James Crockford Photography -the blog.

Erk – my blog has been slightly neglected of late – the trouble with being busy is that the things that are important but not urgent get pushed back if you are not careful.  However the blog is going through a major overhaul, as is the rest of our site, so keep your eyes peeled for the not too distant future…..  hmmm – intriguing…

Anyhow, I will endeavour to catch up as I have some great shoots to post up.

I love being the family photographer – I have several families that I particularly enjoy working with, because I have seen so many stages of their lives.  The Murphy family fit this category perfectly.  I shot their wedding a couple of years ago, I have done a couple of different portrait shoots with them, including their new baby, Anaya, and most recently, Anaya’s Christening.

The family (and their friends) always love a good party, and this was no different.  The party was at Berrow Court, which is a hidden gem in the Harborne / Edgbaston area, and they had the whole house and gardens to celebrate, and they doubled the day up as Phoenix’s birthday (the younger of the boys).  Towards the end of the evening they had a band playing, and quite a few of the family and friends sang late into the evening (and they were good – not just some poor karaoke attempt!).

So here are some images from the day….

I have posted a lot recently about my wedding and portrait work, but inbetween these shoots, I am constantly working on corporate photography, so I thought I would post up a couple of my recent jobs to give a flavour of what else I get up to.

One of my favourite corporate clients are the REC - the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.  They are a member organisation who promote and lobby for the Recruitment sector.  They organise events for their members across the country and often invite me along to capture the events, either for internal publicity or for the press.

The most recent event was a Public Sector Recruitment conference held in the Congress Centre (a great venue in London for corporate events by the way), where amongst others, they had Sir Peter Gershon as keynote speaker.

My role on a day like this is to take photographs of the speakers, but also to give a photographic overview of the event, so I take photos of the networking during the breaks as well as delegates during the event itself.

The one thing about my job is the variety it gives me, and I genuinely find corporate events such as this interesting.  So here is what I do…

My pre wedding photographs blogs continue with some shots from my recent shoot with Julie and Sam.  They live in a village near Wolverhampton, so we went over to the lovely gardens at Himley Hall to get some photographs of the two of them together.  They are getting married later this year at Patshull Park Hotel, but I was particularly keen to meet up with them for pre-wedding shoot because I knew Julie was not keen on having her photo taken.  The great thing about being at a place like Himley Hall gardens is that it is spacious and relaxing, so we could just wander around, having a chat, stopping for some photographs, and wandering some more – nice and chilled (despite the hot day).

I’m really glad we had a chance to get these photos, and for me to get to know Julie and Sam better before their big day.

I have had a great batch of pre wedding photography recently, and yesterday sent Isabel and Michael a link to their gallery of images from their shoot a couple of weeks ago.  We spent an hour or so on a beautiful afternoon, wandering around their village in Staffordshire, chatting about their wedding and taking photographs.  I always enjoy taking photographs (probably would be in the wrong job if I didn’t), and I love being part of weddings, and particularly hearing about couple’s plans for the day.  Isabel and Michael are getting married at the stunning Stoke Park Club, Buckinghamshire (where some of Bridget Jones Diary was filmed, I am reliably informed…), and it is shaping up to be a fantastic day.

I also met their incredibly cute dog, and I couldn’t resist getting a few shots of him too…

The other part of my job that I love is showing clients their photographs, and getting feedback from them.  Not long after I sent the link to their gallery, I had an email back from Isabel to say how pleased they were with them, which is always lovely to hear.  I hope the dog was pleased with his shots too…

So here are some of the pre wedding photographs from their shoot….

As regular readers of my blog will know, and without getting all techie, I have some very funky event photography equipment which allows me to take photographs and print them out, at very high quality, within a minute.  I use it with my Prom photography (Prom Portfolios), I am starting to find some really innovative ways of using it as part of my wedding photography, but it is also perfect for event photography.  Events can include quite a variety of things, including corporate events, charity ball, or PTA events.

Earlier in the year I went down to Kings High School Warwick for a PTA Mother and Daughter evening, and had a lovely time taking photos of everyone, and they asked me along to their recent Ball down at the Heritage Motor Centre.  I had never been there before, and it is very impressive.  They have some beautiful vehicles there, and the site is massive (they have off-road tracks, g0-carts etc too), as well as conference areas – you can even have your wedding there.

I went down with Kat and Amanda, and set up our backdrop (I got very excited about how black my new black backdrop is – photographers get excited by that sort of thing), and my studio lights, plus our monitor and printer system.  We are trying to do something a little different from the majority of event photographers There was a Gangster and Moll theme to the ball, so we had some great outfits, and it was really enjoyable getting shots of the guests, which they could then view and take a copy away with them on the night.

