Lisa Beaney Photography

West Sussex Wedding Photography - Stanhill Court

2012-01-26T18:00:00.000Z

We are really looking forward to exhibiting at the Stanhill Court Wedding Fair on Sunday 29th January. We will have a wide range of our wedding photography on display including slideshows and our gorgeous albums.

Stanhill Court is a lovely venue to photograph at, one of our favourite wedding venues in West Sussex :) It has some lovely formal gardens as well as wonderful views that make superb backdrop for your wedding photographs.

When Becky and Mark held their wedding reception at Stanhill Court they asked us for some "fun" group photographs as well as the more traditional, formal group photographs at the church. The grounds of Stanhill Court provided us with the perfect opportunity to photograph the wedding party in some less traditional poses !

This movie slideshow provides a taster of their wedding day.

If you are looking for a wedding photographer in West Sussex then why not give us a call on 01903 816500 or email info@lisabeaneyphotography.co.uk

Wiston House Wedding

2012-01-25T18:00:00.000Z

Phill has been busy recently putting together short trailer versions of our Movie Slideshows from some of last years weddings.

Our Movie Slideshows are a fusion of photography and film clips, designed to bring your day to life :)

This one is from Jane & Nick's wedding at Wiston House last Summer. Wiston House is a wonderful venue with fantastic gardens as well as the gorgeous interior. It does mean that no matter what the weather is like you will have some stunning photographs to remind you of your day.

So if you are getting married at Wiston House or if you are looking for a wedding photographer then give us a call !

Stanhill Court Hotel Wedding Fair - 29th January 2012

2012-01-24T10:40:00.000Z

Just a quick blog post to let you know that we will be exhibiting at the Stanhill Court Wedding Fair on Sunday 29th January. The doors are open from 11am to 4pm so come along and say hello !

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SWPP Convention 2012

2012-01-18T09:22:00.000Z

Well, what can I say, I had a great time at the SWPP Convention last week. This is the first year that I have presented a masterclass on my Boudoir photography so I think it is fair to say I was a little nervous... I went well prepared with at least two backup copies of my presentations and all the slideshows on disk and memory stick just in case anything went wrong. One thing I have learnt from my IT days is that if you have plenty of back up copies you most probably won't need them; if you don't you will !

It was great to see so many people at both of my masterclasses, especially as Saturdays started at 8:30am and I know some people had quite a late night the night before, so I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that came along to hear me speak. You may recognise yourselves in the photo below....

These photos were all taken using available light on my Canon 5dMk2 with a 50mm f1.4 Sigma lens..

As well as running the masterclasses I made the most of the opportunity to look around the trade show and meet up with the suppliers that we use.

It was great to see Terri from Album Epoca, the company that supply our stunning albums, and to see my boudoir and wedding work displayed on their stand. If you didn't get a chance to see Album Epoca at the convention they will also be at Focus this year.

Guy Thatcher from Hireacamera was also at the show and he had the new Canon 1DX on his stand... speaking to him the 1DX's that he has coming in March have already been hired out, it looks like they are going to be very popular !

It was also good to catch up with Gary from Lastolite, we use a lot of their products in the studio and at weddings. If you have a problem then they normally have a solution !

The other thing that I was able to do was to sit in on some of the masterclasses run by other photographers. It was fascinating to hear Marko Dutka talk not only about his fashion photography but also about fashion and the real differences between the designer labels and high street fashions. He bought with him a collection of clothing including items by Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen, oh, and I mustn't forget the funkiest pair of shoes I have seen for a long time !

Other masterclasses I enjoyed included one by Damien Lovegrove on the lighting that he uses for his portraits and the most inspirational art nude photography from Faye and Trevor Yerbury. Faye and Trevor produce stunning, artistic work and spent some time talking about how they go about creating each image. So, if you want to see some of their work then please click here.

I met some fantastic people over the last week, some photographers that I have known for years and some that I met for the first time who are just starting out in business. It was great to get to know you all and I look forward to seeing you all again at the Hilton next year :)

Boudoir Christmas Presents

2012-01-17T10:31:00.000Z

We had a very busy time leading up to Christmas with a mix of boudoir and portrait sessions.

I must admit I was only able to relax when the last of the albums had been delivered, I was really glad that we didn't have any snow down here to disrupt things this year and luckily the Scottish lab that we use were still able to get all our orders sent out to us in time !

Anyway, these are a few Boudoir photos from a Christmas present session :) I must admit they looked fabulous in the album !

Bridal Boudoir - West Sussex Photography

2012-01-09T19:00:00.000Z

Sarah has very kindly given me permission to post this photograph from her Boudoir session on our blog.

We had some of our Boudoir photographs on display at the wedding fair when Sarah & Joe first met us. Joe commented on them but I know he thought there was no way that Sarah would have a Boudoir session.

But Sarah decided to surprise Joe.

Sarah came along to our studio for her Boudoir session with one of her bridesmaids for moral support. Sarah was able to relax with a glass of champagne while our makeup artist did her makeup for her. Sarah had bought her wedding lingerie and shoes with her so that we could create an amazing set of photographs for Sarah to give to give to Joe in one of our portfolio albums on their wedding day.

