Ok it looks bad, but i'm working on it

Ok so the blog looks pretty bad at the moment, but i'm working on it guys. Hopefully it will be OK eventually.

American Football Photography at Britbowl

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A couple of weeks ago the British American Football season 2009 finished with it's annual finals. the games were played at the keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster.

This year the Colchester Gladiators had achieved the honour of being the southern champions in Div 2 there BritBowl final was against the Leicester Falcons.

I set out to instead of simple shoot the game to capture the day from as a player would experience it.



Above is a short slide show of images that tell the story form the Gladiators point of view. The game itself has been touted as the best game ever played on British soil .... when you're on the wrong side of a one point game that's hard to believe.

Brads Bar Mitzvar at Brocket Hall

Pin It Last weekend I was honoured to be asked to photograph Brads Bar Mitzvar party. The party was held at Brocket Hall an amazing place and a photographers dream.

You really are spoilt for choice when it comes to backgrounds, every time you turn round there's more places to shoot, absolutely incredible.


The week before I'd also photographed the actual Bar Mitzvar practise in the synagogue. Because of religious reasons the actual ceremony is held on Saturdays and is not photographed.

The party went without a hitch and was fantastic! entertainment was supplied by Europes best football skills player and some pretty morbid magicians, that happily shoved nails up their noses amongst other things (the teenagers loved them).

Is there a better job on the planet? I don't think so.

Photography Business Marketing

OK, so I've been hearing from a lot of friends in the business how hard this year is getting and that their ever shrinking amount of clients is starting to be a worry. I then think about the new guys coming into this, the best business on the planet, and it concerns me they are really getting the bad end. Not only do they have very few return clients, many are just starting out and are unsure of how to attract the new business necessary to pay the bills. It worries me that the people with the photographic skills could be falling at the first hurdle because of todays market. I'm very excited to announce that I've just finished writing a one day course that's going to blow your mind, one day and you will walk away with the knowledge and a plan of how to be that business you want to be.

It's aimed at any photographers who have mastered the skills needed to take pictures but are currently struggling to gain the business they want. Anyone that has already signed up for my free photography tips on my website will get the info as soon as it's published (if you haven't signed up yet do it now www.martinwilmottphotography.com ). I'll also put the details up here in the next day or so.

I'm just waiting for confirmation from the hotel on the date then i'll release the details. I'm sure you're capable of making a success of you're business and I want to help you with it.

The course will cost £250 and i'm so confident in the content that i'll make this promise to you. If at the end of the day you don't think it has been worth it and the methods and secrets i've released to you won't work, i'll give you your money back! Read that sentence again ... that's a cast iron guarantee that if you don't think it's worth it you'll get YOUR MONEY BACK.

Any questions don't hesitate to e-mail me (click the ask me a question on the right).

looking forward to meet you guys!

Matt & Kellys Wedding, Wivenhoe House, Colchester

Pin It I'm just back from a wedding viewing with Matt & Kelly. They got married a couple of weeks ago at Wivenhoe House, just outside Colchester.

It was a truly fantastic day and even the threatened wet weather stayed away long enough for us to get some great shots.

As you'll see in the video below Matt is what you might call "a tall guy" which made the composition a challenge.
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You can subscribe via i-tunes to my video's via podcast by clicking here. Watch on your computer or transfer to your i-phone/video i-pod

Why Lifestyle Photographers Don't Use Studios

A couple of years ago I discovered the joys of the "What the Duck" cartoon strip ( You can vist the WTD website here ). It's a comic strip about a duck who's occupation is a photographer. He gets into the scrapes that all photographers have seen at some time with funny outcomes. Anyway watch the video above to see one of the many reasons why I hate photographing people in a studio setting.

You can subscribe via i-tunes to my video's via podcast by clicking here

Photographers Assistant

Pin It A couple of days ago I twitted about what I call my Photographers assistant. It's something that i find invaluable and thought I'd pass on the information just to make anyone else who shoots weddings life a little easier.


Hope you find this useful.

HOT NEWS! you can now subscribe to my videos and slideshows on i-tunes as a pod cast by clicking here.

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.

HOT NEWS! you can now subscribe to my videos and slideshows on i-tunes as a pod cast by clicking here.



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

Pin It 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

Pin It 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

Pin It 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.