The Mansion House, Roundhay Park, Leeds

I can't believe 2009 is nearly over! We've met some great people, photographed in some new venues (and in one new country!) and generally had a great time. We finished the year with weddings at Hazlewood Castle, Rogerthorpe Manor, the Craiglands Hotel at Ilkley and the Mansion House in Roundhay Park, which was a new venue for us. Winter weddings pose new challenges with the weather and the light (or lack of it!), so we made the most of the opportunity to shoot some images with our new video light. Here are some of my favourites from the Mansion House wedding.

Off-Camera Flash

For my last training day of the year I took the long drive down to Bristol on Monday to spend the day with Damien Lovegrove, who really is one of the best photographers in the country. We spent the day perfecting the technique of using the brand new radio system for firing Canon speedlights. This gives a whole new range of pictures available to the photographer using this new kit which was previously impossible to do, giving a real "fashion" feel to the photographs. Now I can't wait for the next wedding to employ these techniques and add a new "Bridal Fashion" range to my repertiore.

Training

I always think that there is always more to learn and that you can never know everything so with that in mind I always ensure that I have at least five days training every year with photographers who I think are some of the best in the country. So on Monday I braved the wind and driving rain for a trip into North Yorkshire to spend the day with John Denton, whose work I really like. Here are some of the images from the day.

Wedding Photography in Tunisia

Thursday weddings are quite unusual, but a Thursday wedding in Tunisia is even more unusual! We flew out on the Sunday to give ourselves plenty of time to meet the families and visit the venues. The wedding was at three o'clock and the reception was at six, which at first seemed fine. Then we discovered that the two locations were 110 kilometres apart! This gave us practically no time to do any really good couple shots, so it was decided to do these the following day. Unfortunately, the following day it rained, so we were so pleased that our flight home was not until the Sunday, which allowed us to do some really cool couple shots on the Saturday. Thanks to having time to do a good recce we had found a superb building with a traditional internal patio and a domed glass ceiling which was a photographer's dream! Just amazing! And to think I get paid for doing this!

Last Drop Hotel, Bolton

A trip across the Pennines this weekend to the Last Drop Hotel in Bolton. Since it is a new venue for us we arrived early to have a good look around before going up to the bride's room. Supreena was wonderfully relaxed and looked stunning in her red and gold sari. The photo opportunities are terrific on an Indian wedding as they are so rich in colour and everyone looked fantastic. All in all a really great day and it was good to meet up again with Sarah and David and Taz and Vicky, whose weddings we had shot earlier this year. Above are some of the images from the day.

Nostell Priory

A few images from last Monday's wedding at Nostell Priory with Hannah and Ken. Hannah got ready at Rogerthorpe Manor before boarding a fantastic vintage bus for the journey to Nostell Priory. I took the opportunity to travel on the bus and capture some unusual fisheye shots while Alex went on ahead to Nostell to get some shots of the bus arriving.