A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Jacqueline and Jason.

The entire day was held at the King's Croft Hotel in Pontefract. 

The day started with Bridal prep - which is always a laugh with one fella with a camera in a room full of women trying to get ready! 
I also got a chance to shoot a bit of Groom prep too, as they were a few minutes walk away.  The lads saw the cameras and got ready in about 5 minutes flat! 

The ceremony was outside in the pavilion and we were blessed with blue skies and glorious sunshine for the entire day.

The vows were soon shared, kisses were had and cheers were aplenty.

The happy couple walked out into the sunshine as man and wife.

We took some snaps out on the lawns before heading in for the speeches and food.  The day soon turned into evening, the cake was cut and the couple forced onto the dancefloor!

Thanks for having me guys - it was a blast.

Here are a few photos from their day.

What better way to celebrate Yorkshire Day than takin some snaps of God's Own Country?!

Went up Earl Crag for a walk and took some snaps of the Salt and Pepper Pots - Lund's Tower and Wainman's Pinnacle.  Climbed the 39 steps to the top of the tower and stood in what felt like gale force winds trying to take a photo (and not fall back down the hole). 
I must admit though - I felt a bit Game-of-Thronesy going up the 130 year old stone spiral staircase! 

After that, a quick walk across the top of the Crag to Wainman's Pinnacle at the other end before coming back across again. 
I may have taken some dodgy selfies too...

Happy Yorkshire Day folks. 


Some snaps.

Our little ginger ninja turned 12 yesterday and his little brother Freddie 'helped' him open all his prezzies.  He's a proper little gent, so we thought it only fitting to buy him a new suit for his birthday.  And the new lego game, which I'm sick of seeing already! #grumpydadcomment.

He's been ill for the last week though, so full birthday celebrations are on hold for a few more days.  He did manage a bit of cake though!

Happy birthday mate.  Love you loads.
And in the words of Barney Stinson - SUIT UP!

A few snaps.

I've not thrown up a blog post for a while, so here's a little something from the other day.

We took advantage of the bit of sunshine and went down to feed the ducks. 
We got ambushed!

Here's some snaps. 

I've been enjoying a bit of time off recently.  A bit of time to catch up on personal work, a bit of family time and finally do all those pesky jobs round the house that I haven't done since... Well, since I was last supposed to do it!

It's also given me an excuse to get out on the Harley more too!

A few weeks ago we had a pretty awesome day at the coast where I took a few snaps.
The day started early and after a few meeting places along the way, 50+ Harleys rolled into the car park of the Marrowbone & Cleaver pub in Kirmington.  A proper cool, down-to-Earth British pub owned by Motorcycle record holder, TV personality and all round daredevil speed demon Guy Martin and run by his sister, Sally.
The pub has a fair bit of history, dating back to 1871, and the decor inside is like a tribute to the past.  Walls are dedicated to the local history, with a good mix of WW2 dedications to the 166 Bomber Squadron that was based in the area and memorabilia from Guy's exploits.
After wolfing down an awesome breakfast, we were back on the road.
Next stop was Grimsby, for a Custom Bike show hosted by the Warlocks MC.  Plenty of cool bikes, trikes and a few hot rods were on display.
After a few hours of laughing, looking and chatting away, we were off again.
Next stop, Cleethorpes - where fish & chips in the sunshine finished the day in style.

Of course, the ride home is always part of the fun too!

Here are a few snaps.

On Easter Sunday we did what we usually do - wake up, have a cuppa in bed and hand out all the prezzies before sending the kids on a little Easter egg hunt around the house.  We all happily filled our faces all morning and started the day feeling very chilled out.  And half in a chocolate coma!
That all changed about 1 o' clock when the littlest monkey decided to jump down the bottom few stairs.  This is a pretty normal thing for him to do (as with most kids), this time though, instead of chuckling away feeling proud of himself, there were tears...

On Tuesday we loaded up the car with enough luggage for 3 weeks rather than 4 days and headed for Wales.  Half an hour later, after going back home the third time for things we'd forgot, we set off again.  6 and half hours and 4 toilet stops later, we arrived.

