Brighton, Canvey Island, Unfair?

I'm not trying to be deliberately unfair by posting colour photographs of Brighton, taken on a lovely sunny day at the same time as black and white ones of Canvey Island taken on a miserable wet day, but sometimes ideas just stick in your head.

I went over to Brighton last Tuesday to have a look at the latest wedding albums at the South West Photo Mounts roadshow, so I took the opportunity to grab a few photographs around Brighton Marina, nothing terribly exciting as I was a bit pushed for time, just some general views - you never know when another stock photo of Roedean School or boats in a harbour will come in useful...
 

 

Then on Thursday I had a meeting in Essex with a potential client.  Having had a far better journey than I expected and a good hour to spare, I decided to find somewhere interesting to look at and ended up in Canvey Island, a decision driven more by traffic queues to anywhere else than any long held desperate desire. 

I know nothing about Canvey Island other than it's a bit of an Essex holiday destination, so I was sort of expecting something along the lines of "Brighton on Thames Estuary"...  possibly a bit flatter, they don't have the advantage of the South Downs after all... maybe not the architecture, you can't put up a Royal Pavilion everywhere, we'd be overrun with them!  

What I didn't expect was what must be the world's largest caravan park, overlooking an oil terminal, and a concrete sea wall...  that seems to be about it.

 

The funny thing is that I actually prefer the shots of Canvey Island, it has a sort of bleak cool that I find quite interesting.   What has really stuck in my head is the idea of doing this the other way round, postcard type shots of Canvey contrasted against rather more grim shots of Brighton.  Finding the time is another matter though...

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Landscape Photography

Kimberley and Kieran's Wedding at the Cavendish Hotel and Eastbourne Register Office

To keep going with a grooms in uniform theme, last Friday saw the Kimberley and Kieran's wedding at Eastbourne Register Office and the Cavendish Hotel.  Kieran is in the Army and is currently based in Germany, so once again we had another bride going it alone with all the preparations - although with lots of help from Mum of course. 

I picked Kimberley up at midday and gave her a lift to Beauty Basics to have her makeup done (she looked stunning) and then back to the Travelodge to finish getting ready. 

Kimberley and Kieran had a lovely wedding ceremony at Eastbourne Register Office in the Town Hall, which is one of Eastbourne's most impressive buildings.

We had a couple of minutes for photographs on the seafront by the bandstand, but the wind was absolutely freezing, so we didn't stay long before quickly scampering into the Cavendish Hotel for their reception.

The formal group photographs are finished, now it's time to loosen the collar:

Being right on the seafront, the Cavendish Hotel is one of Eastbourne's most popular wedding venues and is beautifully decorated - I often arrange to meet clients there as it is a great place to look through wedding albums over a coffee.
 

 

Very cool laser effect at the disco:

 

Everyone had a fantastic time at Kimberley and Kieran's wedding and the partying went on well into the night!

You can find out more about ceremonies at Eastbourne Register Office on their website.  If you are interested in having your wedding reception at the Cavendish Hotel, you can find out more details here:  www.cavendishhotel.co.uk

www.mickhouse.co.uk

01323 639404

Tuesday and Gareth's Wedding at Q Vardis, Uxbridge

Tuesday and Gareth had their wedding at Q Vardis, which is a very cool restaurant and nightclub just outside Uxbridge, with a river on one side and a large lake on the other, complete with ducks and swans. Gareth is in the RAF Regiment and was based in Afghanistan in the months leading up to their wedding, which left Tuesday a free hand to make all the decisions.  

Tuesday got ready at her Mum's house, which her Mum had had decorated specially so it looked nice in the photographs and was assisted by her bridesmaids.

  

 

 

 Although it was a very cold day, there was some lovely late afternoon sun around so we took a walk over to the lake for some photographs after the wedding ceremony.

