Kerry and Andys Engagement Photographs

Congratulations to Kerry and Andy on their recently announced engagement. Kerry's from Derbyshire and Andy lives in Peterborough, so it made sense for us to do an engagement photographic shoot in Essex :-).

It was a fun time spent by the river in the sunshine (it's not often that we get the chance). Click on play below to run the slideshow of some more of their images.



On another note I was chatting to a friend the other day and they noted about how many more photographers there are now and should we be worried. My answer, in short no. If someone has the ability and skill set to survive in todays market they deserve to be there. However there are plenty of want to be's out there who will struggle. You can normally tell these types as their websites are full of shots of brides and grooms but interestingly there are no shots of guests, best men etc.

The reason being, the brides and grooms are probably hired models and the shots were taken in controlled atmosphere with models who know exactly what looks good. Typically these shots are taken on training days where another skilled photographer has set up the shot and the delogates have taken the photograph (a bit like uncle bobs at a wedding).

As a general rule of thumb if a photographers site doesn't have actual wedding shots (with guests etc) they're probably inexperienced and not real wedding photographers.

Congratulations Colchester Gladiators

Congratulations to the Colchester Gladiators American football team after their massive win last Sunday over the London Olympians.

Before the game both teams were unbeaten they are hotly tipped as the teams to beat in the race for the playoffs and national championship.

The London Olympians are the most successful British team in history and have sent more players to the NFL than any other British team. The Gladiators hadn't beaten the Olympians for 23 years. In fact the gladiators first official game was against the Olympians 26 years ago.

The final result was 28 - 16. However it doesn't end there, as the national finals are a North v South affair it is highly likely this will not be the only time the two teams meet this season.

See the Gladiators website for more details.

Bar Mitzvah Party at the Chancery Court Hotel

Congratulations to Ruben and his family on a fantastic Bar Mitzvah party at the Chancery court Hotel in Holburn. It was a truly fantastic day / evening and I'm sure everyone who cam had a fantastic time.

I love working in the central London hotels as they are so "fantastic" inside and really add to anyones day. Every where you turn there's fantastic backgrounds which make for great photographs a photographers dream.

Of course the drawbacks of central London is the parking, however on this day I must have been lucky as I actually managed to park right outside the hotel the first time ever.

Regardless the party went fantastically well with live music from probably my favourite party band "mixed feelings" also special guest was the Southend United footbal captain (Rubens favourite team) and surprise guest Dean Marney whose comedy impressions had everyone laughing all evening.

Taylor & Nateisha's Wedding at the Westcliff Hotel

Recently I was honoured to be asked to cover the wedding of Taylor and Nateisha at the Westcliff hotel in Southend. Although the weather wasn't the greatest (rain all day) the inside of the hotel held many different places for photographs to be taken.






The day started with Nateisha getting ready at her mums house, it was great fun to sit back and capture the images of everything going on. Because of the weather it meant the majority of the images had to be taken inside. Time to get creative ....

It was a brilliant day, click on the video above to see some more of the images.

Baby Photographs in Southend

Last night I travelled over to Southend to meet up with the bride and groom who are getting married this Friday, it's going to be a great day and is destined to be full of laughs.

We talked through the complete day and set all the timings (which will all change) and generally answered all the questions as they came up.

The grooms sister was also there and she had her beautiful 2 week old daughter. Who can resist photographing a new born? Click on the image or here to see a few of the pictures.

More pictures to add as soon as I can catch up with myself.

Portrait Session Mandeville, Louisiana.

Above is the last portrait shoot I carried out before leaving Louisiana. It was taken at the Fairview riverside State park near Mandeville (i think). A really great place with lots of interesting backgrounds. Because it was a weekend and a very popular spot there were a lot of Rv's parked as familys settled in to relax.

I had a truely great time in New Orleans and am already looking forward to my next visit.

Fishing Trip

Last time I was in New Orleans we had talked about going fishing but never actually managed to find time. This was not a mistake that was to be repeated.

