Upon arrival at The Dorchester I made my way up to the Penthouse Pavilion event space and was greeting with a glass of bubbly by some very well turned out “soldiers”. It was so lovely to see the room dressed for an event. Only a few short days before this I was assisting on an out of this world pre-wedding shoot produced and planned by MARK NIEMIERKO and photographed by one of my favourite wedding photograpers in the world, NIKOLE RAMSAY, who was flown in from Australia especially for the shoot!

All the following party photos by JEREMY ENNESS

The highlight of the evening was chatting one on one with a number of the UK’s top wedding dress designers. Here I am with STEPHANIE ALLIN who’s dresses I photographed for a styled shoot which was published over 8 pages in You & Your Wedding magazine.

Flowers adorning the room all by ROB VAN HELDEN 

Darcy Miller and Mark Niemierko

Cakes by PEGGY PORSCHEN

Wedding dress designer BRUCE OLDFIELD in the middle, who’s campaign I retouched around two years ago. Was nice to meet him in person!

DAVID FIELDEN who I regret not chatting to! Keata who is one of my most published brides to date wore one of his dresses and so did Jen who’s wedding we shot out in Mauritius. David made the dress especially for her even though it had been discontinued! She was in love.
On the right is IAN CARMICHAEL who is the Queen’s hair dresser!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I love the soft, pastel colours and the beautiful bokeh that only the f2.0 planar lens on a Contax medium format camera can give. It is just not possible to replicate with digital. Believe me, I’ve tried!

Today is 3 years ago that my Dad passed away from a sudden heart attack whilst running on the beach. Always in my thoughts, never forgotten.

Now, go and plan a trip with your mom / dad / brother / sister / husband / children!

In 2011 we had some incredible clients who have enabled us to see beautiful, quintessentially English venues around the country from the historic Great Fosters to the iconic Savoy and The Berkeley in London, through to the ultra modern RIBA Gallery and The Andaz Hotel in Liverpool Street. Not forgetting Botleys Mansion, Goodwood House, Exeter College in Cambridge, Notley Abbey (to die for!), Gatestreet Barn , Northbrook Park, Nonsuch Mansion, Oakley Hall and more.

In 2011 our clients invited us to travel to Morocco and shoot a wedding in a villa just outside the Medina in Marrakech, they flew us 18 hours across the globe to Indonesia to photograph their wedding in Bali, a year ago we photographed a couple’s wedding at The Oyster Box in South Africa where the Prince of Monaco tied the knot in an intimate ceremony with his new wife.

Our couples put so much time and effort into their big days that all of our weddings from the past year where picked up by either a blog or a magazine. We have been featured on Rock My Wedding, Style Me Pretty, The Wedding Chicks, Bridal Guide, Want That Wedding, Love My Dress blogs… and had weddings printed in You & Your Wedding, Wedding, Wedding Flowers, Perfect Wedding, Your Surrey Wedding and Cosmopolitan Bride UK & China.

At the start of 2011 we where interviewed in Turning Pro magazine as well as being featured in one of the largest circulated photography magazines – Rangefinder Magazine!

We attended workshops in order to improve our craft as well as our business skills. Namely the Adam Alex workshop, Julia Boggio’s Photographic Entrepreneur four day course and Mike Larson’s Tuscany workshop which fell over my 30th birthday.

Yes I turned 30 in 2011.

Turning 30 itself wasn’t a big deal but it’s the thoughts and decisions that you have to ponder in your mind once you are in your thirties and no longer in your twenties that changes the most. It feels as though the decisions we make now are so much more life altering and permanent. We are growing older, our family members are growing older, our friends are growing older. Something shifts – well it did inside my head anyway.

From mid 2011 and towards the end of 2011 I realised a goal of mine which was to shoot bridal fashion editorial. I am very excited to be taking commissions and working closely with magazines with regards to this sort of work in the future. One of the images has been used on the front cover of the You & Your Wedding December 2011 venue guide and there will be an 8 page feature coming out in the March 2012 issue. I truly love shooting bridal fashion and spent many an hour during my retouching days wishing that I was the one doing the shooting and not just the post production.

At the end of 2010 I felt a little burned out. I was working crazy hours and all I could think about was work, work, work, the business and photography. I visit South Africa for 6 weeks that year and I remember my mother commenting to me how tired I looked and it just wasn’t right. In 2011 the decision was made to OUTSOURCE. Oh the relief! If you can get your business to a point where you are able to let certain things go, then do it. We selected a number of things that could be easily outsourced and then chose to outsource some parts that are harder to let go of. I work very closely with the people who are now an integral part of the operation and I am pleased as punch. It meant that this year when I went home to visit I was totally at ease, able to relax and went on a road trip around the Cape with my mom!

That is how it is meant to be.

