Good Morning Bloggers,

Today I am taking you to some wedding photography at Layer Marney Tower, Colchester, Essex with another lovely Pengelly couple Jamie and Sean.  The wedding service was held at St James the Less and St Helen Catholic Church, Colchester, Essex.  The weather decided to throw us a curve ball, just before the service was due to start the rain came in and lashed down incessantly before, during and after; really there was absolutely no letting up!  Professional wedding photographers really do have to cope with the most extreme conditions and before every wedding they will never know what is thrown at them during the day.  The beauty of using a seasoned and qualified professional over an amateur or family friend, is they expect this and will produce beautiful images with ease and calm.  A true professional will not bat an eyelid whereas the amateur of family friend may well end up in a heap somewhere wondering what on earth they are going to do!  Sorry I digress; we decided that we would utilise this beautiful church and do all the group shots inside before heading off to the reception.

So it was off to Layer Marney Tower, which as you know from previous blogs is a Pengelly Popular, so how about this – as soon as we arrived the rain ceased and out came Mr Sun and he was here to stay.  Yes the Gods were smiling down on us that day and it was a joy to be taking their portraiture shots outside.

Now for today’s images; the one thing about rain is that is can produce some very dramatic skies that are a great backdrop to any image and the sky really adds to this image of Jamie and Sean walking and the flow of Jamie’s dress really adds movement as well.  I do like a nice bridge and the foliage in the foreground really added depth and richness to this image.  Well doors and me…a match made in heaven there is nothing quite like a good brick wall and quirky door enhanced with muted colour tones for effect.  Well I couldn’t blog about Layer Marney Tower without a Pengelly window could I, so here it is a beautiful bride in a beautiful window with the classical richness of black and white.

It has been all go here at Pengelly HQ and we are looking forward to photographing our lovely couples during the month too.  I am not one to complain but could someone get this weather sorted!

Kevin and Sabrina

Week 24

Good Afternoon Everyone,

We love it when our couples want to have a pre wedding photography shoot; Victoria and Craig have since been married in Essex at the Channels Golf Club.  Channels is a fabulous venue set in the heart of Essex and is easily accessible from Suffolk, North and South Essex.  The surrounding countryside is just beautiful so Sabrina and I love it when we have the opportunity to photograph there.

Now looking at this image I can sense you are a little confused; set in the heart of Essex I hear you say, so why the sea?  Well sometimes it is nice to have the pre wedding shoot at a different location to the wedding reception and we thought it would be really good fun and a complete twist to have some images at the seaside.  We had a lovely time at Frinton on Sea; this is such a quaint and beautiful seaside town with many echoes to a glorious yesteryear.   I love this image for many reasons, firstly the crop is very dramatic, and this really brings together how similar the sky and sea were in colour that day.  I have further enhanced this with some muted colour tones to really get ‘that feel’ to the image.  I also love it’s simplicity and composition, nowadays things can be complicated too much with so much post production and reliance on Photoshop that images rarely resemble what actually was on the shoot.  The best images in my opinion are the ones that wow in the back of the camera, where care has been taken over exposure, light, composition and placement; if they wow without bells and whistles things can only get better.

Pop back later in the week for our latest blog Pengelly readers!

Kevin and Sabrina

Good Morning All,

Welcome to the Essex wedding photography of Nicola and Patrick who were married at All Saints’ Church Rettendon and their beautiful wedding reception was held at Layer Marney Tower, Colchester, Essex.  I do love the variety that weddings have to offer and Sabrina and I feel so very lucky to travel around Essex photographing weddings and to experience the many wonderful churches and venues we have.

Nicola and Patrick had dry but very dramatic weather for their wedding day and this was the perfect backdrop for the venue, which is very dramatic too.  Poor Patrick was a little nervous during the day and it is easy to forget how nerve wracking it can be when being the centre of attention all day and then having lots of photographs taken.  Sabrina and I really did feel for him and made sure when did our best to calm his nerves so he could enjoy this wonderful day with his equally wonderful and beautiful bride.

So for today’s images; lads being lads and having some movement in this image has a twofold effect, it creates a feeling of motion in a still image but also diverts Patrick’s attention from being the focus of the image, which results in a much more relaxed Patrick!  The vintage car fitted just perfectly in this venue; I love they way they are looking at each other and reflecting on the very moving wedding ceremony they just experienced.  Because of the architecture, background and car I have used muted colour tones to tell the story here.  The Pengellys love a bit of leading lines; and I will always sniff a few out to use   The bridge was perfect for this image, leading lines to the both of them and Patrick is getting into the role of lord of the manor here, I just love that look as he surveys his estate next to his beautiful new wife.  I couldn’t wax lyrical about the tower without actually having a picture of the tower, so here it is; just fabulous and look at that architecture and dramatic clouds, stop rolling your eyes Sabrina, you know I love a good bit of architecture…honestly you just can’t get the staff   don’t tell Sabrina I said that!

