Jo & Paul's Wedding

 

 

A great ending to a great season

www.lewisandschofield.co.uk

 

Well, It's that time of year again where we say goodbye to the sun and embrace the Autumn for the wedding of Jo & Paul, And what a great wedding it turned out to be.

 

 

Set in one of my favourite locations, christchurch harbour Hotel http://www.christchurch-harbour-hotel.co.uk/ for the prep, Then the stunning christchurch Priory http://www.christchurchpriory.org/ for the service then down to the Boat House http://www.boathouse.co.uk/ for the reception.

 

 

Now..Dave and I usually shoot together all the time but on occasions we do split up when the prep shots involve large groups of people, so Today Dave scooted over to the grooms house while I get to shoot the girls at the Harbour Hotel.

 

 

The one thing I love is shooting the prep shots, you can always bank on getting great images  especially when there's a large crowd and plenty of alcohol involved, in this case black sambuca..Ive never seen it before but I'm sure it contributed to my enlightenment of the wedding party's special Magic Pants ..long story....

 

So with the girls nicely merry and a few shots on the roof of the hotel (via a window) we all headed off to the Priory where a great ceremony took place (The Vicar was a star permitting us to photograph anyware we wanted) We love that. And the Bride & Groom looked fabulous.

 

Then a quick walk up to the castle for a few shots, carefully co ordinated by the bridesmaid (giving us the odd concerned look) maybe thinking it was a trash the dress shoot .. No fear its just Dave and I getting enthusiastic...as usual.

 

 

Then off to the Boathouse for the reception, a few bonkers shots on the quay and finishing with the first dance made a fab day for the married couple, leaving us thinking "We are incredibly lucky to do this job for a living"

 

Here's to the next season

 

Seb & Dave X

 



Johnny & Elizabeth's Wedding

 

 

A day at Chettle house

So its nearing the end of our wedding season for another year, and the rain and wind managed to keep away for the wedding of Johnny and Elizabeth at the ultra-stunning location of Chettle House just on the outskirts of Blandford, Dorset http://www.chettlehouse.co.uk/

A lovely group of people who didn’t mind having their photograph taken made for an excellent wedding day

As most people who work in the wedding photography business know, certain things can pop up and change the course of plans for the day, today’s challenge being the church and ceremony shots.

Now its pretty rare that this happens but its always a good plan to be ready for if or when the vicar decides not to let you take photographs in his church.

Today was such a day,

So what do you do?

Be nice stay positive and reason with him. And after some reluctance we were allowed to shoot from the back of the church. This is not the ideal place but with experience you can get some great long shots and still document the ceremony from a distance.

So then we headed off to Chettle house for the reception.

The one thing the house has that immediately struck us was the fabulous gallery in the main hall which was crying out for us to use for the group shot.

So after a relatively painless 10mins of corralling the guests upstairs and several flash heads strategically placed around the hall, we finally got the group shot of around 40 family and guests.

A short time later we met the owner of the house, (who I have to say was a really nice lady and had no problems with Dave and I sprawling our camera gear around the hall) it dawned on us that the gallery can only hold up to 8 people (GULP)...smile, and look innocent... then smugly think... we got the shot. Happy days. (I think the owner saw the lighter side of it).

As a special surprise to Elizabeth Johnny had brought their dog to the reception which made for an emotional bond between the 3 and of course another photo opportunity for us.

The speeches were carried out under military precision by the father of the bride and the best man, with a bottle of WORM Tequila taking the limelight.. No one daring to give it a go.

Then the first dance sealing an end to another damn fine wedding. 

Here’s to the bride & Groom

Seb & Dave

 

 

 

Bournemouth Airshow Day 1

Thursday afternoon down the beach

Well its that time of year again, The invaders have landed. 4 days of no parking no cycling and a mile long queue for the chippie

Yes folks this years Bournemouth Air Show has arrived witha Bang.

http://bournemouthair.co.uk/ 

Although the crowd and parking hassle will upset most locals, I personally love the Air show weekend. To be honest we live in such a fantastic place, 4 days out of our lives is a drop in the ocean to what we get all year round. So I say embrace the weekend get out your deckchair and watch some top class pilots shaking their Thang.

Im not going to waffle on with this post, but Thursdays Red Arrows show was the best I have seen yet, Incredible skills and a joy to watch.. get on down there this weekend and see for yourselves. meanwhile here are a few quick shots from the afternoon.

Seb x

BOOMTOWN FAIR WEEKEND

First photography job for safeconcerts.com

OK, so anyone knowing me or has read our blog will know that other than shooting weddings for a living I have a massive interest and love for Concert photography, in fact anything that involves music, stage lighting, crowds and utter chaos ..if I can get the gig I'll be there.

Luckily, by chance, I was asked to shoot Boomtown Festival for a great music photography and ticket sales company called http://www.safeconcerts.com/ who take a lot of pride in getting their images right, so I was more than grateful when this opportunity came up.

This is really the first big event I have ever photographed and I must admit I found it much the same as shooting a long wedding - constant lighting changes, having to be in different places at the same time and the hundreds of people asking to have their images taken. I indeed felt quite at home with it.