I had to make sure that at the pre-wedding meeting and at the actual wedding I didn't mention a thing about the boudoir session that had taken place !

From what Sarah has told me after the wedding it was quite an emotional moment when she gave Joe the album, she had done this because she knew how much it would mean to him to have these photographs to treasure; it certainly is a very personal gift.

Anyway, this is just one of the photographs from Sarah's Boudoir Session.

Surrey Wedding Photography - Sarah & Adrian

2012-01-09T09:08:00.001Z

It was great to see Sarah & Adrian again at the weekend and show them their wedding photographs.

It is sometimes easy to forget but as wedding photographers we are the only supplier that is with the couple for the whole day and we have an opportunity to record things that either the bride or groom would not get to see any other way... We can also record all the small details, the things that the couple have spent months planning and making sure are "right" for them as well as the overall "feel" of the day and of course the emotions !

Anyway, this is the movie slideshow from Sarah & Adrians wedding.

SWPP Convention 2012

2012-01-06T14:54:00.000Z

Well, this time next week I will be at the SWPP Convention. This is one of the largest photographic events in Europe attracting exhibitors and speakers from all over the world.

I will be presenting two different masterclasses this year. The first on Friday 13th Jan will be covering my Boudoir Photography. This will cover the following :

Differences between Boudoir and Glamour
The Boudoir "experience"
How we market Boudoir photography
My Studio Setup
Post Processing of the photographs

On Saturday 14th Jan I will be covering Starting and Building a photography business. This will cover the following :

Business Planning
Marketing
Workflow
Presentation

I will also be showing how we incorporate video from the dSLR's in to the products that we provide our wedding clients and where I think this will take us in the future....

Samples of both my Wedding and Boudoir albums will be on display at the Album Epoca display stand in the trade show; it would be great to see you there !

Ewell Wedding - Sarah & Adrian

2011-12-21T09:32:00.000Z

Saturday was the last wedding of the year for us and it was a wonderful way to end the year !

Sarah wore a wonderfully festive red wedding dress and some amazing shoes :) Luckily although it was freezing cold it stayed dry and sunny during the day so we were able to get outside in the beautiful grounds for some of the photographs.

Anyway, these are the first few photographs from Sarah & Adrian's day.

Another one from earlier this year...

2011-12-16T19:00:00.000Z

This photograph caught a moment between the Groom and his mother.. It doesn't matter how old your children are; the love that you have for them is unconditional.

Captured Moments

2011-12-13T11:07:00.000Z

Well, on Saturday we are due to photograph our last wedding this year, it has been a very busy year and we have photographed a wide variety of weddings.

One thing I always notice is that it is the people that make a wedding, we see such a wide range of emotions from nerves, excitement and happiness, sometimes with some sadness for the people that are no longer there.

Over the next few weeks I will be adding some photographs to my blog of the "moments" that make a wedding day.

These are the first few...

I love this photo from Katie and Chris's wedding, Katie is concentrating on the registrar but knows that Chris is looking at her... it is the little knowing smile that gives everything away !

This photograph of Merihan captures quite a thoughtful moment while her makeup was being done.... there comes a point in the day when you realise that this is it... the planning is over and you are about to make a lifetime commitment to someone...

I love this photo ! It is just the expression on Hayley's face when she came out of the church and found her class waiting outside for her, they had put quite a bit of time in to making the butterflies they were all holding and Hayley had absolutely no idea what they had been planning...

Samuel

2011-12-07T10:32:00.000Z

It was great to see Jo and Adam again recently with their son Samuel. It sounds as though they have had a very busy time since we photographed their wedding last year.

Samuel is gorgeous and I'm looking forward to photographing him over the coming year and seeing him grow....

These are the first few photographs from Samuels first studio session.

K3 Bluebird - Engine test

2011-12-02T14:39:00.001Z

This week we spent an afternoon filming the engine test of the K3 Bluebird. I don't know much about engines but this is BIG ! This isn't the original engine, the original is too valuable to risk using for this, it also needs a rebuild after 6 hours of running.... so this engine is a meteor engine out of a centurion tank built in 1958. For all the men that think size is important this is a 27 litre v12 engine....

These are just a couple of photos from the afternoon...

Guy Thatcher - Hire A Camera - IOV Area Meeting

2011-11-24T09:11:00.000Z

It was great to meet other Institute of Videographer (IOV) members yesterday evening at our Studio in Steyning for their area meeting.

The guest speaker was Guy Thatcher from Hire A Camera.

Guy rents out all sorts of video cameras, stills cameras, lenses and accessories to a wide range of individuals and organisations. Guy bought a whole range of cameras and accessories with him for people to "play" with as well as speaking about the developments within the industry, especially the differences that the new range of large sensor cameras are bringing. I think it is going to be a very interesting few years ahead as far as the technological changes are concerned.

