Felbridge Hotel Masked Ball, East Grinstead

We were the official photographers at a Masked Ball at the Felbridge Hotel & Spa on Saturday 28th February. This was a great event and very well attended. We took some "posed" photos in the reception area where everyone was having cocktails. Iain was shooting with the 5D MKII tethered and it worked really well. We had an event printer with us and were able to print on site. These are some of the images from the posed shots.

After the photographs had been taken evenone moved into the room where dinner was being served. During this period we processed the images in Lightroom and were therefore ready to start taking orders once dinner was finished.

This was also an opportunity to try out the 5D MKII and see what it is capable of. This is a shot that was taken by Iain at ISO 6400 f2.8 without flash. It is far from being perfect but I think it conveys the atmosphere of the room very well. The shot taken after this one was taken with the 5D using flash and gives a totally different result.

After dinner I walked around the room and took some shots at the tables. We didn't sell these on the night but they will be available to view on our online gallery from Monday onwards.

There were two different groups providing music for the evening. The first was from ‘Asteria’, an Electric Quartet who have just returned from their European Tour with ‘Take That’ and they were following by the live sounds of ‘The Blue Groove’. I thought they were both excellent and I am sure they were appreciated by the guests who attended the event.

Throughout the evening we were taking orders for prints and we delivered them towards the end of the evening. We left the event at around 1.00 a.m. and the dancing was still going strong. I think that Nigel Humphriss who promoted the event did a fantastic job and we hope to be able to work with him again in the future.

Wedding evening [blogged by Iain]

Louise mentioned last week that we would be attending a wedding evening hosted by Spires Hairdressing in East Grinstead. We went along on Monday evening and had the opportunity to meet with a few prospective brides and other suppliers in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Karen, the owner of the Salon, was demonstrating various styles on some of the prospective brides, while the rest of us were located around the salon and adjoining office space to talk about the services we could offer. Of course, we couldn't resist the opportunity to take some shots while we were there and I have posted a couple of these below.















The next bit is for those interested in the technology... the rest of you can stop reading now.

All images were shot on the Canon 5D Mk II with 24-70mm f2.8L IS USM. The first three shots were lit by flash - 580EX II with a Gary Fong Litesphere. The remaining images were shot at ISO 3200 under existing halogen & fluorescent lights.

The Black and White conversions were done in Lightroom 2.2 using Mikey G's B&W presets, which emulate a number of different Black and White film styles. The exterior shot emulates Ilford Delta 100, the interior shot emulates Ilford SFX 200 and the head shots emulate Ilford FP4 125 and Ilford Delta 400 Pro respectively. These are great presets and definitely worth having a play around with if you use Lightroom.

Engagement Shoot with Alistair & Venetia

Yesterday we did an engagement photo shoot with a gorgeous couple. They are getting married in South Africa in September so we won't be doing the wedding but it was such fun getting a chance to spend some time with them yesterday and we managed to get some great images from the day. Al is my cousin's son and I know she will be really keen to see some pictures from the day so I wanted to get them up on the Blog as soon as possible. They were telling us about some of their plans for the wedding in September and I know it is going to be a very special day for them. Here are some of my favourites from the day... all comments welcome.

Wedding Evening - Spires Hairdressing

I just wanted to let you know about a Wedding Event we will be attending on 23rd February at Spires Hairdressing in East Grinstead. One of our clients, who is a hairdresser, is putting on an evening for brides and some local suppliers will be there as well. Karen will be doing some examples of bridal hair and the suppliers will be on hand to discuss some of the other arrangements brides will need to think about. If you live in the area it is definitely worth visiting. Below are some more details supplied by Karen:

Getting Married?

Just let your mind wander for a moment………

Your hair has that wow factor!
Your flowers could grace a Royal wedding!
Your photographs capturing just the right smile!
Your guests children have a crèche for that peace of mind!
Your balloons have that look of ..what a reception!
and….
Your perfect honeymoon….the icing on the cake!

Come and see our ideas for your magical day in action over a glass of wine with complimentary admission at….
Spires Hairdressing Salon, 1 Church Lane, East Grinstead
On Monday 23rd February from 6.00pm – 9.00pm
(nearest free parking – Chequer Mead)

We have a collection of people including:

Blossoms(Florist)
Spires Hairdressing
Got it covered (Live band)
Balloonability (balloons for every occasion)
Pure View Photography (Photographers)
South East childcare (nanny service)
Siobhan Woods (beautician)
Louise Nye (for personalised honeymoons)

Family Photo Shoot

You may have seen my earlier post about Chloe's 18th Birthday Party. After the party we were asked to do a family photo shoot with all members of one branch of the family. As many of the people involved in the photo shoot are not available during the day it was scheduled to take place in the evening. This is always more challenging because you don't have natural light to work with, but we took along some of our professional lighting equipment. The family were such fun to work with and really got into the spirit of the shoot. We are still processing most of the images but just wanted to put a few up here in the meantime. All comments welcome...

If you are interested in having a family photo shoot, please get in touch with me by email or phone:

Email: louise@pureviewphoto.com
Phone: 07595 044252

Sweet Sixteen?

At the weekend our daughter, Faith, celebrated her 16th birthday. She had a party and we were asked (not really negotiable!) to stay out of the house for 3 hours. So we went out for a meal and left Max (who is almost 18) with the job of letting us know if we had to come back for any reason. We had a lovely relaxing evening but I must confess I did call Max a couple of times just to make sure everything was okay.

