It's not every day you get a call from the Global Director of Marketing for GlaxoSmithKline. One of the biggest brands in the world, Ash Taylor joined them after having been the head of marketing at Coca Cola for Developing Regions. After he was asked to be one of the judges on this years Drum Marketing Awards he decided he needed a contemporary portrait. The brief was relaxed, modern and professional. With this kind of portrait there are many subtleties that can affect how the sitter is viewed and we chatted about how exactly he wanted to be seen and decided the Hotel Du Vin in Cheltenham was a suitably sophisticated backdrop to accompany a few studio shots in my newly converted studio room in the house. The image of power today, combines the look of being approachable as well as confident; Ash has both in spades naturally which helps an awful lot. 

 

A round up from 2009, better late than never! Here are a few highlights from last year. The focus here is on all the shots from weddings I never included on the blog the first time round. There are one of two favs in there that have been been posted before. The colour shots are vibrant and vintage, and the black and white are the subtle moments that I like to capture at every wedding.... enjoy!

If you are interested in finding out my availability, please contact me via the contact page on the main website. Dates fill quickly so do enquire early. David. 

Wedding photography gloucestershire , vintage wedding photographers gloucestershire

I entered this competition recently organised by the British Heart Foundation to raise awareness. The rules stated that the theme was Red for the Heart. The colour red must be incorporated into the photo. The winners are announced next week as part of the start of National Heart Month and there will be an exhibition of selected prints on the South Bank next to the London Eye until the 15th February.  If you do want to donate to the British Heart Foundation please go their website for all the information: British Heart Foundation. Hope you enjoy my three entries!

 

 

 

Wedding photography gloucestershire, Fine Art Photography 

I went out recently (just before the heavy snow) with my dog and my camera to a wood I hadn't been to before near my home in Gloucestershire. It looks out over Cheltenham and in the evening light the mood it conjures is truly remarkable. The light pretty much disappeared as we got there leaving strong colours in the skies which was the plan. For photographers, to give you an idea of just how dark it was, for some of the shots inside the woods I was shooting at iso 1600 f4 and hand holding down to a 25th of second. The mood however low light gives you is not achievable any other way in way in my experience. A great master of this and someone who I've mentioned many times on this blog as I'm a big fan, is Joakim Eskilden who takes fantastic shots in the twilight. Hopefully some of these shots will shortly be finding their way into an exhibition of my work; more information to come on that though. 

 

wedding photography gloucestershire

After spending a bit of time out in Gloucestershire shooting a few shots in the snow, I thought this might help for people not so happy with it. I was rooting through some old pictures for my girlfriends sister, event designer Clare Kavanagh and I came across this one from a wedding from a few years ago in Majorca that I'd completely forgotten about. It sums up the feel of warm Meditereanean air pretty well. Clare has just set up a solo company specialising in events of all kinds called Clare Kavanagh Events and she also organises the annual supercool food festival, the Wimborne Food festival. If you live in the Dorset area you should check it out in October. 

 

I am huge music fan, I've mentioned this before, so here is a mix for anyone who enjoys modern classical, ambient, soundtrack, folk or chilled seventies. The snow is falling and this is the kind of music that works for me when you're driving home through white snowy fields and there's no reason for conversation ... 

 

 

Winter Woozy Chill

 

The shot above I took last year when we had snow from the top of Cleave Hill. I have taken a few more this year and they'll shortly be making an appearance. 

Here are the images finally up, from Lucy and Mike's glorious Cheltenham wedding from the very stylish grounds of the Pump Rooms. These are a few of my favourite shots!

 

 

 

 

Not so long ago I purchased a vinyl copy of the re-mastered "histoire do melody nelson" by Serge Gainsbourg. I put it on while I was still in bed the next morning and  after a couple of tracks of Serge's dulcet whispers over languid bass lines I started thinking "wow this is cool (and by proxy I must be pretty damn cool too)". Or not. The point being, the images inside the sleeve, the music and voice of the man himself are, and I'm not overstating the issue here, dripping with sexy dry sophistication like only the French can serve up. It's the kind of music that makes you want to take up smoking (if you didn't have to huddle in doorways every time you wanted a fix).  I then started pondering what it was that makes an image cool (seeing as this is a photography blog) and what "cool" is in general. Someone being cool in reality and an image/film being cool are two very different things, at least to me anyway. If I meet someone laid back or socially intelligent or any number of other fine qualities, you might be thinking "yeah they were cool", but if that same person was then photographed those things don't necessarily translate and therefore you're looking for other points of reference. So what images do I think are cool (in the sense of oozing sophistication, sex appeal, youthful rebellion etc etc. as opposed to simply a great image just being "cool") The images that spring to my mind, (without going overboard on the obvious connection that good bone structure helps develop your iconic status) are, the images of the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth and bands of that ilk, actors who were known for their enigma as well as their work such Dean, Bardot or Brando, the work of the fantastic French photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino and as mentioned a plethora of images that came from the time of the French New wave and the 60's art scene as depicted in the film Blow Up a time which generally oozed a sultry atmosphere infused with sex. 