One particularly interesting camera as far as I was concerned was the Sony Alpha77, the first SLT camera with a translucent mirror, this enables the camera to use all the metering and focus functions of the camera in video mode with the mirror down. Apparently it works a bit like an autocue system in that from one side the mirror is see through but from the other side it is reflective. The "see through side" lets about 70% of the light through making about 1 stop of difference to the light level. Because it is not moving the mirror out of the way when it takes a photograph (or starts recording) it makes it very quiet... something that would be great in church ! I don't know how the image quality compares to the Canon 5dMk2 that I have been using but it does all of a sudden make Sony a very interesting company to watch for their stills cameras, it is also worth remembering that they took over minolta so lots of the old minolta lens will work on these cameras.

Guy will also be at the SWPP convention in January and I look forward to catching up with him again then.

Sarah & Richard - Gaynes Park {movie slideshow}

2011-11-20T13:47:00.000Z

Sarah and Richard came to see us yesterday to view their movie slideshow and photographs from their wedding at Gaynes Park.

The rain just about stayed away during the day and we were able to make use of the wonderful gardens at Gaynes Park. The staff were really great making sure everything ran smoothly and it is one venue that we would love to work at again :)

Anyway, here is Sarah and Richard's Movie Slideshow

Harriet & Paul - Upwaltham Barns {movie slideshow}

2011-11-19T16:29:00.000Z

Harriet & Paul came in to see us earlier today to view their wedding photographs. It was great to see them looking relaxed after a what sounded like a wonderful honeymoon !

This is the complete movie slideshow from their wedding day.

Avisford Park Wedding - Rachel & Lee {movie slideshow}

2011-11-17T16:03:00.000Z

It was great to see Rachel and Lee earlier this week to show them their wedding photographs.

Rachel had two wedding cakes, one to cut after the wedding breakfast and one for the evening guests. The evening cake was made by Melanie Marley, The Cake Artist. We have photographed several cakes that Melanie has made and they are always stunning !

We were so lucky with the weather that day, including a gorgeous sunset....

Rachel and Lee had planned a very family friendly wedding with lots for all the children to do, apparently the children carried on dancing all evening :)

Anyway, this is their full length Movie Slideshow..

Devils Dyke Wedding - Gemma & Marcus

2011-11-15T16:50:00.000Z

It was a rather typical November day last Friday for Gemma & Marcus's wedding. They were married at St Helens Church and then held their reception at Devils Dyke Golf Club. On a clear day you can see for miles from the Golf Club, luckily the fog had just about lifted by the time we arrived !

These are the first few photographs from their wedding day, I will post more just as soon as Gemma and Marcus have seen them :)

For the photographers that read this blog the first photograph was taken with the Canon 85mm f1.8 lens using natural window light. The second was taken using the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens lit using the Elinchrom Quadra lights and the third was taken using the Canon 16-35mm f2.8 lens lit using the Lowel ID light.... all on the Canon 5dMk2.

Ewell Court House - Sarah & Adrian

2011-11-09T09:34:00.000Z

It was great to meet up with Sarah & Adrian again at the weekend, it seems ages ago since we first met them and now it is only a few weeks until their wedding. Sarah & Adrian are getting married a week before Christmas, I wonder if we will have snow for their wedding !

We haven't photographed a wedding at Ewell Court House before so it was good to have a walk round the grounds and see what is there. The grounds are beautiful, with plenty of evergreen plants as well as deciduous trees (that had that wonderful autumn gold colour).

Sarah's dress is going to be a bit different from most and I can't wait to see it.

Anyway, these are a few of the informal photographs that we took of them on a rather dark, wet afternoon.

For the photographers that read this blog these were all taken on the Canon 5dMk2 with the Canon 85mm f1.8 lens. All at ISO1600 1/100 sec and either f2.8 or f4

Boudoir Christmas Special !

2011-11-02T10:06:00.000Z

If you are struggling knowing what to buy the man in your life for Christmas then why not book one of our Boudoir Secrets Sessions !

This year we are running a very special offer on the lead up to Christmas, a boudoir session including the services of a professional makeup artist and one of our gorgeous 6"x6" albums including ten fully retouched photographs for £295.

Boudoir Sessions need to be held before 4th December to make sure that you have your album in time for Christmas, so don't delay in contacting us to book your session !

Gaynes Park Wedding - Sarah & Richard

2011-11-01T16:10:00.000Z

After the clocks went back on Sunday we were at Gaynes Park, Essex for Sarah & Richards wedding. Sarah has got to be one of the most excited brides I have had the pleasure of photographing this year ! The weather was not quite as kind as it had been the previous day but Sarah & Richard were happy to carry on regardless and the drizzle certainly didn't put a dampener their day (the brollies only had to come out at one point...)

I would like to say at big thank you to the staff at Gaynes Park, they certainly make sure everything runs smoothly and also to their toastmaster, Ted Prior, for his assistance getting people together for the group photographs.

These are the first few photographs from their wedding day.

For the photographers that read this blog the first photograph was taken with the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens, the second with the Canon 16-35 f2.8 lens (lit with the Lowel ID Video light) and the third with the Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens. Again, all on the Canon 5dmk2.

