Something a little different for you all this week.  We have some BIRTHDAY SNAPS for you!

With all the craziness of work, an invitiation to our wonderful friend Paula’s (ahem) 50th couldn’t be missed.  It was wonderful.

Hosted at the amazing Gunhill Signal Station, Sian and I had been there during the day, but we had never seen it at night.  It is beautiful.  I mean, crazy beautiful.  Setup nearly four hundred years ago, the station had been positioned deliberately to allow the soldiers stationed there to look out over the country and see any potential invaders to the island.  It could also see the four other signal stations around the island at any given time.  This meant, that if they spotted anything untoward, they could raise a specific flag, which Gunhill would spot, and then relay the message onto the other towers. Genius.

As such, the place affords some amazing views, and at night it is even more magical.

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Normally, when I shoot an evening reception, I have scouted the location beforehand and know what to expect.  I also usually have my full kit bag, lenses, a tripod and my flash guns.  For Paula’s birthday, I just took a 50mm prime, because we wanted to enjoy ourselves and not be burdened with all the kit.

As such, the photos relied on ambient light to get us through, which, I am afraid to say, was rather lacking!  There were some fairy lights around the dance floor, so this is where I tried to take the majority of my shots.

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Now, a little bit about Paula.

She is awesome.

In charge of the social networking and promotion of our hotel, I cannot think of a more perfect job for her.  She is fun and bubbly and warm and glamorous…and like us, she has a big family, that she loves dearly.

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It’s at things like this – parties, birthdays and such, that I always miss home a tad more.  We are sociable people, and always enjoy a do with our families and friends.  But even though we miss them, it is always such a privilege to be invited to something so special, all the way out here in Barbados.

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Happy 50th 35th Paula – it was wonderful to be able to share it with you!!!

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See the pastry chefs got it wrong too 😉

 

Thanks for reading guys, and see you next week

 

 

 

Ferg

x

The last few weeks have been mental.

We have been blessed with visits from my parents, our good friends Jen and Tom, and Sian’s mum Sue over this festive period, and it has been amazing.  The bad news is that things at work are very slow right now, so we are crossing everything that it will pick up soon.

So this week, in an unusual twist of events, I am not going to share our recent shenanigans, explorations and adventures; I am going to do something far more boring…I am going to show you the lovely present Sian bought me for my birthday this year.

I am going to show you my spangly new watch…

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As well as having an encylcopaedic knowledge of pretty much every lens Nikon has ever made; I am even more boring in the fact that I like to read about watches.  I love watches.  I remember driving my parents to the brink of insanity in the lead up to my 13th birthday, flicking through the Argos Catalogue dropping very obvious, very loud hints about which watches I liked in particular – and how each different model I picked out had various benefits with regard to size, accuracy and all that nonsense.  It is actually one of the only times my dad properly lost his temper with me.  During one of my hint dropping sprees, and having pointed out at least 50 watches that would be an ideal gift, my tired and worn down father screamed, “We’ve already got you a watch -you’re getting a watch, can you please now shut up about these bloody watches?!”

It was a Timex Indiglo and I absolutely loved it.

And as I have grown up, I am afraid to say I have not grown out of the catalogue flicking.   I am sure that one day, I will own an incredibly expensive watch, but right now it is not a priority.  Sian was wonderful and bought me this Ingersoll – it is a beautiful watch, and the reason it is particularly special is down to its movement.  Unlike my other watches, this one does not run on a battery with a quartz heart; this is an automatic watch.  It is entirely mechanical.  So, as I walk around and flick my wrist, it winds itself and keeps time through a million springs and cogs and cleverness…it really is quite amazing and an art, I am happy to say, that is slowly being revived.

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I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas, and promise that I will be back on form with less boring subjects and adventures next week.

Thanks for reading guys 🙂

x

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This last week I have been sick.  Very sick.  You know when you watch those zombie movies and the whole world has died of a deadly virus?  That’s how sick I was.

Ok, maybe not that bad, but being a man I do feel that whenever I get a sniffle, the world is going to end.  And so our guests Jenny and Tom, who visited us last year, were ever so patient as I coughed and spluttered in the background, cursing the gods for their cruelty and generally feeling sorry for myself.  And Sian was kind as always, administering painkillers and offering soothing words…I truly was on death’s door.

