News/Blog

Jings, 20% of our availability for 2013 is booked already and we're just in May 2012.
A massive thanx to all the couples that have booked us, and to friends and current/previous couples that have recommended us to their friends.

We've taken bookings for 2014 as well, and also would you believe.. 2015.
I think a lot of this is down to us never standing still and offering the same old wedding photos every time. We set out to shoot every wedding like it's the only one we'll be doing this year. After all , it's that important to the couple - why should I treat it with any less respect & devotion.

So here's to continued bookings and working with lots of great people... all the couples, their mums & dads, grand parents and all their friends.

Thanx folks :) !

It was Edinburgh Castle yesterday - for Sarah & Mark's wedding.
Not the most sunny of days... it rained right up until about 8pm... but that didn't dampen the spirits of anyone attending the wedding, least of all Sarah or Mark.

The ceremony took place in St Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle, one of the (if not THE) oldest buildings in Edinburgh - built by David I around 1130. It's a very small chapel, but still hugely popular for weddings. You just need to keep the tourists out while there's a wedding on - but the staff at the castle do that well.
It's obviously a very popular visitor attraction, so getting any pictures without lots (and lots) of inquisitive tourists in the photo was a challenge and a few had to be asked politely (but strongly) to heave ho out the way :)
Sometimes it was fun to include them and you can see that in the picture below taken in the Great Hall where we executed plan B for the family group shots.
(Plans C & D were used at times throughout the day as the wedding's uniqueness and weather sent curved balls every now and again to test me out.)

The ceremony was performed by Bill Nisbet, a friend of Sarah's family, and it was loving & fun. Everyone that was in the wedding party performed their part well it must be said. Mark and his best man Gary are both in the Army, and their speeches were handled with typical military precision and efficiency :)
The reception & evening's entertainment were held at The Glen Golf Club in North Berwick, and again the staff there looked after everyone well.
There's some gorgeous views and (if the weather permits) a great beach for some photography. Alas - that didn't work out for us this weekend, but the band for the night "Bleeker" were excellent - a 2 piece combo playing a great range of toons.

So all in all - a great day, and a great start to wedded life for the new Mr & Mrs Purves.

All the best to Sarah & Mark x.

We're doing lots of Bump 2 Baby shoots these days, everyone is a different style - a different set of requests and a different couple to have fun with.

On Monday we had in Erin with bump & Ryan. We tried out lots of different shots, some new ones for me, and to be fair to Erin & Ryan, they played along great - and we got some great shots.

It's a fantastic offer we do... part of a double package and it's technically a free shoot.

There's a £20 booking fee/deposit, but once the shoot is finished - you get to spend that on prints. On top of that you also get a free 5x7" print from each shoot. The shoots are usually when there's a nice big bump... then the second when we have the baby ... usually in the first few weeks.

As usual, the studio is open 7 days by appointment, 10am to 9pm.
Weekends can be tight just now with all the weddings though, but there's always time to squeeze in more shoots !

We're offering a fantastic mid-week studio portrait session offer over April & May.
For only £45 you can have a full studio session (around an hour) at Cat's Row Studios on Victoria Street in Dunbar - home of GWS Photography, and the price includes two 8x10" prints.
We'll even email you a full set of small-sized digital copies of ALL the photos we put in your portfolio (averages 20-40), for you to use on Facebook etc.

The offer is on for the whole of April & May, every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday from 10am to 6pm. Booking is required and payment at the time of booking also.

To book a slot call 01368 864500 during office hours or 07976 802944 evenings. Or pop into Lothian Computers on Dunbar High Street and see us in person.

* Can't be used in conjunction with any other offer or gift package.

What a lovely day for a wedding... great sunshine - but not too hot.
So we were in Garvald, East Lothian and the church there... a very old church with a great history. Carvings on the wall dating back to the 1600's.



Anyway, after a slight mis-hap that delayed the start of the ceremony... the wedding got into full flow and the relaxed setting, created by the happy couple made for a very endearing day.
A marquee was set up outside the village hall, which acted as an initial reception for the afternoon guests arriving, before everyone sat down in the hall for a buffet lunch.

Gemma & Doug had asked for mostly informal & reportage style pictures, and the delay in starting the ceremony in a way helped that, as I tried to help time by moving around the formal group shots as quickly as possible, then myself & the newly weds took an easy stroll from the church to the marquee, stopping to chat a few times as I snapped away.

Here's a sample of shots, and the full portfolio will be ready for Gemma & Doug within a week , and will be on here for friends & family to view after Mr & Mrs Roberts have had their viewing.