I am settling back into a routine now after my hectic few months judging, assessing and mentoring and I am very much looking forward to our weddings in June.

Check back soon for the latest Pengelly ramblings,

Kevin and Sabrina

Week 23

Good Morning Pengelly lovers

This is a classical image from the Essex wedding photography of Charlotte and Lee who were married at Leez Priory, Chelmsford, Essex. In my last blog I spoke about architecture, well take a lookey at this!

This is enough to get my heart racing and the result is a beautiful black and white Pengelly signature image.  Classical, beautiful and timeless; now black and white is not just a simple matter of ‘grey scaling’ since the advent of digital photography any experienced and artistic professional will have spent hours perfecting their own black and white style.  I am often complimented on mine and lots of hard work has gone into getting this signature look, but the recipe is a secret as the Coca Cola recipe!

I love the black and white, I love the drama and I love the crop; crikey look at me bigging myself up.  Joking aside I always think that enthusiasm really come across in images and this also transfers to the subjects that I am photographing too.

I hope you like this as much as I do.

Check back in next week for our wedding blog.

Kevin and Sabrina

Week 22

This week I am introducing the wedding photography of  my beautiful wife.  As you know Sabrina and I work together in our photography business; I am the primary photographer with Sabrina, who as well as assisting me, enjoys telling another more informal story of your wedding day.  So today’s blog post is dedicated to her and all that she has done with me to make our business what it is today.  I really couldn’t think of a better more thoughtful person to assist me, capture some amazing images of her own and be a part of your special day too; she is wonderful.:)

Today’s image is from the wedding of Polly and Mark who were married at Acton Church with their wedding reception at Preston Priory Barn, Lavenham, Suffolk.  Sabrina likes to take images from a different angle to me during the Bride and Groom portraiture as it gives another perspective for our Brides and Grooms and this image takes on a more whimsical feel, it really does create a lovely wedding story.

So when you book Pengelly photography you get all sorts of wonderful surprises along with a bespoke service too

Kevin & Sabrina

Hello Bloggers,

Today I am featuring the wedding photography of Nurani and Claude who were married at Braxted Park, Witham, Essex.  The wedding venue is a beautiful Queen Anne house set in a unique and historic parkland; this really is a venue to get the Pengellys excited!

Nurani and Claude’s wedding photography was lovely and different in that we captured part of the day with western style clothes and then it was all change into glorious traditional dress, which suited the tones and hues of the venue and time of year extremely well.

So for today’s images; “welcome to the house of fun, now I’m on my way…” yes you guessed it Claude is a madness fan so it had to be done, a permanent homage to the band themselves and I loved doing this shot, it was so much fun.  Image two and I am utilising the archway with Nurani and Claude in western dress, a simple but perfectly executed shot on my part with lots of love flowing on their part; put the two together and here is a shot rich in colour, tone, pose and oozing with love and emotion.  Ah yes a wafty veil and utilising some of that Queen Anne architecture I spoke of earlier; I do like to create movement in the still image and the Madness image and this one are examples of how that can be done to different effect.  Last but not least today; golden hour!  The sun is getting low in the sky and the light becomes rich and warm, it truly is a beautiful part of the day to photograph and the richness of the light has really brought out the wonderful colours of Nurami and Claude’s traditional dress, so much so I think that Nurami’s has taken on a 3D look.  This wedding had so many different facets I was spoilt for choice

I still haven’t managed a full week in the office but I am getting there…slowly; I have been judging, assessing and attending meetings at the BIPP headquarters so lots to keep me out of trouble!  Sabrina and I hope you had a brilliant Bank Holiday, we both loved it as we were able to enjoy it with our children who are looking less like children day by day; scary!

Kevin and Sabrina

Good Morning from the Pengelly Headquarters,

Today our wedding photography takes us to the beautiful county of North Yorkshire.

Sabrina and I met Laura and Stephen at the Colchester Utd wedding fayre last year and we were so pleased they chose us to capture their wedding.

We did lots of research prior to the big day and when working in a new venue the planning is instrumental to ensuring we make best of what it has to offer, and I must say Sabrina and I were quite excited to be experiencing the beautiful landscapes of North Yorkshire.

Crab Manor Hotel has to be one of the quirkiest places I have had the pleasure to work at, as we wandered around the venue we were greeted by a full sized Yeti on the landing; how brilliant is that!