The day started at 3am with a trip across Lake Pontchatrain to meet up with Randys cousin Keith who had the boat already loaded. A short stop to pick up some shrimp as bait and we headed out. The picture is of the boat being launched, the video is a short clip of the ride to where we were fishing. if you hadn't realised the area was used in the filming of the James Bond movie, Live and Let Die and featured big boat chases and stunts.

Between us we caught several fish which included, Red fish, halibut, stingrays and a few others which I can't remember. We returned to land wet and a little sunburnt but on the whole happy. As the saying goes, "A bad days fishing is better than a good day at work".

Easter Celebrations

Every Easter Randy's parents throw a large family and invite friends and families. This year I was privileged enough to be invited.

Click on the image or here to see a slideshow of the days fun.

Several games were played throughout the day which included an egg throwing contest which was very funny. Incredibly it was won by the youngest entrants who although they never actually managed to catch their egg it didn't break.

I've been takingh some pics of the local wildlife recently so look out for that in the next few days.

Crawfish Boil

Crawfish are a Louisiana delicacy, a small lobster type creature that live in the mud (nick named mud bugs). Boiled up with various Kajun spices and fruits they make excellent eating.

Randys cousin Keith has a big party at his house on Good Friday every year. This year I was lucky enough to be in the area at the right time and was invited to experience the fun. Click on the picture or here to see the slideshow of pictures from the party.

There's a trick to eating them, twist the head pinch the tail then suck out the meat ...... it must be a Lousiana thing because it took me 3 attempts to get one, guess i'll just have to keep practising.

Wedding photographs in Amite, Louisiana, USA

Occasionally I get really lucky and this weekend was no exception. I was chosen to photograph Corie and Josh's fantastic wedding in Amite, Louisiana (near New Orleans).

Click on the photograph or here to view some of the pictures.

Because I had a shot a wedding on the previous Sunday it meant I hadn't managed to get a flight till the Wednesday. So there was little time for a pre wedding planning meeting or reconnaissance of the venue. To add to that I was told that for the previous week it had pretty much rained every day, so it was looking likely that the English weather had come in front of me.

However on the day the sun came out and gave us a fantastic day to work with, i don't think I've ever worked with so much light, a truly fantastic event.

Click here to view a slide show of some of the pictures.

Wedding at the Royal Majestic

On Sunday I had the honour of photographing Emma and Barrys wedding.

The venue they had chosen for the reception was the Royal majestic. I've photographed several functions at this location, as a photographer this is a great venue. There's a large area to the rear of the hotel with some interesting garden areas, across the road there's a lake and the actual venue is large enough to cope easily with large groups.

An added bonus for Sundays party was that they had booked fantastic band (mixed feelings). I've seen mixed feelings many times at functions all over the UK and I can honestly say they have never failed to ensure everyone packs the dancefloor all night, as you can see in the top image even the toast master (Howard Robbins) couldn't resist :-).

All in all a fantastic wedding and a great time was had by all.

Now I really, really must start packing for Saturdays wedding (6,000 miles away) ....

Christian the Lion

I first saw this about a year ago but thought it so touching it deserved to be shared. This is not a fake and is absolutely true. The two brothers were interviewed recently and stated that they believed Christian had moved further north in Africa.

Another piece of proof that the internet can be used to retell old stories to new generations.

Baby Photographs

As any mother will tell you babys change on a daily basis. it's always a complete joy to be asked to capture a new born in the very first days of its life.

Click on the picture or here to see a slideshow of some of the images.

I was lucky enough to be asked to capture some images of this young guy as he was welcomed by the rest of his family (including his big sister).

In true new borm style he slept through the whole shoot only waking in the very last few images to be taken.



Click on the picture or here to see a slideshow of some of the images.