Avisford Park Wedding - Rachel & Lee

2011-11-01T15:38:00.000Z

It was a lovely autumn day on Saturday for Rachel & Lee's wedding at the Avisford Park Hotel near Arundel. Rachel & Lee had planned a very family orientated wedding and even booked "Toddlepop" to keep their younger guests entertained !

These are the first few photographs from their wedding day.

For the photographers that read this blog the first two were taken using the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens, the third using the Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens; all on the Canon 5dMk2 with available light only.

Canon 1DX - First Look....

2011-10-28T16:45:00.000+01:00

Well, this week I went to the Canon Pro Solutions Show in Islington. This was the first chance that I had to learn more about the new Canon 1DX camera. I was lucky enough to be able to try one for a short while including taking some photographs with it at high ISO although I was not allowed to use my own memory cards or take the photographs away with me because these are still pre-production models.

This First Look Review is based on the short time I had with the camera and the information from the official Canon presentation and the additional information given by Canon talking to them afterwards.

Canon are launching this as their new flagship camera and, if it performs in "real life" the way it did for me when testing then it has the potential to be a very impressive piece of kit.

So, what is new ??

18.1MP Full Frame CMOS Sensor
Canon are combining their 1D range in to one body meaning they will not be producing a crop sensor version of this camera. The new sensor has less megapixels that the current 1Ds Mk III and the 5d Mk II. What this does mean is that Canon are producing a sensor with larger photo-sites and using a "gapless" design. In reality although this senor has less megapixels it will deliver sharper images and enable the use of far higher ISO's than is available currently. The native ISO range is 100-51,200 with a "High" setting of 204,800.
In my testing I was shooting at ISO 32,000. There was some noise apparent on the images but less than I would expect at ISO3200 on a Canon 5d Mk 2. I would love to have longer to test this camera in some of the real world situations that we all encounter and look at the photographs in detail comparing them through different ISO settings.

Metering
The metering system has also been changed to a 100,000 pixel RGB AE metering system. The metering system has its own dedicated DIGIC 4 processor that not only measures brightness but also colour. This *should* result in far better metering.....

Autofocus
This has to be one of the more exciting parts for me (sad I know, getting excited about a cameras auto focus system) but this isn't just any auto focus. This is a whole new 61 point autofocus system with 41 of these points cross hair focus points. The centre 5 AF points are dual cross type for added precision. Not only that but within the menu system you can customise how the auto focus system works and change the speed and sensitivity of the auto focus tracking system. I'm sure we have all suffered the frustrations of missing a moment because the autofocus just won't focus.... but my testing with this found it to be fast and accurate, and not just limited to the centre focus point. I did some of my testing focusing on a piece of dark cloth, using one of the outside focus points and there was none of the focus hunting and failing to get focus that I have had with the Canon 5dMk2.
The true test for this though will be how well it performs in low light... but if you put the new focus system with the new metering system and the ISO range of the sensor then this has the potential to be an amazing camera.

High Speed Shooting
14fps. Yes, really 14fps.... now this must be a real plus point for anyone that photographs sports.... At weddings I'm not sure that I would actually need 14fps but I know plenty of photographers that will be drooling over this aspect of the camera. This will allow bursts of up to 120 large JPEG photographs or 36 RAW files... what this does mean is that you will need fast memory cards...

Full HD Movies
Canon have changed their video codec available on the camera to include an uncompressed format (larger files again....) The changes in the sensor should also improve the moire effects that were present on the earlier cameras and the changes in the way it records video should virtually eliminate the problems caused by the rolling shutter. Other important changes include the introduction of a timecode and the removal of the 12min recording limit. The cameras are still limited by the 29 min 59sec rule that would make them movie cameras rather than primarily stills cameras (something to do with import rules....) and the 4GB file size of the FAT32 file system; the way the camera handles this is to auto create a new file when the 4GB limit is reached so this should be seamless....

Dual DIGIC 5+ Processors
All this extra information being fed in from the metering and focus systems means you need more processing power. So Canon have put in two DIGIC 5+ processors to handle it.

Ethernet Port
Canon have also built in a Gigabit Ethernet port.... this means you will be able to download your photographs VERY fast ! One other interesting thing chatting to the Canon rep.... the ethernet port will be used on the camera attached to a custom rig during the Olympics to allow full remote control of the camera, including zooming. This does mean that the camera must be capable of receiving commands via the ethernet port as well as transmitting a whole host of other information.

Misc
The camera has a whole load more built in service information, if it encounters a problem it will record the error code as well as the lens and other related information. This data is accessible through the menu structure on the back of the camera. It will also record various service information and the actual number of shutter actuations. The shutter mechanism itself is rated for 400,000 actuations....

The ergonomics of the camera felt good. I don't have large hands but all the important buttons were still within thumbs reach on the back.

The 1DX now has two CF card slots, these can be used in much the same way as the existing twin slots but this does mean that you will only have to carry one card type with you rather than CF & SD cards...

