I must admit I’ve not attended a seminar for absolutely years !

When my good friends in Warsaw, Whitesmoke studio, said they were arranging a workshop with the lovely and highly talented American photographer Anna Kuperberg from San Francisco I jumped at the chance. And the timing couldn’t have been better, just before the start of a busy wedding season. So as soon as I finished my skiing holiday I literally jumped off one plane and on to another and headed to Warsaw. Here I was joined by around 30 photographers mainly from Poland but also some from overseas including Sweden, Germany, Slovakia and my friend Julie Kim from London.

Below are some favourites from the workshop itself as well as few fun shots taken around Warsaw in the following days. So a big thanks to Whitesmoke who organised this as well as all the attendees and of course Anna. And I learnt some valuable new tips and techniques which I put into immediate effect on Michala and Dave’s wedding a few days ago. This is up next and you’re in for a real treat so watch this space !

OK – here’s the final set before I get bogged down in the wedding season.

As you may have known I photographed Teeks and Nicks wedding in Sydney back in December. We decided to have a family holiday as well, after all its not something you get asked to do very often. So we decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

For the first week we were based in central Sydney in a lovely appartment. The first set of images are obviously taken in the Sydney area particularly around the harbour area as well as Manly Beach, Bondi Beach and Bronte Beach. Once I had photographed the wedding we hired a huge motor home and drove along the coast towards Melbourne. From Melbourne we took The Great Ocean Road as far as Port Campbell and The Twelve Apostles. And then finally back to Melbourne for the last few days before the torturous flight home. As you can see fantastic scenery, wild empty beaches (and roads) and vibrant colours, something we lack here in the UK.  A once in a lifetime trip, certainly one we’ll never forget. Our only regret was that we didn’t spend enough time in Melbourne,  a really vibrant and cosmopolitan city which we preferred to Sydney.

Anyhow here are some more favourites below. Enjoy.

Well, what a great and interesting year 2010 was. Again I had to work with some fantastic couples in the most wonderful settings. One or two new ones spring to mind – Horsted Place and Bluebirds restaurant in the Kings Road, Chelsea and Hagley Hall. And it was good to re visit some of my favourites again – Syon Park, Kelmarsh Hall, Cambridge Cottage, Monkey Island……Wonderful memories !

And inbetween this I managed to grab a short break to visit my good friends and colleagues – Dorota and Michal of Whitesmoke in Warsaw back in August. Great company, photography and food. Thanks guys !

It wasn’t all plain sailing though. Back in November, straight after my penultimate wedding of 2010, we suffered a major burglary with all my camera gear stolen plus some computer gear. Fortunately I had enough time to sort out insurance and get completely new gear in time for my last wedding of the year in Sydney. As for all my wedding images these were still on my hard drives which they did not steal. Even if they had taken this I have them all backed up on dvd’s which are kept securely at another location. And if these are stolen then I can retrieve the high res images which are backed up online. And before I do all this I keep the memory cards in my trouser/jacket pockets until the images are processed. So pretty safe all round.

But then they struck again whilst I was away in Australia ! They say that there is a good chance they will strike again and this proved to be the case. But I had all my gear with me so they only manged to steal 3 computers which are very old and worth hardly anything. Nevertheless it is a set back and a constant worry. But as I type we are having a sophisticated alarm system installed plus a huge safe which will be bolted to the floor. In the meantime all my gear, computers etc… are locked away safely elsewhere.

So it was a great way to finish 2010 with Teeks and Nicks wedding in Sydney. I consider it the ultimate endorsement in my work to place all that trust in me and to fly me to the other side of the world, so many thanks Teeks and Nick. And everything went very smoothly without any hiccups or problems with customs, airlines etc….I’m really delighted with how the images have turned out and will hope to have them ready hopefully by the weekend or early next week so watch this space. We also had a family holiday straight after the wedding and the image above was taken at one of my favourite locations – Manly Beach.

So I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all my clients this year and previous years as well. I consider myself very fortunate to do a job I love and to work with great people in such fantastic locations. So thanks again.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2011.

Neil

Now my holiday begins !

I did Teeks and Nick’s amazing wedding at the weekend – 12 hours on the saturday followed by a couple more on the sunday morning at their brunch party. And then it was back to Sydney to photograph Kate and Ben around the harbour area with the Opera House and Harbour bridge as backdrops. I’m hoping to show these soon if I get time. Tomorrow we’re off to Melbourne via the back roads and will be touring around a bit so may therefore be offline for a while. Anyhow I got some great shots of Kate and Ben despite the Opera House being cordoned off with cranes and barriers everywhere as well as a makeshift stage right in front of the main entrance. This was in preparation for the visit of the world’s most famous (and richest) woman – Oprah Winfrey !

