Just had a booking from a wedding couple getting married at the very special Wedding Venue Wotton House, Dorking. This is a marvellous venue for couples and wedding photographers alike. The grounds are vast, from the drive and grounds at the front to the fountain, statues and brickwork in a stunning landscaped garden at the back.

Wedding venue Wotton House, Dorking

Wotton House features 110 elegant guestrooms, many of which overlook the estate’s gardens. All rooms contain a private bathroom, luxury bedding and a blend of classic and modern furnishings.

Nestled among 13 acres of beautifully maintained gardens, Wotton House is a wonderful choice for any business or leisure break to Surrey.

This 4 star hotel is situate 10 minutes from Dorking by car and within easy reach of many of the county’s most popular highlights. These include both Epsom and Ascot racecourses, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Wimbledon.

If you want to take the stress out of wedding photos you really should speak with London wedding photographer David Stubbs. My London wedding photography experience ensures a smooth and happy wedding photography service, giving you exactly what you want. Call me for an informal, get to know you chat on 07976 237 673 today. Alternatively, complete my contact form now.

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The sun was out today and the mood was very positive from everyone, such as bride’s ringing with wedding enquiries to the sweet old couples enjoying the mild weather. I’m checking out some pretty wedding locations this week so I can help wedding couples create some great photographs. One of my favourite hotels is the Bingham Hotel, Petersham Road.

Richmond Park in flower

wedding locations

The area is perfect for leisure

If you want to take the stress out of wedding photos you really should speak with London wedding photographer David Stubbs. My London wedding photography experience ensures a smooth and happy wedding photography service, giving you exactly what you want. Call me for an informal, get to know you chat on 07976 237 673 today. Alternatively, complete my contact form now.

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Are wedding fairs worth while for wedding couples looking for a London wedding photographer and other suppliers? I have exhibited at fairs myself, as a wedding supplier, but are wedding fairs worth while?  I’ve done many. Some have given me several bookings but others have resulted in no bookings at all. I’ve enjoyed this one below at the Richmond Gate hotel and Kingston’s Hotel Antoinette.

Some free goodies

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London wedding photographer

Further to my article last week on what makes for a good London wedding photographer, I’ve been asked for more helpful hints. As an experienced wedding photographer I’ve had many encounters with photographers who have just not been professional; in their photographs they’ve produced or how they presented themselves. I believe that if a couple is giving you the honor of attending their wedding day then the least you can do is be professional. Whether I’m in a registry office in, say Richmond, or at Hampton Court Palace or a beautiful hotel in London, bride and grooms deserve the best.

So, here are more invaluable opinions of some of the world’s best photographers. Take the time to  plan this important part of your wedding day to ensure you have the photos that you will love. London Wedding Photographer David Stubbs

Personality counts with a Photographer

When you are hiring a wedding photographer, don’t hire someone whom you don’t really like on a personal basis! Their photos might be great, but remember that your photographer is going to be a very substantial participant in your wedding day, not only capturing your memories, but becoming a big part of them! So make sure you’re comfortable with their personality. If you find your photographer irritating, abrasive, or if you think their jokes are cheesy, keep looking. You really don’t want to look at your wedding photos, and think “Oh wow, remember the incredibly inappropriate joke the photographer told right before he shot this?” or “That guy got on my nerves – I remember feeling irritated with him as this photo was being taken.” Your day is about your happiness, first and foremost. The most beautiful photo in the world won’t mean as much if your memory of the photography experience sours it! ~ Buffy Goodman, Edmonton, Alberta

Don’t just hire the Photographer your friend recommended

The number one mistake to avoid when hiring a wedding photographer is to listen to everyone else. Your best friend might have loved her photographer, and your cousin probably swears by hers. So you meet with both of them and their pictures seem good enough. But did you like them? Your photographer will be with you all day, so it’s important you get along with them and enjoy their company. Your instincts will tell you a whole lot!
~ Britney Gardner, Turn Loose the Art, Huntington Beach, CA

So if you would like to discuss wedding photography you really must speak with London wedding photographer David Stubbs. My London wedding photography experience ensures a smooth and happy wedding photography service, giving you exactly what you want. Call me for an informal, get to know you chat on 07976 237 673 today. Alternatively, complete my contact form now.

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A cupcake wedding cake

Mmmmn.. Just had my 5th  delicious cupcake in the space of a day! All the fault of Lisa’s cupcakes at the Sweetest Feeling Cupcakes. I was unfortunate enough to be at the stand next to her at the Hotel Anoinettes Wedding Fair yesterday and couldn’t resist devouring cake after cake after cake. Why do people eat traditional wedding cake when the could have a whole range of exciting and light flavours such as Lisa’s?  A  cupcake wedding cake is superior.

 http://www.sweetestfeeling.co.uk/

Which is best?

Many people disagree on the cupcake wedding cake versus cake issue, and I’m here to set the record straight. Cupcakes are, in fact, better than cake. I’m not 100% sure of the reason, but I am totally willing to put some ideas out there as to why this phenomena is accurate. All I know is, when someone offers me a slice of cake, I almost always say, “No thank you, I’m not really a cake person.” But when someone bakes cupcakes, I’m stalking the table like a vulture.

First off, a cupcake wedding cake is an ingenious invention for its size alone. In four bites or less, you have yourself a perfectly frosted, delicious little treat. It’s filling, and yet you can eat a second or third should you choose to.

Besides this, there’s no messy cutting or designated cutter for that matter. Dishes and forks don’t even need to be used. All you really need is a napkin and an appetite.

A cupcake wedding cake are also much harder to mess up. I have made so many lopsided cakes that had to be fixed with frosting than I can remember. Cupcakes, however, rarely come out crooked or mess up – because they’re so little!

