Damn you cloud gods! 

Following an early-morning assessment of the heavens, Ursula and I excitedly forecast an afternoon filled with spectacular cloud formations.  Into the bargain of our "Super Cool Clouds" predictions, we also discovered an awesome ruin, precisely in the location we'd planned to shoot the creatives with Bridgette and Mike.

After the ceremony, we got to our much-anticipated setting and, that's right, not a cloud in sight!   Nothing, nada, not an ounce of water vapour around.  So, instead of fighting with the sun, we had no option but to settle on our substitute location.

What can I say about Mike & Bridgette?   Emotional, fun, relaxed, warm and both gorgeous.  In fact, I've never experienced an 10-hour period pass by so quickly.  It was an amazing ceremony to photograph from start to finish...even though we did not receive the desired co-operation from the clouds.

 
The reception speeches kept us entertained, with madcap revelations of a rib, a Scope cover girl and many more family secrets I can not reveal on this blog.

And here you are, a peak into their day.

I had to post this image to show you the one lone cloud we found.

Certain areas Dror and I covered at the Re.Invent workshop, were various tips and techniques we use to keep ourselves inspired. I will reveal one here:

When I'm scouting a venue, I usually choose one specific location and then shoot one image for me. Yes, me, myself, I, the royal mwah ;-). 

As a rule, I choose a different setting (or perspective), which may not always suceed and, as a result, may not measure up for the album.

Yes, a little more risqué than the prettier shot, but, the actual photograph is meant for my portfolio.

Sometimes it's a complete failure, so I simply delete the series...and sometimes, just sometimes, it does hit the mark and images like this (the second one) are achieved. I can not take full credit for this though, as Stella contributed to this composition.

Oh, and here is that rainbow I was on about.

First up the "prettier" version of the scene:

And this image below was shot, from a different perspective, for me.

After two blissfully short weeks, it's a terrible shock to my system to be back at work for a full 5-dayer.

All the same, a couple of weeks back, I had the honour of documenting Sarah's and Phillip's wedding and it's about time to finally post their images.

Nearly 4,000 gorgeous roses, among other flower varieties, were used to decorate Toadbury Hall. I can quite honestly say I have never seen so many blooms in one place at the same time. The décor, which was out of this world, was put together by Phillip's talented brother, William, who, I understand, has quite a reputation in the UK with a few top-profile celebrity clients.

The weather couldn't have been any more perfect; giving us a perfect backdrop of clouds and a rainbow! 

Plus, we were also fortunate to have a bride who was quite willing to climb over a barbed-wire fence, in all her white ensemble, and all in the name of Photography.  It also helps when you have a dashing husband, who simply whisks you over the fence!  (Phillip is a rugby player, over 6 ft tall, and did I mention he was rather dashing?)

The reception was nothing short of unbridled merrymaking, which I am sure went on 'til the wee hours of the morning.

Anyway, enough babbling - here you are, finally, the sneak peaks;

This past week, or so, has been spent relooking how we process images.

The down side of this, is that sleep deprivation has taken its toll, I look tired terrible and today I am a grumpy old bat on a short fuse. Having "wasted" oodles of time solving programme errors and IT glitches that seem to come as a standard prerequisite when you change things.

On the positive side though, we will, fingers crossed, be able to process wedding images a little faster...and I will be able to sleep.

Update: An email that we received after this post that I wanted post separately, but did not get time. From Kim and Dale (pictured above):

" Now it is my turn to say a huge THANK YOU to you!!!

Our photo's are absolutely amazing and so worth the wait! We could not have asked for anything more and I am so glad that you agreed to share our special day with us because you captured ever moment in such detail and when I look through the photo's I am able to relive the day.

Words can truly not express how thankful I am for what you did for us and we will really treasure all these moments for years to come!"

Some may call me biased, but there is no doubt in my mind about the fact that I have super cool clients.
 
What you can't tell from the photo's is that Lohan is one of the sweetest guys I have met and that Anri painstakingly decorated every inch, and I mean every inch, of Avianto herself.

I know, I've been ridiculously slow about getting these up, but I've really been battling to format a 'blurb' that actually describes their beautiful day. The only words that spring to mind are classic glamour.
 
I will put aside my editorial inadequacies, which has delayed this post by a couple of days, accept defeat and finally post these...