Talking to the Canon staff there is no doubt that the tsunami in Japan is still having quite an effect on development and production for all the major manufacturers. What this means for future announcements (such as the 5dMk3) I'm not sure. I did however hear rumours of a new flash system in the not too distant future that should overcome some of the common gripes with the existing setup (such as inconsistent exposures).

Primarily this is still a stills camera rather than a movie camera, combining the 1D range in to a single full frame version of the camera is a bold move but one that I think will prove popular. Some sports photographers were questioning this because of the crop factor and the fact that they may need to buy new lenses to keep the same equivalent focal length.

The camera has been announced this far in advance of its actual launch so that people can budget for it. Current prices are about £5,300 although this does always drop about 6 months after the launch... BUT, next year we have the Olympics and I know plenty of people will be queuing up to make sure that they have this new camera in plenty of time.....

So, what is next from Canon.... chatting to the Canon staff I think there will be some very interesting announcements in the not too distant future. As to what features from this camera we will see in the likes of the 5dMk3 I'm not sure.... I have been told that the autofocus mechanism and the motor drive won't both fit in a body the size of the 5dMk2 (personally I'm not that worried about the 14fps !). If Canon were to include the improved sensor, autofocus and changes to the video formats then I think they would be on to a winner.... What will actually happen ? Only the people within Canon actually know for sure, and they aren't telling :)

Gemma, Marcus & Josh - Devils Dyke Golf Club

2011-10-27T13:19:00.000+01:00

We met up with Gemma & Marcus for their pre-wedding meeting at Devils Dyke Golf Club recently. It was a very blustery day but there are great views from the top of the South Downs !

Gemma & Marcus also had their son Josh with them who I think is also quite excited about their wedding.

These are just a couple of the informal photographs that we took of them.

These wre all taken on the Canon 5dMk2 with the 85mm f1.8 lens.

Special Offer **** Christmas Cards

2011-10-26T15:54:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to let you all know that we are currently running our special Christmas Card Portrait Sessions.

You can come along to our studio, have a family portrait session (we have Santa hats and presents here !) and then choose your favourite photograph to go on to the front of your personalised Christmas Cards.

Total Price including portrait session and 25 Christmas Cards - £75

Call now on 01903 816500 or email us to book your session

Upwaltham Barns Wedding - Harriet & Paul

2011-10-26T11:29:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday we were photographing Harriet & Paul's wedding at Upwaltham Barns. It was quite a chilly day but the rain stayed away !

Upwaltham Barns is a beautiful venue, complete with log burner and very efficient underfloor heating in both barns to make sure that no matter what time of year you get married you certainly won't get cold inside.

Harriet looked absolutely stunning and very elegant. I will post a few more details about their wedding, and a few more photographs, just as soon as they have seen them when they get back from their honeymoon.

Anyway, here the first few photographs from their wedding day.

For the photographers that ready my blog these were all taken with the Canon 5dMk2. The first photograph was taken with the 70-200 f2.8 lens and the second two with the 24-70 f2.8 lens.

Additional lighting (Elinchrom Quadra with softbox) was used in the third photograph.

Avisford Park Hotel - Rachel & Lee

2011-10-26T10:49:00.000+01:00

We had a great sunset in the sky when we met up with Rachel & Lee for their pre-wedding meeting, although it was a bit chilly !

It really isn't long now until they get married and I'm sure their wedding day is going to be great fun :)

These are a couple of the informal photographs that we took of them.

For the photographers that read my blog these were taken with the Canon 5dMk2 and the 85mm f1.8 lens. Additional light from the Lowel ID video light.

Vanessa & John - South Lodge {Movie Slideshow}

2011-10-20T13:31:00.000+01:00

It was great to see Vanessa & John again to show them their wedding photographs. Vanessa & John were married in an outdoor ceremony at South Lodge Hotel. It was a wonderful September day with some gorgeous colours just appearing on the trees.

For all the brides out there Vanessa's dress was from Miss Bush Bridal in Ripley, Vanessa was thrilled with the service that she received from them and they certainly made sure she looked stunning :0

Anyway, this is the full length Movie Slideshow from their wedding day. You can use the buttons on the movie player to watch it full screen in HD and please feel free to add your comments using the comments section at the bottom of this post.

Woo hoo ! It's Live !!!

2011-10-14T09:55:00.000+01:00

Our new website is now live :)

We have been working behind the scenes on our new website. This is a major change from our old Flash based website to a new HTML 5 website.

There are several reasons that we wanted to change, as most people are aware flash does not work on the Iphone or Ipad, talking to our clients a large proportion of them use Ipads and Iphones for web browsing so it was becoming increasingly important that we had a website that looks the same on an Ipad as it does in a web browser.

Moving to HTML 5 also means that we are able to embed our Movie Slideshows in the actual website rather than people having to look at the blog or our Vimeo channel to view them.

So, for us, this new website means that we can put lots of the information that we had on the blog and vimeo on to the main website. This also means that our main website will be far more search engine friendly.

So, have a look and see what you think !

