Friday 6 July 2012

The Blog has a new home!

Yes, that's right, I'm on the move!



Having recently launched my new website (www.danieldaviesphotography.co.uk, go on, have a look!) - it's time to integrate the blog within the site.   So for all the best in wedding photography, great special offers and much more, pop on over to:



See you there!


Dan

Monday 28 May 2012

Nikki and Pete star in their Cambridge Pre-Wedding shoot

The bright sunshine this weekend meant that Nikki, Pete and I were very glad to have postponed our pre-wedding shoot from the wet-weather of a couple of weeks ago, and indeed the only challenge was finding quiet spots amongst the throngs of tourists hitting Cambridge last Saturday morning!

Here are a few of my favourites from their complimentary pre-wedding shoot:

Image copyright Daniel Davies Photography 2012
Many wedding photographers will offer a pre-wedding shoot, but for most it's simply a chance for them to sell their clients more pictures. I really don't want my clients treated like cash cows, so I also give my couples a complimentary 16x16" canvas montage, based around one of three exclusive and unique designs. 

Having a montage like this means that there's no pressure sales and everyone knows that the sessions are all about making sure we get better photographs on the big day. Pop on over to my website for more details.

Dan

Sunday 20 May 2012

Aleisha and Ryan - a rocking wedding in Cheshunt and Enfield

It's very much "the morning after the night before for me" as I suspect it is for Ryan and Aleisha, who's wedding I covered yesterday.   A combination of Aleisha's massive hard work & attention to detail, and a truly excellent toast master made this a really easy wedding to cover.    Here are a few, very early samples of some images that immediately stood out for me.

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These, and a few more images are also displayed on my facebook page.   If you'd like this quality of coverage for your wedding, then please pop over to my website.

Finally, a message for Ryan - "Thursday Nights, Channel Five!" :-)

Dan

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Dodging the showers at West Lodge Park

Being a wedding photographer, the spring of 2012 will go down as one of the most challenging times in my career - simply because of the awful weather we've encountered.  Indeed as I sit here writing this, I can look out of my studio window and see hailstones the size of marbles and listen to the thunder.  Roll on June!

So it was that I ended up dodging the showers last week when Emma and Peter joined me at West Lodge Park Hotel for their pre-wedding shoot.   They're getting married there later this year and Peter had put together a lovely proposal in the gardens some months previously, so there's really nowhere more suitable.

Many wedding photographers will offer a pre-wedding shoot, but for most it's simply a chance for them to sell their clients more pictures.  I really don't want my clients treated like cash cows, so I also give my couples a complimentary 16x16" canvas montage, based around one of three exclusive and unique designs.    Having a montage like this means that there's no pressure sales and everyone knows that the sessions are all about making sure we get better photographs on the big day.

Here are a few of my favourite images, taken under the shelter of trees or when the rain briefly abated:

  Highlights from West Lodge Park Hotel, Cockfosters

A huge thank you to both Emma and Peter for being such good sports and making the best of a bad situation.   Lets hope that's the last of the rain associated with your wedding guys!

Dan

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Exploring Colchester with Julie and Niall

Julie and Niall are, I think, one of life's lucky couples.   As well as being lucky enough to find each other and develop a special kind of love, they also seem lucky in that they picked one of this springs few fine days for their pre-wedding shoot in Colchester.

Many wedding photographers will offer a pre-wedding shoot, but for most it's simply a chance for them to sell their clients more pictures.  I really don't want my clients treated like cash cows, so I also give my couples a complimentary 16x16" canvas montage, based around one of three exclusive and unique designs.    Having a montage like this means that there's no pressure sales and everyone knows that the sessions are all about making sure we get better photographs on the big day.

Here's a few highlights:
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I can't wait to photograph them on their big day & I hope we have just as much fun and just as much luck with the weather when we meet again!


For more information, please pop on over to my website.


Dan

Thursday 5 April 2012

Becca and Ant - a pre wedding shoot with Gunnersaurus!

Here are a few shots from last weekends pre-wedding shoot that took place at Arsenals Emirates Stadium.  With Ant a fervent Gooner, it seemed the perfect place, and we managed to explore the environs a little as well, even taking pictures in Highbury Square, where the old ground had been.   I insist on these shoots for every wedding couple as I truly believe that they really build our relationship and make me far less of a stranger when it comes to the wedding day.   This leads to fewer nerves & therefore better photographs!

Many wedding photographers will offer a pre-wedding shoot, but for most it's simply a chance for them to sell their clients more pictures.  I really don't want my clients treated like cash cows, so I also give my couples a complimentary 16x16" canvas montage, based around one of three exclusive and unique designs.    Having a montage like this means that there's no pressure sales and everyone knows that the sessions are all about making sure we get better photographs on the big day.

Here's a few highlights:

I hope you enjoyed these, and I hope that Ant has got over the need to shoehorn Arsenal into his wedding well ahead of his wedding day!

For more information, pop on over to my website.