This shot above is one of my favourites so far and sums up Australia very well. Photography is all about expecting the unexpected and being ready for it. This is when you get your best shots. I took this while waiting for Kate and Ben to arrive, saw the aborigine guy and waited for a passer by, ideally a typical looking Aussie, to fill the right hand side. Quite often strong, contrasty light can be a nightmare to work with but here it works very well.

That’s me done for now. I’ve just backed up Teeks and Nick’s photos to a portable hard drive, burnt everything to dvd and have even posted copies back to my studio. Nothing left to chance.

Greetings from down under !

Some of you may know that I’ve travelled to the other side of the world to photograph my last wedding of 2010. This will be at the weekend so I’ve got several days to acclimatise and get over my jet lag. Here are a few images I did earlier today, literally just after arriving. I did’nt hang around for long as I was pretty tired from the flight plus the fact the sun was pretty strong and I’d forgotten my sun block !

I’ll post some more later this week hopefully from Tika and Nick’s engagement session. Enjoy

In between my weddings I managed to squeeze in a short break to visit my good friends Dorota and Michal in Warsaw, who are also known as Whitesmoke

There is some amazing photography coming out of Poland and these 2 are at the cutting edge. The style is different to what we see here in the UK and USA – a bit more grittier, more real life, not as fluffed up.

Although I do like some fluffy photography (I’m a romantic at heart !) its good to see alternatives.

These were all shot on the D700 with one lens, the 50mm. I would have liked wider at times particularly when I was shooting the demo but when traveling I like to be as light as possible. Besides its good to practise with one lens and makes you work and look more.

Warsaw is an interesting city and not as bad as I was lead to believe. Lots of interesting buildings and architecture (some of the Soviet stuff was interesting in particular the Cultural Palace) as well as excellent restaurants and bars. And of course friendly, welcoming people. I couldn’t have had a better welcome, so thanks again Dorota and Michal and hope to see you in London next !

Below are some favourites

Team Whitesmoke – Yo !

Michal with one of his great images

Anyone who is seriously into photography and portraiture in particular must visit the Irving Penn exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar square. I paid a visit yesterday with my colleagues from The Britpack and was not disappointed.

Penn has to be one of my favourite portrait photographers and has been a huge influence on me in the way he creates such graphic compositions (the Marlene Dietrich portrait springs to mind) and the strong use of directional light.Unlike many portrait photographers he did not necessarily have to flatter the subject which he quite often broad lit and shot from a low angle with a wide lens. A perfect recipe to make you look 3 stone heavier ! Anyhow the techniques and presentation he used are still very much relevant 40, 50 years on, even more so in an age of endemic digital mediocrity and gimmickry.

On my way home I noticed a busker under Waterloo Bridge and I took a few shots which are in some way, a nice reminder of what I had just seen.

documentary photographer London

I thought I’d show some images from a recent skiing trip to Austria. This will be my last break now until the late autumn as the wedding season for me starts in the 2nd half of April through to November more or less flat out. So it was great to fit in a short break and at the same time enjoy the most glorious weather (one day reached 26c !). It was also a chance to keep my eyes fresh by shooting some images on my i phone (hipstamatic again !) Below are some favourites, feel free to add any comments

Neil Palmer photographer in berkshire

I’ve always loved the retro look so I was really pleased when a colleague told me about this really cool i phone application – hipstamatic

So I tried this out on a recent trip to London and I love the results and unpredictability of it. Even the most boring looking scene can look interesting. In the 70′s as a child I owned a few crappy soviet, eastern block style cameras and loved to play around with them often processing the film in weird ways. That was the joy of photography and I guess today it has become more and more predictable with camera technology improving at an alarming rate. Its why I see now a lot of professionals (mainly American) who process their images this way as well as the increasing popularity of Lomo and Holga cameras.

Anyway this is a great application which costs a few pounds. In particular I like the square format which in many ways is easier to work with and reminds me of my early days in photography when we used Hasselblads. Below are some more favourites, let me know what you think.

London documentary photographer

Everyone has been moaning about the weather recently. But it does provide all photographers, from keen hobbyists to full time pros, excellent subject matter.

Here are a handful I took during my walk to the studio each day. I’m not one of those photographers who has a camera in their hands 24/7. But I always have my i phone readily to hand which often surprises me by producing some decent images. Don’t worry though – I won’t be using it on a wedding for the time being. Some more can be seen below.

Neil Palmer wedding photographer london