Family Portraits - First Year Book

2011-10-05T12:05:00.000+01:00

It is always lovely to see our wedding clients come back to the studio for more photographs. We photographed Rob & Linda's wedding back in 2009 and were delighted to meet Jennifer, the new addition to their family.

Babies always seem so tiny at first but they grow so quickly, I love seeing them during their first year and photographing each stage of their lives. When you don't see them for a few months you really notice the difference !

Anyway, these are a couple of the photographs that we took of them together.

Harriet & Paul

2011-10-05T10:06:00.000+01:00

We met up with Harriet and Paul on Saturday afternoon at Southwater Country Park for their pre-wedding meeting.

When we booked this meeting we didn't expect it to be the hottest October day on record ! We took advantage of some of the beautiful dappled areas of the country park for a few informal photographs.

Harriet and Paul are getting married at Upwaltham Barns later this month. Upwaltham Barns is a wonderful venue with a log burner inside for those colder autumn evenings but it is also surrounded by the beautiful Sussex countryside that makes an amazing backdrop for photographs.

Anyway, these are a few of the informal photographs from Saturday.

South Lodge Wedding - Vanessa and John

2011-09-29T12:11:00.000+01:00

We had perfect weather on Saturday for Vanessa and John's wedding at South Lodge. They had planned an outdoor ceremony and it was the perfect September day.....

These are just a few of their photographs, I will post more just as soon as Vanessa and John have seen them when they return from their honeymoon.

K3 Bluebird - Float test

2011-09-23T09:45:00.000+01:00

This week we had a very different project..... we had been invited to photograph and film the floatation test of the K3 Bluebird.

For those of you that don't know the history of this boat this is the boat that Sir Malcolm Campbell used for his water speed records in Switzerland in 1937 and 1938.

Tuesday was the first time that this boat had been in the water since then.

The restoration project was started in 1988 by Paul Foulkes Halbard and has been continued by his son Karl. Full details of the boats history and technical specifications can be found here.

A big thanks must go to the projects sponsors :

Darrell Bell - Ariadne Yacht Management
Diggers 360 Ltd
Global Services Ltd
Auto Gearboxes
Davey and Company
Quazar International Ltd
Sika Flex

Karl also owns the original life jacket worn by Sir Malcolm Campbell and wore this for some of the photographs.

The good news at the end of the day was that K3 didn't take on much water and looks as though she floats the same now as she did in the original photographs.

The next stage is to finish the work needed on the engine before running K3 again on water at some point next year. The K3 is a very British boat and it will be great to see her running again.

These are just a few of the photographs from Tuesday.

K3 Bluebird on the back of the trailer supplied by 360 Diggers Ltd. Because of the size and width of K3 it was drived with a lead escort vehicle (and me behind it in a Smart Car !). There were a few jokes beforehand about picking up my Smart Car and putting it on the back of the lorry as well.... I must admit it is huge responsibility for the driver Gary to transport this boat, it really is irreplaceable.

Karl Foulkes Halbard sitting in Bluebird when she was floating alongside the jetty. Karl is wearing Sir Malcolm Campbells original lifejacket.

More than just one man...... this is the team photograph from Tuesday showing everyone who was involved in getting Bluebird back on the water... including the emergency rescue team that was on standby just in case anything went wrong....

Vintage Wedding Photography

2011-09-15T10:05:00.000+01:00

We have seen a real increase in popularity of a "vintage" feel to photographs so I though I would post these three from Nicky & James wedding in August.

This post processing technique does not suit all photographs which is why we feel it is important to talk to you before your wedding to find out what you like and don't like. If we know you like the vintage look then we will make sure that we take the photographs on the day that will work well with it !

Marco Pierre White - Wheelers Barn Wedding Fair

2011-09-14T09:15:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to let you know that we will be exhibiting at Marco Pierre White's Wheelers Barn at The Kings Arms, Fernhurst on Sunday 18th September. The wedding fair is open from 11am until 4pm.

The full address is :

The Kings Arms
Midhurst Road
Fernhurst
West Sussex
GU27 3HA

The Barn can seat up to sixty people, full details can be found here

Eastbourne Pier Wedding - Daisy & Tim

2011-09-13T12:40:00.000+01:00

On Saturday we were dodging the showers for Daisy & Tim's wedding. They held their ceremony at All Saints Chapel and their reception at the Ocean Suite, Eastbourne Pier.

We had spent some time before chatting to Daisy & Tim about the style of photography that they like and used this to plan a few different photographs that we could take on the walk down the pier.

I will be posting some more of the photographs from this wedding just as soon as Daisy & Tim have seen them.

Anyway, these are a few of the photographs from their wedding day.

For the photographers that read my blog the first two were taken with the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens, the last one was taken with the Canon 16-35 f2.8 lens and lit using the Lowel ID video light.

Post processing in Photoshop CS4 using Nik filters.

Alexander House Wedding - Nichola & Paul

2011-09-13T11:49:00.002+01:00

We had a great day on Friday photographing Nichola and Paul's wedding. They were married at Lindfield Church and held their reception at Alexander House. Even though it was overcast it stayed dry and warm for their photographs and drinks reception.

