Jane

Ball

Another image from the Lake District wedding in July 2023.

The bride and her bridesmaids were such a joy to work with during the portrait session. This image just sums up the fun and relaxed vibe of the day.

As the song goes "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and I had just as much being part of such a beautiful wedding.

Summer in the Lake District can be a bit hit and miss with the weather. This wedding took place in the middle of July and true to form we had to contend with less than perfect conditions but this beautiful couple didn't let it spoil the day.

The best thing about rain is that it saturates the colours in the landscape making it so easy to get dramatically colourful images. I love how the pretty florals "pop" against the darker sky. I didn't have to do much editing here as mother nature gave me a huge helping hand!

My bride and groom were thrilled with their gallery and so was I.

I love the golden hour for couples portraits and this venue has some of the best light when conditions are right.
Team the sunset with a beautiful wildflower meadow and you have the perfect scene for romantic, warm photographs.

I've shot several weddings at this venue, all of them during the summer months and this obviously means you have to wait until fairly late in the evening to get images like this but I definitely think it's worth the wait!

The location for this image is at the back of a rural barn with some beautifully dark and moody woodlands in the background. The venue owner had placed this lush purple sofa in the darkest area so I placed some large candles to one side to counterbalance the dark scene. I asked the bride to sit in the middle of the sofa and we spread her gorgeous boho style dress out and onto the grass. She just "popped" out from the rich colours of the woodland and the sofa. This is one of my most favourite images I've ever produced.

This was a beautiful twilight wedding at The Priests House and Old Chapel in Yorkshire. My couple wanted some dramatic portraits and as it had rained most of the day with the odd rumble of thunder, when the mist came rolling in I knew we just had to drive out onto the surrounding moorland. Using off camera flash to light the couple I underexposed the scene to bring even more drama to the background. When I saw the resulting image on the lcd screen I knew I'd got something special.

I absolutely love this shot. My couple wanted their pre wedding session in a place that they love - The Lake District, Cumbria so between us we decided that we'd go to Rannerdale above Buttermere where the bluebells bloom with abandon in May. The weather in the Lakes is notoriously fickle but on this day absolutely everything came together. The sun was shining but we had clouds which added to the drama of the mountains in this stunning part of the UK.

We'd been walking for a while and Sam, the groom was struggling with a sprained ankle so I just said why not have a rest here. As they sat down among the wildflowers I couldn't resist the scene with Melbreak Fell in the distance and my couple snuggled up together so in love among the flowers. Just gorgeous. I photographed their wedding a couple of months later - also in the Lake District.

I'd taken my couple along this little path to the woodland beyond for their evening portraits. When we came back the lights had come on and this composition was there for the taking. Such a simple shot with the dark yew trees behind providing the clean background and the lights either side balancing the scene perfectly.

I'm always looking for different perspectives when shooting couples portraits, something to make that couples photos stand out from others. By getting down low and putting my camera on the ground this couple really "popped" from the dark foreground and background. They were super happy with this shot and so am I.

Taken at the Tarn at Fairbank Barn in the English Lake District, this photograph was one that I knew my couple wanted above all others. It was a really special few minutes were they could just relax and enjoy a bit of quiet "them" time after the ceremony. We had waited until the rain had stopped before going up to the Tarn. My bride didn't bother one bit that her dress would get wet and very dirty. She just wanted to be with her new husband at a place she loved.

Summer in the English Lake District is never guaranteed to be sunny but that didn't deter this beautiful couple from doing what they wanted to get the photos they wanted from their day. We'd gone up to the Tarn at the venue to shoot some portraits and this photo was taken just as the weather really turned. I love moody skies and this one couldn't have been moodier. The rain started to fall just as my couple started to dance and I knew I had a keeper.

This is probably one of the best sunsets I've experienced as a wedding photographer. As soon as I saw the lane outside the venue I knew I had to get my couple out and into that beautiful warm light for their portraits. They were such a great fun loving couple we were out for ages and I got absolutely loads of gorgeous portraits of them just being them, enjoying some quiet time away from the crowd.

Alex and Nathan's wedding took place at their own home, a stunningly beautiful property in the heart of East Lancashire. They knew exactly how they wanted their romantic portraits to look so they chose the place that has the best views of the sunset and boy it didn't disappoint! There were so many gorgeous images of them it was really hard to choose which one to submit. In the end I chose this one because of how the setting sun caught the hem of Alex's dress, picking out the embellishments and making them shine like tiny diamonds.

I knew this wedding was going to fun filled when the bride told me they were having a rodeo bull at the reception and it certainly proved to be the case when almost everyone in the wedding party had a go!
I was definitely in the right place at the right time to get this shot as the bride came flying off it almost knocking one of her bridesmaids over in the process.

Helen & Alex booked me as their wedding photographer in 2020 and over the past two years I've got to know them pretty well! They were both so nervous at the thought of being centre stage on their wedding day but after booking an engagement session earlier this year and having a ball during that, they absolutely rocked their wedding portraits. This photo was taken towards the end of their first portrait session of the day. We were in a beautiful meadow with long grass daisies and dandelion clocks, Helen grabbed one and asked Alex to make a wish on it .... this was the resulting shot. It totally sums up their fun and relaxed attitude to life.

This is my favourite image from Helen & Alex's engagement session at the very beautiful Marles Wood alongside the River Ribble in Lancashire. This shoot had been postponed several times due to Covid but when we did finally manage to do it it was a stunningly beautiful afternoon. This shot was taken in the early evening just as the light was beginning to warm. I knew I wanted to capture that light with some flare. Helen & Alex were extremely nervous about being in front of the camera but they needn't have worried at all as they were completely natural and relaxed the whole way through.
They were completely unaware that I was taking this photo as they were so wrapped up in each other.
I can't wait to photograph their wedding in June.

I think I've said it before.... I love bokeh!

The beautiful gardens at Abbeywood Estate provided just the thing to add a touch of softness to the foreground in this shot.
As soon as I saw the gorgeous "hot" colour scheme I had this scene in my head and I'm really pleased at how it turned out.

This is another shot from the wedding workshop I did with Neil Redfern at Abbeywood Estate.

There was a beautiful wisteria climbing over the pergola where the couple were to walk. By shooting through it at a wide aperture I got this gorgeous bokeh ... I LOVE bokeh! ... and having the couple almost completely surrounded by that stunning purple colour it just made the image for me.

I'm a sucker for black and white photos. They're timeless!

Sometimes an image just screams out to be converted to black and white. This is image was one of those. As soon as I looked at the back of my camera I knew that I'd process this photo like this. It was shot at a wedding workshop in an attic type room with extremely harsh light streaming through the window. I felt the intimacy of the pose lent itself to making it all about the couple so I underexposed the shot so as to render the background very dark and really concentrate the light on the couple's faces.

This shot was taken at the stunning Abbeywood Estate in Cheshire during an incredibly informative workshop run by the awesome Neil Redfern.
I've wanted to be able to create some "wow factor" images for my couples since starting my wedding photography journey and this shot is just the type of thing I was after. Using a mirror held against my lens enabled me to get the reflection of sky underneath the couple.
I'll definitely be using this technique again!