Three Days In Yorkshire

We spent a very pleasant three days working in Yorkshire covering an Sikh wedding. I have posted a few images here but due to the nature of our clients work we have been asked not to post any actual images of them or their guest. These are just to give a flavour of what we have been doing and show the fantastic canvas we had to work with.



This was our first Sikh wedding and we really enjoyed the experience and the food!!





The actual wedding took place in Sheffield followed by a new reception venue for us, Hodsock Priory http://www.hodsockpriory.com/



Hodsock is stunning and we loved the place. Superb grounds and a simply fantastic architecture. Check out their web site, its really interesting.

From a photography point of view we had a ball for three full days and came away with some great images. The weather was fantastic on all three days which made things so much more pleasant for everyone.

The year continues to keep nice and busy and after a rare weekend off we are ready for the busy months of July and August. Both Stephanie and myself have some training clients booked in for July and we are really looking foreward to working with some really great new delegates. Due to the high volume of weddings this year we have not yet organised any group training days however, we have some planned later in the year. Instead we are concentrating on bespoke one 2 one sessions. So if you are interested in learning more about any aspect of photography or need help with your photography business please do contact us directly or via our training website http://www.ashtonphotography.co.uk/main.asp?section=training

Thats all for now off to meet some clients for a pre wedding shoot and it looks nice and sunny out there!!

Latest featured Weddings

Two of our lovely bride and grooms from last year are both featured in this months edition of Wedding Ideas Magazine. We have Adele and Ken who have just celebrated their first anniversay! Their wedding took place at a country churchin Much Hoole and then onto Stanley House in Mellor. www.stanleyhouse.co.uk Stanley House boasts a wonderful mix of modern and traditional architecture, with the most fabulous spiral staircase and glass chandalier. Adele and Ken's wedding was a wonderful celebration and I know everyone had a fanatstic day!





Rachel and Kierran tied the knot in Chester and their celebration then took place at the magnificent Soughton Hall www.soughtonhall.co.uk Rachel's Dad walked her down the aisle then changed and conducted the service as this was the church he had been been the minister at for many years...a very touching service! Soughton Hall standing proud in stunning grounds is a wonderful period country house and the marquee adds a touch of glamour!

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

I spent all day on Wednesday working on an architectural assignment in Liverpool. As is the case with this type of work a lot of time is spent just waiting for the light!! So I found my self on a fantastic sunny day sat on the the steps of the cathedral, coffee in one hand and the D3x with a 14-24mm lens on the tripod to good a chance to miss so here are a few images captured in my lunch break.

The Lakes & Beyond

So far this month we have photographed weddings in Lancashire, Cumbria, Cheshire and this weekend finds us working in Yorkshire so the miles are clocking up and business is very good with three new booking for next year taken this week.

Last weekend we photographed a great wedding at Storrs Hall in Cumbria. Storrs has always been a venue we enjoy not many places give the chance to work in such a fantastic landscape. This wedding was a large one to say the least and the wedding breakfast was held in a marque in the hotel grounds, a few yards away from the edge of Lake Windermere. Whils the meal took place I spent some time just roaming the grounds and indulging in my love of landscape photography.

I had the chance to work with the new Nikon D3x at a few weddings and it has proved to be a great camera in every way but possibly not the best for wedding work with such large file sizes. The D3x will be staying in our equipment room but only for commercial work. The smaller file size and better high ISo quality or the D3 still makes it the number one camera for me and my type of wedding photography.

Here are a few more images from our latest weddings. Hope you enjoy them. The first shows Storrs Hall in superb evening light after a very wet day indeed last Saturday


Here we made use of some portable location flash gear and the fantastic landscape. I love this image.


Here is the stunning Marque at Storrs Hall.Florist Margaret Mason did a fantastic job of the flower dispays as she always does.


The final images are from weddings at The Great Hall At Mains and Mitton Hall both fantastice venues.

Mitton Hall has recently been fully refurbished and must now rank as one of the areas top wedding venues.







