)

Alistair and Hayley in the grounds at Englemere 2010

Alistair and Hayley on the steps of Englemere House, Ascot, Berks

Alistair and Hayley are married at Englemere House, Ascot

Family Portraits

Jun 16

Posted by Gary in Photography, Portraits | No Comments

Family Portrait of Stacey, Wesley and Chase

Wesley and Chase

Wesley, Stacey and Chase were bought a portrait sitting as a farewell present by a good friend of theirs and so I called at their flat one balking hot day in June.. to find their rooms full of packing boxes and assorted items ready to be shipped out to the new address. Hmmm… I had to think fast for suitable backgrounds and with a little bit of deft furniture moving we used a nice clean wall as a backdrop and then progressed into a small terrace garden for a few more poses. It all worked well… Chase was amazingly well behaved and totally unfazed by it all until he got stung by nettles in the garden.. but thankfully no harm done and all the shots were in the bag by then. Home portraits are all about people in their own natural environments..using whats there and what is familiar to them.

The photographs were a success. See Me photography would like to shoot more clients so please drop me a line and we can get together for your very own photography portrait sitting!!

Berkeley Square-Chris and Joanna

Jun 14

Posted by Gary in London Wedding, Photography, Wedding Photography | No Comments

Chris and Joanna Jones in Mount Street Gardens, London

Joanna relaxes in Berkley Square

Chris Jones reflects on his big day!

Chris and Jo are lost in themselves on trhe first dance!

Englemere House, Ascot- Pre Wedding practice shoot

Jun 4

Posted by Gary in Photography, Portraits, Surrey Weddings, Wedding Photography | No Comments

Alistair and Hayley decided to opt for a pre wedding shoot to get themselves used to being photographed before their wedding day on July 17th. A good move I think as it means we are all familiar with each other before the event and that’s bound to put all of us more at ease when it comes to the day itself. Hot!! Boy was it ever! Brilliant hot sunshine (I burnt the top of my head dear reader..follicaly challenged you see..). We began in the main grounds of the sumptuous Englemere House and moved in a circuit through walled gardens to woodland and back to the expanse of lawn with classical pillars (very romanesque!).

Of course the big challenge on such a day is avoiding harsh shadows so from a photography perspective it meant filling in with balanced but diffuse flash or reflectors.. Wedding photography on briliantly sunny days has got to be the most challenging subject matter.. huge contrast range from white dress to dark suits. A photographers brain goes into meltdown on such days and yet everyone else is loving it.

I’ll post a shot or two below for you to judge for yourselves. Wedding Photography in Englemere House in Ascot will follow in a month or so.. so keep a look out.

Hayley and Alistair at Englemere House, Ascot

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Berkeley Square -Lansdowne Club Wedding Celebration

Jun 1

Posted by Gary in London Wedding, Photography, Wedding Photography | No Comments

Berkeley Square Wedding

The Lansdowne Club Wedding 2010

The Grosvenor Chapel to Berkley Square and The Lansdowne Club… quite a selection of amazing venues for the marriage of Chris and Joanna on Sunday May 30th 2010. Quite a challenge for the photography as it varied from the incence filled Chapel with shafts of hazy sunshine inside the beautiful balcony surrounded vestry to the green grass and pool of hot sunshine in Berkeley Square and then into the elegant high ceiling-ed Landsowne Club for dinner and dancing.

Great fun throughout but hard work too.. especially as I had only just got over a few days of streaming eyes with a sinus problem..and as for my back.. well you try lugging a D3 and a 70-200 for an hour or two!!

Still as I begin the edit I can see that there are some cracking shots on there.. many thanks to my co photographer Lucy Down (www.lucydownphotography.co.uk) for working with me on this one. (I grudgingly accept the Canon IS a grown up camera after all..)

Wedding photography was booked through a recommendation from Russell and Martine’s wedding last May (check out the old posts for May 2009). Great to get recommended and I am looking forward to designing new show albums as well as the couple’s own albums for upcoming wedding shows… all good news.

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I think she looks like Marlene Dietrich!

May 14

Posted by Gary in Model Portfolio, Photography, Portraits | No Comments

Dietrich lives on! See Me Photography recreates Marlene Dietrich

This photograph was taken on a cruise ship stage of one of the dancers I knew at the time. Its shot on Tri-X film..(yup.. good old silver halide!!) and printed and toned before scanning some time ago.

I did the shoot after a show one evening as we slid through the tropical waters off Jamaica.. using the stage lights to keep the theatrical ambiance. I just like the image.. which is reason enough to place it here for you to see and judge for yourselves. Portrait and portfolio sessions are a great love of See Me Photography… have a look at the galleries section of the website for recent examples. I’d love a studio like Julia Boggio, who has a very well placed site in Merton Abbey Mills down the road from me. Good businesswoman and slick style. Very media savvy.. she reminds me of photography’s answer to Nigella Lawson (I’m sure I’ve heard that one before but what the heck!!)

I digress.. Julia is a star and I have developed a business mantra she’s be proud of.. BIGGER THAN BOGGIO!! How about that for a business plan Julia?

Portfolio sessions with See Me can take place in studio, at home or on location. We can arrange hair and makeup artists  to assist you if you wish… portraits differ from portfolios in as much as its an hour sitting in one location (you can change outfits etc as you wish). Portfolios cover a morning (or afternoon) and maybe on two different days (indoor and outdoor for instance). Priced individually by quotation the current normal fee for a disc of images, a portfolio book and a days shooting is £900. .. Half days are obviously less..

Think it over.. I’d love to hear from you with ideas about your images. Call 0800 311 8868 or email info@seemephotography.com

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