Irina and Andrew's pre-wedding shoot

On Monday I took the train into London to meet Irina and Andrew for their pre-wedding shoot. It was a very changeable day, weatherwise, and we spent much of it dodging the rain. After a visit to the beautiful St. Peter's Italian Church, where they will be married, we took a walk to Lincoln's Inn, where the reception will be held - both stunning locations and will make for some great photographs.

After the rain stopped we took a quick trip into Regent's Park, where Irina fed the squirrels (we also saw a rat but I didn't photograph it!)

Here are some of my favourites from the day:

J3 Pre Wedding Shoot

On a lovely sunny and windy spring morning, I met up with Jayne, James and Jack (a.k.a. J3), for their pre-wedding shoot in Richmond Park. Jayne and James will be married in just four weeks down on the South Coast, and it looks like it's going to be a wonderful affair. Fingers crossed for a clear day!

Here are my favourite shots from today:

Monkey Magic

One of the things I was looking forward to when we went to The Datai, was a meeting with the famous monkeys! Unfortunately, we were on the "wrong" side of the hotel and so whilst most of our friends were receiving daily visits, it took until Day 5 for us to see any monkey action.

We had seen them in the trees and on other balconies, but never on our own. However, one lunchtime we spied one close by. He looked rather cute from afar :
and even played a touch of hide and seek:

However, when he got closer we realised that, just our luck, he was scabby and not very cute after all - possibly an outcast who had had a recent fight, which might suggest why he was on his own:
Now, we had heard about them stealing food if you left your doors open, but thought that we would be ok if we were in the room. Probably our fault for walking around eating when he arrived because suddenly he spied the fruit bowl:
and before we knew it, he helped himself:
salivating at the thought of more banana:

When it seemed that he was starting to make plans for another raid, I tried to shoo him away, but I think he took that as a challenge and started to mock charge me with his teeth bared:
Eventually we got rid of him, and he skipped away to find some new friends:
I guess the lesson learned was to hide the food when he appeared - as with all animals in "public places", once they know food is available they will keep coming back. The situation is only exacerbated by us making it easy for them.

Still, on the whole, they are really cute and this encounter was another tick in the box for me!
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The Frog Blog a.k.a "bom, Bom, BOM ... aah-ee-aa!"

Those who know me well will know that I have a real keen interest in animals and nature . That's really where my serious photography began. Our trip to Malaysia, therefore, treated us to so much more than just wedding photography.

To set the scene, the entrance to the Datai is rather impressive indeed - it's hard to get a good understanding from this small image, but to give you a good idea, the horses are pretty much life sized:
Just beyond those three slim pillars at the end of the path is a lily pond, something like 20 foot square. By day, it's a beautiful green and pink pond, with the occasional dragonfly buzzing by and a few small frogs (see the post for day 1). The beautiful flowers would open and close a various stages of the day:
During the night, however, the place would come alive with frogs! They were everywhere ... up the walls, down the stairs ... and the noise is amazing! Now, don't get me wrong - it's not like they run (hop?) around in packs terrorising the guests - but we were, to all intents and purposes, in a rainforest, and so you have to expect wierd and wonderful things when it comes to the animal life.

Given that I have such a fascination with the wildlife, and many of these amphibians seemed tame enough, and I always had my camera to hand, I figured it would be a great opportunity to get some shots that I would not normally have the chance to shoot.

Strangely enough, many of these little rubbery fellows seemed to have their own characters too ...

The "Standing to Attention" Frog:


The "reminds me of Bagpuss" Frog:


The "free ride home" Frog:


The regular "Rebbit" Frog:


The "talk to the hand" Frog:


The "eyeing up your dinner" Frog:


The "thinks he's Spiderman" Frog:


... and my favourite of all, just because of the gorgeous green-ness:


A truly amazing variety of sizes, colours and characters ... to be able to get so close was just marvellous. A bottle of champagne to anyone who can tell me all the latin names for the different species here !

Tijen & Neal's Wedding - Day 6 - Post Wedding Shoot

With the registration and ceremony now complete and the party over, there is time for everyone to unwind and relax - including me! After the beach party last night, many of us ended up at the bar for a chilled out drink.

This morning it was late breakfasts all round and then straight down to the beach for a snooze and ice cold drinks.

Now that we have some free time and all the official stuff is over, it's great to be able to take some time out for a nice chilled shoot. It doesn't take much to get dressed up again, and the hair and make up are not as important today - with far less to worry about in terms of keeping the dress clean and pristine, we can all relax about location, and get some of the shots that really count.

This afternoon, as the light turned golden, Tijen and Neal brought their wedding attire down to the beach and, with the help of Andrea, Vincent and Regan, donned it all again in the shade of the rainforest canopy. A quick whip-off of the bikini top...



... and we were ready to go.





















Some of our friends were still on the beach and jumped in for a quick shot:

... and back to the pool, for the "finale" ...

The question is: did you guess correctly ?



Yes - she jumped!





A quick cuddle to warm back up again:
... followed by a kiss in front of the hotel entrance, just for the record:

... and a thoughtful 5 minutes at the bar before heading up for a shower, in time for dinner.

Another wonderful shoot under our belts.