‘Cause on Monday its the Mother of All Blog Entries.  I have 3 weddings this weekend.  All at great venues with great couples.  So expect a lot of mojo.  Given that, I won’t have time for any Evan shots.

So to keep you at bay…..

The newest member of the Thunderbirds (think Grease not Lady Penelope)

Driving a Fire Engine at the Haslemere Charter Fair

Liberating Daddy’s Ice Cream…guess who got stuffed with the whippy!

Another breakfast is history

See you Monday!

It’s all superheroes, tigers, dragons and monsters around our house at the moment.  Where he gets this stuff I’m not entirely sure.  In fact, yesterday afternoon during the pouring rain (after a long morning at soft play) him and his mum watched ‘The Sound of Music’.  Apparently he was interested in the first bits with the kids singing but once the whole Nazi theme came in he went off the boil.

Speaking of softplay, Evan’s imagination continues to grow as yesterday we had to keep making trips to the ‘spaceship’.  I would sit in the back and Evan would ‘drive’.  A rivet at the front served as the ‘go faster’ button and once pushed it was all we could do to not shake and vibrate ourselves out the door.  We would wave at the moon as we sped by and whenever any of the other kids came near we referred to them as aliens.  Mind you for some it didn’t take a lot of imagination.

And whilst we mention superheroes….go see Iron Man.  It doesn’t take itself too seriously, its directed by the ever astute Jon Favreau (the Ultimate Fighting Champion millionaire boyfriend of Monica in ‘Friends’).  Robert Downey Jr is superb and if, ladies, you are like my wife, you’ll enjoy seeing him for a good 2 hours.  Speaking of RDJr, if you’ve never seen ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ I suggest you do.

A few photos of my very own superhero

Evan tries on a friend’s Spiderman suit .. looks like we know what he wants for Christmas

A surreal sight of Spiderman AND Sportacus (Lazy Town) just chillin’

I tried to make them look ‘ard…but it didn’t quite set in

Right…on to this weekend’s wedding.  You might gather from the first few images that the running order was a bit different.  The wedding was in Brighton…oh, I do love Brighton.  We used to go there every year for our anniversary.  Its so cosmopolitan, gritty, funky and classy all at the same time.  Things happen there that can’t happen anywhere else.  For instance, when the fair comes to Liss it stays for 3 days.  When it comes to Petersfield it stays for 4.  When the circus comes to Portsmouth it stay for a week.  But when the ‘Lady Boys of Bangkok’ come to Brighton it stay for….A MONTH.  I was quite intrigued and asked a number of Brightonites at the wedding if they knew why.  Strangely I couldn’t get anyone to give me a straight answer.

Emma and Calvin — Brighton College and Pelham House — Saturday May 24, 2008

Kids these day…can’t even dress up for a special occasion!  ACTUALLY…it was all a bit different…this is the
civil ceremony with just a few witnesses.  Calvin’s cousin is a Vicar but in order to make it all legit in
Brighton they needed a quick civil service to tie off the legal mumbojumbo

That didn’t stop some folks getting all emotional.  If she’s thinking “aww…how sweet” I wonder what Darren (the best man) is thinking?

Emma’s dad (clearly dressing for the occasion) looks on

Calvin rejoices in winning the £500 “I bet you can’t get married in a untucked shirt” bet he made with
his headmaster some 30 years ago…..

…whilst all Emma can do is beam — oh and grip for dear life her new marriage certificate

Calvin and an usher compare their rather amateurish Transformer drawings

The boys look on in laughter knowing that Calvin will never find his way out of the maze in time

Guests begin to arrive at Brighton College.  I lurk in the doorways before shouting “Boo!”

Check out how much light his shirt gives out…she’s backlit for goodness sake! (a boring comment for photographers only)

A few X-Factor 2008 hopefuls soon discover they’ve come to wrong location

Yes…those are Calvin’s mum’s sunglasses from 15 years ago.  Do you honestly have any more questions?  Its obvious isn’t it?

Emma makes her grand entrance

Calvin (finally saved from the maze of the Crystal Skull) watches Emma cruise down the aisle

Why can’t all churches be lit like this.  No flash baby!

One of Emma’s bridesmaids took the whole “there will be a quiz at the end” story hook, line and sinker….

…she doesn’t appear to be the only one!

Calvin’s cousin works the room

I like real life…and the big hand is…well, real life.  I’ve organised confetti arches but to be honest you don’t get the same feeling as this.