The Death of Advertising

I noticed today that ITV (TV company) are laying off a large number of staff and are stopping the production of some of their programmes. This fascinates me as it fits perfectly in to some ideas I've been putting on paper recently (due as an e-book soon). ITV claims that because of the world wide economic crisis and the fact that major businesses have no money to spend advertising on their channel they are having to take these measures. I beg to differ. I believe the reason is because their business model no is longer relevant and has stopped working.

For years the successful way to attract more customers has been to shout louder than your opposition. If you wanted to make more sales you took out a larger advert or ran it more often. It started in newspapers then as technology moved on it went to radio and then TV. This was fine and worked well when the choice was reasonably restricted. People had to sit and watch adverts as there was little choice, now what happens in every household when the adverts come on is either the TV gets turned over or the toilet gets used. We have all chosen to ignore the marketeers adverts. The hard truth that ITV is being taught by it's traditional advertisers is the shotgun type of advertising to the masses no longer works.

As a consumer why would I watch something I don't want to? All I have to do is switch over, and that's if i want to sit in front of the TV. I now have the internet and all the endless possibilities that that can offer, why watch someone elses channel when if I wanted to i could create my own at no cost? If i want information on my favourite NFL team (New Orleans saints) I don't look in my local paper, I read the Times Picayune website. I can then join any number of forums and talk to other like minded people about issues that interest me.

TV is not going to survive in its current state for much longer (except the BBC which is funded without advertising), newspapers are also in the same situation. Radio has a better chance because of its unique arrangements with the motorcar.

So if spending money on advertising in the traditional places no longer works, how should a business go about finding new customers? Well to hear my ideas about that you're going to have to wait a little longer (till I've finished my e-book) :-)

Facebook changes its terms and conditions

Has facebook created it's own downfall by getting too greedy? Before you read this understand i'm not personally opposed to facebook. I don't like some of it's terms and conditions but on the whole it's a positive thing.

For those who aren't aware facebook is a social networking site that is very popular (yes I'm a member) millions of people regularly use it to keep in touch and store images etc.

The problem many people (photographers especially) have with facebook is that they claim (yet to be legally challenged) that they own the right to everything that anyone uploads onto their website. Now if you're a photographer and someone uploads an image that means that facebook now owns all rights to reproduce it. For the majority of people they don't see it as a problem. However what they don't realise is, if for some reason they are thrust into the public limelight, lottery winner, X factor or maybe on a murder charge, facebook will sell every image and every word you ever wrote to the highest bidder.

How many people would want their drunken stag/hen night pictures on the front page of a news paper? That's exactly what is happening to everyday people and facebook are earning the money from it.

Recently facebook tried to change their terms and conditions to say that even if you left the group they still had the rights to all of your stuff. What happened was some eagle eyed bloggers noticed the change and began informing the world. Very quickly facebook realised they could be in trouble and issued statements trying to explain their stance. Two days after the managing director withdrew the changes and reinstated the old terms claiming they were reviewing their stance.

Have they left it too late? What they need to realise is nobody owns a social network, they are just entrusted by their members with it. If they try and enforce rules and regulations onto it they will leave in their millions as people did with myspace. The internet has changed the world and now more than ever before the customer is king.

Here's a group against facebook selling your images join up if you feel that what they are doing is wrong, send them a message that their customers aren't happy.

History Repeating Itself

I've recently restarted writing a project I first began probably twelve months ago, I feel it has become more relevant in today's market and I'm hoping it will be a big help to anyone willing to listen. Every day I'm adding a bit more and the plan is to release it to the photographers who've signed up for my free photography tips on my main website (go to www.martinwilmottphotography.com and click on the tips section, sign up its free).

Anyway whilst doing some research it occurred to me how the music industry is now going back to historical ways of earning money. The Internet has changed the way music is bought, in truth most people under 30 don't buy music any more, they just take it. Now as much as the music industry threaten and occasionally take a few people to court the music industry cannot beat what is happening (incidentally nor can photographers).