Friday 2 March 2012

Why everything gets more expensive when you mention the "W" word

If you are making plans for your wedding, then you've probably felt a little "taken advantage of".  Many brides will tell me "as soon as I mention that it's for a wedding then prices seem to go through the roof".   As a wedding supplier, I'm going to give my perspective on this.

Now, I'm bound to try and deny the existence of this phenomenon aren't I? We can't possibly all be money grabbing people taking advantage of brides desperation and inexperience when it comes to planning a wedding, can we?

Well here's the first surprise.  From my perspective, things do get more expensive at the first mention of the dreaded "W" word, and the second surprise is that I think this is (usually) perfectly justified.

Brides get married (hopefully) once in their life, which rightly means that they want their wedding to be a once in a lifetime experience.  Everything needs to be perfect, "good" is simply no longer good enough.

This means as wedding suppliers we are under even more pressure to make sure that we deliver the perfection that wedding couples rightly desire.
 
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Let's consider the florist.   If you pop into a florist and buy a £30 bouquet and 6 hours later the heads have dropped off a couple of the blooms, then you'll be annoyed, but you'll probably just get on with it, remove the stems and "make the most of" the remaining flowers in the bouquet.   A week later you'll probably have forgotten it ever happened.   On your wedding day, "make the most of" is not an emotion that any bride should be prepared to accept.  This means that  your wedding florist will select only the best flowers and spend considerably more time carefully putting the bouquet together, making sure everything is secured in place and that no blooms have been in any way damaged in putting it all together.  With that additional pressure for higher quality, it's natural (indeed a business essential) that your florist will charge more than for their day-to-day flowers.

Similarly, if a seam on a dress you've just bought un-picks a week after you've bought it, you'll probably patch it up "and make the best of it".  If the same thing happens to your bridal gown then you'll likely (and rightly) be distraught.

The same applies to my role as a wedding photographer.  If I shoot a portrait session and the images are "off", I can invite you back at my cost, re-shoot you, offer you an extra framed print and you'll walk away happy.  However, if I miss the first kiss at a wedding, or my group shots are underexposed then you'll never have a quality record of those moments and you'll hate the fact you booked me for the rest of your life.   So my quality threshold has to be higher, much higher.  I need to spend more time and money training, to make sure I have the best equipment, have selected the best suppliers, and even at the end of what is often a 14 hour working day, I need to immediately get onto the computer, even if it's midnight and get the images backed up and safe from any possible damage or loss.  

Your wedding day deserves to have a "premium" feel and you won't get that by paying rock bottom prices.   Do the maths, if a supplier is offering you a price that means that they can't possibly be doing this as their only full time job, then how good a service are they going to give you?

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     Dan






Wednesday 8 February 2012

A delighted customer writes

Its always great to get a "thank you" from satisfied clients and it's even better when they put it in writing.

Daniel Davies Photography

I was really pleased to get this thank you from a corporate client a couple of days ago.


Daniel Davies Photography

It reads; "I asked Dan to take some photos of a large bespoke kitchen I fitted in Hampstead last year.  I arranged a time with the clients for the shots to be taken.  When myself and Dan arrived to the job we soon realised the clients wanted the shots to be as lifelike as possible, complete with dirty bowls in the sink and packets of food all over the island, basically the kitchen was a mess with two young children the family had quickly set about destroying all my hard work.   Without hesitation Dan turned from professional photographer to super cleaning man and within half an hour had transformed a messy kitchen back to its former glory.

Dan then set about taking shots from all angles using some sophisticated equipment to cancel out the strong glare from the sun and the reflection of the high gloss doors, the shots really caught the contrasting colours and materials, and captured the symmetrical lines of the handle less doors.    The shots of the kitchen have since run in a publication and generated more enquiries, so for all of Dan's hard work in delivering some excellent images for my portfolio and going the extra mile helping cleaning the kitchen I will always recommend Dan to my friends and colleagues.

Kris Kelly
Reflect Kitchens"




Daniel Davies Photography

Thanks to Kris for his kind words, I must show this particular testimonial to my wife!

Dan

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Nikki and Mez tie the knot at Upton Park

HI folks, here's a quick preview of some favourite images from my most recent wedding, which took place at Upton Park, home of West Ham United.   Once I'd set aside my Chelsea supporting credentials, it really was a good place to photograph a wedding, with large rooms and helpful staff.

Have a look at some of my favourites:



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Bridal preparations always go better with a little lubrication.

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One of Nikki's beautiful sari's hung up and ready to be worn for the wedding.

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Time for a quick check of the make up.

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Beautiful shoes.

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Mez looking statesmanlike (he was actually watching the cricket and yet another English wicket falling!).

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Final preparations.

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One of the strongest features of the day was how many laughs Nikki and Mez had, with absolutely no Bridezilla or Groom from Hell moments.

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The first kiss.

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They start them young over at West Ham.

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The first grooms speach of the day as the sun sets behind the top table.

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A broken arm wasn't going to slow this young reveller down.

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Nikki react's to Mez's "loving words" during his evening speech.