When we arrived back everything was as normal as a 16th birthday party could be. It looks like it was a good party and by around midnight most of the guests had gone, leaving just a few of Faith's friends who were staying for a sleepover. This is a picture I took before we went out and Faith is the one in the middle.

Competition [blogged by Iain]

The SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) run a monthly competition across several different categories, awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze for the winning images. I have only entered twice and was really pleased to get a Silver in the Contemporary Wedding category in the January competition. This is the image which received that award:



This particular image was shot on Brighton beach on a chilly Friday afternoon, hence the lack of other people in the shot as well as the lovely blue sky.

The image was treated in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to adjust the balance of exposure across the image and to create the panoramic crop. Other than that, it's almost exactly as I captured it.

Caroline & her horse

On Saturday morning I was up bright and early (for a Saturday morning!) to go and take some photographs of a friend of mine with her horse. This is a personal project for me and it was really great to get out and do something that is a bit different. It is a long time since I have been around horses and I think they are so beautiful and really quite majestic. It wasn't quite as cold as I had been hoping for and the skies were a bit grey but I think we still managed to get some good shots.

I have also been playing around with In Design and have put together a montage of some of the images just to see how it looks. If I was printing it I would only have one black thin line around the outside. The rest is really our branding for the web. I'm not sure how well you will be able to see this, so I have also included some individual images. An added bonus was that I got to see Alfie who is Caroline's incredibly cute baby.

Caroline stables her horse at Ray Lodge Farm and they also run a B&B. We took some photographs for their new website while we were there and we will do a blog about this in the near future. I met Sheila who runs the farm/B&B and she is really lovely. So if you need a B&B in the Lingfield area please bear her in mind. All comments are welcome...

A Place in the Sun - [blogged by Iain]

We have been looking for ways to expand our commercial photography activities and one of the areas we have been interested in is exhibition photogrpahy. I went to the "A Place in the Sun" exhibition in Birmingham last year at the invitation of the organisers. I presented the organisers with a selection of the images and must have done something right, as we have been appointed as the official photographers for this year's exhibition in London in April.

The images below were taken from the exhibition in Birmingham last year. Watch this space to see this years images...

Helping a Friend

Earlier this week I went to visit a friend of mine who is a florist based in London. I have known Randal for many years going back to the time when I worked in the corporate world and he organised flowers for us on a weekly basis. He also used to send flowers to authors and created amazing arrangements when we were hosting book launches and other events.

We were discussing how to attract more business in these challenging economic times and I suggested he try setting up a Blog. Although Randal liked this idea he is not great with technology so I helped him to set up the structure. However, I insisted that he did the first blog himself. And so the Blog for Flowers by van Twisk was created...

Please visit his Blog and give him some feedback. If you know of anyone who is getting married (or hosting an event) I would highly recommend you get in touch with Randal as he really does provide a personal service at competitive rates. The images below are from an event he covered at Mansion House in the Summer. We went along to take some images for his portfolio and he managed to create some truly impressive displays in this amazing location. His contact details are:

Email: flowers@fbvt.com
Tel: 020 7834 4071

Hallmark Travel Event in West Sussex

We spent Saturday at the Hallmark Travel Extravaganza in East Grinstead. It was held at East Court in East Grinstead and we know the location well as we photographed a wedding there in September. It was an extremely busy day for us as the event started at 10.00 and finsihed at 5.00 p.m. Throughout the day there were presentations by the various tour operators as well as activities going on in the hall, including local Indian restaurant Nizam. In some ways it was similar to a wedding fair where there are busy periods and then really quiet times. However, overall I thought the response was pretty good for a very cold January day. The Mayor opened the event and we took some photos, but as these may appear in the local press I won't put them up here yet. I thought Charmaine from Hallmark Travel had organised this event really well and everything seemed very smooth and professional. Sadly, we were not in a position to book a holiday ourselves but if you are thinking about your plans for 2009/2010 I would highly recommend getting in touch with Hallmark Travel. Hallmark Travel chose the British Heart Foundation as their charity for the event and made a donation to them for each person who registered for the event.

Here are some of our favourites from the day... all comments welcome. If you were one of the tour operators at the event, the event gallery will be online soon and Charmaine will be in touch to let you know the details.

Hallmark Travel's Holiday Extravaganza

I wanted to let you know about a great travel event that is taking place in East Grinstead at the weekend. Hallmark Travel who are an award winning Travel Agent, based in East Grinstead, are organising a Travel Holiday Extravaganza. This is a great opportunity to plan your holidays for 2009/10 and the beauty of it is that it's right on your doorstep. It is taking place at East Court Mansion, East Court, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 3LT. Charmaine at Hallmark Travel has really put a lot of effort into making this event a success and I would highly recommend you come and have a look if you live in the area.

We will be attending the event as the official Photographer's so we may just see you there.

Hallmark Travel's

Holiday Extravaganza 2009!

Saturday 17 January 2009

at The Meridian Hall, East Grinstead

10am - 5pm

If you need some inspiration…If you have something to celebrate… If you just want something different…

Our Holiday Extravaganza is a day full of exciting ideas, presentations, advice and help with planning and pricing…with experts and specialists gathered on just this one day and just for you!

Programme details, presentation times and appointments available

Visit Hallmark Travel's website for more details...