The land of Myths and Dragons. 
And hard to read road signs.

We had booked a little garden apartment in the little seaside village of Tresaith in Cardigan Bay on the Ceredigion Heritage Coastline.  Legend says (well, wikipedia) that a King of Ireland set his 7 troublesome daughters adrift in a boat and the currents of the Irish sea led them to beach on the coastline where they all fell in love and settled down with the locals.  The name Tresaith means the Town of Seven. 

I don't know if any of that is true, but I know we had fun.  Even with our little toe rag in a sling!

Wales is beautiful. 

We spent our days travelling around the area.  We looked at castles, stone circles, burial chambers, lighthouses, abandoned buildings, wildlife and the gorgeous mountains of Snowdonia.  We ate chips looking at the sea and walked down piers.  We ate pizza at the coolest, most hipster outdoor restaurant ever.  We skimmed stones in lakes and tromped across beaches.
And every evening we went down to our local beach where a waterfall fell over the cliffs onto the sand and we stayed there until the sun went down.  On our last night we had clear skies, so we got to watch the stars appear too.

It was perfect. 

Some snaps from our trip.

We booked our apartment through Airbnb.  For some money off your first trip, click HERE.

A few weeks ago, I had the awesome privilege of popping up into the Dales to shoot the super-cool wedding of Emma & Chris.
The entire day was held at the beautiful Yorebridge House Boutique Hotel.

The day started with some nice, chilled out Bridal prep, complete with plenty of sarky comments and proper Yorkshire etiquette of Prosecco out of teacups!  Goes without saying that we had a good laugh. 
Chris was in a room more or less next door, so it was cool to be able to pop round and get some Groom prep too. 

We had a videographer on the day too, the very quiet and professional Simon from Wedding Films by Simon Manning, so we spent the prep time leapfrogging each other to keep it flowing

Before we knew it, it was time for the main event!

Chris and the rest of the guests were waiting patiently, with the gentle guitar tunes from Steven Heath Music filling the room. 
Chris looked like the cat that got the cream as Emma made her way down the aisle, looking beautiful in her awesome tea length wedding dress.

The vows were soon said, kisses were soon kissed and smiles were everywhere!

We made our way out into the sunshine and pretty soon everyone was stood alongside the collection of hawks and owls from the North Yorkshire Moors Birds of Prey.
We snapped a few photos and then made our way down to the river for everyone to get their wellies on and have a bit of fun.  Everyone was pretty worried about falling in, but we hid it well! 

After that it was back to the house for food and speeches before I dragged the happy couple out once again for some more photos as the sun was setting.  We even got a little visit from the horses over the road that wanted to get in on the action!

Time flew on, cake cutting time was here, and pretty soon Emma and Chris wowed all the guests with their awesome first dance that they'd been practising. 

The practise had paid off - it was ace!

Thanks for having me guys - your day was awesome!

Here are a few snaps from their day.

We had some roses in the house that were ready for the bin, so thought I'd take some snaps and make a little project out of 'em.
I grabbed my little Fuji X70 and a Godox TT600 flash, stuck 'em on the kitchen table with a black blanket for a backdrop (I couldn't be bothered to set up the studio backdrop) and clicked away.

I love the intricate patterns of rose petals.  There's something satisfying in the way they spiral out - probably why people have been getting them tattooed for nearly a hundred years.
Roses are also pretty symbolic - with supposed meanings ranging from love and hope, to immortality, strength and death.  There's even a numerology association tied to the budding petals. 

I like to thing of a rose as a bit of stubborn beauty.  It still manages to look good even as it withers and dies.  Standing defiant to the very end.  And even after death, those thorns are still there to get you...

A few weeks ago, my first wedding of the year had me heading over the hills into Cheshire for the wedding of Michelle & Alan.
After a full few days of rain, the weather wasn't looking too promising, but the clouds broke on the drive over and I arrived to find the gorgeous venue bathed in sunshine.

The entire day was held at the Mere Court Hotel in Knutsford.

