Snowy Landscape Photography on the South Downs

Hopefully I'll be doing Ben Nevis with some friends in a in a few weeks time, so to start getting the legs in order and shoot a few snowy landscapes I took a hike up over the downs the other day. The depth of snow across the top was quite surprising, well past my knees in places and I somehow crossed Beachy Head Road without realising until I noticed that I was heading downhill and shouldn't be - visibility was pretty poor. There was nobody around and going past the empty pub and Countryside Visitor Centre felt rather like featuring in a post-apocalyptic horror movie, I almost expected to hear the growls of starving feral dogs at any moment. The weather opened up quite a bit around Belle Toute and I managed to get a couple of good shots:

  

I finally saw people when I reached Birling Gap, a film crew - a spooky coincidence given my earlier thoughts! They were making a black comedy called 'The Edge', which is set in a hotel with all sorts of odd happenings - I will look out for it.

 

The weather really started to close in on the way back from East Dean and I had to resort to map and compass - can't remember the last time I did this on the Downs. Getting lost wasn't the issue (just head East), but I was keen to avoid taking a route that lost me a lot of height, just to go back up again. I managed to get a position fix before visibility dropped to about twenty metres and spent the next couple of hours in a world of white navigating off the compass about 30 feet at a go.

I came up onto Beachy Brow about 50 metres from where I'd planned, which was a pretty good shot under the circumstances and trudged the last mile home - downhill all the way! The depth of snow had made for quite tough going, but it was a great day and having the Downs all to yourself is a rare event these days.

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01323 639404
Sussex Landscape Photographer

Tamsin and Andrew's Wedding at the Ramada Ascot Hotel, Berkshire

You know that you are at an extremely well run wedding venue when the first thing the reception staff say to you is "Good morning Mr House, the Groom is currently relaxing in the spa pool, would you like me to take you down there for a photo opportunity?" Now that is seriously on the ball!

Tamsin and Andrew had their wedding at the Ramada Ascot Hotel, which is a beautiful 18th century manor house in Berkshire not far from Legoland (possible use as a creche?). The bridal suite that Tamsin used to get ready is lovely and overlooks the hotel grounds with it's ornamental pond.

Andrew and his party had a slightly smaller, but equally lovely suite at the other end of the hotel. All the men arrived within a couple of minutes of us and while I was busy getting covering the groom getting ready I noticed that Nina had been roped into pinning on button holes and straightening ties!

You can use a window in the bridal suite to do the group photographs from, although my favourite is this slightly surreal shot of the bride coming out through the restaurant doors directly below:

I love this photograph of Tamsin (who is incredibly natural in front of the camera). It was taken just after sunset and she is illuminated by a floodlight that lights up one of the trees in the grounds:

The Ramada Ascot is an excellent wedding venue, but what really sets it apart in my mind is Robert, the Event Manager. He seemed to be everywhere at once, but completely unobtrusive and unflappable, always in control of events without appearing controlling, he helped organise the group shots, kept me briefed well in advance of what was happening and most importantly made the day feel like it was very personal to Tamsin and Andrew. If you are interested in having your wedding at the Ramada Ascot (and you will be in very good hands) you can find more information on their Website.

www.mickhouse.com
01323 639404
Berkshire Wedding Photographers

Sandy and Andy's Wedding at the Windsor Hotel, Worthing

This a particularly painful wedding to photograph as I knew that as soon as it was over Andy and Sandy were jetting off for a three week honeymoon touring around New Zealand. I've always wanted to go there and instead I would be stuck in England, working my fingers to the bone over a hot keyboard. Still, you can't begrudge Andy and Sandy (OK, perhaps a bit) as they are such a lovely couple to work with. They had their wedding at the Windsor Hotel in Worthing, which is at the eastern end of the town near the seafront.

Sandy got ready at the hotel ably assisted by her bridesmaids, having stayed there the night before, with Andy and his party arriving at midday to get ready for the wedding.

Although it's quite a small wedding venue, the Windsor Hotel has some interesting gardens with lots of little corners for getting photographs in. It's also possible to get onto the flat roof of the restaurant which overlooks the gardens so that you can do the group photographs from above.

Fascinated by the streamers from the party poppers:

Andy and Sandy had a lovely relaxed wedding surrounded by family and friends and were very well looked after by the Windsor staff. Your can find out more about the Windsor Hotel on their website: www.thewindsor.co.uk

www.mickhouse.com

01323 639404
Wedding Photographers in Worthing

Annual Report Photography

I'm just in the process of archiving off my hard drives and came across this project from early last year. The Woodland Trust had just bought Brede High Woods and commissioned me to photograph it for their annual report. Although it's quite large, Brede is not an easy place to photograph, there are only a couple of places where you can get any sort of overview and even then only as a fairly thin ribbon of trees (I did suggest a helicopter but sadly it wasn't within their budget). With a two week deadline it wasn't possibly to be too choosy about the weather, so a lot of time was spent trudging round the woods in the rain, covered in mud, looking for locations - great fun!

As a bonus I woke one morning a couple of days before the deadline to discover that a bigger than expected pile of snow had been deposited over the South East. It made for a slightly hairy drive to get over to Brede (we're not exactly used to driving in snow here), but you can't turn down an opportunity like that.

The snow didn't last long, the sun came out at about 9.30 and it had pretty much all melted away by midday, but it was lovely while it lasted.

Despite a lot of rain and grey skies over the two weeks there were a few periods when the weather and light were fantastic. In the end the photo's were used on a double page centre spread in their annual report and also on their annual fund-raising campaign brochure, a very nice result for one of my favourite projects.

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01323 639404

Commercial Photographers in Sussex

Jodie and Mat's Wedding at Easthampstead Park, Wokinghham

I was doing a wedding fair a little over a year ago and had just finished talking with a bride (who's wedding I'm covering in a couple of weeks) when Nina grabbed my arm and said "You'd better come and meet Jodie - she's just booked you", which was a very pleasant surprise.

Jodie and Mat had their wedding at Easthampstead Park, which is a very attractive wedding venue in Wokingham. I hadn't actually met Mat until the day of the wedding as he couldn't make it to the wedding fair, but he is very easy to get on with and has a wicked sense of humour.

At the venue I bumped into a very nice photographer called Mark Lawrence who was running a photo course there that day with about twenty students. They were very well behaved and kept away from the wedding, although it was funny to see Mark every so often, looking like the Pied Piper (with better accessories) leading his troupe the other way along a corridor, loaded down with equipment or disappearing into the shrubbery brandishing reflectors.

Believe it or not Jodie kept telling me how she wasn't very "girly" and felt uncomfortable not to be wearing jeans and riding boots. Now I have no doubt that Jodie looks awesome in jeans and riding boots (and if I ever have to do a shoot for "Horse and Hound" I'll book Jodie to model for it), but there is no way under the sun that anyone will ever convince me that she does not look girly:

How can you round off a perfect wedding day? Fireworks! Nina wouldn't agree with this as she hates them and hid inside as far away as possible, but Jodie and Mat had arranged fabulous fireworks display that went on for ages:

Easthampstead Park is a lovely wedding venue with plenty of space to accommodate group photo's inside if the weather isn't too good and extensive grounds to explore if the sun is out. You can find more information on their website: www.eastpark.co.uk

Mark's photography course looks like it is very informative and great fun, so if you want to brush up on your photography skills you can contact him via his website: www.marklawrencephotography.co.uk

www.mickhouse.com

01323 639404

Wedding Photographers in Berkshire