A very merry Christmas to all our readers.

Last year we had a little competition to find our favourite wedding picture of 2009. It was such a success that we decided to run it again this year. We have changed the rules a little though.

In 2010 we were privileged to be present at, and photograph the weddings of 34 fabulous couples. We always work as a team. On the day Steven goes with the Bride and Josh goes with the Groom. Steven shoots the portraits and formals and back in the studio, Josh does the processing.

This year we wanted to give all of our couples a chance to win so we have selected images from all 34 weddings. Because we don’t want to compete with each other we have each selected our own favourite pictures from each wedding. So every couple has two chances of winning.

The winner of Steve’s favourites and the winner of Josh’s favourites will each receive a framed wall print of the image of their choice. That’s worth £160 each so we really are feeling the Christmas spirit here.

What we need you to do is to join us on Facebook (if you haven’t already), have a good look through all of the pictures and choose your favourite from Steven’s and your favourite of Josh’s then click “like” for those pictures. We would love to read any comments you would like to make about the images. What is more, and we really are feeling generous at this festive time, we will select, at random, two people who have voted and give them a family portrait, anywhere in mainland UK, and a framed print for free.

The deadline for voting is twelfth night, 6th January at midnight. After that your vote will not be counted, just like X Factor.

Remember, you are not voting for the nicest couple, they will all win that, we would like you to choose, what, in your opinion is the best of Steven’s pictures and the best of Josh’s… and don’t try and set us against each other, we don’t want a father and son dispute at Christmas, that normally occurs naturally.

So, if you haven’t already done so, join our Facebook page here.

Now we are off to London for Christmas.

Christmas gift idea!

If you are stuck for a Christmas present how about a voucher for a studio portrait...and you don't have to go out in the snow to get it.
Go to our portrait site http://www.steventaylorportraits.co.uk/ Click client proofing, type voucher into the password request and the rest is easy.

Christmas Portraits

We know we don't really need to remind you but we can do portraits for Christmas...but you are going to have to hurry. We need to be ready to view your portraits by Monday 13th December to have them in time for Christmas. Have a look at our portrait site. http://www.steventaylorportraits.co.uk Go on hurry up then!

Are you thinking about asking us to photograph your wedding?

It’s that time of year again. We are not busy shooting weddings, only one more to do before the full on season begins again in February but we are extremely busy answering enquires, meeting couples and booking weddings, we’re doing quite a few family portraits for Christmas as well.

Our diary is looking very busy; we have 22 weddings booked for 2011 and 3 for 2012, including the one in Australia. We had one enquiry today for a date we booked on Thursday last week. So, as a good friend of mine used to say, “if you’re not fast, you’re last” (please read that in a Cumbrian accent). What we are saying is if you haven’t sent your enquiry or you are still talking about your budget and whether it is better to have fantastic, lasting memories or chair covers, you will need to start making some decisions because the popular dates (and they’re not all Saturdays) are getting booked.

We love the thanks we get....

So, yesterday, we were busy processing the pictures we did for Beth and Chris last Saturday (we’ll put them on here in a couple of days) when the postman came. He brought a bill from the framers, we’d already paid that so that was all right, and a card and a lovely little parcel of choccies. Both were from Beth and Chris. We knew you were great people when we first met you but you really didn’t have to do that; we would have photographed your wedding for the money alone. Readers of this blog will know how we love things chocolaty and biscuity. Thanks you two we’ll save them until you come to design your album with us. Oh, by the way your piccies are looking fantastic!

So we don't normally do this but.....

Like I said we really don't normally do this, but while I was processing Duncan and Louisa's wedding I found an image that I absolutely love, Steve and I are both thrilled with how this came out. Duncan and Louisa are incredibly photogenic and the good news is we have some more lovely images coming their way! So to Duncan and Louisa congratulations again and we hope you enjoy this very sneaky peaky!

Josh

Nikki simple star

Hello folks,

A little of topic I know but we thought you fine people could help! Nikki is a model from Carlisle who helped us some time back when we were reshooting our portrait portfolio. She is in need of some votes to become the face of simple to promote their new range, we can't think of anyone more deserving so why not take 30 secs and vote for her!

You can do so here

If you can get others to do the same I know Nikki would be really appreciative so post it on your facebook or pop it on twitter! The link you need is http://www.simple.co.uk/simple-stars/x-nikki-x.aspx

Thanks for all your help from Nikki and both Steve and I.

Josh

Kodak Wedding Photographer of the Year Finalist

Keely and Will, the couple whose image was selected for the finals of the Kodak Wedding Photographer of the Year Award, came to see us last Sunday. There were two reasons why they made the trip from Manchester. We presented them with the Kodak digital camera that was their prize for reaching the finals and they brought their finished album.