Nichola and Paul had a few different things planned for their guests during the evening, we will post some more photographs just as soon as they have had their viewing session !

Anyway, these are a few of the photographs from their wedding day :)

For the photographers that read my blog the first photograph was taken with the canon 24-70 f2.8 lens, the other two were taken with the Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens, all on the Canon 5dMk2.

Alexander House Hotel Wedding Fair - 11th September 2011

2011-09-08T08:51:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to let you know that we will be exhibiting at the Alexander House Hotel wedding fair on Sunday 11th September. The fair is open from 11am to 3pm, this is being organised by Your Sussex Wedding magazine and you can register here.

Babies

2011-09-07T09:02:00.001+01:00

I just wanted to post a couple of photographs from recent baby sessions. These are always good fun to do and it makes you realise how different everyone really is.

You can also see that from a very young age babies do recognise their own parents and react to them, quite often far earlier than you would expect..

Gaynes Park - Sarah and Richard

2011-09-06T14:19:00.001+01:00

On Saturday we took a drive over to Gaynes Park in Essex to meet up with Sarah and Richard. This is a venue that we haven't worked at before so it is always useful to meet up beforehand and have a look around.

Gaynes Park really is a stunning venue and very professionally run, we are really looking forward to photographing Sarah and Richards wedding there in October !

Gaynes Park can be found on Facebook here

These are just a couple of the informal photographs that we took of Sarah and Richard.

For the photographers that read this both of these photographs were taken with the Canon 5dMk2 and the Canon 85mm f1.8 lens.

New Training Course - How to use your Camera

2011-08-31T09:12:00.000+01:00

After many requests from clients and wedding guests we will be running two one day courses in October on How to use your Camera.

These days are aimed at people who have a digital SLR and would like to be able to use more of its features and learn how to take photographs without relying on "Automatic" mode.

Each course will be limited to three delegates to allow time for individual tuition. The day will run from 10am to 5pm, tea/coffee, a buffet lunch and full training notes are included in the price of £95.

The first dates we have scheduled are Friday 14th October and Saturday 15th October. These will be held in our studio in Steyning, West Sussex.

To reserve your place, or for more information, please email us info@lisabeaneyphotography.co.uk

Mannings Heath Golf Club Wedding - Toni & Gary

2011-08-30T12:17:00.000+01:00

We had to dodge a couple of showers on Sunday at Toni and Gary's wedding at Mannings Heath Golf Club but it certainly didn't rain enough to spoil anyones enjoyment of their day. The showers and clouds did produce some rainbows in the evening, just as we were outside photographing the couple on their own...

These are just a few of the photographs from their wedding day.

For the photographers that read this the first photograph was taken with the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens and lit with the Elinchrom Quadra battery powered lights. The other two were taken with the Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens and available light.

Post processing in Photoshop using Nik filters.

Christmas Album Deliveries

2011-08-30T10:29:00.000+01:00

I know, it is only August and I'm talking about Christmas already !

But, because all our albums are handmade in Italy we have to allow sufficient time for them to be designed by ourselves, approved by you and then manufactured and shipped to the UK. So, to ensure that you have your albums for Christmas, we need to have your design approved by Friday 14th October :)

MPA National Awards - Merit

2011-08-26T12:10:00.000+01:00

I was thrilled to find out this morning that this photograph has been awarded a Merit in the Classical Portrait category of the Master Photographers Association awards and will now go through to the finals :)

Not a bad start to a Friday !

Horsted Place Wedding - Elaine & Paul

2011-08-24T10:14:00.000+01:00

We were very lucky with the weather again on Saturday for Elaine & Paul's wedding at Horsted Place. Elaine & Paul held their ceremony outside in the gardens, just before the start of the ceremony the skies cleared and we had beautiful sunshine and blue skies.

Horsted Place has an amazing amount of history in the building and really does make a stunning venue for a wedding.

These are just a few of the photographs from their day.

For the photographers that read this the first photograph was taken using the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens, the other two were taken using the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS lens, all taken on the Canon 5dMk2.

Horsham Wedding - Nicky & James

2011-08-23T16:42:00.000+01:00

Friday was another beautiful day for Nicky & James's wedding. They held their ceremony at Horsham Registry Office and the reception in a marquee in their garden.

Their garden opens out on to wonderful fields and country lanes that we were able to use for the photography.

These are just a few of the photographs from their wedding.

For the photographers that read my blog these were all taken on the Canon 5dMk2 with the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS lens.

Daisy & Tim - Eastbourne Wedding

2011-08-16T09:56:00.000+01:00

On Saturday we took a drive over to Eastbourne to meet up with Daisy and Tim to go through their wedding plans. Daisy and Tim have a stunning venue for their ceremony and I'm really looking forward to photographing it. After the ceremony they will be heading to the Ocean Suite on Eastbourne Pier for their reception.

Daisy and Tim are looking for something a little "different" in their wedding photographs and after talking through with them their likes and dislikes and how they see their wedding day I have plenty of ideas !