We started the day with some very laid back bridal prep - complete with Prosecco (this is obviously now part of wedding rules!)  The room we were in was the Presidential Suite - Bill Clinton stayed here in December '01.  Bridal prep was the usual laugh, with a super calm Michelle taking everything in her stride. 
After a while I popped out to check the grounds and do a few ring shots.  The weather was nice, the grounds were lovely, but the conditions weren't the best.  The main grassed areas were waterlogged to about 6 inches deep in some places - as I soon found out the hard way.  Wet socks for me for the rest of the day!
Back to the room ready for Michelle finishing up, then it was time to head down for the main event!
The room was ready, the guests were seated, the string trio was playing and Alan was stood patiently waiting.
The happy couple were soon hand in hand at the front, sharing vows and exchanging rings and kisses.  Maybe shedding a tear or two too. 
We headed out into the bar for a while and then out into the sunshine to take some snaps.  Due to the waterlogged grass we couldn't take advantage of all the grounds and were stuck to the paths for portraits, but we still found some quiet little spots.

The rest of the day flowed  - drinks were drunk, laughs were had, food was served and people had fun.  There was a bit of a hiccup when Alan lost his Groom's speech, but after half an hour of frantic searching he decided to just wing it.  And didn't do a bad job at all! 

After the speeches Michelle pulled a compete winner out of the hat when she brought out a surprise guest speaker - one of Alan's football heroes, Middlesbrough Legend Bernie Slaven.  Alan looked like a startstruck kid at Christmas for the next few hours!
The band soon got up and belted some tunes out and we got some snaps on the dancefloor.  Obviously the kids were the first ones up! 

A nice, chilled out wedding day.  Thanks for having me guys - you were awesome!

Did I mention Star Wars Wedding Cake?  Always a winner in my book! 

Here are a few photos from their day.

Usually I only keep a handful of images from the vows/first kiss.  But flicking through these I noticed that there was a nice little sequence, so made a quick slideshow. 

The sun was shining this morning, so we jumped in the car and headed down the road to Wentworth Woodhouse.

Wentworth Woodhouse is the largest privately owned house in the UK.  It's a pretty impressive view at over 600 feet long on the frontage of the East Wing.
But, unless you want to pay for a private tour, you'll be looking at that front from a fair old distance from the footpath that runs down alongside the house and into Wentworth Park.
That's fine by me - I like to look at stuff.  And this is definitely a place where you can only look at stuff.  The first thing that you see when you enter the grounds are lots of 'don't' signs.  Keep off, no entry, private, keep out...  That's all fair enough, as it's private grounds, but why keep off the grass?  My kids just wanna run round trees, pick sticks up and roll down hills!
Anyway, enough moaning.
The first thing you see when you walk in (after passing the cool little gatehouse) is the eyesore that is the old college campus on the left.  Forget that and look to the right and look at the awesome old stable block and courtyard.  This is still used today, but looks like a place that time forgot - and, I do love abandoned stuff, so it's right up my street!  The gates were closed today though, so we didn't get chance to have a nosey inside.  Just a bit further down on the left is a little gravestone.  This marks the resting place of the racehorse 'Whistlejacket' - a horse of Charles Watson-Wentworth (AKA The Marquess of Rockingham, Lord Rockingham and the Prime Minister of Great Britain!).  There is also apparently a large painting of the horse in the house. 
Carrying on down the path and you soon see the main house on the right.  Also, the impressive Roman-looking cenotaph of the Rockingham Mausoleum can be seen peeping through the trees further down the path and to your left.  There are 3 other follies around the estate - I think a little tour of them all may be in order!

We walked through and wound our way down to a couple of lakes in the middle of the grounds - one a fishing pond and the other with the terrible name of Dog Kennel Pond.  The kids didn't care what they were called - they happily threw stones in the water, waved twigs around and enjoyed the fresh air.  Although, it was getting a bit nippy at this point! 
Me and the missus strolled hand in hand while they played.  Although, I did get told off for holding the wrong hand - apparently getting steps to count on your fitbit is more important than a bit of romance!

All in all, a nice bit of family time. 

And, if you want to get married here then give me a shout - it would be awesome!

More info on the house HERE and the Mausoleum HERE. 

Some snaps.