All the very best to Gemma & Doug ! x

Well I thought we were being clever boasting about the 2013 & 2014 enquiries and bookings we are taking just now, but then Angela & Gary book us for 2015 !
Almost immediately after another 2 2015 enquiries.
Wow.

Still , first one in the bag... looking forward to going through to Culcreuch Castle in Stirlingshire for this one. Nice :)

We're about to launch some new packages for 2013 onwards too... there will be news of these on this site over the next few days.

After the rain ran out on Tuesday afternoon, we were blessed with lovely skies for a stroll around the lighthouse at Barns Ness.
I caught up with Lynda & David who are getting married in Dunbar Town House in June - my first wedding photography job there since around 1985!

The wedding was going to be at Haddington Registrar, but with the newly refurbished town house being available, it's been switched with much happiness to Dunbar.

We had a chat about doing some funky wedding shots while I snapped away to test the happy couple out for blinkies and stance... they both passed fine and we had a great hour or so while young Neilson kicked his ball about waiting for us... we included him in a few of the shots mind... he was too cute to leave out :)

It's a great location out at Barns Ness, I could easily have been out there with them for a few hours, but I didn't want to wear them out before the wedding... so with around 40 shots in the bag, and my note book questions answered about the big day we called it a day.

I love doing these pre-wedding shoots, very chilled, relaxed and always a good laugh with the couple. I enjoy them so much actually, that for all new 2013 & 2014 bookings we're going to now include a POST wedding shoot as well. Away from the pressures of the big day, but where the couple can dress up again if they like.
Watch this space about that....

St Andrew Blackadder Church in North Berwick was the venue of Saturday's ceremony - between Julia & Ken. A great gathering of their friends & family made for a very happy day, with everyone taking part in the celebrations.

After the ceremony, we stopped for a few quick portraits, before heading along to the Marine Hotel for the afternoon & evenings reception.

Julia looked fantastic, and coped extremely well with the wedding while also looking after their lovely daughter Lily, while Ken took care of young Dylan. Multi-taskers indeed :)

The full portfolio is in the Gallery section now for Julia & Ken's family & friends... and here's a small sample of the shots from the day.







G.

A very busy weekend finished on Sunday with a nice pre-wedding shoot with Gemma & Doug in Glasgow.
We met in the cloisters of the University and spent about an hour taking some easy portraits and chatting about their wedding that's in Garvald in May.

Glasgow University's cloisters are an amazing place for this kind of shoot, with the wonderful arches and light pouring in from two sides.

I'm looking forward to the wedding in Garvald next month even more now, knowing the happy couple are a relaxed and easy going pair... these photo shoots really do make a difference to a wedding workflow.

Roll on May 5th !

Saturday 7th April was the wedding of Karen & Simon... held at the wonderful Gilmerton House near Athelstaneford in East Lothian.

The day's weather was still... if overcast, but the great gathering of friends & family had a ball regardless. We got some sneaky wee spells of sunshine when we needed them for the photos during the afternoon, and then I set up for the evening's Ceilidh in the fantastic library/music room.

The full portfolio is up in the gallery section now, it will require a password which Karen & Simon know...



All the best to Karen & Simon !

x

Fiona & Paul are getting married in Dean Parish Church in May, and then having their afternoon/evening reception at the Log Cabin by Ravensheugh Beach, Tyninghame. A popular wedding spot in East Lothian - with fantastic views looking out to the Bass Rock, and a lovely quiet beach.

A nice walk along the beach gave us the chance to catch up, talk about wedding photo ideas, and get to know each other better.

Not the warmest of days, but hey - it's Scotland you never know from one minute to the next what will happen weather wise :)
As it happens, at the end of the shoot as Fiona & Paul waved bye-bye from their car and left... the sun came out and showed off a wonderful sunset... typical :)
Not to worry, as we still got some lovely shots.

If you're getting married in 2013 (or 2014 for that matter) now is the time to book your photography.
All our 2012 prices are being held at the moment, so you won't face any price rise for 2013 or 2014, what's more is we're offering some great incentives.

As well as giving you beautiful photography, for every package with an album, for a limited time we will give you 5 micro albums free of charge - worth £100.
So you get 2012 prices, great photography and 5 micro albums - as well as peace of mind that you have booked a professional photographer.

If you book a non-album package we'll give you a free proof book with up to 300 photos printed in it... worth £75.

Bookings are coming in already for 2013 wedding photography by GWS, so it's never too early to book up.
We've even had the first 2014 enquiries !

