Katie and Doug live in Cambridge but got married in Fleet, Hampshire, as Katie’s Nan graciously opened her garden grounds for another wedding marquee - Katie’s sister had her wedding there last year. It was raining all and off throughout the day but we were spared the flooding that affected other parts of the country that week.

After Rachel’s outrageously pink theme I felt in the mood for deep and mysterious when I was processing Katie’s getting ready shots. I concocted another Lightroom recipe for this wedding, with deep inky blacks and platinum split-toned highlights. Here are some of the images:

I’ll show you another series in ordinary “documentary” black and white so you can appreciate the difference.

Katie being sprayed with perfume:

Nan fixing Katie’s necklace:

Girls greeting Nan in the doorway:

Katie checking her makeup:

Doug and boys at the Church on the Heath:

The stained glass window:

Katie arriving:

As you can see, the church was very modern - it was built less than a year ago.

Katie’s sister doing a reading during the ceremony:

Confetti:

In the afternoon the sun came out.

Just in time for the “formals”:

Katie and Doug surprised me with a ride on a Deere lawnmower for their bride and groom session:

Just as we got back for speeches it started raining again. We were so lucky!

Doug speaking:

Guests’ reactions:

And that’s how it went…

As promised, finished designing Hannah and James’ album last night. The accent olours are is white, apple green and pink to match the heigh-key feel of their wedding. The colour scheme was derived from Hannah’s bouquet and table decorations.

Here are some pages from this album:

Received a thank you note from Hannah and James this weekend:

“Hi Galina,

GOSH I meant to do this ages ago, but time just seems to get away from me!

Thank you SO much for our DVD - we all loved it and it brings tears to my eyes every time. You are totally correct in saying that your style of photography tells a story, and those odd requests for pictures of shoes or rings on their own on the day now make total sense!!

You captured everything perfectly, even many moments where I wasn’t even aware that you had been there and snapping away! We are both delighted with the results.

Hannah”

No worries! You’ll be happy to know that I am half-way through with your album design and you’ll get the draft soon.

G

Received a thank you note from Emma and Andy via email after they received their album:

“Hi Galina - Thank you so much for the album - it’s absolutely fantastic! It’s everything we hoped for - we really love it! .. we-re all really pleased that you captured our wonderful day so well and we can re-live it when we look at the DVD and the album.

Take care.

Love Emma XX”

I am glad tou liked it!!!!

G

While the PC was out last week I decided to catch up with album designs on my laptop instead. Sarah and Ricky’s album draft is ready, and I started working on Hannah and James’s as well. I might as well continue to complete this project.

Here are some pages from Sarah and Ricky’s album:

I am in business!

Jim was as good as gold - the new PC has arrived today. I spent the whole day installing essential programmes and searching for and downloadinbg 64-bit drivers.

Good news - Photoshop and Lightroom are very fast! Xrite Optix Pro driver installed fine and I managed to profile monitors just fine. No need to buy another profiler.

The 1 terabyte My Book harddrive is now recognised perfectly and usable!

Bad news - X-Keys do not have a 64-bit driver at the moment, so DQ Quickeys Photoshop workflow system is effectively non-functional. And I love DQ Quickeys… Oooh…

Before this PC arrived I caught up with all outstanding DVD slideshows on my laptop. And this evening all outstanding and paid for photocart orders have been uploaded to the lab.

Because of this IT fracas I am a week behind on post-processing. This is how the next week’s schedule shapes up:

Wedding backup: Sabina and Tom, Bury St Edmunds.
Next wedding photos to be processed: Katie and Doug, Fleet, Hampshire.
Next portrait photos to be processed: Deborah Whyman - family re-union, Cromer pier.
Next album design- Sarah and Ricky.

Just received this email from a computer guy who builds a new PC for me:

“Hi Galina,

I managed to pick up a WiFi PCI card with 64-bit drivers in one of the Glasgow PC shops this morning and have fitted to the system. Windows has loaded the driver and sees the device OK.

It is now too late to book an uplift for today so I will arrange for the system to be shipped tomorrow so it will be with you on Friday.

Jim”

Hurray!

Last night I managed to locate a 64-bit driver for my monitor calibrator device, Monaco Optix Pro. Looking forward to see if it works, otherwise I have to buy a new Eye One Display 2.

I returned from my break to face an IT crisis - a near dead main computer. Every single operation became painfully slow rendering Breezebrowser Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom and Proshow Producer practically unusable. The solution is to completely wipe out the hard drive and OS and reinstal Windows and all my programmes from scratch, which I am not prepared to do yet because backing up even a relatively small folder of data from the C harddrive takes 17-20 minutes.

Instead, I have a new quad-core system with 4Gb RAM and Windows XP Pro 64-bit OS being custom built for me. It was supposed to be delivered today but some custom components I wanted installed do not have 64-bit drivers and we have to hunt for replacement models with the necessary drivers. It looks now that the new computer will arrive next Tuesday and then I’ll tinker with programme installations on Wednesday.

Sorry for the delays!!!!!

Dear All

I am away in Kingston-upon-Thames until Friday to de-stress and build up my depleted reserves of energy. No computers. No meetings. No mobiles or phones of any description. No work…

As usual, John will be available to take messages - but be gentle on him and repeat your telephone number slowly and distinctly. He is an academic and is known for missing an odd digit in a telephone number making it impossible for me to get back to you!

Love

Galina

I see from their message in the chatbox that Rachel and Andrew are back from their honeymoon and are dying to see their wedding photos. Their gallery will be uploaded this weekend. Meanwhile, I’ll show some in this diary.

Ok, Rachel came up with an unashamingly pink colour scheme for her wedding:

You see what I mean - even her champaigne was wrapped in pink!

Engagement ring:

Make-up:

An SMS Andrew’s sister sent here:

Getting dressed:

Andrew (in pink, of course!):

The watch Rachel gave him as a wedding gift:

Boys in the library:

Andrew ready:

Rachel arriving:

Rings exchange and 1st kiss:

Rachel’s parents during the ceremony:

The ceremony was followed by a mellow sunny afternoon of drinks, fun and games - for kids and grown ups:

Confetti:

This little boy was very shy at the beginning:

until he had a fun race with Andrew:

and had a chance to play with an older flower girl:

Girls busy recycling confetti:

The newlyweds hired a bouncy castle strong enough to hold grownups as well:

Kids’ message to Auntie Rachel and Uncle Andrew in the signing book:

This wedding was really-really fun to photograph - everyone was so genuinely happy!

Just before John and I left we had a bride and groom session on the grounds of Caistor Hall:

This is a funny sequence with a pint of beer:

Boys making bets who will win the league:

And that’s how it went…