“Thick crust, double pepperoni, half with mushrooms please”

Ah yes…Ye Olde “Bride in the Sunglass” shot.  A bit cliché but when the glasses are big enough to get me in as well I like it a bit more

The youngest bridesmaids were in charge of the photo/signature book.  Here she’s papping an uncle with a Polaroid.

The girlies enjoy a giggle

E&C were more interested in guests and events…but I did get a 5 minutes alone…here’s one of a few.

I recognise it…but I can’t for the life of me remember what its called

FUTURE GROOM SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

If, in the receiving line, you spy a guest doing this (see below)

…keep your eyes peeled because what might follow could be this (see below — if you hadn’t already figured it out)

FUTURE GROOM SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ENDS

1.  Find a great spot, 2. Bride goes to loo, 3. Photographer says “can give spare 40 seconds of your life”

Calvin polishes off his speech

Notes of a wedding planner?  NO!  US Military exit strategy from Iraq?  NO!  Times translated for the Best Man speech length pool (top prize £76)?  YES!

The Best Man is miffed at not getting a share of the £76

Cake cutting in the first person

The title will become clear part way through this week’s wedding gallery….

Yesterday was just your basic day in the garden getting jobs done.  Clearing out the garden shed and getting rid of a few bits and pieces.  With every bit we moved we discovered another new insect habitat.  With Evan learning all about Spring (should it be capitalised…hmmm) at nursery (should nursery be capitalised..hmmm) it seemed fitting to have a look with him.  We discovered some lovely snails under a garden chair.  Once they came out to play it was great to see Evan getting really into it.  I dashed back to the house and moments later he was in grabbing my hand to summon me back to find the ‘baby snail’ he had found.  Sure enough we found it and with great delight he set off playing again.  “Watch this” he said as he set his football on one of his mini cones.  “Hey, bud…why not move it a bit further into the garden.  You know, let the snails have their peace”.  Blank looks…so with a great lap around the garden as a run up (man, he’s gonna be disappointed the first time he takes a corner) he belts the ball the other side.  Snail safe (thankfully) he begins to jump with excitement…one jump, two jumps, three jumps….CRUNCH.  Sadly the baby snail didn’t make it.  “EVAN!”

If you know what’s good for you you are best to not pull up next to us at a red light.  That is, of course, if you don’t mind joining in with “I Want to be Human Too” from Jungle Book.  The ‘Didney’ CD is going down a treat at the moment.  We can now listen to Tarzan, Lion King, Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians.  Lucky me!

Kate and Mike – Barton Stacey and Avington Park – Saturday May 17, 2008

Not being a Boy Scout I was relieved to learn I wasn’t required for this task

Kate wears her lucky necklace

A Bride…a set of stairs…its all a little too familiar

Mini-bridesmaid (MB) oogles the flowers…and briefly catches my eye

Kate’s shoes were left hanging on the oven door to cool off…20 minutes at Gas Mark 6

MB ponders Bridedom

I love hands…they say a lot…here Kate puts on the veil for the first time (in anger)

And given Mike’s height…wise advice

Great light (in parts) of the pub before the ceremony

…and to be honest, I was very tempted

It says “My Dearest Mike”…and I know this as I delivered it.  Father, Photographer and Postman.

Let’s hope that the never have a cross word to say to each other (oh man..the cheese…I’m dyin’ here)

The doors ripped from their hinges and the last glass smashed against the wall,
the guests make their move (en mass) from the pub to the church

However, it would appear someone stopped by the off license on the way

The Vicar was a top Gent and let me do my thang…thanks Rev Mark (prints in the post in a few weeks)

The first kiss…and a serenade.  Any one else hear Nessun Dorma in their head?

MC (not Hammer) looks on…he’s got a great arsenal of one liners

Mike leads the way back to the pub (not really)

But, as a law abiding citizen, he chose to walk to Avington…no drinking and driving

Mike was genuinely excited when he heard the piper…a surprise from his Mum

Heavily Photoshoped…I know…but there was something very Churchillian about Kate’s Dad

Note the action…I have no idea what they are on about…something about the stag night…noted?

Avington has some wicked stairs….

….but the Ballroom takes the biscuit

It’s nice to get a nice casual of the groom.  Mike (and Kate) love to sail…so as you can see I positioned
him in front of some rolling waves (and if you believe I did that intentionally you are mad…I only just noticed)

Mike confirms that Kate’s contacts are still in!