Kind of.

During my bed rest, between writing my last will and testament and telling all those dear to me that I loved them,  I took the time to flick through some old hard drives, clean up some files, and generally do some digital housekeeping.  I then stumbled across our honeymoon photos and realised that I have not once posted about the epic adventure on this blog.  Being that I have only been out of the house for a few hours in the last week, I have obviously nothing new to share with you all, and so I am glad that my previous laziness and incompetence allows me to now share them with you today…I hope you enjoy 🙂

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First off, our honeymoon was epic.  I know that everyone says that (you should, after all) but ours was the tops.  The bees knees – the dog’s danglies. The best.

We started off for a few days in Miami, and after painting the town red (sleeping) for all of four days, we got a bus up the road to Orlando to enjoy the wonders of Universal, Busch Gardens, and all the other amazing theme parks.  It was so much fun.

And after 10 days of theme parks and crazy golf, we jumped on a train and headed up to New York to stay with one of Sian’s dearest friends, Ellie and her husband Kenn.  They live in Brooklyn and are wonderful…and so is New York.

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Barbados is awesome.  We have lovely beaches and views and warmth, but Sian and I miss the city. And I miss the cold.  When we first arrived in New York, the mid-March chill of 0 degrees was oh so welcome.  We wandered around the city, bundled up in every item of clothing we owned, our necks craned back enjoying the dizzy heights of the buildings, taking in the sights and sounds of what many regard as the greatest city in the world.

The novelty of the cold soon wore thin, but the sights didn’t.  Boy do we miss architecture.  As we explored the frozen streets, we had completely forgotten the Chatel Houses of home, the palm trees swaying in the breeze and the crystal blue water hugging the coastal road as you head north or south…here we were treated to buildings of monolithic scale; clad in glass and oozing style, we had never seen anything like it.

We loved it.

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We did all the touristy things we could in the four days we were there.  We ice skated in Central Park, we visited the Statue of Liberty, we went to the museums, and we scaled the Empire State.

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Ingeniously (by sheer luck) Sian and I planned the trip to the concrete summit to coincide with sunset.  Standing at the top of the building in minus 5  with a wind chill to boot, we were treated to one of the most wonderful – if not the coldest, sunsets we had seen for a long time.

And as the sun dipped behind the horizon, the city scape changed before our eyes.

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Sian and I came to the conclusion that city life suits us a whole lot better than island life does.  We love theatre and food and music and all that good stuff.  In Barbados, you get some of that, but New York just has it in spades.  Even as I write this, my heart has skipped a beat at the thought of us being home in London in less than 6 months…I cannot WAIT to be back in the city again, amongst the hustle and bustle, the small bars, the good beer, the sheer number of PEOPLE that you meet…

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And maybe, with all the airmiles we have clocked up over the last few years of living out here, I will treat Sianie to a reprise of the honeymoon; a wee jolly to New York, the BEST city in the world…

Thanks for reading guys, and hope you all have a great week.

 

 

Ferg

x

 

 

Firstly, a happy new year to one and all – I hope you all enjoyed ending 2012 and beginning 2013 as much as we did.  As you know, my folks were over, which was utterly amazing.  I am working on a video on that one.  But truth be told I have a horrible cold so wanted to share some pictures from a ‘save the date shoot’ I did with the wonderful Dan and Kelly a few days back.

Dan is our best friend Ally’s brother, and he proposed to the utterly beautiful Kelly shortly after they were last here in Barbados on holiday.  They very kindly did a shoot with James while he was here doing some training with my studio staff at the time.  They loved the shoot so much (and Dan saw a real opportunity) that he suggested doing another one while they were here, in exchange for being excused from some of the dance classes Kelly had lined up for them prior to the big day.

Smart man.

And so the date was set, and we headed out to a few spots.  We had a great time showing Dan and Kelly around the north of the island, and despite it being very overcast, we still got some lovely stuff.

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As you can see, the clear blue skies associated with Barbados are very much absent here.  Recently, the weather has been utterly atrocious out here on the rock, but I love the dramatic pictures the clouds paint…although I do understand it is not to everyone’s taste.