In the days before records (and mega big deals) performers and bands would travel around putting on shows and making a living that way. What happened as records became available the tours were geared to selling the new album / record etc and less about making money. What's happening now is the complete reverse, brand new bands are now releasing music free to download to attract people to their tours.

I guess the lesson is the rules of business have changed. The big companies can no longer just destroy the small competition by outspending them, the time for the small business is here and now. There has never been a better time for a small business to pitch itself against the big boys.

Rain rain and more rain

Ok so i know the english are famous for making small talk about the weather but you've got to admit we have got something to talk about.

A few days ago the field at the bottom of my road was full af laughing and screaming families knee deep in snowball fights and building snowmen. Today when i went down there the river had burst it's banks and completely floooded a massive area.

The photograph i've attached was taken on my phone (blackberry quality is pretty poor). The circle of logs sticking up in the air is in fact a kiddies play area that was put in last summer. This is normally about 15 metres fropm the river bank. I would guess it's at least two foot under water at the moment. The bridges accross the water are impossible to reach unless you use a boat.

The weather men are saying we had a months worth of rain last night in 8 hours. Hmmm all of a sudden New Orleans is looking very inviting again.

Family portraits in Covington (La)

It seems like so long ago since I was in New Orleans. One of the last things I did before I left was a very quick family portrait session for Debbie with her mum and dad (or should that be mom and pop?).

Finally i've managed to get them uploaded, click on the picture or here to see a short slideshow of the images.

It's looking highly likely that i'll soon be heading back across the pond (maybe even in the next few weeks).

Taking photographs in another country is such an adventure!

Portfolio Shoot

I recently was requested to carry out a portfolio shoot. As you can see we got lucky with the weather (sunshine in January).

It was a fun afternoon and I'm confident we got the images we needed. Click the image to have a sneak peak of some of the images or click here.

Howard Robbins Wedding

Congratulations to Howard Robbins and his beautiful new wife Janine on their excellent wedding.

Every wedding is different, some organised, some less so but when one of the highest ranking toastmasters in the country is getting married it's like a military operation.

The actual wedding took place on New years eve with the party going on till the early hours of 2009. It was a truly fantastic day and the guest list read like a who's who of the wedding industry. Some of the best caterers, toastmasters, photographers, videoographers in the country were there to wish the couple the very best.

It felt great to spend new years eve at a party where I knew a lot of the guests. The reception was at the Royal Majestic which is fast becoming a very popular venue in London.

It was one of those jobs where you new everything had been taken care of, including the excellent "surprise" entertainment after the meals.

Even though he was the groom he just couldn't help making sure everyone was briefed correctly .... "Howard that's why you have a toast master ... lol"

Winter Weddings

First things first if you're reading this today, happy new year!

As a pro photographer on of the biggest challenges of a winter wedding is the lack of light. Especially if like me you love to shoot out side. Capturing a good exposure in the dark can be extremely challenging and takes a lot more than putting the camera in programme mode and attaching a flash. At the same time the Bride and groom are normally freezing and all they want to do is get back into the warm.

I was lucky in the early part of my photography career there were no digital cameras and I used a manual Hasselblad. exposure and flash settings all had to be worked out manually which meant unless you didn't want to stay in the business long you soon learnt how to work out the best settings for different lighting. I guess with modern cameras we've all become a little bit spoilt, but it's occasions like the one above (taken last week) that can separate the people who take pictures and those that make them.

A piece of advice for anyone wanting to learn photography would be, go and buy a cheap film manual camera and learn how shutterspeeds and apertures work together. Modern cameras are fantastic at working out exposures but they can't think and can (and often do) get things wrong.

Home for Christmas

So I finally returned to the UK about a week before Christmas day. I had a fantastic time in New Orleans and made some lasting friendships. It's looking likely with the work building up on that side of the pond I may well be flying back over there as early as February.

However having returned to the UK and it being Christmas doesn't mean I've had any time off. I've already shot a wedding with another one New years Eve. Truth be told I'm at my happiest when I'm taking pictures so I have no complaints (editing them is a different story though).

