John and I were away for three days over Easter photographing Carey and Nick’s wedding in Cambridgeshire. When we returned we received this lovely email from Jessica and Chris:

“Dear Galina

We just received the album today and it was even more beautiful than I had hoped. I know that for the rest of my married life I’m going to enjoy turning the glossy pages and someday reminding my children not to put dirty fingers on them. It is a truly wonderful thing to have and I cannot wait to show everyone. Thank you again for all your hard work and creativity. We knew from the first moment that you were the right person for the job and seeing our album today was the best kind of proof that we were right.

All our love to you and John,

Jess”

I am so happy for you and glad that I’ve done a good job!

G

I finished working on this draft for Becky and Anthony’s 12×12 magazine-style album 2 weeks ago but got caught up in work to post it in the diary. Catching up now.

The colour scheme (brown with orange accents) and some the design elements were inspired by the couple’s order of service and their seating plan.

Here are some layouts from this album:

Sharon and Kim’s civil partnership ceremony is coming up in June. On Friday we came out to Barbican in London to shoot their pre-wedding session.

We started the shoot outside the Barbican Art Centre and walked a couple of tube stops down to Liverpool Street.

At the Barbican:

Midway we stopped at Finsbury Square where the Contemporary Art Society held their ArtFutures exhibition:

Walking down to Liverpool Street:

Dancing outside Starbucks at the end of the shoot:

I went to Edinburgh on Tuesday/Wednesday last week for Damien Lovegrove’s urban portrait workshop. As professional photographers we need to constantly upgrade and diversify our technical skills. Over the years I went to several courses organised by Damien and he was great at teaching the craftmenship aspects of photography in a very direct and practical way. This time was no exception.

The course was held in Malmaison hotel in Leith and all the photos were taken around that area and Leith Walk-ish. Our models were Sophie (from Denmark) and Sarah.

Some shots of Sarah from the morning segment:

Damien showed us this unusual technique of shooting with direct flash square to the model (Sophie) straight in to a highly reflective dark background - it looks almost like a ring flash:

Garage door - using geometric shapes:

At a coffee break inside a little cafe:

Back on the streets:

I took this shot of Sophie as we were packing our gear to go to lunch in a cosy French brasserie:

Experimenting with an off-camera flash on a bright sunny day:

In the afternoon sunlight:

It was quite cold and windy all day and by 5pm we desperately wanted to go somewhere warmer. The brasserie at Malmaison was opening for public at 6pm and we were allowed to use it for a while:

As the sun was setting down Damien set up his Mobil kit and we shot Sophie in the sunset drama.

I was away for the most of this week in Edinburgh and London and didn’t have a chance to post some layouts from Donna and Alex’s wedding 12″x12″ magazine-style album that I finished before I went a-travelling.

The pink/orange styling of this album is a bit of a reference to Tricia Guild’s book about pattern design I am reading now.

John and I are sending our condolences to Donna and Alex, our 2007 bride and groom. Donna’s grandad sadly passed away on Monday.

Our hearts are with you and your family.

G