To tie up these thoughts (or ramblings depending on your viewpoint) the depiction of cool is something fairly intangible and difficult to create artificially without the result simply being another fashion shot. The subject and more importantly their attitude at the moment of capture are vital to creating that feeling. The look of cool is perhaps the biggest branding trick there is; and maybe all the things we think have deeper resonance are just linked to one big marketing facade anyway, feeding our desire for an unattainable chic (and maybe that's the reason why I bought that Serge Gainsbourg album in the first place), but on the other hand if something makes you feel cool, then there's usually something else at play behind the look and that's the character or mindset of the subject.  To be near that approach to life is perhaps what we want, whether we have it or not. 

To me several shots of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin (below) sum up what I view as cool and they seem to have a great connection in the images some sultry, some sexy and some fun. 

Above a great shot on the set of a film by Jean Bapiste Mondino. This shot below unfortunately I haven't discovered who shot it, but it's a great natural moment and when combined with the fashion and s tyle it's exactly what I love in great reportage shots. 

Keeping close to weddings, this famous shot of Mick and Bianca Jagger has a number of things I enjoy, a fleeting moment feel, animated expressions, movement, sex appeal and fantastic style. Taken by the great Patrick Lichfield famous for his swinging sixties London shots (as well as many celebrities) he managed to fill images full of vivid glamour. 

Lastly a shot of the band that are perhaps the epitome of cool, The Velvet Underground. At some point I'll get some other shots up of bands that present a certain attitude.For the time being this is one I like, just relaxed but well composed. There is another shot somewhere that I love where John Cale is the central focus, and he for me had the best look, slightly dark, very unique and usually with a violin in hand.

 

This was a great wedding for two big reasons, Lucy is a childhood friend of Sarah's and I've come to know her and Mike over the time I've been with Sarah so it always fun and relaxing to be around familiar friendly faces. The second reason being it all happened locally. I travel a fair bit for weddings, wh ich I'm more than happy to do as I enjoy seeing new places and meeting many different people, but on this occasion it was nice not to have to venture too far.

Cheltenham is a great area for anyone that hasn't been here before and some of the surrounding countryside is classic Gloucestershire and Cotwolds. Anyway the wedding was a glamourous and fun occasion,  here's a quick shot before I get more up next week.

 

 

 

I meant to put these up a long while back as the selection for the exhibition finished in August and alas my entries were not part of that list,  once again. I got a feeling for a short time (I'm very much an optimist) one of my shots could well have made it through (despite the other 59 999 entries) as it was a shot that fit their criteria well in that it was about the identity of an individual (in this case my girlfriends' father - sitting where he likes to sit to have a cigarette - it also means he has the pleasure of being surrounded by his tools). Persistence is the key I feel and I will be entering next year. Go and see the exhibition if you're in London, it opens at the National Portrait gallery... sometime soon. 

 

Big thanks to my friends, Wing and Wing and also Simon for generally stopping the cloth go everywhere. 

 

After not posting at all through September this is the first chance I've had to get something up. September is without doubt the busiest month for weddings.  Here are a few shots a from a lovely wedding at the end of August in Essex. It was a fab day with great weather and a lot of fun and happiness all round. In particular the speeches were fantastic, funny and touching in equal measure from Tom and his best men. 

I've shot lots of weddings recently and haven't managed to get many of them up on the blog due to pretty much being flat out in with the summer season. Here is one from a couple of weeks back that was great fun to shoot at Cripps Barn, a lovely barn in the Cotswolds and a really fun loving couple Sonya and Toby! I may towards the end of the season put some highlights from all the weddings that I've missed in getting on the blog and possibly a few from last year before the blog started but here are a few in the meantime:

 

Here are a few highlghts from Charlotte and Matt's fantastic wedding at Frampton. The venue has one of the most beautiful outbuildings in the country, an orangery with a stunning lake leading up to it, the perfect backdrop for Charlotte's preparations (she looked absolutely stunning in her classic vintage dress). The weather on the day was generally kind to us although there were some fearsome clouds in the sky at times, but these actually looked pretty cool in some of the shots. 

 

 

This completes the set of posts from my trip to Dubrovnik. Lastly here are some shots taken just for myself. A mixture of scenes that took my interest. I found because in Dubrovnik there were many places you could look down on scenes from above either from the city walls or where-ever, it lent itself well to classic two dimensional compositions. If anyone has seen the film Fargo there is some great overhead photography in the scene where the car drives into an empty snowy car park; it's this kind of stuff I really like. The shot that appears to be just water does in fact have a person swimming in the bottom left hand corner if you look closely.

If you like art in general then the website www.booooooom.com  is well worth checking out. It features lots of illustrators, artists; yes even artists putting their concepts down on paper using pencils and talent, as opposed to using a room and a bland installation.. (despite the fact many are very good).   

One such illustrator Morgan Blair recently had her sketchbook featured and a cool array of ideas was on display. Not only that but she has great taste in music (always big in my book), she mentioned Silver Apples recently in an interview and it's always heartening to hear more obscure bands mentioned by people who themselves produce interesting work. Check her stuff out and see what you think.