It was great to meet the guests, and thanks to the PTA for inviting us to share their evening.  Here are some shots from the event…

I am proud to have recently become the recommended photographer for Compton Verney, one of the finest wedding venues in the Midlands, and I was there a couple of weeks ago for a wedding fayre.  We really enjoy wedding fayres – not only is it a chance to meet loads of new brides and grooms, but it is also great to meet other great suppliers.

Weddings at Compton Verney are coordinated by Sharon, who really makes sure that everyone that visits is made to feel incredibly welcome, and the fayre was just a sample of what the wedding venue can offer – a stunning venue, with the most incredible marquee, a nice glass of bubbly for everyone from Amadeus Catering as they arrived, and a friendly ambiance.

At this wedding fayre, we caught up with the very lovely Amanda from Bonne Fete, who creates the most amazing and really unique table settings (and is, as I mentioned, very lovely), but also met some great new suppliers, including Mallory Court and the Nero String Quartet (now my favourite quartet for weddings – some fab arrangements).

Also at the fayre were the Sassy Wedding Company (love that name), who were showing off some of their beautiful dresses.  With the model, Abbey Saunders, a great venue and good weather I couldn’t resist having a wander around to get some shots around Compton Verney.  Abbie’s outfit was finished off with a spectacular headpiece by Sharper Millinery, who had some stunning hats and headpieces at the fayre.  Abbie was great – very natural, and showed off the dresses perfectly (and very ably assisted by Charlotte – thanks Charlotte!).

So – here are some photographs from the day, showing off the dresses, millinery, and venue from an excellent wedding fayre:

I have had some great shoots recently – the weather has been great, and it has been lovely to meet up with wedding couples in different places.  Christine and James are getting married in Edgbaston later on this year, and we decided to go up to the Lickey Hills to talk through their wedding day plans and to get some pre-wedding photographs.  I love the Lickeys so it was nice to be able to get into the hills for a couple of hours (although I always seem to end up down the paths that lead nowhere…), and Christine and James are really easy-going so we wandered around stopping at various points to get some photographs of the two of them together.

We ended up at the cafe and spent a bit of time looking at the details of the day, which for me is an essential part of the pre-wedding shoot – the more I know about a wedding the better; if I know what is important to the bride and groom then I can make sure that my photos on the day reflect that.  And the more fun it all is too.

So here are some of the photographs from Christine and James’s pre-wedding shoot:

I spent a couple of hours around the city centre with Anya and Dario a couple of weeks ago.  Their wedding is in August, so we met up to take some photographs of the two of them (so they get used to being in front of the camera), but also to chat about some of the details for their big day.

The weddings I love the most are the ones where you really get a sense of who the bride and groom are.  Sometimes this is through the speeches or readings in the ceremony, but often it is just the little things such as the little flourishes of decorations, or quirky table plans.  Anya and Dario are definitely bringing their personalities to their wedding.  They are getting married in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.  Actually in the forest.  There is a small clearing where they are having the ceremony, and have commissioned a stained glass window to hang from the trees, followed by a reception in Anya’s parent’s garden – it all sounds absolutely magical.

It was great to catch up with you both, and I am really looking forward to the day itself.  Here are some sneak previews of the pre-wedding shoot.

My latest photographs for Worcestershire Life magazine are now in print.  I was asked to go to the largest recycling centre in Europe – The Forge in Stourport.  It is a commercial recycling area, and is simply massive.  It is in an old Forge (hence the name, obviously) covering about 16 acres, and they take waste from around the midlands, sort it, and then recycle as much as possible reducing the amount going to landfill massively.

It is an incredibly impressive operation and I could have quite happily spent the day photographing it all (I love massive industrial units like that, and it would make an interesting location for a shoot….).  Have a look at this months Worcestershire Life magazine (Archant Media) for the full story and more images…

The same day as Tristan’s shoot (below) I also went over to meet up with Bobbie and Tim and their very cute little boy, Jesse.  The last time I had met Jesse he was only a couple of weeks old – they were visiting Simon and Sam when I went over for a portrait session with their newborn, Lily.  So Jesse had changed a bit…

Jesse is such a good natured little boy – he was very patient with the whole photography process, and gave us some lovely smiles.  I have always found the key with photographing children, and particularly babies, is to go at their pace and be patient with them and have plenty of cuddle breaks.  This does mean that some shoots go on for longer than others, but for me it is really important that I get the beautiful shots that I know I can get.  However, Jesse was great – it was nice and relaxed, he was happy and it all went to plan.

It was good to catch up with Bobbie and Tim again, and to see that Jesse is so healthy and happy.  Here are some pics from the shoot….