Off to the reception

An charmed bride

I hadn’t seen this before.  At each table someone was nominated to slice the beef
(which I suspect is better than cutting the cheese)

Yummy!  Vegetarians look away now!

Susanna at Tiger Rose always challenges me to make the most of her work

Remember my advice to note the boys photo.  Apparently they were expecting an ambush…
Tiny Tim Kray did, in fact, turn up…fortunately he wasn’t a vegetarian and a hot beef sandwich
later it was all resolved

Sunshine….Moonlight….Good Times….Blame it on the Boogie.  In fact, it was a Ceilidh

And now.. a lesson in white balance.  Our eyes see white as white….however the camera sees white as anything from blue to orange depending on what it thinks the colour temperature is (Google Kelvin…no, its the long lost member of New Kids on The Block but yet a very scientific measurement of temperature).  Right…so why do I care…well, if you get an entire segment of your wedding in black and white there may be a reason.  Below is an excellent example.  Above the centre of the marque was a series of spot lights.  Being tungsten based they burn on the orange end of white light.  However, directly above was the overcast and fading light from the sky…which given the time of the day was now starting to burn on the blue side.  Here, Kate is being lit by the tungsten lights above….but the marquee roof is more from the sky.  Fortunately the lights were only in the middle of the marquee…hence the shot of Kate being in colour…the perimeter was more balanced and it was earlier in the day.  This makes for an interesting shot but more often then not it means that one side of a person’s head is blue and the other is orange.  You’ve gotta pick one…and when I have to pick I go for option 3…black and white.  A famous wedding photographer who shares the same name as a Disney cartoon character once said “lights light in black and white”.

Which is how Evan let’s you know its time to wake up.  Its not “are you awake” or “can you wake up” but rather “daddy, you can wake up now”.  This is promptly followed the duvet being taken off, your hand grabbed and intense pulling as he tries to hoist you up.  This morning I even had pushing on my back in an effort to ‘help’.  Mind you, he is sweet…”where are your trousers?  How about these?  You wear these trousers?”  But don’t let it fool you.  He isn’t keen for me to get up as much as he is keen for breakfast.

I’m not an intensely political person.  I’m interested in someone who is willing to lead.  I liked Clinton and I even liked Bush for the first year or so.  My reasoning was besides Clinton (who had served his two terms) the only other person in the election I would have been happy with leading America through Sept 11 was Bush.  Clearly that mandate went a bit too far and became a personal vendetta but you live and learn.  I also liked Tony Blair…he had charisma.   However, I am getting increasingly annoyed at Mr G Brown.  Perhaps not him directly but at his party’s consistent line to ignore every failing that they’ve engineered and blame it on the Conservatives over 10 years, 15 years or 20 years ago.  I believe that a new party government should get a maximum of 5 years to blame their predecessors…but after that, c’mon guys…give it a rest.

Graham Norton has a great caption during a monologue last year.  He showed a photo of a rather dour G Brown (but frankly, when is he not dour?) and asked the audience “Gordon, why the long face?” to which he answered his own question “is it because you spent 20 years getting your dream job and then discovered you are pretty sh*t at it?”  Stop blaming the other guy.

Political rant over…

I went to London yesterday to do a corporate/portrait shoot.  Great fun and great weather.  Here’s some photos…

Phil — Project Manager Guru — Tuesday May 13 2008 — Millbank, London

We started with a little ray-poor-taj in the office…major decision this one:  steak and kidney or steak and ale

When then went for a few bankers — you know, get a few shots in the bag

Does he not look like Frasier’s dad?

Now we can start to push it a bit.  You wouldn’t believe that this was on a busy street in broad daylight would you

…then we moved on to a more rustic location…that is before we were booted off the site.  All those years of Sunday School — and for what!?

Fortunately the local hotel recognised Phil as a regular (the pub and cafe — clearly) and allowed us to use their stunning loading bay (hey, its as close to garage as I could get)

Now we can spread our wings a bit…do something fancy

He’ll never use this shot…but when I saw it all I could think about was Tony Soprano

The last shot of the day…I really enjoyed it!

Whilst I was walking back to the station I took a couple of other things as well..nothing special and to be honest my mojo was spent…but I still like them.  What I did was look at what everyone else was taking (and man alive, there were so many people down by the eye with D-SLRs — all taking the SAME DAMN SHOT!) and then try to do something different.