The first image you will see today is Stephen outside the hotel with his ‘boys’ and they all look mighty fine in their dress uniform.  It was a real honour to cover their wedding and we have the utmost respect for the military and the job they do, well done Guys and Gals.   I really love a good window and there were windows a plenty at this wedding venue; the light enveloped Laura’s dress beautifully here with the shadows nestling nicely in the folds of the dress it gave a 3D feel to  this image; doesn’t she look absolutely gorgeous.  This type of imagery is utterly timeless, but also fitting with the Great Gatsby trend that is with us at the moment.  Trends come and go but beautiful classical wedding photography will stand the test of time and requires the greatest skill, how many trends that looked good at the time are cringe worthy now .  This arch was made for me; amazing symmetry that leads us straight to a couple in love and enjoying their day.  The last image of the day reminds me of Pride and Prejudice; the Georgian architecture really helps to achieve the look I wanted.

I am slowly getting back on track, the office took a bit of a downturn whilst I was away so much.  I now know that I am the ‘office tidier’ and Sabrina is the ‘office messier’, but don’t tell her I said that !!

Have a great weekend and look out for image of the week on Monday.

Kevin and Sabrina

Week 21

Phew I think we are back on track with image of the week, bar on little sacrifice but I think you can forgive me for that

This image is from the wedding photography at the Essex Regiment Way Golf Club, Colchester, Essex and these beautiful ladies you see are Vicki’s bridesmaids.

Vicki married Sam in St Michael’s Church, Galleywood, Essex before they headed to their wedding reception at the golf club.  We love this image because it just exudes happiness; the girls are happy and they are carrying what Sabrina and I think is one of the happiest flowers of all, the Sunflower.

We also loved their bridesmaids’ dresses too; looking fab for the wedding day but something that can be worn afterwards…good choice.  Crikey I have gone all Gok Wan!!!

It does feel good to be getting back into an office routine having spent so much time away from it recently.

Kevin and Sabrina

Good Morning Everyone,

Welcome to the wedding photography at The Old Rectory, Brentwood, Essex of Nicola and Daniel.  At Pengelly Photography we photograph civil weddings and church weddings and I do love the variety of both; Nicola and Daniel were married at St Laurence’s Church, Upminster, Essex; the church had a really nice aspect and I was particularly enthralled by the stonework.  After the wedding service we then moved to The Old Rectory, which is an exclusive wedding venue, they really have made the best of the venue’s features and the house has recently been refurbished, so lots to create the perfect backdrop for your wedding.

Now for today’s images and we kick off with a tranquil image of Nicola who had a classy Hollywood look about her.  This image has a calming quality about it and is further enhanced by the soft tones added in post production.  When editing it is very important not to overdo the post production process.  I see so many overly done ‘vintage’ and softened images now; for me an image should wow in the back of the camera and any small enhancements only add to its beauty.  If it doesn’t wow in the back of the camera it will just look like a bad image that has been over processed.  This image of Daniel was taken at the church and I am using those lovely wall textures to give power to Daniel’s pose and his face is enveloped in a soft light to draw the viewers’ eye. Well done Daniel looking mighty fine there.  I always like to utilise a venue’s architecture and muted colour tones give a yesteryear feel to this image…not vintage!!!!  I do love framing my wonderful couples in different ways and the symmetry of the door frames Nicola and Dean beautifully here; then I have given depth to the image with the tree in the foreground with a shallow depth of field to draw the viewers’ eye towards Nicola and Daniel.  All of these things give emotion and depth to my wedding images.  A wedding day is so romantic and special; I want my images to take Nicola and Daniel right back to those moments so the love they felt for each other is always remembered and never fades.

On that rather heartfelt note Sabrina and I wish you all a wonderful weekend and we I will post image of the week sometime in the next few days.  Whatever you are up to have fun

Kevin and Sabrina

Week Twenty

Sabrina and I do love photographing weddings at Crondon Park, Stock, Essex.  Not only do they have the fantastic reception room but some amazing grounds and views too.

There is a long winding drive that makes for some dramatic car shots.

So here we are at the wedding of Stacy and Steven who were married at St Michael’s Church, Fobbing,  Essex before their reception at Crondon Park.  Stacy knew what she wanted and she wanted this shot in the corn fields, well you don’t need to ask me twice and I was over the moon as this was a dream shot for me.

We love the lines in this image, we have the symmetry (I love symmetry) of the horizontal lines, with the use of depth of field to draw us towards Stacy, the veil has soft lines that continue to hold our eyes on Stacy then we gently waft around the image looking at the beauty that surrounds her.

We love it and every time I look at this image I know why I love being a photographer and it is then I know all my training and qualifications were worth the blood sweat and tears that went into getting them.

Well perhaps not blood, definitely sweat and tears though!  Sabrina now says I am being over dramatic; I am a photographer I am meant to be dramatic….;)

Kevin & Sabrina