 

We did have rather a lot of excitement when one of the guests managed to set light to her serviette and threw it to the floor.  My first reaction was to take a photo, but I quickly realised that it was about to set light to the tablecloth as well - it really was going for it! So in true superhero fashion I stamped it out instead and toasted the hairs off my leg in the process - hopping round the room yelping in pain rather ruined the superhero look.  Obviously I am too much of a gentleman to point the finger of accusation at anyone, but the next time you are at a wedding be careful who you sit next to...

 

Gareth looking very thoughtful:

Tuesday and Gareth had a fantastic day and were very well looked after by the staff at Q Vardis.  You can find out more about weddings at Q Vardis by visiting their website:  http://www.qvardis.net/

www.mickhouse.com

01323 639404

Alex and Mat's Wedding at Brockhurst School, Berkshire

Rewinding a little bit, Alex and Mat had their wedding at Brockhurst School, near Newbury, Berkshire on Halloween last year.  Although there was a Halloween theme going on later in the day, Alex had decided against doing the whole black cat and cauldron thing for walking down the aisle and instead wore a beautiful lacy white dress with matching white shoes.  She also wore the tiara that her mum had worn on her own wedding day - which I think is lovely!

Alex and Mat are very much into photography themselves and their home is full of photographs from their holiday travels as you can see hanging on the wall here - very good they are too!

 

  

Brockhurst School is a stunning looking Victorian mansion and the Great Hall where the wedding ceremony takes place is overlooked by a gallery, which is ideal for setting up a second camera:

 

 

As well as providing a games room with a whole host of things to do, there was even a Halloween themed dressing up box which resulted in various guests wandering around dressed as vampires,  witches and monsters or appearing to have been stabbed with various nasty looking implements - great fun!  To round things off perfectly a couple of bats even came out after dark for a flutter around.

If you would like to find out more about Brockhurst School (which has a very interesting history), you can visit it's website here:  http://www.brockmarl.org.uk/

www.mickhouse.com

01323 639404

Wedding Photographers in Berkshire

Bushra and Mustafa's London Wedding Photography

I was out doing some landscape photography one evening when my mobile went off. To most people this is a fairly normal occurrence, but to me it was something of a shock. At the time I had some awful thing that lost signal at any excuse and needed to be switched off and on again before it would recover, had a battery life of about twelve hours in warm weather (twenty minutes if it was cold) and a keypad so small that one finger covered most of the keys - we didn't get on very well, although on the plus side it was a nice bright orange colour so it was quite difficult to lose.

On the phone was Bushra, a friend of Asmaa and Amira's whose weddings I had photographed previously (to Francesco and Adam respectively), wanting to know if I was available to cover her wedding as well. A quick check of the diary when I got home and yes, I'm free - brilliant!

It was a pretty overcast and rainy day when I arrived at Bushra's home, although everyone was in high spirits, especially the children:

There was an amazing amount going on, a real party and even a traditional Turkish drummer and trumpeter doing their very best to deafen the entire street. When we left to go to the wedding car about two hundred yards down the road, I discovered that my shoes had gone missing, or more accurately there were so many in the porch that I could not quickly identify which were mine. So I had a rather soggy and painful squelch down the road in socks with the wedding party and the band - bang bang, toot toot, squelch squelch... Nina managed to find my shoes eventually and then there was a mad dash across London in the rush hour (which is better than Brighton in the rush hour) with the heater on full blast trying to dry my feet out.

  

Bushra and Mustafa had their wedding at the Regency Banqueting Suite in Tottenham, watched by something in the region of 400 guests - quite an event!

After Bushra and Mustafa had been led into the venue by the band, we were treated to a fantastic display of traditional Turkish dancing, involving lots of jumping around with drinks balanced on heads, scythes being twirled with scant regard for health and safety (great!) and a lot of very loud music.

 

It was great to see Asmaa, Amira and Adam again, although unfortunately Francesco could not make it. Adam and Amira had brought their little girl along as well and she is gorgeous!

By about 10pm everything was starting to draw to a close, the feet had finally dried out and it was time to start the journey home.

www.mickhouse.com
01323 639404
London Wedding Photographers