Earlier today I met with Molly and Ken and their mothers, Alice and Susan and Molly's sister Beth. For those of you in Boston today I think you'll agree it is a beautiful day! Lovely 80 degree weather and the blossom is out around Beacon Hill. We had a walk through the area to discuss where we would be taking photos on the day and talked about the timings. On our way through to Post Office Square I stopped them for a couple of photos; it wasn't an engagement session, but I had brought my camera along just in case, so I reeled off a few. And as Bruce Forsythe would say, "didn't they do well?". Great meeting with them and spending lunch chatting! Looking forward to shooting their wedding in late June...

Here are their pics... click below....

I love reworking images. This one has the effect of a Holga, with vignetting on one side, a bright centre and Kodak T-MAX effect to finish it off.

I miss black and white film and wet prints, but Nik Silver Effex Pro gives everything but the hole in your wallet back.

...said Doug.

In fact that was probably the only nice thing missing at that point.

We got back a couple of weeks ago from the lovely St John. We spent our 2 year anniversary out there; the 1 year got pushed to the side when we were looking after a young puppy.

You know, the strangest thing about St John is that it is probably the closet point in the US to the UK. In fact, if you look to the right of the book, that's one of the outlying UK islands. Weird! That and the virgin island beer is made by Shipyard in Maine.

Speaking of weddings, Emilie Sommer is getting married there this week... I don't actually know her yet, but I'm attending the (apparently amazing according to Shyla) Roots workshop on the Cape this summer: http://www.rootsworkshop.com/ . Now that will be a lot of fun! So anyway, all the best to Emile and her husband-to-be.

Now where's the Corona?

On my return to England at Christmas I was blessed to have my old friends from various parts of the world come to my home in Shipton Oliffe, in the Cotswold Hills. To those of my American followers, the Cotswolds are a beautiful, must-see area two hours west of London. To give you an idea of where I grew up, here's a satellite image. That's the village, just in between the sheep, the cows and the combine harvester:


View Larger Map

Anyway, I digress. So my good friend Tom and his lovely lady Michelle came along (with among 10 others) for my 30th birthday a couple of days before Christmas and announced they are now engaged! Cool news! Tom and I met in 1997 when we first went to University in Swansea, Wales. We (and most of the other people at said party) were all in 'halls' (that's student accommodation) on the same floor. Years later we still lived together and as our friends drifted off to get married or settle in with their ladies, the bachelors Tom and I were left in our house in Balham, often twiddling our thumbs, or more often than not eating fried breakfasts. One afternoon we were headed into Shoreditch (trendy part of East London) for a few beers for a birthday and to cut a long story short, the (at that time unknown) Michelle turned up with our friend from uni, Holly. The rest is history and they now live in Sydney, Australia.

They are getting married near to where Michelle grew up in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire (that's a few hours north of London - everything is always in reference to London, its just easier). So I'm going to be shooting their day in August and very much looking forward to getting back into a UK wedding with all the hats, fascinators, wild partying and hopefully the odd pork pie, which Melton is so famed for. If you've never had one, the next time you're in a good deli, go looking for one - they are very, very tasty.

Anyway, here's a few photos of Tom and Michelle taken on Christmas eve during / after a nice fry up and a cup of tea, oh and a few of Tom from yester-year...

A couple of weeks a go an excited Scott called me to shoot an engagement shoot. Well it turned out that they weren't actually engaged - yet! Scott was obviously very exicted (and somewhat nervous) and we conversed a few times over the week about shooting him proposing to her while I was there to record it - naturally I leapt at the chance! We came up with a plan: I'd pick them up, we'd drive into Beacon Hill, we'd take some photos, then at an undetermined point Scott or I would suggest a good place for the proposal, I'd get Jenn looking the other way and he'd be down on bended knee...

Well back to the start of the day. It was a lovely, sunny and unusually warm Sunday morning as I drove to Scott's in Medford to pick them both up. I met with Jenn (who knew they were off to shoot a portrait of them in town, but had no idea what was REALLY going to happen) and Scott, and we piled into the car. After squeezing my car into a tight spot by the State House, we set about warming them up to the camera around Boston Common before heading back into the streets of Beacon Hill after the sun had come up a little. Seeking out the best spot we went back to a beautiful cobbled street that I had been to with Carly and Sam last year. I suggested it to Scott, looking at him suggestively, he nodded (I think the nerves were setting in here) and we proceeded off to the street. We proceeded to fool Jenn into looking the other way, and Scott got down on one knee. The photos tell the rest!

Congratulations!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL OF THE PHOTOS AND PURCHASE PRINTS ONLINE (password is Jenn's maiden name)





















Who's that smug man up there?