However, all weddings start with panic and fun for the bridal party. It would be unprofessional of me to mention the exciting game of “hunt the missing earrings”. Oops….

Some of Petrea’s younger supporters:

Back to the pampering.

Of course, meanwhile the men were looking after each other’s preparations.

But eventually all were ready and Petrea emerged, looking amazing..

And here’s one of Steve looking equally great, ready to meet Petrea.

Assisted in last minute good wishes by sister, Ginny.

The ever so girlie bridal party prepare to accompany Petrea into the marriage room.

And, finally, down to the business in hand.

It wouldn’t of course be a Petrea event without a musical element, Petrea and the registrar, a friend from Edinburgh celebrate the union with an Operatic duet. So classy and so beautiful..

Safely married and looking delighted, these pictures show the details of Petrea’s dress.

And so to the formals, struggling as I was with the tail end of a chest infection, marshalling the troops by power of voice alone was never going to be easy, mercifully Petrea and Steve had pre-selected all the guests for docility and obedience……

Eventually the guests were left to relax and enjoy the castle setting, while Petrea, Steve, Julie and I went to a local beach in Cove. The wedding was held in Craigrownie Castle in Cove, Rosneath Peninsula, Argyll. Somewow an Irish/Scottish wedding was set of by the very Celtic setting of Loch Long and the Cowal hills beyond. Enjoy these:

We loved photographing Petrea and Steve on the beach and hope you like the images as much as we do. However, if the Celtic theme was to continue, it needed music:

“Ah, if only someone would dance with me, my pumpkin will be here soon”

Apparently wallflowers were sprouting all over the floor…

However, this girl didn’t have too long to wait:

More ceilidh music supplied by an excellent trio:

And more dancing, some cruel guest even made me join in.

One of the most lovely moments, was Petrea dancing a waltz, with her mum. Boy did they know how to Waltz.

OK, I know the picture of the Trotternish Ridge and the Storr on Skye is a bit of a cliché, but who can resist. It was a bit grey and overcast, so increase contrast and black and white conversion focuses on what matters in this ridge; the prehistoric, folded landscape. For those who are interested, the spike in the centre is an old sea stack called the Old Man of Storr, it is about 160 feet high, and must once have been at sea level. Skye is easily one of my favourite places. Taken from the summit of Ben Tianavaig.

The following 3 are on the descent facing the magnificent Red Cuillins and looking over the sound of Raasay. For a mere 1500 feet hill, this must have one of the loveliest and most dramatic ridges.

Did I mention it was really cold?

As in yesterday’s picture, soft window light and appealing blue colours and a similar toned background were irresistible to this portraitist. Taking people pictures in colour is so often about spotting colours and thinking about backgrounds. Catherine’s blue eyes mean that blue clothes set a blue theme. The thing to look for then is either similar backgrounds or contrasting backgrounds like in yesterday’s picture.

Anyway, the new reading glasses needed a photographic début.

Catherine in the Ceilidh Place Hotel in Ullapool. Just for a little change I was using my 500D, but my beloved Sigma 28mm was unchanged.The natural window light and colour contrast between the warm room décor and Catherine’s colder blue clothes was irresistible.

ISO 800, f2

You can just see the Colintraive to Rhubodach ferry in the centre of the picture. I believe it might just be the shortest ferry crossing in Scotland; I must check that out one day?

A wider angle shot of Loch Riddon and Loch Ruel with the Kyles in the top centre. (The Kyles are the narrows between the Cowal Peninsula and the Isle of Bute on the right).

And a close-up of the Kyles in black and white. Rothesay is visible on the Isle of Bute in the upper right. The beautiful River Clyde beyond.

Someone had left these carnations tied to the fence of the viewpoint. I don’t know why, but they were irresistible to this photographer.

If you haven’t visited Argyll, I recommend that you do at the first opportunity.

Lorna being playful:

You may gauge the group sobriety by observing that glasses were being shared for photographs! Now who really owns them between Donald and Lorna?

Noisy, but a very smooth noise pattern.

Having a business meeting with me might just be becoming a dangerous activity now that my new but already trusty 500D has a berth in my work bag. The paperwork nailed, Roddy and I found a spot where my reflection wouldn’t appear in the windows of the car dealership where we met up. Using a large aperture removed all the background detail here and created an abstract background from nothing.

However, a good reflection is something no photographer should pass up the opportunity to play with. I desaturated and lowered the contrast in the right side of the image to leave the flavour of the reflection without it fighting with the main part of the image. Will the real Roddy step forward please?

And one more in monochrome for fun. I hope you like them Roddy!

The merits of carrying my 500D and a fast 50mm f1.4 everywhere. These portraits took about 5 minutes to snatch from an otherwise non-photographic day.

You know how you can either get lucky or horribly unlucky with who you get placed next to on a flight. Well this wonderful person happened to be billeted next to me on the otherwise tedious transatlantic hop from Toronto to London. Caroline is a seriously good singer and a world class conversationalist with a Yorkshire accent to die for.

Caroline has a whole You Tube channel to herself with thousands of people checking out her easy charm and great voice on her many singing videos. Caroline was kind enough to let me nab a quick shot as we parted company at the baggage carousels. There aren’t many girls who would be relaxed about that after a 7 hour flight overnight, but that’s Caroline!

Thanks for some great conversations Caroline!

Check her out on http://www.youtube.com/user/feathersgirl

Handling is fine on the camera, most of what you want is quick to access, even exposure compensation is quite intuitive and since I have drifted into using “Aperture Priority” so much and using exposure compensation for fine adjustments that’s important to me. I used to have a 400D and so it feels just like that, very Canon, very straightforward. The only missing quick button for me is metering mode which is a menu item; at least you can put it on your “my menu” list which allows you to access your own favourite menu items really easily and quickly. So all is rosy for usability, but the right hand-grip is small. If like me you are used to a 40D or a 50D hand-grip, an you have big hands, then you will find it annoying. This is a travel and spare SLR for me however, so I am getting used to that grip and it’s far from a show-stopper. If you haven’t used a larger SLR, I doubt whether you’ll even notice this.

I have played a little with the movie mode, but truthfully I can’t see me getting into that stuff. It’s not all that easy to use, and I think you would have to use a tripod, as well as a separate sound recorder to mix the sound and video together later as the handling noise and the focus noise (even if manually focussed) are seriously obtrusive. It is fun to do video with awesome “depth of field” control unlike any camcorder, but don’t kid yourself into thinking you would use it casually, you won’t. Anyway, I’m a photographer, so I really don’t care.

So I have a nice little SLR with me at all times now, my work backpack even has a little compartment for it and it fits so much better than my beloved 40D, so I’ll enjoy that luxury, and I’ll keep you updated on my findings as I go along.