This week is National Countryside week and in the last few weeks I have not only been photographing fabulous weddings, lovely people and drooling dogs but I have been busy taking photographs in our glorious countryside. So every day this week I will post a few images of our beautiful green and pleasant land.
I’ve had an eventful few weeks but the highlight must have been meeting royalty! It had been mentioned to me that I would receive an invitation in the post but it wasn’t until a large cream envelope dropped onto the doormat from Buckingham Palace that the reality of fulfilling one of my ambitions came true.
In the last 12 months I have been a proud supporter of The Prince’s Countryside Fund & have photographed several projects across the country for them along with charitable events. The Prince of Wales has long been passionate about the countryside & set up the fund to give grants to projects that help support the people who care for the countryside.
So it was a very excited photographer that traveled up to the big smoke & across London to Clarence House for a garden party to mingle with other supporters & meet the great man himself. The party was attended by some of the projects that I photographed including Hampshire Fare who help pig farmers diversify & some of the farm apprentices from the Yorkshire moors. There also were some of the celebrity ambassadors who help to raise the profile of the fund including Jimmy Doherty, Phil Vickery, JB from JLS, and Alex James ex member of Blur along with a few other familiar faces from television. We mingled in the garden with some of my images on easels as a backdrop showing the various projects the fund support. The Prince of Wales arrived & was introduced to each group in turn. It was finally my turn to meet His Highness & what can I say? It all went by in a flash! I shook his hand & we had a brief chat about photography & the work I have done for the fund before he had to move on.
It was a memorable moment in my profession and I hope I will have the opportunity of meeting Prince Charles again, maybe building a dry stone wall somewhere!
Here are a few pictures taken by the official photographer of the day Alistair Fyfe.
Some of the images I have taken for The Princes Countryside Fund can be seen on my Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/MarkLordPhotography
Tomorrow I have a beautiful wedding at Hedsor house, Taplow, Buckinghamshire. The wedding service is in Henley on Thames and then the reception at Hedsor house. I am very excited as Hedsor is such a splendid wedding venue and great for wedding photography. The Bride and Groom are really up for having some pictures taken in the grounds at Hedsor so fingers crossed the sunshine will be out and everyone will have a wonderful time. With some great props supplied by the bride there will be some amazing photograph opportunities. So keep a look out for the sneaky peek on my blog……. you will not be able to miss these pictures……
In the meantime here are a few images from the last wedding I photographed at Hedsor House.
Film Director Amit Gupta recently asked me to do a few portraits of him for his press releases. We spent 15 minutes together getting a few pictures and he recently contacted me to tell me his portrait is in Empire magazine and also one now online.
Amit’s first film that he directed was called Resistance and was set in a Welsh village in WWII, imagining life had the Germans invaded. With a cast including Michael Sheen it is a brilliant art house film and is well worth a watch.
To find out more about Resistance and to watch the trailer please click here
Amit’s latest film I am looking forward to watching is Jadoo the Movie, a British comedy that takes Amit back to his roots of growing up in Leicester. Its about two brothers who are chefs & what happens when they fall out. They set up rival restaurants across the road from each other in the Belgrave Road in Leicester, close to where Amit grew up.
To follow the latest news of Amit’s film Jadoo the Movie please sign up to their blog / Facebook page or Twitter by clicking here
If you are looking for portraits for publicity purposes please contact me for more information. info@marklordphotography.com
With the unpredictable weather we have these days who really knows when is the best time of year to get married. I’ve photographed glorious weddings in March and weddings where it’s hammered down in August. Whatever the weather the show must go on and regardless of the weather everyone will still have a great time.
But from experience here are a few tips in case the weather is not quite want you wished for.
1. Hire or buy some white umbrellas. These will be invaluable for you and your guests who need to go outside and being white they will be nice and bright underneath for some photos. Most quality venues should have some but it’s worth checking beforehand.
2. Pack wellies and enjoy the puddles. It’s popular now to pack the Hunter wellies in case of bad weather and are a great look in the photos and a nice contrast to the Jimmy Choos!
3. Give your bridesmaids a small can of hair spray for windy days and a pack of hair clips just in case it’s windy and your hair gets blown around during the group photos.