Our 2013 wedding photography covers all of the Lothians, Edinburgh, Fife, Berwickshire... and beyond!

You can tell wedding season is upon us... gearing up with a pile of pre-shoots, that will - in a few weeks - overlap with the start of weddings that will go non-stop until December again. Got a lot of bookings this year again.
We've still space for more though, as many of this years dates are on Fridays, Thursdays and even a couple of Sundays.

But on Tuesday there, it was a peaceful catch up with Sarah & Mark from North Berwick who are getting married at Edinburgh Castle in May. Well - what better place nearby to warm up for that than Tantallon Castle... so that's where we met up , and over the next 60 minutes or so I got answers to all my questions regarding the wedding plans and what we all thought were some good ideas for photography , and we also got some nice shots of the happy couple.

So here's to Sarah & Mark... see you all again very soon I'm sure :)

At the weekend there, had a nice stroll out with Karen & Simon who are getting married at the start of April at Gilmerton House, between North Berwick and Dunbar.

Gilmerton house is a fascinating venue, it's been owned by the same Kinloch family since the 1600's and you can feel, see & touch the history in every room.

Anyhoos... a lovely walk out with Karen & Simon around John Muir Country Park, taking in the March sunset... and talking about all the fine details of the wedding plans.





Gilmerton House

I had a nice walk around North Berwick last week with Julia & Ken who get married next month. Not the nicest of days but we still had some fun and had some good long chats about their up-and-coming wedding, which is starting off at St Andrew Blackadder church on North Berwick High Street, before moving onto the Marine Hotel.

As part of our sale on stock canvases & prints, we have a large Kelso acrylic, ready to mount on the wall.
It's a large piece, at 15" high, by 42" long. Taken by myself, the view needs no description, and even has a gillie & fisherman (who had a broken leg at the time) in a wee boat, in fact I actually got a photo of them landing a big salmon as well :)

This is going at a reduced price of £150, as we need room for this season's work...
A complete one off, no-one else has anything like this, and nor will I be printing up another, a chance for a complete limited edition.



It can be viewed in Lothian Computers, 98 High Street Dunbar.

I picked up a silver award for this portrait in February's IPPN monthly competition.
So I'm still chasing the elusive Gold, but it's great fun going for it.

The IPPN is International Professional Photographer's Network , a forum based web site offering advice & support to photographers from all over the world.
You can visit their web site here... IPPN

It's easy to think that a family or individual portrait can be the very standard sit and smile... click... job done kind of photo, and there's nothing wrong with that.
But it doesn't always have to be as obvious as that.
That's why we've been working hard in our base at Cat's Row Studios to offer as many different options as possible for portraits.

As well as the standard high key white & low key black background shots, we have a range of other basic colours, and now there's the cube shots, a rock 'n roll corner, our old window section, the old room .... many themed type shots available, and we have plans for many more.

So whether you're planning a big family portrait, or you fancy having a unique Facebook profile pic... give us a call and we'll do a shoot for you... in a way you want.





* You can now see a behind the scenes story on our Blog page.

This portrait of Chris on his Lambretta won me a silver award in January's IPPN monthly competition. The IPPN (International Professional Photographer's Network) is a forum based web site for photographers to share ideas, ask advice and general hang out together - as we're a lonely bunch :)



It's always good fun doing these monthly competitions, as it keeps a level of self critique going... now to try hit a gold award !

We've our 2012 sample wedding albums in at Cat's Row studios, to give our lovely wedding couples more ideas about their album choices. From 6x8" up to 14x10" , acrylic covers, micro sets... parents albums.... lots of ideas to choose from.



It can be difficult to plan your wedding album until you've seen what photos you want included, how many can you squeeze into your album, what size ? Full page of several to a page ? Maybe you're just paying initially for the photography coverage with the CD/DVD package and plan on getting an album later... either way heres a small guide on what's possible and price guides for options.

Our packages list albums with 'included photos' but unlike most photographers, we don't live by hard and fast rules. If a package states '40 photos' , that's an average. If you pick 50 favourite photos, we'll try to get all your choice included without any extra expense. But then again, if you'd like lots of full page photos, the only way possible might be to include extra pages & leaves in your album to fit them all in.
Every album is unique... just like every wedding we shoot.

The photographers job starts way in advance with all the preparation, on the day of the wedding, the photography starts for real, but then the week after the big day is when another 4 or 5 days of work in photo preparation for printing & albums goes on... but don't you worry about that, once you've seen your portfolio.

We've put together a PDF price list & guide that we send out to all the wedding enquiries we receive. We can also send hard copies too.