It's almost over... 2008 was a great year for 'all occasions' with a record number of couples choosing us to photograph their wedding day. Some of the exciting developments from a business point of view was the launch of our new website and our hugely successful exclusive online account area to provide our couples the ability to manage all aspects of their day both before and after their wedding...

We introduced recently our new exciting DVD slideshow which turns a standard wedding slideshow into something completely fresh and dynamic. Customers have been speechless by the impact these are making...

Technically we have also changed the way we approach weddings in many different ways. From the technical standpoint I personally (Steven) have migrated from using a combination of zoom lenses to prime's only. The benefit is optimum quality in images with the added benefit of better preparation in low light situations. Investment has been huge in this area alone...

Karen has fine tuned her approach when it comes to natural style photography by working more with a monopod. Image Stabilization is a key factor when working with a huge telephoto lens. This change allows her to work in demanding conditions to nail the perfect shot first time...

Off camera lighting has also been a big focus for us this year which allows to control light direction and illumination when required. (See recent wedding below at Chilworth for a prime example). Without off camera lighting the internal shots (background) on the balcony would be very dark and not flattering to the bride at all.

Oh also our office was knocked down and rebuilt...

We were also very pleased to be featured on the front cover and inside the "Hampshire Your Wedding" magazine for September/October edition. This stunning front cover was taken at Netley Abbey Ruins.

Kyrie and Sean married in the middle of 2008. Lookout early next year because Kyrie will be trashing her wedding dress for us... Still undecided on the final locations but we will let you know soon.

Outlook for 2009

Wow so much is happening in 2009. So far our bookings are at an all time high. We are fully booked for May, June, July, August but still have some availability for September and beyond.

We have some new cameras arriving in January to keep within our bi-yearly refresh policy. We will also be reviewing our album offerings in February and we will keep our existing customers fully up to date with new products hitting the market.

Wow no doubt I have missed something but I hope I have not been too technical in places for some people. Stay tuned for further blog updates to come but myself and Karen at 'all occasions' would like to wish everyone a fantastic new year and we look forward to working with you all in 2009.

Steven & Karen

No photographer should ever be afraid of working with couples who decide to get married in late autumn or winter. Infact, although most wedding photographers mainly enjoy the benefits of summer light, working in the winter does provide a unique opportunity to work with a different set of variables.

On Saturday this was certainly the case for Sharon and Dominic who married in Eastleigh with a 15:30 ceremony time. With rain certainly on the agenda it was a typical November day rendering the inside of the church as almost a candlelight affair with light rapidly decreasing as the service went along. A lovely ceremony!!!

If all who is reading this knows Chilworth Manor it really is a superb location whatever the weather. We had a clear plan knowing that it was certainly going to be dark outside so we focused our attention on utilising wireless off camera flash to provide the ideal setup for Sharon and Dominic. We used the balcony area wisely with the main focus of striking a balance between lighting up the couple but also maintaining an illuminated background. This was the key focus to our approach. We used a number of different areas of Chilworth Manor for our portrait photography. The main fireplace on the ground floor for our group photographs with our studio lighting and umbrellas was perfect for balanced lighting.

We plucked out a few of many from Sharon and Dominic's wedding below.

Today we received the following amazing comments from Caroline & Darren.

Steven & Karen,

Thank you so, so much for our wedding photos. The on-line proofs are absolutely fantastic and we are delighted with them. Not only are they great photos but the style and content are exactly what we were after.

Thanks also for your approach on the day, which was perfect: friendly, putting everyone at ease, but always extremely professional.

 Caroline & Darren...

Today we received the following lovely comments from Jenny & Matthew.

Steven & Karen,

The whole day was brilliant, and your part in that was Key! You helped Matt and I to relax on a stressful day, and the pictures are gorgeous! The CD has arrived really quickly and the quality is superb, we would recommend you to anyone!

Thank you again for everything you have done, we really appreciate the amazing photos we have to remember our special day by.

 Jenny & Matthew...

If you stopped by our stand at the Chilworth Manor Wedding fayre on Sunday 26th October it was great meeting so many of you. Chilworth put on a great show and were pleased to be part of it.

