WEDDING SEASON IS HERE!

Well another busy wedding season is well and truly upon us.
I was delighted to be approached by An Essex Wedding Magazine to supply this months cover picture. It was a lovely wedding at Boreham Church followed by a rousing reception at Three Rivers Country Club.
The picture is of Erica who married Craig Hubble. Personally it was great to catch up with 4 other couples whose weddings I had previously photographed over the years.
I am also talking to An Essex Wedding Magazine about possibly supplying next months cover image too!
After 8 weeks of complete computer HELL (is it a coincidence that Dell rhymes with hell?) and a new £2,000.00 investment we are fully geared up for this years work. We have ended up with 3 almost brand new machines after almost everything that could be replaced was replaced.
We have new albums in the studio, new software, new lenses and as my staff keep reminding me, still the same old photographer!



I was delighted last week to receive the title of MPA travel and landscape photographer of the year for the Essex region.
Its particularly nice when that is not my regular work and was a labour of love rather than a comissioned job. The winning image is that of an ancient olive grove taken on the outskirts of Lagans in Zakynthos, Greece. No I did not stay at the lager lout infested resort but merely drove past on a trip around the gorgeous pine clad island. The image came second over all out of 132 images to a portrait taken by a friend of mine which was a cracking image. So he got the £100 cash prize and I got a bottle of wine! Many thanks to Len Dance for his kind words and encouragement.



I love this image. It was hardly worked on at all, which somehow makes it even more pleasing as most images nowadays are 'photoshopped to death' before use. There is something lovely about pure photography that the digital age seems to have destroyed. Everyone who owns a mobile phone thinks they are a photographer. Confetti throwing at weddings nowadays is 90% photographers capturing the 10% of confetti throwers. Sky Sports and the 'non-active' armchair sportsman generation has a lot to answer for hey?

This month is 20 years since I photographed my very first wedding. It has been a great ride so far and I am wondering what the next 20 years of photography will bring? One things is for sure ,life is never dull being a photographer! Luv gav x

Picture of Hayley Mac wins Fuji Film prize

I am delighted to announce that my recent cover shoot for www.theweddingnetwork.co.uk magazine with Hayley Mac has just won a monthly prize in the www.fujifilmenvisage.co.uk awards. Hayley was voted face of the Wedding Network and has since competed in Miss Great Britain in 2007.
This picture was not the image used on the magazine but was a favourite of both of ours from the shoot. The image will go forward to the yearly competition where if successful I get some trophy and Hayley gets a bag full of cash!
Like the Murphy's I am not bitter though as I am sure she would treat me to a nice bottle of bubbly with her ill-gotten gains (wouldn't you Hayley?).
I would like to wish Hayley all the best in her modelling career and with her new band Touch Too Wild.
This year we will be launching our new portrait website to run alongside our award winning wedding photography website www.reportagephotography.com

PORTO Trip

Each year I find it is great to spend a little time bouncing ideas off some colleagues. When it is done in a different country, surrounded by people who inspire you and with a beautiful model, it makes the trip all the more enjoyable.
The first picture of Sonia, a professional singer and part-time model was taken in the Portuguese Photographic Museum. This is situated in an old prison. Now, please do not ready any symbolism into the fact that she is in a wedding dress in a prison (like some of my more cynical friends did!). During these pictures it was quite amusing to have a bunch of Portuguese photographers hanging over my shoulder replicating what I was doing. I expect there are some very similar images to mine on a few Portuguese photographers websites by now!!!
A video light held by our Host Jose, provided the angelic halo behind Sonia.



The second image is probably my favourite and was taken on the top of a fabulous bridge with Sonia dancing madly along the tram lines. Several times we had to jump out of the way or we may have had a very different set of pictures indeed! This was taken just after the sun had gone down to our right hand side. It made a spectacular sunset over the Douro Valley but I am more of a people photographer than a landscape so concentrated on our model than the scenery.What a true professional hey?

The third image is showing another look of Sonia's. Some models have just one look. For me what makes a really good model is that they have more than one look. Sonia could do anything from sultry, sexy sophisticated to wild abandon, to cheeky fun and everything in between. Coupled with a wicked sense of humour that was not hindered by the language barrier and amazing bone structure I am amazed she is not a major star.
The model shoot day was my personal highlight. Followed closely by a trip to see FC Porto fall the way so many other teams have fallen over the years. Crashing out of a major cup to a robotic well-drilled German team on penalties. FC Shalke04 were the victors this time. The German fans were in fine voice all day with their songs resonating right across the River Douro to where we were enjoying the delights of the Sandemans PORT tour (and subsequent free samples!).
Hopefully my clients this year will benefit from me taking time out to practice my skills. It always amazes me that so many 'professional' photographers never take any time to improve or try out new ideas in their own time. It is often done with their clients as guinea pigs. Can you imagine a Premiership footballer never practicing their penalties until in a penalty shoot-out... Come to think of it , maybe that is why the Germans always win!!!
Back to reality and some more lovely weddings.
Luv gav x
Gavin Woollard Essex Wedding Photography - Reportage Photography

Spains hall open days and wedding fair

Well what a lovely weekend! The sun shined and www.spainshall.co.uk was looking fabulous.
There can be few venues with a lovlier atmosphere and praise must go to Tim and Rosemary Ruggles-Brise for creating such a wonderful venue. It was also great to get out and chat to people again.
90% of our work is from recommendation nowadays, so we do not often promote ourselves at events such as these but for Spains Hall I made an exception.
It was worth hanging around just to sample the gorgeous Baileys profiteroles made by the outside catering side of http://www.le-talbooth.co.uk !
I met some lovely people, most organising events in 2009 but many still have some details to sort out for weddings this year.
Over 350 people came on Saturday and over 500 on Sunday. Some were locals just having a good look around their local wedding venue.
I have enjoyed a great relationship with the staff here since the time the Stables were a building site. I was delighted to be asked to photograph the brochure pictures which featured a young dancer/model called Nina (above).

More pictures can be seen at our Spains hall website page http://www.reportagephotography.com/spainshall.htm

I am looking forward to doing many more weddings at this beautiful venue this year. In the meantime I will be back to photograph some more trees being planted as I did last in their ever expanding Arboretum in February.
Its great being a photographer!
gw x