Pin ItCongratulations 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.
Pin ItRecently 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.
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.
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.
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".
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 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.
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.
Pin ItOccasionally 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.
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) ....
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.
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.
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) :-)
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.
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.
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.
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?).
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"
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.
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?
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.
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