Finally back to Bartle Hall and a little bit more location Flash and the stunning staircase.

Latest Weddings

With May our busiest month of the year comming to a close, here are some images from the wedding of Laura and Michael. Despite a very wet day everybody had a great time including Stephanie and myself.We seem to blessed with some great clients at the moment work realy is a pleasure. Laura kept smiling all day and the fun and emotion at this wedding really show through in the pictures.

Thanks guys it was great to be with you on your big day. The reception was held at the superb Bartle Hall Hotel and Nicola ran the day with her normal realaxed and very efficient style. Wedding at Bartle Hall always seem so relaxed, as soon as you walk through the door you get a feeling everything is under control. Without doubt one of our top tips for a wedding venue in the Preston area.

The cameras have taken a dousing this month with so many wet wedding but unlike the Canon's they continue to deliver the results regardless of what the weather throws at them. In the next few weeks I hope to post some more technical stuff for you photographers out there.

The editing for Mays weddings is going great which considering we have moved away from Apple computers and are now using PC's for all our main image editing has been a pleasant surprise. The swap over went without a problem and I must say I am enjoying working on a PC. But more about that later. Here are some pictures...

Latest Weddings Hot Off The Press

Sorry its been a while since my last post, but this month has been busy to say the least. May will see Stephanie and myself covering 16 weddings in total. It will be our busiest month of the year so blogging time is a bit limited.

We aim to get images to clients within a maximum of two weeks so there is a lot of editing and post production going on here at the moment.



So far we have covered some superb weddings this month starting of with a really special one in Wrea Green Lancashire. Our great friend Jane from Flower Design was working on this one so we know the very would look very special. My Brief for this wedding was one of total reportage with no real formal shots and it was great to have a day just doing what I love to do. The Sun was shinning we had great locations and great clients Sarah & Andrew "they call this work"

In the end I stayed longer than I should just to cover the first dance. The entire day just went like a dream Flower Design doing their usual superb job along with Jack's Bistro who produced some fantastic food on the day. In the evening we had great entertainment from singer Jason McCann who just made the hairs on the back of your neck stand when he started to sing. This guy really is superb, sure we will be seeing a lot of him on the wedding circuit. All in all a fantastic Start to the month

Here are a few more images from the wedding of Sarah & Andrew









Later in the month we found ourselves working with Linley & Simon. This was another great wedding with a lot of time devoted to photography. This enabled us to make use of the stunning Bowland fells and other great locations at their venue the Inn At Whitewell. This is one venue we love to work at the location is stunning and always so relaxed and informal.





The latest wedding out of post production is Vicki & Carl who tied the knot in Didsbury Manchester followed by a great reception at Dukes 92. The bride and groom along with their wedding party were amongst the nicest people I have met for a long time. Once again I had a very open brief which gave me a little time to get some great shots around Castlefield which many of you will know is a location I love to use. The light here is just so special. Here are a few shots from Saturdays wedding sure more will follow I just had a ball!!!!















Anyway thats all for now lots of work to do hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed making them!! The final Image is a personal fav of mine. I have wanted to get a bride and groom into this particular spot for a long time. Its not the cleanest place in Manchester but Vicki and Carl were up for it Thanks Guys and I hope the effort was worth it. Its one thing for models on photo shoots to do this stuff but very rare for a bride to willing to get the Jimmy's Dirty !!

Training Course At Lytham Hall

After spending some time exploring the amazing Lytham Hall a few weeks ago I decided it would make a fantastic location for a portrait or lighting course and yesterday I had the chance to do just that. I spent the full day with a very keen and talented young lady who is studying photography at university. She was finding the degree course is giving her very little real understanding of photography and wanted to spend some time looking at specific professional skills.

So she provided two models for the day and I gave some time to try and help. Christy had offered Lytham Hall as a possible location on our last meeting and she came up trumps on the day looking after us very well indeed.




Here are just a few shots hot off the press many more to follow. We had a great day with some fantastic sunshine hope you like them and if anybody out there needs some help please feel free to give me a call or drop me an e-mail.