In 2011 Craig and I celebrated four years of marriage and 12 years of being together in total. Wow! Where does the time go? Here’s to many more memories and what we got up to in pictures…

A mixture of images taken on Canon 5D m2, Nikon D700, Panasonic Lumix, Contax 645 film camera…

In 2011 We watched the sunset over the dessert in Morocco

We drank a ton of mint tea in Marrakech

We flew 18 hours, drove 2 hours, took a boat for half an hour and then hired a motorbike to get around Lembongan Island in Indonesia

We found a place called Secret Beach

We shared a drink and a chat

… and jumped off the rock into the ocean

We crossed a wooden suspension bridge only wide enough for a single motorbike

We got a bit lost

We came across a place called Dream Beach

We drank freshly made smoothies on a daily basis

We ate at Katut’s Warrung near Shipwrecks

Craig had the best surf of his life

We shot pictures for fun

We learned to be patient

We arrived at Uluwatu to see this perfect surf

We spent many a day at Belangan beach

We ate too many banana pancakes

Craig surfed until the sun disappeared

We found out what Bintang meant

I fell in love with the decor at Cafe Bali in Seminyak

We had cocktails on beanbags on Seminyak beach

Craig visited Cordoba in Spain to spend some time with his brother

We attended a workshop in Tuscany hosted by Mike Larson in May over my 30th birthday

We learned that is is completely normal to go around calling people Bitch in Miami. Hence the song we gather.

We started shooting film again and love it

The love affair with film and the Contax 645 begins…

We did the tourist thing and signed up for a 48 hour open top bus tour and boat ride

We discovered that 36oz Mojitos equate to 1L and take 45 mins to drink

We saw many a jaw dropping site in Miami and things get “Miami Weird” LOL

We jetted off to the Turks & Caicos Islands in the Caribbean

We kayaked on the sea

More film

We ate fresh Conch at the Conch Shack

I went up Table Mountain for the first time

I road tripped around the Cape with my mom and visited many places, including Hermanus

Had sundowners at The Oyster Box’s luxury Lighthouse Bar with old friends in Durbs

I stood at the Southern Most Tip of Africa for the first time

I worked on my tan

We walked around Pringle Bay

We laughed, we cried, we had fun, we traveled, we learned, we photographed a lot – wow what a year!

Contax 645 with Fuji 400H

Turns out it is a pretty fun place to visit.
Turns out the cocktails come in 1L giant glasses.
Turns out we had so much fun that I wish I had shot more film while I was there.

All shot on a Contax 645 with Fuji 400H and processed by Richard Photo Lab in the States.

Why? Well…

Craig and I spent a night in Henley Upon Thames for the first time this summer. We where there for a Saturday wedding and decided to avoid the traffic on the morning of the wedding (highly recommended!) and get to see the lovely little town in Oxfordshire.

This is from our first batch of film that we sent to Richard Photo Lab in the States to be developed and scanned.

I am in love with the look of film…

Is it just me, or does it feel like you can almost jump into this shot!? I love the Contax 645 / film combo.

When I look at the design and colour my heart yearns to make a trip out to Morocco again purely to purchase a million gorgeous things for my future house!

Where the ancient practice of bartering for goods is still considered as official trading, negotiating skills are certainly required when securing a deal. No longer are you offered the luxury of waltzing into a store and parting with cash as advertised per item. Instead you are offered the opportunity to acquire said product for a bargain well below the asking price. Word of warning though, this means of trade has been practised in Marrakech since before the dawn of the city itself. Although hard bargains can be driven, many a smile has vanished from the face of the seasoned traveller, walking away from a deal when the realisation that the newly purchased carpet was never intended but instead belongs in the category labelled impulse buy. Never-the-less shopping in Marrakech certainly is an experience to behold. The shop owners are generally very friendly and not aggressive or overly pushy. It must be remembered though that you are in their domain of which they have been masters for centuries. Enjoy the experience and rather walk away from any unintended sale. You won’t walk away from Marrakech without purchasing something, so just ensure that you’re clear about what you want before getting into a situation where you’re negotiating a price for something that was never intended.

Away from the hustle and bustle, although still maintained within, is the solace of your respective Riad . We stayed at the Riad Dar Zaman (www.darzaman.com) and were very well looked after by Adil and Hassan. Upon our arrival we were offered the choice of two rooms and chose the one situated on the rooftop. The rooftop terrace was laid out with deckchairs and cushions in keeping with a local theme. It was from here that I noticed the intensity of the blue skies above. It may be the lack of clear skies during recent weeks, but surely a bluer sky would mean a new hue added to the spectrum. With the help of an infused Moroccan green and mint tea, the distant sound of life below and birds above reduce the intensity of the outside world to a distant memory. In fact, from above is where I preferred conducting my observations. The market-trading square of Jemaa el Fna is surrounded by roof top terraced restaurants and tea houses. An excellent vantage point to take in the sights and sounds of the snake charmers, henna tattoo artists and fresh orange juice sellers plying their trade below. As evening descends the square is transferred into a bustling range of food stalls selling a mixture of fine Moroccan cuisine. While in Marrakech we on more than one occasion indulged in the local tagines at several of the fine eateries. A delicacy that has prompted me in wanting to get my own tagine in order to combine the delicate flavours and fragrance of sweet and spicy in the comfort of my own home. Unfortunately the ancient Shisha (Hookah) tradition was not available in any of the establishments we visited in Marrakech. As it turns out Shisha smoking has been banned in all public places in Marrakech, but can however be enjoyed in the confines of your Riad. If time had allowed I would have afforded myself the luxury, and taken advantage of one of the many spas available for a hammam and massage treatment. Another tradition well worth investing should we happen to find our way back into the pulse of Morocco.

Craig and I are so blessed to have a beautiful vineyard on our doorstep here in Dorking, Surrey. We took the medium format camera out during the lovely warm spurt not too long ago and these are the gorgeous, creamy-bokeh, buttery smooth but still tack sharp results.

And the best part? These are straight out of camera!

These last two are shot on Craig’s square format Rollie