We don’t see the finished albums these days because they are delivered direct to the customer so it is always exciting when a couple bring the finished article to show us. Will and Keely are delighted with their album and, even though we say so ourselves, it is very beautiful. They have had lots of compliments from their friends and family. Keely told us that the most usual response has been “it really tells the story of the day”. That is our purpose. Of course some portraits and group pictures are important but for us wedding photography is story telling. We are concerned with telling a sympathetic but truthful story of the wedding day. The only way to do that successfully is to observe and not interfere but to look for images that have strong composition, interesting light, moving expressions and that work together to form a powerful narrative. Which is exactly what the picture that got us into the finals of the Kodak Wedding Photographer of the Year awards was all about.



We like to think that even if you were not at the wedding you will be able to understand each event in the album or slideshow without need for explanation.

The MPA, who organize the Kodak awards asked for a picture of the presentation for their magazine and they have sent out the following Press Release:

South Lakes photographer reaches final

Bowness based photographer, Steven Taylor, has been named as one of only five finalists in a prestigious national photography awards.

The 2010 Kodak Wedding Awards are run by The Master Photographers Association (MPA) and Kodak Professional. The awards attracted entries from the cream of Britain’s professional photographers, so to reach the final is a huge accolade for Steven, whose image now goes forward to the final judging in September.

One purpose of the Awards is to raise money for the PACE Centre in Aylesbury, PACE is the MPA’s chosen charity and does invaluable work with children with physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy. Each entry carried a £1 charge, with all the fees being donated to PACE.

Keely and Will Lewis of Manchester, whose wedding was the subject of Steven’s stunning image, have won a Kodak digital camera and will be hoping their picture can go all the way. They stand to win a cool £1,000 if the image is named the overall winner at the glittering Master Photography Awards ceremony, which is held in Birmingham in October. Keely and Will’s wedding was at the Low Wood Hotel in February of this year.

Says Colin Buck, MPA chief executive, “Steven has done extremely well to reach this stage of such a high profile Award. The competition was very tough and to reach the final is a real honour. I’m sure Steven will be looking forward to October to see if he is crowned the overall winner.”

Broadband!

BT have finally fixed our broadband so lots of new posts coming tomorrow! Watch this space!

Josh

Number one!!!

Great news! We are number one on google for "steventaylor chocolate biscuits", We think it may be because of the post below! They are really good biscuits though! Sorry we wont go on about it anymore!

Edit:

We are also number one for "wedding photography "chocolate biscuits" beligian" great stuff! Every little helps!

Chocolate biscuits seal the deal again.

Chocolate biscuits seal the deal again.

Andy and Michelle came to see us on Monday to talk about their wedding next May. We got this E mail from Andy this morning

Hi Steven,

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to you both for making Michelle and myself feel really welcome on Monday (despite us turning up half an hour early!)

We're delighted we've managed to get you for our big day and can't rate your work highly enough.

Kind regards,
Andy.

(Oh, and those biscuits were worth the booking fee alone!)

Andy and Michelle are not the first couple to be seduced by our“choccie” biscuits, if you would like to try them send us an E mail and we will arrange a time to talk about your big day.

Some Favourites from 2010 so far...

Some favourites

Halfway through the year and in a couple of weeks we will have as many weddings left to do before Christmas as we have already done since last Christmas. So, just for fun, we have made a little slideshow of some of our favourites so far. We actually have loads of others, more weddings that we haven’t included. We like them as well but we had to be a bit ruthless when we were selecting. The others were great, these are even greater. Just our opinion.

Turn your speakers up, open to full screen, pour the good stuff and enjoy.

New Sample Albums

New Sample Albums (click on the image to enlarge the picture!)



We were very excited when we unpacked our brand new sample albums. We are huge fans of Jorgensen Albums. Steven has used the Australian albums since they first appeared in the UK around 15 years ago. We’ve needed to update our samples for a while and since we photographed several stunning weddings already this year we thought now the time is right.

In the past we offered a choice of three sizes, 9” square, 12” square and 16”x12” panoramic. We showed those in a choice of Art album or Pro bound. Art albums do not have a protected edge to the page but we liked the flat binding and the hard cover. Pro bound albums have a rounded binding and padded cover but the page edges are protected with tape and metal corners. So, we are delighted with our Styla albums that combine all of the good parts of the other two styles.



We also added two new sizes, 16”x9” Vista and the massive 16” square, we reckon you could fit that one with legs and use it as a coffee table (not really).

All 4 of our new albums are Styla and covered in premium leather, they are gorgeous.