What else? Unlike a cake, a cupcake wedding cake can be individually designed to have diverse and beautiful designs on them. If you want to be creative and use food due to turn your frosting different colors, then cupcakes become your blank canvas. If you try to put different colored or flavored frosting on a regular cake, chances are the average person would end up with a messy and odd-looking concoction.

Speaking of flavors, how often do tastes differ in a family of 4, 5 or more? Everyone has their own favorite cupcake flavor and frosting flavor, and almost always goes for the same flavor combination.

This is Childrens Portrait Photography. 

I took these pictures of friend’s sweet girl when we last had warm sun!

When researching techniques, I found  Summer Lyn had some good advice on Childrens Portrait Photography

As a professional photographer who specializes in kids, Summer Lyn has an arsenal of tested, proven, no-doubt-about-it successful techniques, strategies, plans and approaches for getting the best images of her clients’ children.

But when it comes to photographing her own kids…pretty much none of it will work.

“My kids see me every day, so nothing I do or say is new or interesting to them,” Summer says. And make no mistake—being interesting is the first and most important key to getting great pictures.

Fortunately, Summer says it’s the easiest part of her job because it just comes naturally. “Babies, toddlers, older kids—they can see through you if you’re not really interested in them. When people ask me, ‘How do you do it?’ I always tell them, ‘Just get to know the kids. Kids are fun, they’re intriguing. If you get to know them, you’re going to capture them.”

Childrens Portrait Photography

“I always approach with the camera,” Summer says. “I’ll have it in my hands or around my neck when I get out of the car at their house. So it’s never that I’m around the children, getting to know them and then I suddenly pull out this big, black box and put it in front of my face. I have the camera in sight always, so they know its part of me.”

The very fact that there’s a camera in sight can make her interesting to the child. “Part of it is having them want to know about me: ‘What’s this girl all about? What is she doing?’ ”

Childrens Portrait Photography

Even though the camera is in plain sight, she will give the kids some time to get to know her before she starts taking pictures. “I give them that space, that warm-up time to build some trust. Trust has to come first.”

Then there’s timing. “I need to work around the child’s schedule, need to know when the child naps. If she naps at 1:00 and gets up at 2:30, then she can have a quick lunch and she’s ready. She’s not tired, she’s well fed—that’s the basic. The times [for the shoot] are always set up around well-rested, well-fed babies…or else you’re going to get some tantrums.”

http://www.davidstubbs.co.uk/category/childrens-portraits

http://www.familiesonline.co.uk

Endearing Nursery School photography. We are a small company, specialising in nursery age school photography. We give an individual service to each nursery and achieve stunning photographs that reflect the child’s character.

Endearing Nursery School photography

A natural background is set up and soft lighting is used to achieve beautiful photographs. A group picture is often taken at the beginning of the session. This also provides an opportunity for the children to get used to the photographer. The individual portraits follow as the children look on in small groups. We offer a very attentive and thorough service (such as fast delivery).

The usual ordering system is where we offer several different examples of each child. These are printed at 7” x 5” size (prices start at £5.00 for a 6” x 4”picture) that parent’s use to chose which pictures they would like. They may order various sizes, and copies or they can return those prints back to us. These can be black and white. The same prices apply to groups. The completed order forms, the original prints and payment for each child is then placed in the child’s own envelope and left with the staff. This way, there is very little paper work involved by the nursery as orders are contained in their own envelope. 10% of the takings are returned to the school. So for Endearing Nursery School photography;

Please contact us to arrange an appointment to see our work or if you have any queries.

http://www.davidstubbs.co.uk/gallery/nursery

http://www.familiesonline.co.uk

London’s night time photography.

This is taken on the suspension pedestrian bridge from Waterloo station to the Embankment. With a high f-stop setting (f16) the exposure was slow.

London’s night-time photography is exciting and throws up all sorts of challenges.I’ve been exploring capturing these images in the winter nights. I was trying out my new Cannon Eos 5D and found the extra modes that it has, compared to a Nikon of similar grade, tricky to find in the dark. Also, I was even asked to stop taking pictures on the South Bank by security!

A tripod is essential as exposures are long and so camera shake needs to be avoided. I find a mobile tripod, i.e. a light and compact one, essential such as the Gitzo http://www.gitzo.co.uk, tripod. I took the camera in a rucksack so that it wasn’t obvious I was a photographer with expensive equipment on me when I was travelling.

London Bridge, St Pauls and The City

To get the light streams from vehicles, use the bulb setting. When you press the shutter release button the shutter opens and stays open until you release it.  For the river shots, I composed my picture and waited for a boat to pass before taking the picture. An exposure of around 6 seconds was about right. If the shutter is left open too long then unrealistic colours are apparent. I thought the colours and exposure in this shot(without a boat) represented the scene accurately.

The London Eye

This was taken with a small aperture set and a long exposure but not the bulb setting, as I didn’t want the terrific blue glow of the pods to be blurred. A second London landmark always adds to an image. The prolonged aperture has brought the redness in the sky.

Funfair on South Bank

Same settings as above. The figures in the foreground are silhouettes as there was little other light available and I was not going to use flash photography this night. Due to the limits of light, portraits are an even bigger challenge.

For regular information on all kinds of photography, please see my web site news page. I provide tuition as well as advice.

I’m going to be looking at Wedding Venues and Photography opportunities this year as I have been to so many beautiful places and I would like to share my experience.

The first one I’m listing is ;

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/book-and-buy/venue-hire/wedding/marble-hill-house/

It is a distinguished and Italian design inspired house tucked away between Richmond Road and the River Thames. I will post my pictures from previous weddings this week.