14 June 2012

Photographing a wedding at Westminster Registry Office

This was only my second wedding I've photographed in London, and it came as a direct referral of the first one.

Making full use of my "stealth" camper van, I drove up the evening before and parked up opposite Old Marylebone Town Hall in what must have been the most expensive car park in the land.  It cost £48 for a shade under 14 hours.  I know NCP stands for "No Cheap Parking" but that was just taking the p!

It was a three part wedding, with the civil ceremony at Westminster Registry Office, the reception back at the family house in south London, and then the wedding breakfast the following evening at an Indian Restaurant near Liverpool Street.

On a side note, I found the week after the wedding that Paul McCartney has been married twice at Old Marylebone Town Hall.  At least one of the ceremonies (when he married Linda in 1969) took place in the Blue Room, which was the same room as this wedding was in.

Other than the expected normal stress of dealing with London traffic it was a very chilled and relaxed wedding. 

Congratulations to Sarwat & Jonathan.








06 June 2012

Three Queens in Southampton - Part 2

The afternoon & evening was the first of my Photo Experience Days Social events.  In a nutshell this is where like minded photographers get together, eat cake / doughnuts, drink plenty of tea & talk about all things mostly photography related.

With a newly purchased £12 gazebo from B&Q and a 7 metre length of tarpaulin we were able to fashion ourselves the first rule of survival - a shelter.  It actually did a pretty good job, keeping us mostly dry for most of the day.

The Red Arrows were due to perform, but the British summer had other ideas and with the rain & low cloud it was never going to happen.

With only each other, some ships we could hardly see across the Solent and a rather wet ladybird to photographer it was all about waiting until the fireworks much, much later in the evening.

It was cold, wet & windy, but fair play to most people staying & keeping a great sense of humour about this very British summers day.  We were rewarded by the magical sight of the Three Cunard Queens (Mary, Victoria & Elizabeth) all in view, lights & music a blazing with a great firework display (mostly lost in the low clouds).

Here's hoping for better luck & weather for my next Photo Experience Social on the 3rd July when hopefully the Red Arrows really will make an appearance in the skies over Southampton.







05 June 2012

Three Queens in Southampton

The morning of the three Cunard queens arriving in Southampton...

My morning went something like this...

04:45 - alarm
05:00 - left the house
05:15 - arrived at town quay to find stupid amounts of people and no parking
05:20 - parked at holiday inn
05:25 - arrived just in time to see queen elizabeth birthing
06:00 - driving home
06:15 - arrived home
06:30 - processed images and posted blog
06:45 - went back to bed

Was it worth the effort?   Meh, probably not.  Would I have regretted it if I had stayed in bed, definitely yes.

Anyway, the photos...