Wedding Photography Bowden Hall - Ian and Paula

Ian and Paula - 30th Aug 2008

Summer finally arrived for one day this August and the 30th was it. Hot, hot, hot. Paula must have certainly felt the heat as she's also 3 months pregnant so has the internal hot water bottle to contend with too (or so my wife tells me).

Here are a few of my favs from their day at a local spot in Gloucestershire.

It's always nice to hear clients are happy with their photos and it looks as though Paula certainly was! Here's what she had to say...

"Hi Matt, Hope you're ok? Well all I can say is you are amazing! We love every one of the photos and you captured the day perfectly - just how I wanted it. Thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you for being so much fun and being chilled on the day, it helped as I was a nervous wreck! We look forward to getting the cd in the post. Cheers Paula & Ian xx"

Good Service

Sometimes I'm so pleased with good service that I even blog about it - todays delivery (that just arrived) is that special moment.

The Davis' are off to Center Parcs for a few days next week and in true Matt Davis style work has got in the way of sorting the important things that I really should have got ticked off weeks ago...."buying a bike rack". As anyone who may have been to Center Parcs knows, it's a cycling paradise....well it's handy to have a bike to get around at least. Not wanting therefore to stump up money to hire a bike (seeing as I have two of my own) I was going to have to invest in a Thule Bike Carrier. My problem was the last minute nature of sourcing them.


Well I could have worried less and left it even later as the fine service from Fasteronline pulled me right out the shit (am I allowed to say that on a blog?). Here's the fab story (in brief). Ordered yesterday, arrived today. There you go, as simple as that. I really do wish all services were as good as this? Fasteronline you get a big tick from the Davis' and I hope anyone else wishing to buy similar items gets to check you out. Ohh I didn't even mention the cost - they were also bar far the cheapest on the net. As a direct comparison to the same goods sold by Halfords, I saved over £50 - wowzers!

Other cool things I'm digging lately is my WeeRide. Sounds strange yeah, but put simply it's a childs seat for a bike, but with a twist.......it's up front, rather than behind (see photo below).
Daisy therefore gets to see the scenery, rather than your back for the whole journey like most other child seats.

Daisy and I returning from strawberry picking (hence the red lips hey Daisy..."she ate, I picked")

As I was riding at the time of taking the photo above, it was hard to actually get the whole seat in the shot, even if I am a professional photographer (safety first hey!). I therefore checked on the net and found this..... look, it's Juila Roberts Husband, he's got a WeeRide too.


I cruise around a lot with mine - to the shops, nursery, around the park, blackberry picking....and it's fab. I'll often get asked where it's from as people clearly haven't seen one before either. So here's my second tip of the day...... get one, they're great and you can buy them here.

Birtsmorton Court Wedding photography - Dan and Vicki

Daniel & Vicki - 24th Aug 2008

Dan & Vicki stood out as an entertaining couple from the moment we first met. They both work really hard in their chosen fields with Tennis also forming a large part of their lives and providing the background to how they first met. I knew their wedding day should be fun, and it didn't disappoint. The girls were typically running a little late and the boys were already drinking at noon (or at least you'd think they had been, even if they were sober, following the heckling in the church!).

I was back at a favourite venue, Birtsmorton Court in Worcestershire, but this time with a church ceremony. It's nice for a change, although a shame the vicar restricts photography to only from the back. None the less I worked a few angles with a variety of lenses to hopefully fill the potential gap this can sometimes leave in your days proceedings.

Later was the entertainment.....and yeah baby, speeches were top notch. They totaled over an hour long, yet the pace of them combined with the great humour and a touch of sensitivity made them as captivating as any others I've heard.

Ohh I nearly forgot too - this was now my second celebrity wedding (note to self: I must make a post about my first celebrity wedding as this doesn't really make sense otherwise!)

You'll see who later in the slideshow when.....wait for it......Ricky Gervais turns up (ok, the look-a-like anyway, although he was pretty good).

Here's a small selection of my personal favs from their day for you to enjoy

My assistant photographer for the day.

...."I can't see your boobs, you've got a bra on!"

Another couple of assistant photographers by the looks of things.

Ohh a confetti shot - I don't often post these.

A queue formed at the drawbridge of Birtsmorton Court to get to the drinks.

ohh look at that....I've gone all wedding group shot tatstic.

and the wedding slideshow

Daisy's Birthday

This week I had some time off to hang with Daisy and Ali.  We had a fun week of activities planned starting with Daisy's Birthday on the Monday.   She's two now, although if you ask her how old she is, she's still programmed to say "nearly two".  Ummm... maybe we shouldn't have taught her that!

The fairy outfit & pink kitchen were top presents, but easily better than both of these has to be the new bed.

Amazingly our order for Daisy's bed (placed about 4 weeks ago) happened to be delivered on her birthday - how cool was that.  She was totally stoked with it, so dismantling her cot wasn't the emotional loss we thought it could be.  Instead the new bed come trampoline was an immediate hit, so much so we struggled to get her out of it.  Better still, today (Sat 23rd) she slept in till 9.45am - brilliant!

Later in the week we had a trip into town for new shoes - Daisy's feet are perpetually growing.  No sooner does she have a new pair of shoes she's out grown them!   Anyway, as this is a pretty boring excursion for a toddler we took her to the park later that day to make up for it.

I'm now amazed how Daisy has progressed from needing daddy to help with apparatus, to now riding everything solo.  How did she grow up so quickly?  Thank goodness we've got another one on the way now!

She now walks up the slides, who wants to use the steps - that's for babies, and also likes to climb across this circular stuff.  Otherwise known as a parental nightmare as you can just imagine Daisy falling through the gaps when she forgets to pay attention.

Best of all though from my day in the park is this photo of Ali & Daisy.  It may not be everyones cup of tea, but I love it.  Probably because it's my two girls, but aren't they cute.  Bimpy (Ali's nickname) clearly dressed Daisy this morning as they always end up matching in an unintentional way.  Check out how their cardigans both open slightly to reveal the white triangle of their tops underneath.  That's the little details about this photo I love....well along with it's symmetry in the slightly unbalanced way.  Ali is only little at size 8 & 5' 5 1/2" (yes the half is important) and Daisy looks just like a mini version of her mummy.  Neither of them barely touching the floor.

Photographing a friends wedding

Last weekend I attended my friends (Alec & Victoria's) wedding in London. This time I was a guest, rather than the photographer, which to be honest is something of a novelty. My wife kept referring to it as a busman's holiday, as you may have guessed, 'cause my camera did come along (although only one camera and a restriction of 3 lenses).

It's good fun shooting without the need to produce images that fulfill a brief and also spend time with my wife & friends - rather than whizzing around like a hoon as I normally do!

Anyway, here's a slideshow from their day accompanied by Eva Cassidy singing Songbird; which her step sister also sang so beautifully in the church. Anyone revisiting this post will note the change from Amy Winehouse which was previously used as it struck me in a moment of inspiration over lunch today that Eva may be even more appropriate.

Worcestershire Wedding Photography - Birtsmorton Court

Adam and Rhiannon

More weddings. This was a fun day, some rain, some sun, some rain, some sun..... you get the idea. I've not had a wet wedding at Birtsmorton Court as yet, so hoped this wasn't gonna be the one, and thankfully there was a bright spell to get some fab shots around the fabulous grounds despite the earlier uncertainty.

I'll keep this post brief though as I'm officially having this week off so work is off limits...but a little slideshow doesn't hurt hey.

...and the wedding slideshow