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Cutting the cake, and nephew & niece got involved too!

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First dance.

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Dan

Friday 27 January 2012

The crafting of a portrait.

I've recently created a new blog at LoveEnfield.blogspot.com which showcases some of the great people in the borough who are making Enfield such a great place to live, work and shop in.     I decided to do this as I wanted the opportunity to make some great, considered portraits of these people, to help promote their businesses or events and to make some local connections.

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Yesterday I photographed Karen & Gunther, who run a great local coffee shop, MyCoffeeStop at Enfield Chase station.   It's a small unit, and I wanted to maximise the space available to me, so I thought about using my 8mm fish eye lens.

I decided to pop this on my 40d as the crop sensor would mean that I got a slightly less wide field of view, and could focus more on Karen & Gunther than I would had I used my 5dII.   

Here's how I set up:


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This gave me the following photo, straight out of camera:

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Importing the photograph into Lightroom and allowing it's automatic lens correction feature to complete gave me this:

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Which is OK, but leaves Karen and Gunther a little small in the middle of the frame.  I therefore chose to manually "correct"  the photograph, which gave me this, still distorted but more natural look:

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My next task was to enhance the effect of the steam.  Pushing the clarity & contrast helped a little, but I didn't like what it did to my subjects who'd turned a ghostly shade of pale!

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So I took this copy of the photo and layered it on top of the previously unaltered copy of the same photo.    This further enhanced the steam, and gave me further options for refining the image:

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The image below shows where my photoshop work was done:

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  1. The image was naturally vignetted, but because of the crop I needed to darken down this one remaining corner
  2. By masking out the blend over Karen & Gunther I could allow the original, natural skin colours to come through.
  3. A Waitrose carrier bag behind Gunther was cloned to remove the logo, and darkened down where it had caught the flare from the flash behind him
  4. The tiles were cleaned up, the various posters being removed and cloned out.
This gave us our final image (see it large at the top of the post):


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I hope you found this useful and/or interesting.  Let me know in the comments below and I'll do it again if there's enough interest.

Dan




Tuesday 10 January 2012

Pre-Wedding laughs in the January Sunshine



It was an absolute pleasure to spend an hour last Saturday with Nikki and Mez, who's wedding I'll be photographing at the end of the month.      We met at Enfields lovely Town Park, where we had a stroll together, getting to know each other a bit better, and taking some fun and relaxed photographs away from the stresses of wedding planning.

The guys will soon chose their personal favourites from the shoot, and I'll build them a completely unique, custom canvas montage as a memento of the shoot.     Can't wait for the wedding now!





Nikki&MezB1, A pre-wedding shoot in Enfield, complimentary for all wedding couples with a unique pre-wedding canvas as an added bonus.   Nikki & Mez, in Love, in Enfield.
Nikki and Mez were clearly and hugely in Love, and being so relaxed with each other helped me to quickly start getting some great photographs like this one.

Nikki&MezB2, A pre-wedding shoot in Enfield, complimentary for all wedding couples with a unique pre-wedding canvas as an added bonus.   Nikki & Mez, in Love, in Enfield.
Either Mez has the best set of one liners I've ever heard, or he's very adept at subtly tickling Nikki as they walked together.

Nikki&MezB3, A pre-wedding shoot in Enfield, complimentary for all wedding couples with a unique pre-wedding canvas as an added bonus.   Nikki & Mez, in Love, in Enfield.
Mez practices his "Action Man" pose whilst Nikki shines out from the other side.


Nikki&MezB4, A pre-wedding shoot in Enfield, complimentary for all wedding couples with a unique pre-wedding canvas as an added bonus.   Nikki & Mez, in Love, in Enfield.
Nikki certainly gave as good as she got - no shrinking violet she.

Nikki&MezB5, A pre-wedding shoot in Enfield, complimentary for all wedding couples with a unique pre-wedding canvas as an added bonus.   Nikki & Mez, in Love, in Enfield.
As well as the laughs, their love shined through in tender moments like this one.

Nikki&MezB6, A pre-wedding shoot in Enfield, complimentary for all wedding couples with a unique pre-wedding canvas as an added bonus.   Nikki & Mez, in Love, in Enfield.
It was such a pleasure to spend time with such a light hearted couple.  I hope the laughter continues for many years into the future guys.

Nikki&MezB7, A pre-wedding shoot in Enfield, complimentary for all wedding couples with a unique pre-wedding canvas as an added bonus.   Nikki & Mez, in Love, in Enfield.
Time to show "the rock" off

Nikki&MezB8, A pre-wedding shoot in Enfield, complimentary for all wedding couples with a unique pre-wedding canvas as an added bonus.   Nikki & Mez, in Love, in Enfield.
The January sun briefly visited, and we took advantage with this lovely natural light portait.

There are more photos of Nikki and Mez on my Facebook page - why not pop over and have a look.   Whilst you're there don't forget to click the "like" button to be kept informed of all of my news, and to have a first glimpse of their wedding photographs at the end of this month!