Is it really summer?

Met with Rachel and Stuart today to go over the final details of their wedding, we’re really looking forward to taking the photographs in a few weeks time, they’re such a lovely couple. Rachel’s dress sounds really great, can’t wait to see it and I’m sure their wedding cake will be terrific as it’s being made by Rhianydd Easton at Dragons & Daffodils.

The sun was shining this afternoon, it made a very welcome change from all the rain.

New wedding albums for 2007

We’re delighted to be able to offer the following exciting additions to our range of wedding, guest book and parent albums for 2007. The wedding albums are available in a range of sizes from A4, 14×10 inches and A3, the guest books are 96x137mm with a printed cover and the parent albums are A5 size with a bookcloth cover.

Rhapsody Cover

Expression Rhapsody

Aztec Cover

Expression Aztec

Acrylic Cover

Expression Acrylic

Guest Books and Parent Albums

Expression Guest and Parent

Bank Holiday Monday

As usual for a bank holiday the weather is damp and windy. πŸ™

Received another wedding booking this afternoon for a wedding next year at Castell Coch with the reception at Bryngarw House. πŸ™‚

Paul and Stacy called over this afternoon so I could help them fit the radio into Paul’s new Pajero.

Pencoed Classic Car Show

David, Hannah and I went to the South Wales Classic Car Club’s annual show at Pencoed College this afternoon, as usual it was very well attended with an excellent range of old and not so old classic cars. Nice to see so many models that I once owned there, including MGC roadster, Van den Plas Princess, Jaguar XJ6 Series III, A40 Farina, Austin 1100. The weather was rather miserable today but there still seemed to be an excellent turn out at the show.

Another wedding booking received this weekend for a wedding later this year. πŸ™‚

Paul and Stacy’s Wedding

Today my son Paul and Stacy were married, it was a lovely day and here are a few photographs.

Paul and Stacy

Paul and Stacy #1

Mothers and Grandmothers

Mothers and Grandmothers

Stacy’s family

Stacy's family

Paul’s family

Paul's family

And my other son David swapped places with me and took this – so that there’s even one with me in

Paul's family #2

Me and my son

Me and Paul

Cutting the cake

Paul and Stacy #2

Grown up cousins (Sisters Jenny and Sian)

Grown up cousins

Cousins playing (Lauren and Erin)

Cousins playing

A busy week

One of the many advantages of being a wedding photographer in South Wales is not only do we have lovely couples but a terrific range of wedding venues, ranging from Castles, stately homes, country house hotels to some very nice modern hotels. However due to the large number of weddings that take place in the area more and more weddings are now happening on Fridays and Sundays to ensure that the couples can obtain their first choice venues.

Where we are covering weddings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday it’s absolutely vital that we have an efficient workflow for processing the images taken. The initial workflow involves downloading the images taken from the camera compact flash cards to our computer, backing up all the images to our file server and DVD archives, conversion of the raw files to working jpeg files (with any minor colour and exposure corrections as needed), creation of the web gallery, DVD slide show and thumbnail prints followed by a further back up of the working files. It’s our aim to have completed the initial workflow within a day of the wedding. Later stages involve album design, print file creation and album construction.

Earlier this week I met with Hannah who is planning her wedding for just before Christmas this year in Penarth with a reception at The Bear Hotel in Cowbridge.

Yesterday I met with Alena, Scott and family who are currently planning their wedding next summer at Castell Coch with a reception at Bryngarw House.

I’m photographing Paul and Stacy’s wedding tomorrow in Caerphilly so I’ve been doing the pre-wedding equipment checks, basically ensuring that the batteries for the Nikon D2X main camera, backup cameras and SB-800 flash units are fully charged and that all the equipment is loaded into the bags.

A mixed Thursday

A visit to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital this morning and another appointment scheduled for next month.

Received a voicemail on my mobile phone when I returned to the car to let me know that my new glasses were ready so I called in at the opticians in the village on my way home.

I did a little shopping at Tesco in Upper Boat and then called in at Focus DIY to get a new connector for the outside tap, the previous one broke yesterday while I was pressure washing the Nissan Patrol, the weather was too wet today to finish washing it so we’ll have to wait and see what it’s like tomorrow.

A busy and fun filled week

Claire came to stay with us for a few days this week. πŸ™‚

We visited quite a few places and here are some photographs taken with the Fuji F11 point and shoot camera that I carry with me all the time.

Prinknash Abbey near Gloucester.

Claire feeding the ducks.

Prinknash#1

A brightly coloured bird.

Prinknash#2

Claire feeding the pygmy goats

Prinknash Pygmy Goats

Claire with some of the tame deer

Prinknash - Deer

Amelia Trust Farm near Barry.

Piglets

Amelia Trust - Piglets

Claire making friends with some piglets

Amelia Trust - Claire with Piglets

Claire photographing calves

Amelia Trust - Calves

The local Peugeot dealer.

Claire checking out the new Peugeot 207 convertible at Griffin Mill Garages – verdict nice car but too small, it’ll have to be the 307 convertible!

Peugeot

Mothers Day lunch at John and Ida’s in Pontypridd with my mum was excellent.

Claire left after lunch for the drive back to Marham, unfortunately it was a very long journey due to traffic jams and accidents but she did see Jeremy Clarkson in his Ferrari on the way!

A damp Friday

Just returned from RAF Marham where we were once again invited to present the basketball trophy at the annual tournament in memory of our eldest son James. Congratulations to Jonesy’s Boys from the ECM Bay who won the competition for the second year running. We had a terrific time, it was great to see everyone again. We were also fortunate in being invited to visit the section yesterday morning for coffee before heading back. Special thanks to Keith, Claire, Lee, Andy, Gill, Mal, The Chief – Nigel, The Warrant Officer – Steve and everyone else for all the organisation and making our visit once again so special.

We also couldn’t be in Norfolk without visiting all the family and catching up on everything that’s been happening, we had a terrific time. Now need to go on a diet to return to the weight before the trip. πŸ™‚

Basketball