I am officially on holiday, just back from photographing Kelly and Adam’s wedding at Stoke by Nayland Golf Club. As the return journey took nearly 7 hours I overdozed on Red Bull and many cups of coffee I took to keep myself awake and couldn’t sleep when we finally got home. So I switched my computer on and processed one of the two late autumn pre-wedding portrait sessions for my 2008 cvlients I held the weekend before our move to Newcastle upon Tyne.

I photographed Emma and Johny outside Caistor St Edmund, on the ruins of the Roman town called Venta Icenorum that 1700 years ago was the centre of Norfolk. If you follow this link you can see that not much visible is left - mostly green fields:

At the bottom of the staircase over the remains of defensive walls leading to a medieval church:

On another staircase - those city walls were really steep:

We climbed the stairs to St Edmund Church within the walls of the Roman town. The section we used as a background for our photos dates from 1050 but the window is from 1400s.

A shadow of a kiss on the 11th century wall:

I am probably boring you to death with all these details…

A little bit further down the path we found a sun-bleached skeleton of a dead tree. Emma and Johny bravely perched on a wooden fence and I had to venture into a field of nettles below to get a right angle:

On the way back to the car park they threw a bunch of autumn leaves at each other under maple trees:

I love this couple - they have so much energy!

To go with the festive season we have received a lovely Xmas card and a thank you note from Ian and Rosey, a couple whose wedding we photographed in May 2007.

Ian and Rosey wrote:

Thank you, guys! Merry Christmas to you too!

G

Merry Xmas, everyone!

I still have a wedding in Suffolk to photograph this year (travelling on Boxing day, photographing on 27th and then a 7hr drive back on 28th December). After this we’ll be closed until 8 January 2008 for holidays. As you remember, I am Russian Orthodox and our Xmas is on 7 January!

Love

Galina

Finished designing Victoria and Sholto’s album today. The layouts are for 12×12 magazine-style albums. The colour scheme - chocolate brown, toffe and ocean blue were inspired by a wooden calendar I photographed at Victoria’s mums place during bridal preparations. I also used a patterned fabric texture as a background in this album.

Some examples:

Hi guys

All reprint orders ordered on and before 30 November were supposed to be posted to you by 14 December.

Unfortunately, although the lab confirmed that 4 large batched of prints were dispatched to me between 7 and 12 December so far there haven’t been a single delivery to me due to Royal Mail delays. More than than - there were no post at all delivered to the entire building three days last week!

I am running downstairs to the mailboxes like a maniac every hour of the hour hoping - as soon as the prints turn up I’ll package them and drive to the post office.

Update:

Batch No 3 with prints for Michelle and Bobby turned up as a large letter. No packages so far.

On a bright side, all ordered parent and portrait albums, and extra DVD slideshow copies, were posted out last week. All approved albums are done (apart from Sarah and Ricky’s album that will be delivered to Sarah’s dad in the first half of this week).

Upset about the post office…

Designing Victoria and Sholto’s album. Got a bit stuck and took a break processing Liz and Daniel’s photos from their pre-wedding shoot in the ruins of a medieval castle in Castle Acre.

What a great location! I had trouble find it (because I am, uh…, an idiot at navigating) but once I was there I was glad that Liz and Daniel chose it.

On a bridge over the moat:

In the ruins:

Outside walls - I am playing with textures here:

I saw some people walking their dogs on the top of the walls overlooking the castle and dragged my couple over there.

Sitting on the wall:

It was quite an adventure climbing down that wall…

Just finished designing Sian and Chris’s wedding album. It’s a 12×12 magazine-style book with digital layouts. The styling colours are dusky rose and pink gray - they complement the couple’s wedding “shades of pink” colour scheme but are understated enough not to dominate the images.

Here are some spreads from this album:

Next - designing Victoria and Sholto’s album.

OK, all outstanding DVD slideshows and parent extras are in the post, as well as the portrait album for the Whyman family.

Prints for all parent albums are in the lab - assembling early next week.

All approved magazine-style albums are in production to reach people by the end of next week.

Designing albums for Victoria and Sholto, Sian and Chris, and Rachel and Andrew.

Very tired…

Anh and James’s wedding at Sussex Barn was the last wedding that I photographed before our move to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I was looking forward to it because Anh told me that she was going to wear Jimmy Choos….

In colour (I know I am silly…):

Getting ready:

Ready:

Hunstanton parish church:

James and the boys:

Waiting for Anh to arrive:

Anh with her dad:

The ceremony:

Little pageboy preparing to throw confetti:

Oops!

Their wedding car outside Sussex Barn - Anh wanted a blue one:

A walk on the grounds of the venue:

I was very excited when we found a patch of autumnal colours - everywhere else was so green!

We saw some horses on the way back. This is Marble:

One of the guests juggling during the drinks reception:

Entering the wedding breakfast room:

I do not know what this was about but I thought this little face was funny: