Family Portraits in Luebeck, Germany.

Filed under Home, Lifestyle Photography, YBP KIDS • Written by admin @ 8:41 am

Last week I went home to Germany for a quick visit and it gave me the opportunity to catch up with my oldest friend Kira, whom I’ve known for nearly 35 years, and her family. Kira has the most adorable kids and her oldest son Lucan is my Godson.

It’s been a little while since I last saw them all and I can’t believe how much they’ve grown. We didn’t have much time for photographs, but there was no way I was leaving without a few quick snaps.

Lucan, Janek and Karla:

Wedding: Claire and Rob at Chelsea RO and The Bluebird, King’s Road.

Filed under Home, London Weddings, Weddings • Written by admin @ 3:58 pm

Last weekend I head to Chelsea to photograph the wedding of Claire and Rob who were having a civil ceremony at Chelsea Register Office.

After the ceremony we walked the short distance to St. Luke’s Gardens for an informal picnick/reception.

Then it was on to the Bluebird Restaurant on King’s Road where there were more drinks and nibbles laid on. The couple and their guests then went on to a lovely meal in the Gallery Room after we had parted company. (Notice those red soles! I do love red soled shoes :-) )

Congratulations to Claire and Rob!

Maternity Portraits: Sara

Filed under Home, Lifestyle Photography, YBP KIDS • Written by admin @ 2:19 pm

This week, Sara came to see me for some maternity portraits. Here baby is due in 7 weeks and I can’t wait to meet the little one when he or she arrives!

YBPHOTOGRAPHIC images featured on CNN.

Filed under Home, Published Work • Written by admin @ 2:03 pm

A few weeks ago I was raving here on the blog about the fabulous experience I had photographing, and meeting the people behind, the Vital Voices play “Seven”.

Well, CNN also seemed to think this was an interesting story and wrote an article about it. And I am thrilled to say that they used my images in support of the article. It’s the first time my images have been featured in the global media, so I’m pretty excited about it.

So if you are interested in reading their take on the evening, here’s the link: “Seven” Article on CNN.

Pre-wedding Portraits: Paul and Jen

Filed under Home, Lifestyle Photography • Written by admin @ 2:17 pm

Paul and Jen are getting married at Fulham Palace in July, a gorgeous place, and we headed along to the Embankment for our pre-wedding session. Both were really apprehensive about being photographed on their wedding day, so this was a great opportunity for us to get to know each other a bit better and or them to experience what it’s like to “pose” for portraits.

They found that mainly they had to kiss and cuddle a lot, and didn’t think that was too much of a hardship! I’m delighted to have their feedback that they feel much more relaxed about their wedding photography now.

Events: Vital Voices presents “Seven”

Filed under Home • Written by admin @ 7:28 am

Last night I had the great privilege to cover the performance (and following Q&A session) of the documentary play “Seven” brought to the stage through Vital Voices Global Partnership. Vital Voices is a global non-governmental organisation whose mission is to identify, train and empower emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the world. They are involved in supporting women as advocates for human rights, in creating women political and civil society leaders in societies in which women rarely have any rights whatsoever, in places where spousal abuse, violence against and oppression of women are the horrific norm.

“Seven” brings seven writers together to document the lives of seven women who have, often through great personal pain and loss, gone on to fight not only for their own rights, but the rights of all other women in their societies. The stories are told by way of monologues, and it is impossible not to be deeply moved by each and every one of them. The women tell stories of rape, abuse, lack of rights to education, lack of rights to medical treatment, threats on their lives – and many stories of suicide by women who could no longer stand the humiliation bestowed upon them, often by their husbands and family. Stories of women taking their children to their death with them. These women have built shelters and humanitarian programs to protect other women, have built educational programs to enable them to live independent lives and are shaping governments all around the world as leaders.

It is beyond the scope of this blog to write in detail about each of these amazing women (Hafsat Abiola (Nigeria), Farida Azizi (Afghanistan), Marina Pisklakova (Russia), Mukhtaran Mai (Pakistan), and Mu Sochua (Cambodia)) but it was a great privilege to meet and attend a Q&A session with two of them: Annabella de Leon (Guatemala) and Inez McCormack (Northern Ireland).

Annabella de Leon has risen from extreme poverty to become an attoney, member of Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, and an outspoken advocate against corruption in the Guatemalan government, a position which has seen her life threatened so many times that she is now lives under a protection order decreed by the Organisation of American States. Her profile is such that last nights “videographer” was in fact a production team from CNN!

Inez McCormack was born and raised a Protestant in Northern Ireland, yet married a Catholic and has become a longtime activist and bridge-builder among different religions and cultural coalitions. Having worked closely with Hilary Clinton on the first Vital Voices conference in Northern Ireland in 1998, she has worked on training programs for Catholic and Protestant women leaders who help build peace and economic progress.

Listening to these women talk about their lives, the challenges they meet on a daily basis, the barriers they have overcome to be what they are today was truly and deeply humbling and uplifting at the same time. Before last night I was not aware of the existence of the Vital Voices Global Partnership and as a woman I am incredibly grateful that such bodies exist to help women grow, to enable them, to become not just free, but to become LEADERS, to give hope and inspiration to other women.

The Q&A was followed by a VIP drinks reception hosted by Baroness Mary Goudie, who is member of the Board of Directors of Vital Voices, and was attended by many other high profile supporters of the cause.

If (like so many people I know) have read and been moved by Khaled Husseini’s fictional work “A Thousand Splendid Suns” then I urge you to click on some of the links provided. The stories are, at least in my humble opinion,  overwhelming and inspiring.

Wedding at Cooling Castle Barn: Ian & Liz

Filed under Home, Kent Weddings, Weddings • Written by admin @ 8:15 pm

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Ian and Liz at Cooling Castle Barn in Kent.

We started with preparations at Liz and Ian’s home.

Then it was off to St. Mary’s Church at Chalk,

And finally we headed to Cooling Castle Barn for the reception.

Ian and Liz had taken dancing lessons from Len Goodman himself for the First Dance and used a little bit of the time we had for the couples portraits to have a little practice run.

The receiving line saw us into the Wedding Breakfast.

After the speeches there was a little bit of break for the venue to prepare the dancefloor. The groom was clearly much more relaxed now that his speech was out of the way!

Three men and a baby:

And then it was time for Ian and Liz’s demonstration dance.

Many congratulations to Ian and Liz, who are off on their honeymoon this weekend.

Pre-wedding Portraits: Kaija and Ashley

Filed under Home, Lifestyle Photography • Written by admin @ 3:43 pm

Today I headed into the centre of London to meet up with Kaija and Ashley for their pre-wedding photo-session. We had great fun and I just HAD to put a little taster online. More to come when I’ve fully edited the session.

I can’t wait to shoot their wedding in July!

Family Portraits: Mark and Daisy

Filed under Home, Lifestyle Photography, YBP KIDS • Written by admin @ 4:49 pm

Having postponed our original shoot date due to the truly horrible weather, we were keeping our fingers firmly crossed for our weekend meeting in Bushy Park, as the weather forecast was rather dubious. We needn’t have worried. The sun was shining down on us all afternoon and Daisy and Mark had a great time playing together in the park’s playground.

Published in Perfect Wedding Magazine: Kelly and Andrew

Filed under Published Work • Written by admin @ 4:40 pm

And the last one of the catch-up published weddings.

Next Page »
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
(c) 2009 | powered by WordPress with DWF Photographer Theme