Most enquiries were for 2010 but as always we cannot stress enough to book early to avoid disappointment. Our diary is heavily booked for 2009 already.

Moving on and our next show this coming Sunday 2nd November will be at the Eastleigh Holiday Inn. Doors open from 10:30am.

As always we will be showcasing our album products and also demonstrating our latest dynamic DVD slideshows. We also have some lovely frame products to demonstrate.

Look forward to meeting you all soon...

St Anne's Church which is situated right in the heart of Portsmouth Dockyard was the ideal setting for the wedding of Caroline and Darren. The church is very well lit with a huge gallery which surrounds the inside of the church. This provided an amazing vantage point for some of our photographs.

The reception was at the Wardrooms which is situated just outside the navalbase. A perfect setting with plenty of grounds provided an excellent location for the portrait photographs. The low autumnal sun provided us with a few challenges with some of the larger group photographs but we managed to just avoid making direct contact with a bit of moving around.

Some preview photos will be online very soon...

It may be October but you would not of thought it for the wedding of Jenny & Matthew at the Lyndhurst Park Hotel. The bubbly bride and big smiling groom had an amazing day. Their wedding ceremony was held in the hotel conversatory while over 40 wedding guest's enjoyed the relaxed and faultless cermony. They even managed to avoid the strong sunlight beating down on them...

We did not get too much opportunity at the front of the hotel due to the huge volume of cars but most of our photography was conducted at the back of the hotel. We used the leaf filled swimming pool to great effect and also used the stunning sunlight casting through the tree's to serve up a lovely backdrop during the portraits.

We had the following arrive in our inbox the day after Jenny & Matt's wedding. Quote "We just wanted to say thank you so much for helping make our day so special, Matt and I had a truly amazing day and you really helped put us at ease, especially as neither of us are particularly comfortable in front of a camera under normal circumstances!! We are really looking forward to seeing the pics when we come back from our honeymoon

On Saturday we photographed the wedding of Clare & Graham who married at New Park Manor in the New Forest. It was the second time in just over a week that we enjoyed the fine forest weather.

All the years we have been doing wedding photography this was our first visit to New Park Manor. The venue has a great ceremony room which is great for us photographers because we can shoot from a real vantage point to get in nice and tight. You can almost feel the emotion except on this wedding the smiles were flying right from the off.

Customer Quote: "Our album looks great. We were both really pleased with it. On the day you were really good and we felt the time you spent taking the photos was plenty and we are more than happy with all the photos which were taken. Thankyou!" - 16th November 2008

Wow. What is it about mid September weddings? On Friday we attended the wedding of Emma & Mark who married at Carey's Manor on an amazing summer’s day. With the sun not making too many appearances this year it was great to work in the New Forest on such a lovely day.

Some preview photo's are below. We have also received the following message from Emma and Mark on Saturday.

Quote "Steven and Karen many thanks. You made the wedding photography an enjoyable experience and a special part of the day. Your professional and relaxed manor made us both feel at ease for a truly memorable day and are really pleased that you were a part of it. Can’t wait to see the photo's. Many Thanks Emma & Mark"

Wow 2009 is looking to be a great year for 'all occasions'. We are already looking forward to working in some amazing locations and certainly some which we have never photographed before which is fantastic.

Our availability is now very limited for the peak months of June, July and August. Infact most Saturday's in May are also booked. The last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August are now fully booked. The first week of June is also fully booked although we still have availability during the middle of the month.

If you are still actively looking for a wedding photographer why not take a moment to look through the number of options we have available within our wedding photography pages.

We would also like to say that our customers are continually commenting on how wonderful our online customer area is. Our customers love the ability to add their itinerary, choose/add their group shots and also make it easy to influence the design of their wedding album by rating their pictures. On top of this our customers think that approving their wedding album design online keep's turnaround time to a minimum.

Our wedding day countdown has also proved very popular. Each time our customers login to their account we automatically tell them how many days are left to go with loads of helpful advice on things which need doing as their wedding day approaches!!! Commenting recently even the upcoming Groom made sure his future wife worked her shoes in around the house before the big day!

Our online tool is exclusive to us. There is no system like this available anywhere and our customers simply love it... honest...