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.

This picture was our first deliberate attempt to capture the now more obvious baby bump!

This one was a quick landscape with my beloved 28mm prime Sigma. On the Canon 7d, more or less a normal view like the 50mm was on older SLR film cameras.

These next two images were handheld HDR’s using my Sigma 10-20mm zoom, wide. On the 7d this is 16mm equivalent. Three bracketed exposures were taken handheld at high speed to minimise movement between them and they were processed in my favourite “Photomatix” HDR software helped by the “Lightroom” plugin.

A couple of weeks ago I assisted Matthew while he photographed Emma, Alison and Shona, three lovely girls who were thankfully very friendly, patient and obliging! It was definitely a useful experience for me, and great fun too.

It was good to learn from watching Matthew at work, seeing the effects the flash can have on the lighting, and also chatting afterwards about the kinds of things Matthew’s thinking about as he’s working.

I then had a go at taking some portraits of my own. Matthew makes it all seem so effortless, but there are so many issues to consider on the other side of the view finder, from composition, focus and depth of field to good communication with your subjects.

The main thing I found myself concentrating on was focussing and making sure the autofocus was aligned to the subject’s eyes. However this led to a common problem: I was forgetting all about aperture size, which I had set to F1.8 for most of the time, which unfortunately led to only one of the faces being perfectly sharp. For instance, I think this photo is otherwise quite good:

the background is interesting but not too detailed, the lighting is good, and the girls look relaxed and happy. Having discussed this with Matthew, using F4 or F5.6 would have made all the difference.

This next one is very similar, which is a shame because it could have been a great photo!

Anyway, the next two I’m really happy with. They’ve obviously had the benefit of Matthew’s processing, but I like to think I can take a wee bit of the credit too!

Although her eyes are closed, Emma has a lovely expression, and I’m happy with the composition and the background. And the black-and-white gives it some added drama.

This is probably my favourite. Alison looks really natural and relaxed and the background is just interesting enough, without being distracting.

There is a lot of satisfaction in having taken a shot that you’re totally pleased with, but I think with a portrait, there is an added pleasure if the subject is happy with it too. So I hope the girls like these ones, even though they’re not perfect!

Most of these were on the beautiful balcony of Phil and Harvie’s flat. (Bright sun behind. Anyone would think this wasn’t Scotland; two sunny shoots in a row)

Photographing them was incredibly good fun as they are such a romantic couple. You don’t have to encourage them to get close.

See what I mean.

Eventually I felt they had worked hard enough at modelling to earn a seat.

Some photographs look too loving to be true, but trust me, this is the real thing.

One more on the balcony before heading indoors.

This isn’t the wedding ring, but soon I might photograph Phil’s other hand.

Harvie is just a really striking man, he is amazing company and a great conversationalist to boot.

The balcony is in the background in this shot.

If Harvie is striking, Phil is gorgeous. They just make a lovely couple, and yours truly gets the fun of photographing them. Look at that view of Glasgow and Paisley in the background.

Thanks for your company guys, and thanks for the delicious meal you cooked me. Can’t wait for the wedding.

PS. Thanks to Elaine for holding my remote flash and brolly!

Anyway, back-lighting seemed a good way to start and to overcome the overly strong sunlight.

The “Maid of the Loch” in the background for any anoraks looking.

Stewart liked this wall, so we hid from the sun behind it and tried a few.

A little further on, we came to this beach area with irresistible sand-break. Sarah came over all non-west-of-Scotland by whipping her shoes off to feel the sand beneath her toes.

Stewart can take-or-leave sand between his toes.

Sarah likes the candid moments best, this was my favourite:

Seriously, aren’t they great together. It was so much fun to photograph them.

Low sunlight and dramatic lens flare bring out the romance in a couple. Just as well they are so romantic…

Even when we moved from the backlit beach, they were obviously on a roll romantically speaking:

But a fun loving couple can’t keep up the slushy stuff for too long:

What an amazing couple, and I had so much fun with them. Roll on the doggy-parents-shoot next time.

Thanks Sarah and Stewart, hope you like these?

Some people are just incredible fun to photograph. Stuart is in my A list for this!

While  driving back from a visit to Tarbert by the desolate Carradale road, we chanced on this scene. No one was around and so it was impossible to know if it was deliberate or spontaneous? I took 5 to 10 minutes photographing this with the car stationary  on the single track road and no one passed by! That’s desolate. The water beyond is Kilbrannan Sound which divides the Mull of Kintyre (where we were) from the isle of Arran.

Actually, this might have been an interesting option for the recent tree round in the APOY contest!

My friend and colleague Don and I were working on Bute recently. Although we had an intense time actually earning a living, we eventually managed to reward ourselves with a drive around what is a really amazing and under-visited island. This is Ettrick Bay, and the vague, looming landscape in the background is the isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde. Don maintained that I tricked him into allowing a portrait, under pretence of simply stepping out of the car to enjoy the air. The slurry spreader working in an adjacent field gave lie to that fig-leaf instantly and I had to come clean and produce my camera. Anyway, a striking man I’m sure you’ll agree and great company.

Oh, and it’s that lens again. I wonder what the Sigma 30 1.4 is like. Would I like it as much as this trusty 28 f1.8. It is smaller, I wonder…..

This was my second choice of portraits from my session with Alison during my 100 portraits project. This was a darkening, rainy evening. 6.30 on the 26th of March according to the exif data. The combination of Alison’s bright dress, the bright graffiti and ISO 1600 on the very capable 40D I was using at the time made it all OK. Alison made my first choice for me, she insisted on a playful, dirt-smeared-face picture; it’s therefore nice to post my actual choice.

It’s been a while since I posted a second choice from my 100 portraits project. This is Michelle, we did the photographs at the People’s Palace in Glasgow. This one was taken after we were thrown out of the indoor garden area. We took advantage of the lovely, freshly cleaned fountain and late low light to snatch a very Glasgow portrait for a very international and far-travelled young woman.

Guess what, another choice with my Sigma 28mm lens. Why do magazines continue to encourage portraiture by walkie-talkie or semaphore with the 100mm ideal length advice? I don’t think so….