The venue itself is Mahooossive. It's set within the valley of Winchesters Matterly bowl, which for some could pose a problem from getting from one place to another in a hurry ..but if you like hills and lots of walking its great fun. You could however take the Magic carpet (if you're a lazy F...er)

Boomtown http://www.boomtownfair.co.uk/ as the name suggests is a fictional town that appears for 4 days a year (a bit like Brigadoon) and the effort that goes into dressing the place is incredible. The bizarre, wonderful, strange and downright outrageous can be found lurking in the darkest corners of towns different areas and to be honest is a photographers paradise.

Although quite overwhelming, if you plan your weekend well and don't end up pissed face down in an ants nest (Yes I did see this happen), then you should be able to get to most of the acts around the site with no problem.

The site has many stages but what stood out for me was the Lions Den stage. Whether you are into Reggae or not this place was awesome, straight out of some weird Aztec dwelling. This place looks like it has been here for thousands of years, it's bloody incredible.

The site has an amazing amount of music to suit everyone.. except I didn't see any folk (not my bag) but I did however see a weird chap wearing a hat made of porridge.

Over the weekend I managed to cover a fair amount which can be viewed here http://www.safeconcerts.com/photos/boomtown-fair/2013/

But here's a few shots for my blog you may like to see.

An awesome weekend with my cameras and live music, cant wait for the next one guys.

Seb X

RNLI CHARITY RAFT RACE

MUDEFORD RNLI CHARITY DAY

Loads of people made their way down to Mudeford Quay this afternoon to watch and participate in the yearly RNLI Charity day. 

http://mudefordlifeboatfunday.org/ 

The weather was awesome, the quay was packed and the wave craft were spectacular.

People crowded on both sides of the quay to witness the dedicated skills of the contestants who had clearly spent ages knocking up weird and wonderful vessels.

As the wind and tide were problematic this years race started at the Black house and finished towards the mouth of the quay.

This of course made no difference to the competitors who  seemed to care more about dunking and egging their fellow competition, of course all done in good spirit.

Anyone wishing to donate to the RNLI ( A mega worthy cause) you can follow this link http://rnli.org/howtosupportus/howweuseyourmoney/Pages/how-you-helped-last-year.aspx

So, here are a few shots from this afternoon

CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW

Seb x

A FEW OF MY CONCERT IMAGES

FOR THE LOVE OF GIG PHOTOGRAPHY

Well its been a while since I last posted anything on here so I have spent the day thinking what do I really enjoy, What really makes me smile, What really gives me goosebumps and leaves me in a state of euphoria , well it could be surfing, biking, playing drums, being lucky enough to have a job that lets me be part of and record peoples special day. Of course I truly love all these things but what I really love is Concert photography.

 I'm pretty sure it all stems from when I saw Iron Maiden in 1986 at Sheffield city hall which in turn led to me spending the last 25 years playing drums and spending most of my time attending hundreds if not thousands of gigs around the UK and Europe. But its only recently that I have been able to get the opportunity to record such events photographically. 

I have to admit it has to be one of the most difficult  and sometimes annoying things to get into mainly as getting press passes are non existent especially if you don't work for a music mag but when you manage to finally photograph a band / artist you really like its damn awesome.

I think being a wedding photographer helps as we are used to shooting in difficult and tricky lighting situations and being able to pull the ISO past 2500 on the new 5Dmk3 without major noise issues really makes a massive difference.

Well I wont ramble on, Here's a few shots from last year/ this year I really like  With a bit of luck  I might get to shoot some more shortly. 

Seb x

Christchurch Music Festival.

Christchurch Music Festival

http://lewisandschofieldphotography.co.uk/

http://sebastianschofieldphotography.com/?page_id=68

I decided to escape the crowded beach and the Tennis finals and head down for the afternoon to the music festival at Christchurch.

I recommend anyone thinking of a great day out to check out this little festival. Its all run by volunteers and all proceeds go to the Mayors charity. The Sunday is free (A rarity these days) and is a great place to take the kids, In fact its a great introduction to live music.

This festival has been growing for the past number of years and this year was no exception. some great local bands took to the stage throughout the day which included the Mother Ukers http://www.motherukers.com/

who remind me of the great Hayseed Dixie, cruising through their own take on Cameo's word up and nailing it with Ant music.

They were followed by http://www.unsigned.com/sirpico Now.. as many people know I'm known for my outspoken view on cover bands. and I will stick to my guns and admit I prefer Original music, but I was really impressed with these guys. A real tight unit and strong vocals kicking out obscure covers made me smile. they are defo worth keeping an eye on.

 I unfortunately missed the acts in the morning but I finally managed to catch  The Maggot http://www.ladywinwoodsmaggot.co.uk/ headlining at the end of a very hot day. I haven't seen these guys for a while and as usual they put on a great show. I managed to bag a few shots of the guys before my camera decided it didn't want to focus any more (Im sure Canons new AF system has major flaws). 

Anyway a great afternoon with great weather and live music .. what could be better???

Here's a handful of images of the mighty Maggot headlining on the Sunday...Seb.