Something a little bit different today dear reader, I shot a wedding on Saturday and I am so excited about it that I thought I would share a couple of the images.  The venue was the Garden Station near Langley, Hexham in Northumberland. Being an occasional wedding photographer in Northumberland I love to go to places which are completely different and  this place is so completely unique, it used to be a railway station and now it's a cafe/potting shed/amazing wedding venue.  The wedding I shot was completely outdoors, probably the most laid back wedding I have ever shot in fact.

Let me share with you just a couple of images - 

This was the ceremony, just Dan and Claire, no officiant (they did the legal stuff early in the morning at the nearby registry office) just the two of them saying beautiful words which made tears roll down my cheeks, what a special thing indeed, I actually think there wasn't a dry eye in the house, I don't know about you but when a groom cries I cry, there's something breathtaking about a man over come with emotion because he's giving himself to the one he adores for the rest of his life.

                         

This next image is pure magic, let me talk to you about this image, if you're not a photographer and don't care about the wonder of Fuji then scroll past now but here goes - When I converted to the Fuji X-Pro1 the one thing I missed was off camera flash portraits, especially at weddings, well this weekend with the use of my Canon EX600 RT, a sync lead and a pair of triggers from Ebay I was back in the off camera flash game, of course it means you have to do everything manually but when it comes to off camera flash that's all I've ever done anyway, this was 200iso 1/250 at f8 with the flash at 1/1, shot at around 3 in the afternoon with the 35mm f1.4 on Midsummers day I got to create an evening portrait, something I love doing, 1 top tip though, never look directly at the flash or you'll burn your retinas!

I'm editing this wedding at the moment and I can't wait to share the whole story of Dan and Claires day with you all, it really was the most perfect way to spend a midsummers day.

If you would like to speak to me about shooting your wedding, I only take weddings on an extremely limited basis and book far in advance but do email me and we can have a chat about your magical day.

Alnmouth, a sunny walking afternoon on the Northumbrian Coast

Yesterday afternoon after a lovely photo shoot hubby and I decided to get away from it all for a few hours, it's no secret that I love going up the Northumbrian Coastal Route, it's a gorgeous road which goes through Amble, Warkworth, Alnmouth and Seahouses finally ending at Berwick, there are so many places to stop, nature reserves, beautiful villages and gorgeous sandy beaches, I'd probably say the most beautiful beaches in the country but then I am a little biased!

We drove up to Alnmouth a quaint little seaside village where I'd spent many a happy summers day at the beach as a child.  When you approach Alnmouth from the south you look over the Estuary and see the houses with their pretty painted exteriors, not unlike the coloured houses of Tobermory.

and so a 3K walk along the estuary and beach, here's our afternoon in photographs

yeah someone got wet shorts!

we spent 3 hours just wandering and taking photos and it was bliss, I feel like I had a mini holiday, if you're on the north east coast sometime soon why not get away from it all just for a little while and enjoy Alnmouth!

Chillingham Castle, Birthday day out and a great place for a wedding!

Chillingham Castle in Northumberland claims to be the most haunted castle in the country, so on my daughters 10th birthday there's nowhere else she wanted to go (possibly because she's a wannabe goth).

Now obviously I wasn't going to refuse to go somewhere beautiful as photographers like to take lots of photographs even on their days off, or at least I do anyway!

There are creepy statues all over the garden, like something out of a Dr Who episode I was sort of frightened to turn my back on them!

I have a feeling this lady statue might be glad she can only see her face in that mirror given the sorry repair of the rest of her

 Out of the gate in front of the castle and along a woodland path you come to this beautiful lake, well worth 5 minutes walk.

I have to say that this is probably the creepiest castle I have ever visited, there are cold pockets everywhere (a purported sign of spirits) and the whole place feels, well spooky.  a lot of the castle seems quite ramshackle and like it hasn't been touched for years and I think thats one of it's most charming features.  The Castle is closed on Saturdays as it becomes a wedding venue, this is a venue I want to shoot a wedding at, I think it would be an amazing surrounding if you're a little quirky like me.  Seriously if you are a bride and groom and you're getting married here contact me and I'll give you a 10% discount on your wedding photography package

and of course no blogpost would be complete without the birthday girl herself, this was indoors, no flash and yes this years birthday portrait also contains a wrist cast, something which will hopefully be removed when we go back to the hospital on Thursday.

So, did we see any ghosts?  Well sadly we didn't much to Abigails disapproval, I will tell you that the torchure chamber was probably the most gruesome I've ever seen and yes every now and again it would become suddenly really chilly.

Back tomorrow with another blog of either a recent wedding or more lovely kids portraits from last weekend.