Anyway happy Christmas to anyone and everyone and I hope the New Year brings you everything you ever wanted.

Coincidently, If this year didn't bring you everything you wanted how much of that was your own fault?

Saints v Falcons (and loads of other stuff)

My final chance to watch a live NFL football game this year came as the Atlanta Falcons visited New Orleans. the game was a fantastic nail biter and very good advert for the game finishing in another win for the Saints (that's 3-0 when I watch them live).

The stadium was its normal noisy self for anyone who has never been to a regular season game the home filed advantage is hard to explain as the noise created by the crowd in an effort to put off the opposing teams offence is incredible. The crowd are whipped into a fury by several dressed members of the public. In the section where we sat the most prominent was Holy Moses and also a guy dressed as a robot.

I was extremely lucky in that my trip coincided with the State high school Championships which were also held in the Superdome. As I have already mentioned I have been really impressed with the high school football I've seen since I've been here but the level stepped up when it came to the finals.

It also gave me a chance to experience what the view was like from the middle tier on the fifty yard line .... awesome.

Friday Night Lights (again)

A mega busy week saw my first ever American thanksgiving on Thursday. From what I can understand it's based loosely around when the initial settlers first met and broke bread with the native Indians. The modern version is a large family get together and a huge meal and is a sort of dress rehearsal for Christmas.

Friday saw us travelling down the Belle Chase where the local high school team were in the football play-offs. Whilst the NFL and the College games I have taken in whilst I have been here have been fantastic there's something special about high school football. I guess what has impressed me most is the absolute professionalism shown by the kids on the field and their coaches. To witness the play changes on the line of scrimmage was nothing short of amazing as every player firstly looked to the sideline then their wristband (to read the play being called).

As usual there was all the pomp and circumstance of bands, cheerleaders and fireworks.

Saturday (today) we went in search of the school Brett Favre attended. Brett Favre is a legendary quarterback in the NFL and until this season he played continually for the Green Bay packers. He is currently playing (well) for the New York Jets.

The school is called Hancock High and is based in Kiln, Mississippi. After a bit of searching we found the school and its football field where the statue of Brett Favre has been erected.

Although it was raining at the time (and most of the day) It was well worth the trip.

Saints v Packers in the Superdome

Monday night football in America is sacred. Most NFL games are played on Sundays, the Monday night game is traditionally the only game on that night meaning the whole nation watches that game.

This Sunday the New Orleans Saints played host to the Green Bay Packers and it promised to be a mouth watering shoot out with both teams having high scoring offences. Whilst I have been to NFL games before this is the first time i've truely experienced what a home field advantage is all about in the NFL. When the hometeam is on defnce the crowd really does play its part in making sure the opposing offence has trouble being heard.

Travelling to the game

Saints Score (again)

The first half with just three points seperating the two teams although in the second half the Saints completely dominated eventualy winning the game 51-29.

LSU v Ole Miss College football

Yesterday (Saturday) was the last home game of the LSU Tigers college season. Previous plans were that a large group of us were to go to the game however due to flight delays ect it fell to Brandy and myself to go and watch the game.

Everyone around this area supports LSU as it's their local college however Brandy had been a cheerleader for Ole Miss and had no trouble letting everyone know who she would be shouting for.

College football in the States is more of a full day experience rather than just turn up for the game and then go home. All around the stadium fans turn up early and start to tailgate long before the game is due to start.





LSU drum section in amongst the tailgating




LSU Tigers walk from their bus to the stadium




Opening kick off



LSU really only had one spell of about five minutes in the whole game where they looked like they could make a game of it. In truth Ole Miss were by far the better team so it was Brandy who was very happy at the end of the day. The final result was Ole Miss 31 LSU 13.

Mud bugs etc

One of the big things the people of the New Orleans area are into is sea food. All sorts of crab, fish and oyster can be found in most restaurants.