Walking on Westminster Bridge

Not really different at all…TBH

Its the Eye…its Whitehall…big deal

My appointment after Phil was cancelled…so I settled for some grub from Ned’s Noodle Box and a 1664 from the offy (heathen I am)

Usually, I wax lyrical about something Evan did then post a bit from the weekend’s wedding.  Whilst I’m still gonna post from the weekend’s wedding I’m going to deviate away from all things Evan to an email I got a few weeks ago from a client.

FYI…Katheryn and David booked me by phone from Australia. 

“When we booked you as our photographer, I was so excited and had complete faith that you would do great job. Well Rob, you did far more than that.  You were not only an absolute pleasure to have around, but you made me feel ease in front of the camera – something I have never felt before and no doubt will ever do again! The photographs are none other than absolutely stunning, we are overwhelmed with how well you have captured the special moments of our day. 

We have been so proud to show everyone the photos. All those who have seen our photographs comment on how amazing they are.  One even asked how we managed to find the best photographer in England!

I remember reading a testimonial on your website when I first ever came across your work. It read “Rarely do people exceed expectation in the way you have!”. I absolutely support this comment; you met our every hope, plus so much more. 

Thank You Rob. We wish you the best of luck for the future and will continue to enjoy reading the blog and watching Evan grow!”

If you want to see more of Katheryn and David go here or here

Cara and Derek — Saturday 10 May, 2008 — Fleet and Blubeckers (Odiham)

You can’t say much to add to this…can you?

A different view, seconds later

BTW…this is Cara and Derek’s daughter

Bucks the trend of a devil in a blue dress I suppose

Fortunately Cara wasn’t injured during this minor gymnastic incident

For those wondering…yes, this was entirely intentional.  I love wrap around light

Mum puts on the finishing touches…don’t ask who buttoned up the dress (ahem!)

A little stairway, bridal art

Another sign that summer is here!  Its Pimms o’clock!

Not the greatest shot in the world…but you can’t buy emotion like that…especially from the groom

Dad asks one last time…no chance you becoming a United fan?

This was one of those unforgettable moments.  6 year old Kia reads ‘What colour is love’.  She put many
adult readers to shame with her poise and confidence

“C’mon mum, digging around in this sporran is harder than it looks” — Jai, the ring bearer

At this point I started to get a little concerned.  That’s a bit too Chucky for my taste.

I don’t care its a brilliant sunny day.  We’re going indoors ’cause that’s where the good light is

Derek never balked when I said “give’r the Derek love”

Everyone needs a little cliché in their lives

Sadly Ladies, I nearly solved the mystery

Damn….it is CHUCKY!

How to get this shot in 3 easy steps.  1) notice Bride has left the room
2) assume she can only be in one place … the loo
3) loiter until she returns

I took one for the team and stood behind the inflatable goal

Ronaldo (or should I say Drogba)…eat your heart out!

Gran ponders the right time to call the next General Election

Dad, ironically, was telling a story about Sandy Balls —
and before your dirty side takes over, Google it…its in Hampshire.

Derek knows what’s coming next

When Chucky entered the room, Cara decided she couldn’t watch

Out of Focus and blurry…but who cares.  It works!

Derek reprises his dungeon masters role on a BAFTA awarded (or was that nominated) children’s show from the 90s

AND THREE FROM Darren — the boy wonder

Offering the opposite of great light….great silhouettes

This is such a ‘Portrait Prize’ type of shot

He keeps doing this but swears he doesn’t know how…b****cks

And…for the record…this is Darren

He’s 3 and he knows his D-I-S-C-O.  Thanks to our Fisher-Price Disco CD for kids Evan is a dab hand at singing along to favourites such as Celebration (gotta love Kool and the Gang), We Are Family and perhaps my favourite ‘Do The Hustle’…which all you hear is a single, hushed whisper from the backseat “do the hustle” then endless laughter.  However, I was most disturbed when Farmer Jacky had a Dog and DISCO was his name-o.  Surely that’s supposed to be Bingo.

Uncle Paul reads the Smartest Giant in Town

Getting his words a bit wrong, Evan doesn’t fail to notice

Spu-lash!

More concentration

When I get bigger!

Bob would be so proud!

After taking some flack for my car park engagements, I decided to recreate the experience

Awww…trouble comes in sweet packages

A day out in Southsea

Easy Rider

Always watch where you’re going…or not

Riding out of the loos…yes, honest

Learning how NOT to ride a swing