This week’s Friday Finds image just goes to show one thing. You can be as stealthy as you like, but sometimes people just want to play up to the camera. Taken at an awesome wedding at the Red Barn, near Southend-on-Sea.

Another quick preview for you today from last weekend’s wedding in Hampshire. I know I haven’t done a proper blog post in a few weeks, and I will do soon, but it’s that time of year where shooting and editing everyone’s weddings takes over! So, in the meantime, enjoy a few teaser frames from ben + gilly’s gorgeous wedding day in hampshire, where they brought a dash of continental style to a rather lovely and sleepy hampshire village called Hawkley. Enjoy x

This week’s friday finds image is one that makes me chuckle whenever I see it. A moment of proud glory for the father of the bride, as he enters the room to show everyone how well he has managed to tie his cravat. Simple, yet a lovely reminder for the bride of a moment that provoked fits of giggles in all the bridesmaids.

Over the course of the last few years I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of the other people in Bristol and the South West who also work at weddings. I love meeting new people and by working alongside them I have had a chance to see those who are also really passionate about what they do. I shot quite a few weddings last year where Claire from The Wilde Bunch had been the florist and I have even more this year. She’s very popular and I can see why. I’d heard from a few of my couples about Claire’s barn out in the countryside and mostly out of sheer nosiness I suggested that I could pop out and take some photos for her while she worked! And so this has grown to become ‘a day in the life…’, an occasional series where I can give people a bit of a behind the scenes glimpse into all the different parts that come together to make up a wedding. On the day we shot this Claire was actually working on the flowers for Natalie and Jamie’s wedding, which you can see a preview of here. It was fascinating to hear about Claire’s background in horticulture and to have a mooch around this aladdin’s cave of crates, jars, ornaments and above all flowers and foliage. A big thank you to Claire for letting me do this and a big hello to the most adorable guard dog I’ve ever met, Boots.

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A very simple frame for this week’s Friday Finds. A child staring at cake! What more do you need to know? The look of wonder on their face is something I’m sure we can all relate to – just imagine a tower of cupcakes that is twice as tall as you are now… right, that’s it, I’m off to buy some cake.

Hey all, a busy week here at Gibson Towers (I don’t actually live in a tower, that would be odd). So a very brief introduction to the preview of Fern and Jim’s wonderful wedding at Muddifords Court last weekend. The sun shone, ice cream was eaten, laughs were laughed and tears were shed (I’m not naming any names Jim).

I love Muddifords Court. It’s such a great wedding venue as it just has this relaxed, laidback feel to it. And I loved working with Fern and Jim as they were exactly like that too – we had a great laugh and Jim even managed to out sarcasm me on occasion. A rare feat for sure congratulations you two, and thank you.

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Hey everyone, a little update for those of you who don’t follow me on facebook. This picture from Emma + Alex’s winter wedding at Ashton Court in Bristol won a Fearless Award this week. Fearless awards are given out by Fearless Photographers, an organisation that I belong to that encourages photographers to create unique images. These awards are given out 6 times a year, and are judged by some of the world’s best wedding photographers. They give awards to less than 1 in 10 of the images that are submitted, so it’s always nice to be recognised. I was particularly pleased that this image won an award as I know how much Emma likes it – in fact it’s one of the double page spreads featured in her wedding album! So a big thank you to Emma and Alex for being so ace. x

This week I wanted to show you a photograph of a venue, Stockbridge Farm Barn down in Dorset. It’s a great place to get married and this is from karla + pat’s lovely wedding that I photographed there. I take all sorts of images on a wedding day – portraits, documentary, details, landscapes – and to be any good you need to master all of those disciplines and understand what they can bring to the ‘story’ of the day. All photographers are always learning, and one of the things this image taught me is that an exterior photograph of a venue can be a wonderful transition moment in the story. This was taken just after dusk, a time of day that I always find interesting to shoot in – you have the warmth of the lights on the barn but also still a little bit of daylight to add some interest to the sky. And because it was a lovely warm summer’s evening some of the guests were outside enjoying themselves. It’s a great way of showing the transition from day to night and to suggest that the party was going to carry on long into the evening.

Today’s image comes from a lovely wedding at Folly Farm just outside Bristol. This came during a part of the day inbetween the end of the wedding breakfast and the start of the evening’s celebrations. Some guests were sitting in the sun and chatting, some had wandered off to have a look around the Farm and I was moving around seeing what was happening. I stumbled across this impromptu game of football amongst the children (and a couple of the adults too!)

I don’t think the couple had seen them playing and it’s not only a record of that part of the day but it also embodies the relaxed atmosphere and sense of fun of the day.