Rebecca and Campbell’s Mayday wedding features in the 12” square Styla.



Gemma and Garth’s romantic day for two is in the 16”x9” Vista.





Peter and Catherine’s typical Lake District Spring day is in the 16”x12”
panoramic.





Steve and Gosia’s London wedding is in the simply huge 16”square Styla.






Even the experienced photographers that we are can’t do justice to these beautiful albums in pictures. All are welcome to come and have a look. We are open by appointment so if you would like to come and see them, you don’t have to be planning a wedding, give us a call on 015394 454 83. The coffee will be hot and the chocolate biscuits Belgian.

Lovely Enquiry

Lovely enquiry

Most people just ask us if we are available and how much we charge. We would like to point out that we like all of your enquiries. This week we had such a lovely enquiry, phone call and Email exchange that we really want to share it.

Amie’s first contact came late on Wednesday evening. In the bit on our contact form that says “Tell us about your wedding” she wrote,

“Hi,
We're sitting on our couch and enjoying the music as we look at the pictures: Love the music, and love the photographs!

Our wedding will be a mix of cultures and traditions as I'm Indian and my fiancé is Polish, and our wedding will be a Church ceremony:
Since our families are abroad (and far away), only the closest will attend, and we want the day to be personal, and an opportunity for our families to get to know each other.

Please send me a price list (I'm hoping now that you're free 'and' not way over our budget!!!) and we'll get back to you soon!

Thanks, and look forward to hearing from you.

Warm regards,
Amie

p.s. Goodnight!”

Following our response and attached PDF of our price brochure. Amie phoned and we chatted about the wedding. We talked about hours and albums and Polish traditions. The conversation ended with Steven suggesting we meet. Then we got this Email,

Hi Steven,

Lovely speaking to you.

Had another look at the pictures, and I really like them. It just feels to me like you've captured couples in their very special moments, moments one remembers but doesn’t always have in tangible form.
And this is what I'd love for my wedding. We're going to have our families meeting for the first time; I imagine there will be excitement, apprehension, tears and laughter.... and I'd love to have these moments forever, to show our children and to look back and be nostalgic on when I'm an old, old woman and can't wear my heels anymore!!!

So...can we come and meet with you?

We get a lot of lovely comments from the couples and their guests we photograph but we haven’t made any photographs for Amie yet. We always set out to achieve what Amie has observed in our work and it is a pleasure when we are made aware that somebody who has no connection to the subjects of our photographs is able to pick up on their sentiment.

Amie and Marcin came to the studio to meet us this morning, it is clear that photography is very important to them both. After some careful thinking about hours and albums Amie and Marcin booked us for 17th March next year.

We are very much looking forward to your wedding with its mix of cultures.

Great Responses

Great responses.

Spurred on by our success in the Kodak Wedding Photographer of the Year awards we picked out some pictures for entering into the next round. We E mailed the couples involved and gave them the numbers of the images we want to enter. Each image has to have a signed form attached so we needed permission from the customers.

We got some great responses. Everybody said yes and they all wished us luck. We also got some more thanks and compliments even from those who had expressed their thanks before. We thought we would just like to share this one from Rebecca and Campbell, we photographed their wedding on 1st May.

Hi Steven

Wow that sounds amazing! We would love you to win! You captured our day so perfectly and I did not even know I had dimples till I looked at the snaps you had taken of our special day! We have had so so many complements on our photos, and have been asked for your web address to friends/colleagues who are getting married. All 9 are great to be entered however I felt you should know that people have been blown away by your photos and you should be informed of the amazing comments we have had regarding a selected few!

Photos myself and others commented upon the most are –


263 - Very poignant. Campbell protecting me from the storm and through life now we are married! (My favourite)





271/272 - very romantic


284 - Wow - how did he take that? whos your photographer can I have his number!!


414 - Captured true emotion!


476 - Snapped perfectly! (You even managed to capture this perfect moment)


496 -Simply Beautiful


I love them all! I really would love you to win!

Kind Regards

Rebecca

Truly International Wedding Photography

Truly International Wedding Photography

We get to go all over the UK photographing weddings. Very occasionally we are asked to work in other parts of Europe. Svetlana and Martin are taking us to Tuscany to photograph their wedding next year and we are talking to another couple about a European city wedding as well, can’t give any more details yet.

On Sunday we had a meeting with Gemma and Garth. Remember their story? We were their photographers, and witnesses for their romantic Lake District wedding day on 26th May. Gemma and Garth are from Australia but live in London. They are moving back to Brisbane next year and it was always their intention to have a Vow renewal ceremony in Brisbane on the 2nd anniversary of their wedding. We made a joke at the end of our blog entry that we were available. Gemma and Garth were so pleased with the pictures we made for them last time that they… I don’t need to say any more do I?