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We started off at the Animal Flower Caves, and after that headed to Heywoods beach.  This is where we used to live and was the first time Sian and I had been anywhere near the old resort for some time.  It is very sad to see all the old pools emptied out and doors boarded over, but we were here for the beach which, thankfully, was as glorious and deserted as ever.

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Being that we have been having such dump weather lately, we do normally get blessed with some interesting cloud formations and sunsets – thankfully today was no exception.

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And to finish off?  How about one of those salsa-esque dips you have got yourself excused from Dan?!

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Thanks a million guys – you were a blast, hope you like the piccies!

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This was a wonderful, intimate wedding, with just Devon and Natalie’s closest relatives witnessing.  The weather in Barbados was beautiful, and the old abandoned plantation house was great fun – if not a little scary!

 

Massive congratulations to Dev and Natalie on their big day!

Today is my birthday, and I type this feeling ever-so-groggy following on from the celebrations of my wife Sian’s birthday do last night.

Christmas is always a full on affair for us.

But despite the hangover and the ringing in my ears, I am utterly content.  Chowing down on a sausage sandwich Sian has lovingly prepared, and surrounded by torn wrapping paper and birthday cards, I have already begun enjoying another magical Christmas – made all the more special by the fact that my parents, Bam and Pops, are here to play too.

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It is the first time either of them have been to the Caribbean, and they have always been amazing at visiting Sian and I on our adventures.  They are utterly awesome and I love to show them off.  Mum loves her jokes, Dad loves his pocket trumpet (which he carries everywhere) and the two of them wander around in eccentricity, bringing laughter and warmth wherever they go…seriously, you must meet them.

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So I say to all of you; I hope you all have a very merry Christmas.  I hope you are able to surround yourselves with family, friends and festive fun.

Kittens help with Christmas too apparently.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a birthday to celebrate with my best friends.

x

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I know it’s been two and a half weeks since a post.  I don’t know if any of you out there mind/care/or anything else about this, but I have been missing the blog ever-so much.

Truth is we have had a few massive life changing events this end over the past weeks, and the blog, as much as I have missed it, has all seemed rather irrelevant.

But I am happy to be back, and more happy to share with you one of my life’s new discoveries…well, two actually.

Turns out, despite my previous thoughts, that I am actually a huge cat person.  We recently saved a stray from a restaurant down on the South Coast, and I have fallen head over heels in love with her.

I have also discovered in the past few days, that our house is absolutely filthy.  It is only when you are rolling around on the floor with your eight week kitten that you discover just how disgusting the floor is, and then when you illuminate her with two speedlights  and shoot at F8 you see the problem is only exacerbated.

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As I mentioned, we found our little bundle of joy at a restaurant the other day.  I am crazy lucky to have my folks over visiting (post to come!) and we took them to one of our haunts, ‘Paulo’s’ for a Caprinha.  Within our first few drinks this little girl had wandered amongst us, purred against my leg, and generally looked longingly at me.  I say me…but it genuinely was.  It was as if she knew she already had Sian’s heart (which she had) and all she needed to do was convince the red-nosed buffoon opposite her in order to get a free dinner.

It worked.

I reached down to give her a little stroke, and she did something I have never seen a cat do before.  She went up on her hind legs, closed her eyes, and fell with all her weight into my palm. My heart melted.

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And so now we are lumbered with this beautiful girl.  A trip to the vets and all was well, some shots and a de-flea, and now, as I write this, our kitten of three days is sat on my lap, proof reading my work, and looking intently at the ‘tap tap’ of the keyboard.

I can honestly say my life has changed over night.

She is utterly, utterly gorgeous.

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And at the moment, I am quite matter of fact about the whole affair. ‘We leave in June – we will need to find a home for her before then’.

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Yeah, right.  I think I will just be spending yet a few more hours at immigration sorting a kitty passport out.

Thanks for reading guys, and Merry Christmas 🙂

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Well…not really.  If you had been a fly on our wall over the last few days, you would have seen Sian and I desperately trying to get on top of things…tidying the house;  building barbeques, catching up with holiday laundry, stressing a lot about work and generally getting a little tiddly at the excitement of my parents coming out to see us over Christmas.