4. Ask a bridesmaid or close friend to come with you when you are having photographs with your groom. A bridesmaid can be on hand to help with hair adjustments or to rearrange your dress.
5. Have a back up plan. What will you all do if it rains all day long and you were planning an outdoors reception? Speak to your venue so you know where you and your guests can go if it’s wet outside.
6. Speak to your photographer and ask them where they plan to do the group photos if the weather is bad. A good photographer will have some portable flash heads they can set up to do the group photographs indoors.
Regardless of the weather you will have a fab day as you are surrounded by your family and friends and those that love you both.
Finally in my 15 years of photographing weddings I have never photographed one where it has rained ALL day long. Call it the luck of The Lord!
Dont worry folks I’m not going to be talking about the album by Dire Straits but a personal photograph I took recently.
Ever since I started on my photographic voyage through life I have loved photographing people, just being themselves, as they are within their own environment. One of my first projects many years ago was photographing the villagers of Budock Water in Cornwall, where I grew up. This project was all black and white portraits of people I have known most of my life and people that have spent most of their years living in the village. Sadly many of those dear people are no longer with us but it is a project I always revisit in my head. It has led me to my career in a photography, namely being a portrait photographer.
So, a few months ago when Becky and I were in Cornwall staying with my parents I thought it would be nice to grab a portrait of my Father and his brother Joe. Dad and Joe spend many hours a week at the local churchyard maintaining the grounds and the graves. Being in their late seventies and early eighties I find the two of them incredible – they just don’t stop working. If they are not working in their own gardens, they are ‘up churchyard’ cutting the grass, cleaning grave stones and tidying up. All in their own time for the love of it and each others company.
So here is a couple of portraits of two great brothers who aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty. As I said in my wedding speech to my Dad ‘you are amazing and I only hope I have your energy when I’m your age’ – half of it wouldn’t be bad either!
To see some of my wedding photography at Budock Church please keep scrolling down.
Recently I was at a farmers market and saw a lady I knew struggling with her bags. Being a gentleman I though I would ask if she wanted a lift home with her groceries. On taking me up on the offer of a lift I was greeted by this hound of a dog bounding towards me to lick me to death in her driveway. Well, anyone who knows me knows how much I love to photograph animals, namely dogs, so I could see a great opportunity wagging its tail in front of me.
‘What type of dog is this?’ I asked whist negotiating how to protect the eggs in the top of one of the bags.
‘It’s a Lagotta Romagnolo’ I was told, ‘an Italian breed of dog with her winter coat still on’
I said I would love to take some photographs of the dog and the lady said that was fine as long as it was soon as she was soon to be clipped now the weather has finally warmed up.
So last week I met up with the lady and her dog. I shot a few daylight images in the window as the dog sat in an armchair then we popped to a local field for a few pictures.
Here’s a couple of my favourites…..
Last week I spent half a day with one of my previous brides teaching her to use her new camera that her husband had recently bought her. We had a lovely time tea drinking and walking around Waterperry gardens, Oxfordshire discussing the various modes, dials and buttons that her camera offered with lots of beautiful pictures created along the way.
Sophie left the class much clearer about how to use her new Canon camera and hopefully she will be able to put what she learnt to good use on their little boy who will be putting her reactions to the test!
I offer one to one photography training classes during the week in the local area of South Oxfordshire for anyone who wants to learn how to make the most of their camera. Please email me for more details info@marklordphotography.com
Here’s a little ad I put together to promote this service locally….
Here’s a little gallery of some of my favourite images from Heidi and Brendan’s Wintery pre wedding shoot shot in April!
Roll on better weather for my first wedding of the year tomorrow!
Really looking forward to their big day next month in Sunny Cornwall!
Today I did the pre-wedding shoot for Brendan and Heidi who travelled up from Somerset to see me. Their wedding is next month and will take place in the village where Heidi and I grew up in Cornwall and in fact I got married in the same church last year.
I have not worked on the images yet but had to take a sneaky peek and here are a couple of images I love from the shoot. Their companion is Frosty, a retired Greyhound who still has plenty of energy and was great fun to photography. There are plenty more lovely shots to come so please keep an eye out for them…..
Mark Lord Photography 