We signed the contracts on Sunday. I don’t know if there are too many other UK wedding photographers getting booked for weddings in Australia but we take it as a very great compliment and endorsement to the quality of our work.

We are very excited.

Cumbria almost sweeps the board.

Cumbria almost sweeps the board.



We stopped entering awards in 2005. That year finished with one of Steven’s pictures making the exhibition and publication of the Swcheppes Portrait awards at the National Portrait Gallery. That was a pretty good achievement. There were over 6,000 entries and the most talented photographers in the world hotly contest the highly prestigious award.

We actually stopped entering because, with the advent of digital photography, entry requirements changed and as we were still shooting film at the time we were not meeting a lot of the requirements. Anyway as we are now fully digital we thought it was time to start entering awards again. We tentatively sent 4 images in to the first round of the Kodak Wedding Photographer of the year awards, Steven has won that before so we thought that would be a good one to start with.

So on Friday afternoon I got a call on my mobile. It was from our friend and most fierce competitor, Steve Yates from Keswick. “Congratulations mate, you’ve got a picture in the final of the Kodaks.” Apparently The MPA put the winning images on their site before they inform the winners. So, and here’s the best bit, there were over 4,000 entries from all over the UK and the judges only select 5 pictures to go forward, we have one and Steve Yates of Derwent Photography got 3 of them. Cumbria nearly sweeps the board.

We want to, publicly congratulate Steve, that is a phenomenal achievement, and Will and Keely, our couple who win a digital camera from Kodak and go forward to the final with the potential of winning themselves £1000. The next round of judging is in September and we will be entering a lot more with the intention of getting more through than Steve this time.

What a great weekend.

What a great weekend.

We had a good weekend apart from photographing the wedding of Rachel and Gavin, we will blog that during the week, we had two lots of good news. I am going to make two posts in the order they happened.

Oh what a perfect day...

Oh What a Perfect Day…

Remember Steve and Gosia? Their wedding was in London on 17th April. Our blog entry about them was spotted by Gavin Burrell, editor of Perfect Day magazine and like us Gavin fell for them straight away. So, their wedding and our pictures have two double page spreads and a back cover in Perfect Wedding’s “Real-Life Weddings” supplement. In your newsagents now. It’s only the 2nd ever issue of “Perfect Day” so we wish Gavin and his team luck and good wishes.

Thank you....

Thank you…


Getting paid for our work is pretty important but we love it when get a thank you card.

We got one today from Peter and Catherine whose wedding we shot on 10th April, they said,

Dear Steven and Josh


A quick note of thanks for the wonderful photos of our wedding.
We had high expectations after seeing your web site and we were not disappointed! We have had lots of compliments about the high quality of the photographs and we are delighted to have them as permanent reminders of our perfect day. We can’t wait to see the album.

Best wishes

Peter and Catherine

London sunshine, 17th April

Steve and Gosia had a beautiful day for their wedding in Islington and South Kensington.

As is often the case nowadays I met up with the Groom and Steven went to the Bride. This time though we all came back together at Steve and Gosia’s apartment.

Gosia’s Dad traveled from Poland over night and because of the ash cloud had to hitch a lift with a courier’s van. He was tired by the trip but as Steven said you would go to those lengths to be at your daughter’s wedding wouldn’t you?

Steve and Gosia traveled to the Church together with me in the back seat of their Fiat 500 while Steven and Gosia’s parents got there by cab. It wasn’t until we had finished work and were about to get on the train at South Kensington Station I realised I still had the keys to the Fiat 500 in my pocket. So I had to hotfoot it back to the reception venue.

We always like working in London, it’s very different to the Lakes and it’s good to know that we are equally at home with London weddings as we are with Lake District weddings.

We hope, Steve and Gosia, you managed to find a way to get to your honeymoon and the ash cloud hasn’t spoilt your holiday, there was no way it was going to spoil your lovely wedding day.


Josh

Peter and Catherine, 10th April 2010.

Peter and Catherine live and work in London but both of their families have strong associations with The Lake District. So when they thought about where they would tie the knot The Lakes shot to the fore. Our weather cannot be predicted but Peter and Catherine couldn’t have wished for better, it was a glorious day for their Lake District wedding.

The service was at Hawkshead Church followed by a reception at Belmount Hall. We are back at Belmount Hall on 1st May for Rebecca and Campbell’s wedding.

Congratulations Peter and Catherine and we hope you don’t have too many difficulties with your flights home.