But yesterday was fantastic.  We started the day with a cup of tea, looking out from our balcony and drinking in that wonderful view…when all of a sudden this little guy landed on the table by my laptop.  Ok, he’s not a fly on the wall, but ‘fly on the desk’ doesn’t sound right…does it?  He was ever so patient as I blinded him with two speedlights and intrusive macro lens and  the end result was definitely worth it.

Not even 9:30 am, and I had bagged an amazing image…things were shaping up nicely.

By about 10 our garden was teaming with the hit squad our landlady has bestowed upon us.  Over the next few hours the garden was transformed from the shaggy, overgrown jungle, to the well kept, primped and preened glory we know and love.  It is a lovely place to be.  And as we wandered around our newly reclaimed paradise, Sian spotted the coconuts in the tree, and asked me (for the 999999th time) if we could finally get that machete and cut them down…promises of coconut run punches, breads and cakes were made. So a trip to the hardware store was promptly arranged.

Now, as many readers of this blog will know, Barbados is not a cheap place to live. Far from it.  So imagine my surprise when I asked the nice lady behind the counter ‘how much that machete was – no, the huge one that looks like it could cut a tiger in two’, and she replied a mere ‘thirty bucks.’

Thirty Bucks?

That is how much Sian and I famously paid for a parsnip this time last year for Christmas…and here she was holding an 18inch blade, designed to last for years complete with rubberised grip and holster for the same price? This was surely the bargain of the century.

Before she could realise her obvious mistake and tell me the real price, I handed over the cash, strapped the holster to my belt, and drove home feeling like Crocodile Dundee…the coconuts had no idea what was going to hit them when I got back.

Or so I thought.

Turns out coconuts are incredibly hardy, and the guys at the side of the road who chop them up with the deftness of soft-handed masseus’ are clearly a very skilled bunch…I could not get the bloody things open.  I tried brute force, hacking, slashing, sawing…they would not play ball.  Even getting them out of the tree was stressful in itself…I developed a next level technique for this though. I call this photo ‘fat and clueless man swings hopelessly at nuts with a metal rod.’

When I finally knocked a few down, the frustration began…but after a few attacks, we discovered that if you did exactly the opposite to what the road-side vendors do, that is cut down the coconut, not across the top of it, they bust right open…and that water inside is soooo good when you’ve been swinging metal poles and a sword around in the 34 degree heat.

Victory.

And as I type this, the aches and pains in my shoulders, along with the callouses and blisters on my hands are utterly worth it.  Sian is currently dicing all the coconut flesh we were able to harvest meaning the spoils shall definitely be enjoyed! (perhaps a food blog next? Messages below if you would like to see?!)

In the evening we sat down at our newly built barbeque, congratulating each other on the days’ endeavours, and we were treated to one of Barbados’ hilarious blackouts.  Usually a problem for most people, but not us – not on this the day of dreams, far from it.  We wandered out into the front garden, slapped the camera on a tripod, and enjoyed Nature’s light show.

I never thought I would say it…but it’s good to be home 🙂

 

Thanks for reading guys x

 

To my dearest and adoring fan…or Mum for short.

Thanks so much for your patience at my complete lack of posting in nearly three weeks.  I am sure you expect the usual disclaimer: “Busy at work” etc. but, without even the slightest whiff of apology, this has not been the case.  Far from it.
Truth is, we have just had the most epic four week holiday and frankly have been having far too much fun playing with nephews, meeting old friends, making new ones, and hugging and squidging and loving every family member I have been able to get my hands on to be bothering myself with something as trivial as this blog.

It truly has been a wonderful month.

Two of our best friends got married, my brother and his Fiance FINALLY tied the knot, and between that we have been driving around the country – we met my dear old uni pals at Rachel‘s house,  went on a stag do, went to London, went to Chichester, visited Portsmouth, did a few photo shoots, did a few video shoots and much, much more…it was quite hectic!

And so now here I am, back in the ridiculous heat of Barbados, hammering this out on my dining room table with a beer by my side and full of a scrummy Indian dish Sian knocked up for us.  Life is good.

I figured the best place to start back up again was where it all began; our first appointment at home was our wonderful friends Krissy and Rich’s wedding…and here my blog begins….

