Charlotte and Oliver’s album draft is finally ready. Pale grey accent colour is chosen to reflect the couple’s metalic silver and white theme for their wedding decorations. Here are some layouts for a 12″x8″ vertical magazine-style wedding album:








August 27th, 2008
Being busy with wedding photography over the years I have collected thousands of personal photos that are just sitting on my hard drives, not likely to be ever processed. My mum keeps asking me to send her our family and travel images, so this Bank Holiday Monday I decided to develop some Edinburgh files from our Russian Easter break there. It’s been nearly 5 months - that’s how bad I am!
I wanted to convey a sense of a Romantic Edinburgh, mysterious, gloomy and steeped in history, that maintains its image despite the crowds of tourists wandering about so I ended up using mostly vintage and black and white processing techniques.
These are from the Royal Mile on a gloomy wet morning:





Outside Canongate Kirk built in the 17th century:

Entrance to Holyroodhouse Palace - playing with some textures and tints here:

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey:


In the afternoon on the day we left the sun finally came out:

Walking down the North Bridge:

A view from the bridge onto Waverley railway station:

August 25th, 2008
QUE from DB Game, a black hiphop band in Newcastle upon Tyne, called me to get some photos of their band done for the website. You can listen to some tracks performed by DB Game on their myspace page here >>.
We went on location in the centre of Newcastle:


Some individual photos of band members:









On the metal fire escape staircase:



August 15th, 2008
We received a lovely thank you email from Carey and Nick yesterday afternoon:
“Hi Galina,
Our album arrived this morning!!! I was very excited as I opened it … boxes in boxes with layers of bubble wrap - it was a bit like playing Pass the Parcel! The photos look amazing and the finish of the album is excellent - it will definitely be treasured and looked at again and again…
Thank you again for such fantastic pictures,
Love,
Carey and Nick xx”
Thanks you, guys!
G
August 15th, 2008
I am photographing Jon and Adrian’s civil partnership ceremony in September. Meanwhile we had a pre-wedding session at Holkham beach in Norfolk to get to know each other and play.
Here are some photos from their engagement session:


Beach huts lent themselves well to a nostalgic moody treatment. I took a series of shots at the hut made of weathered wood. First I asked Adrian and Jon to give me an almost blank look that you see in old Americana photos:

And no, they don’t make those faces in real life - I needed some crazy expressions for this composite board I had in mind…

Some fun against the patchwork of huts:


Walking on the beach:



The water was rising leaving puddles in the sand as we headed for the carpark:

August 14th, 2008
Processing Jane and John’s photos from their wedding at St Mary Magdalene church at Pullam Market, Norfolk, and reception in Starston. Below are some sneakpeek images for them.
Jane was getting ready in a lovely old cottage nearby, with weathered wooden beams and interesting textures:




Ready:


John and the boys sorting out their buttonholes and top hats:


John:


The rings on John’s top hat.

At the church:

A little baby girl and her older sister in the isle:

Jane arriving to the church:




Some shots from the ceremony:
John waiting for his bride:

This one was captured by John - while Jane and her bridesmaids were talking to vicars outside the flowergirl came up the isle on her own:

and again with the rest of the bridal party:


St Mary Magdalene is a very pretty church with a painted mural and decorative ceiling:

Signing the register:

In the doorway after the ceremony:

The newly-weds leaving the church in a vintage car:



John and Jane amidst the flowers at John’s parent’s garden:



August 7th, 2008
As promised, posting some images from Natasha’s modelling portfolio session in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne. Natasha came from Middlebrough and spent a late afternoon with me and John. All these are a result of a walkabout around the Granger Market area where we were search for urban/distressed locations. There are so many grungey photogenic spots in Newcastle, more so than in Norwich.














August 3rd, 2008
Sarah and Rob got married at Knights Hill Hotel in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. It was sunny at times, and raining at others - crazy weather!
Sarah’s preparations, starting (of course) with the shoes:



Sarah with her mum getting ready:


Ceremony - Rob and his best man waiting for Sarah’s arrival:




I experimented here with vintage tints in these dramatic images of Sarah and Rob:




At the drinks reception:




Rob delivering his speech:

After meal the couple went outside for a location shoot.
Knights Hill Hotel:




I alway love when I am booked to cover the first dance and the party!
Sarah and Rob’s first dance to a live band performing 50s-60s-70s music:

The members of the band were also their friends:


The dancing pary started with a spectacular balloon release and multi-coloured light effects:



It was absolutely great!
July 30th, 2008
If you see some pages flickering while you are browsing please don’t be alarmed - it’s me tinkering with the code and images of my website behind the scenes.
Home page and studio diary are to be changed first. I am also planning to update wedding portfolio images at some point this week.
Update: 28 July 9.15pm - upgrading my blog software to the newest version.
July 28th, 2008
I finally got some spare time to process images from Jerry Ghionis’ 5-day workshop that was held in London last month. Jerry is a world-famous wedding and fashion master photographer from Australia.
These are from Day Two training. The first three photos were made with video light shining through French blinds and behind the models to produce a rim-lit effect:



The next set was produced outside. Jerry was showing how to produce dramatic location portraits in harsh afternoon light on the streets of London.





I photographed a model portfolio session with Natasha in Newcastle upon Tyne to practice since the course. You’ll see a post about it shortly.
July 27th, 2008