On Thursday I experienced (was talked into) trying my first mud bug or crayfish to give it it's proper name.

It's a small prawn (shrimp) type creature that getting to the meat is a bit like solving the Rubiks cube. Of course the locals can skin and eat about ten in the time it takes me to do one but i guess that's the perk of experience.

The French Quarter New Orleans

Saturday night we decided to spend some time in down town New Orleans and check out the French quarter.

My friends Randy and Paige were excellent guides and made sure I saw all the things the French Quarter is famous for.

I didn't take my camera but instead borrowed Randys small point and shoot. For a small camera it doesn't take bad pictures and I even experimented a little with the night shot feature although in fairness it really should be used on a tripod. Another added bonus is the ability to shoot video ....

The Quarter holds much history and many places remain as they were originally built by the French settlers. In amongst the history are many bars and clubs where the locals and tourists let their hair down and party all night long.

It's not what you know it's who you know

Another fantastic day in the New Orleans area! Today was spent on the LSU campus with my photographer friend Chuck Cook. We started with the press briefing by Les Miles the head coach of the LSU fighting tigers. LSU are the reigning national champions in college football.

Coach Miles briefing covered the weeks previous game which had been a hard fought battle seeing the Tigers loose in overtime. After the briefing we had some spare time and took a walk around Death Valley (Tiger Stadium).

Chuck needed to upload the Coach Miles briefing and so a quick phone call was made to the official LSU photographer who just happened to be a good friend. Five minutes later and we were inside the stadium. Of course I couldn't resist having a walk around the inside. An experience very few people will ever have.

Big thanx goes out to Chuck Cook for inviting me along today and also to Steve the official LSU photographer for allowing me access to the stadium. Next time i'll be in the stadium will be for the LSU v Old Miss game in a couple of weeks time, of course there'll also be another 93,000 people there on that day as well.

As has been proven many many times over, it's not what you know but who you know. I love the way photographers are such a friendly bunch the world over.

Sport how it should be

I've just got back in from watching a high school American football match between Covington and Mandeville. What strikes me about the whole thing is the way sport is such a major part of the towns life.

I'm told that the two schools playing each other have roughly 3,000 pupils. Out of those students they manage to find, about 80+ football players, about 50+ cheerleaders and probably another 50 members of the band. I wonder how many schools in the UK of equal size could even find people who could play instruments.

A good sized crowd turned out to watch the game and were entertained not just by the actual game play but by live music and dance routines making it all to easy to be distracted and miss some great plays on the field.

When you consider that this was just the show put on by two local school teams there's no wonder they produce some excellent athletes.

Whilst at the game tonight i happened to check out the photographers shooting the game and noticed my good friend Chuck Cook was on the sideline. I first met Chuck about a month ago in London when he was in the UK to shoot the NFL game at Wembley. I phoned him on his mobile and asked if he had got the last shot, needless to say he was very suprised to see someone who he'd last seen some 6,000 miles away in another country.

Over a beer after the game Chuck invited me along to the LSU coaches press briefing on Monday (an offer only a madman would refuse). This is likely to be a great brieifng made even better as LSU have a big game tommorow against Alabama.

Does life get any better than this?

Hot in New Orleans

Man it's hot over here!

I landed in New Orleans on Sunday all ready for action. I was met at the airport by my good mate Randy and his wife Paige (who had just returned from London).

I've been in a town called Houma all week and this is the first time i've had to upload some images and update the blog.

Randys company specialises in repairing roofs and down in Houma there's a lot to be repaired. They were hit by hurricane Gustav about two months ago and it has left behind alot of damage. On many estates ther houses are covered with blue tarpaulins to keep out the weather whilst the homeowners are waiting for the repairs to be done.

We're going to watch a high school football playoff game tonight so hopefully should have some imnages from that to upload tommorow. Randys daughter runs the cheerleading squad ..... hard work but someones gotta do it.