Dance Photography

A few weeks ago I was asked to photograph a dance school. Dance has always fascinated me because I'm one of those people who can't. I have all the natural rhythm of a frog in a tumble dryer. My style of dancing has been described as a cross between Mr Bean and the Pink Panther, which might sound a little harsh but I have to admit is fairly accurate. So it's interesting to meet people that have a real talent for it, although some of the warming up exercises they do really make you wince!

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Wedding Photographers in Brighton

Beautiful Demoiselle

From metal giraffes lets go to dragonflies, or rather a damselfly in this case. I don't photograph insects as a rule, it is a specialised area of photography that I'm not really geared up for, but I was out in Ashdown Forest last year and came across a number of these and was determined to get something. As luck would have it I had a Sigma 105mm macro lense in my rucksack, which I normally use for wedding ring and jewellery closeups, but was also ideal for this.

I watched them for a while and they seemed to favour a couple of particular ferns to stop for a rest on every so often, so I mounted the camera on my tripod, focussed on a likely looking leaf and waited. Unfortunately this meant standing knee deep in a rather cold stream for the best part of an hour (with unseen things nibbling at my legs I discovered later). After a short while they ignored me completely and I finally got this shot. Strictly speaking the light is too contrasty to call it a great shot, but I'm quite pleased with it.

From looking at the British Dragonfly website I am pretty sure this is a male Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo), although if anyone knows better please feel free to correct me.

If you would like to know more about dragonflies and damselflies have a look at their website http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/ it's very informative, with a lot of useful information. They should be out again in the near future, so I'm looking forward to having another go at photographing them this year.

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01323 639404

Wedding Photographers in Eastbourne

March of the Metal Giraffes

One Sunday morning couple of weeks ago I went Rochester to see one of my clients from last year to discuss the wedding album they wanted. After the meeting Nina and I went for a drive along the coast, looking for somewhere to have a picnic and found a spot looking over towards the Isle of Sheppey, where I took this photograph. Admittedly it's not the most romantic view in the world, I can't imagine that many nervous boyfriends have chosen this spot to pull a ring out of their pocket and ask the "Big Question" but I do like the shot. It reminds me of a herd of giraffe coming down to the water hole at dusk:

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01323 639404

Wedding Photographers in Lewes

Hillary and Mark's Wedding at Frensham Heights

Hillary and Mark's Wedding at Frensham Heights School was an interesting one, as I had not heard of this venue before. Frensham Heights is an old country mansion near Farnham in Surrey, that is now a day and boarding school and has the most fantastic view towards the south coast.

This was another wedding where Nina was in her wedding planner role and Hillary and Mark chose me as their wedding photographer.

Hillary works at the Tate Modern, which I always love to pop into when I have the chance as you get to see the strangest things. My all time favourite exhibit was a row of someone's toenail clippings on a block of lard - seriously, I almost collapsed laughing, much to the interest of other visitors who probably felt that the display was a damning indictment of the battery farmed christmas tree industry or something.

I digress, so back to the wedding. Hillary and her family are all from Canada, so Nina had planned a mix of Canadian and English touches to the wedding so that everyone felt included. Not knowing much about shoes, I don't know whether these came from England or Canada, but I could see where they had to go:

I loved the hand positions in this one:

An interesting view...

All the flowers were provided by Euphoric Flowers were stunning as always

The ceremony and reception take place in the main hall, which has a very convenient gallery to shoot from.

I was banned from writing anything on the message tree as my sense of humour makes Nina a little nervous at times, everyone else had a go though.

Frensham Heights School is one of the nicest and best organised venues I have come across, if you are getting married in the Farnham area, I strongly recommend that you have a look at their website.

And obviously when it comes to flowers you would be hard pushed to do better than speak to Victoria and Simon at Euphoric Flowers, they are awesome!

Finally, if you haven't been to the Tate Modern you really should. I can't promise toenail clippings on a block of lard, but there will definitely be something there to brighten your day.

www.mickhouse.com

01323 639404

Farnham Wedding Photography

Barcelona

I had a request for stock photographs of Barcelona a few days ago and thought I would share some from at trip there last year.

We met a very nice German chap on the plane who gave us a few recommendations, including one to a fantastic restaurant near the Olympic Stadium with a view over the whole of Barcelona. It really was awesome and the food was amazing.

His other recommendation was to a little local place in the city centre. Cutting our way through the cigar smoke to find a table was interesting, as was the collection of chicken bones scattered liberally across the floor.

Not to be put off, we both ordered paella. This arrived after about ten minutes and the waiter proudly announced "It's real frozen paella you know!". The aluminium trays it arrived in and the fact that you had to use a knife as a chisel to break it into bite sized chunks testified to this. It was more like hard seafood biscuit than paella.

In fairness we probably went to the wrong establishment as every other meal we had was great and we can't wait for a chance to go back.

Mick House Photography
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