This is one of those weddings that has been in the pipeline for a loooong time.  Just as all the best couples should (ahem) Rich and Krissy waited a cool ten years before they finally took the plunge and got hitched, and that always makes things a little more special.

What’s not special, however, is the feeling I get when I am a guest at a wedding. I never know what to do.  I am so used to being the photographer, that when I am at a wedding, I am looking at light, watching for lines and spaces, and it is even worse when I have my camera with me.  I cannot tell you how frustrating it is when you’re shooting a wedding and some gimp like me sticks his big lens in the way of yours and distracts the couple from the photographer they are paying for the day.  It is a horrible thing to do, and so I am adamant that I will never do it myself when at a wedding.

As such, for Krissy and Rich’s, I just took our small camera and fired a few snaps throughout the day.  Nothing major; just trying to capture the uber-awesome ‘country chic’ theme that Krissy pulled off oh-so well (Rich tried…but I think it’s a girl thing).

The weather was as stunning as Kriss was (well almost), and the happy couple left in the coolest wedding cars I have seen to date.

And instead of Pimms or champagne or whatever else ‘tradition states’, the pair opted for a much more cool, much more original, much more ‘them’ high tea.  With cakes and cakes and cakes…it was awesome.

As I hid in the shadows and let the photog get on with his thing, I was lucky enough to snap a cheeky shot of Rich carrying Kriss down the garden.

We then enjoyed a glorious dinner with three of Krissy’s most beautiful friends in the world ever…if you are reading Claire, Howard and Charlie, seeing you all was really fantastic 🙂

And as if the day wasn’t perfect enough, imagine our delight when we saw how Krissy and Rich looked after their artistes:

Thanks for the invite guys, we wouldn’t have missed it for the world 😉

x

As you all know, we are now back in Blighty on our annual leave, and as a super-secret surprise for Sian, I took her along to the new Harry Potter backstage tour.  They say it’s in London.

It’s not.

It’s in Watford, which is like 9947238473 miles away, but for someone like Sian it is definitely worth it.  She LOVED it.

A complete surprise for  her, I had this trip planned a good few weeks ago which is very rare indeed for me.  For our honeymoon we went to Orlando and enjoyed the mini Hogwarts there.  The theming was amazing and the ride was truly magical…if you’ll excuse the pun.

But this backstage tour is very different.  Rather than trying to recreate the world of Harry Potter here in the real world. this trip is all about expelling the myths; exposing the sets and props, and showing just ‘how they did it all’.  You’re treated to amazing sets with bare plaster board behind, huge mechanical structures complete with jacks and pumps and pullies hanging out of the back, and all the costumes and masks and animatronics that helped create the world of Harry Potter.

To be honest, I am not a huge fan of the films, for reasons I will not get into in this blog, but Sian loves them nearly as much as she does the books.  I am happy to say that I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed the trip too.  The amount of work that went into everything for those films truly is staggering.  It was a great day for an aging theatre buff like me…and even better for the now giddy-like-a-school-girl Sian.

 

But the best part came at the end – if you are going to go to Hogwarts any time soon, I would recommend skipping this blog and I will see you next time…if you’re not, then please read on 😉

 

 

 

Still with me?

 

 

 

Ok, so the best bit of the tour BY FAR is the amazing model of Hogwarts right at the end.  It is massive, and the detail and design that went into it, like everything else we saw on the day, truly is breathtaking.

This bad boy stood about 16 feet high, and it is this very model that you see during those sweeping shots throughout and over Hogwarts.  I (like I am sure you did too) thought this was all CG, and so to see a full blown model of this magnitude really was awe inspiring. It is a wonderful homage to a dying art, and I was both surprised and grateful that this model was how it was all done…Too many effects are now done with cheap CG, rather than models, and you only have to watch the new series of ‘Doctor Who’ to see what I mean.  Models cost a crap load – but the effect is oh so very worth it.

A thoroughly enjoyable day – and I recommend to anyone interested to take the journey to Watford…you won’t be disappointed…just expect to be forced to re-watch the films again once you get back…it seems to stir up some weird nostalgia in the Harry Potter-rites!

Thanks for reading guys – a million and six more advetures to come!

x