Anyway, these are just a few of the informal photographs of the two of them from Saturday.

For the photographers out there these were all taken on the Canon 5dmk2 with the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens :)

Alexander House Wedding - Sarah & Joe

2011-08-15T16:23:00.000+01:00

It was wonderful weather last Friday for Sarah & Joe's wedding at Alexander House. It is such a beautiful venue with lovely gardens as well as some great indoor locations.

Sarah & Joe had booked the services of Paul G Smith as their toastmaster and he did a great job to ensure that their day ran smoothly, it is always wonderful working with him !

Anyway, these are a few of the photographs from their wedding day.

For the photographers that read my blog all of these were taken with the Canon 5dMk2 and the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens. In the last two additional lighting was provide by the Lowel ID video light.

South Lodge Hotel - Vanessa & John

2011-08-11T11:45:00.000+01:00

It was great to meet up with Vanessa & John last weekend at South Lodge Hotel and go through the detailed plans for their wedding day. If the weather is kind on the day then Vanessa & John will be having their wedding ceremony outside.

While we were at South Lodge we took the opportunity to have a walk down to the lake, this is a bit of a hidden gem and we used this area to take some informal photographs of the two of them.

Alexander House - Nichola & Paul

2011-08-10T11:44:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we met up with Nichola & Paul for their pre-wedding meeting at Alexander House. Nichola & Paul certainly have a few interesting things planned for their wedding day that will be great to photograph !

Anyway, these are a few of the informal photographs that we took of the two of them.

Phoebe

2011-08-05T09:16:00.000+01:00

It was great to see one of last years wedding couples again recently with their daughter Phoebe. Melissa and Brendon got married last year at Corfe Castle and held their reception at Studland Bay House.

Little Phoebe was born 11 weeks early and spent the first few weeks in hospital, when she was born she only weighed about 2lbs. She came to see us when she was about 12 weeks old, just after her due date, by which time she weighed about 6lbs.

During this photo session (the first in a series of three to make up a "First Year Book") we captured this very tender moment between the three of them.

For the photographers that read my blog this was taken with the Canon 5dMk2 and the Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens. The camera settings were ISO3200 1/125 sec f3.5 this was lit using the modelling lights from the Elinchrom studio lights. Post processing was done using Nik Silver Efex 2.

Bailiffscourt Hotel Wedding - Sarah & Rob

2011-08-04T11:12:00.000+01:00

We had wonderful weather and a great time for Sarah & Rob's wedding last Saturday. Both the ceremony and wedding breakfast were held at the Bailiffscourt Hotel and Spa in Climping, The evening reception was held at Highdown Towers in Worthing. This meant not only did we have the stunning backdrop and grounds of Bailiffscourt for the photographs we were also able to take the opportunity to take some photographs of Sarah and Rob on the South Downs.

Sarahs dress was supplied by Whyte Weddings in Worthing and the beautiful wild flower arrangements were supplied by Bo-K flowers.

Anyway, these are just a few of their photographs.

Nicky & James

2011-08-04T10:31:00.000+01:00

Yesterday evening we met up with Nicky & James to see where they are going to be holding their wedding reception.

It was a beautiful evening and we spent some time walking around the farm and surrounding fields. There are so many great locations and I know we will get some wonderful photographs of their wedding.

These are just a few of the informal photographs that we took yesterday evening.

Silver Award - Wedding Photojournalism

2011-08-02T12:47:00.000+01:00

It was great to find out that this photograph has been awarded a silver award for Wedding Photojournalism. This was taken just as the bride had arrived at the church with her father and captures the moment that the smallest bridesmaid saw her walk through the doorway.

For the photographers out there this was taken with the Canon 5dMk2 and the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens. The settings were ISO3200 f5.6 1/800 sec. The only thing that I did to this image was to crop it....

Horsted Place Hotel - Elaine & Paul

2011-07-30T15:04:00.000+01:00

It has been a very busy week this week meeting up with all the couples that we will be photographing over the next few weeks.

One of the couples we met up with was Elaine & Paul, they are getting married at Horsted Place Hotel. It is always fascinating to find out why couples chose their particular wedding venues. For Elaine and Paul it was a mix of the beautiful building and grounds (including the history of Horsted Place) and the very friendly and helpful staff.

Elaine and Paul will be holding their ceremony outside, something that is becoming increasingly popular in the UK and I know this will make for some great photographs.

Anyway, these are a few of the informal photographs that we took of the two of them.

For the photographers who read this all of these were taken on the Canon 5dMk2 with the Canon 85mm f1.8 lens.

Sarah & Joe - Alexander House Hotel

2011-07-29T12:52:00.000+01:00

It isn't long now until Sarah & Joe get married at Alexander House Hotel. We met up with them recently to go through the details of their day and to take a few informal photographs of them together.

We were lucky with the evening sunlight in the grounds of the hotel, this is often one of my favourite times of the day to photograph people and is one reason that on a wedding day we stay until after the first dance in the evening.

Anyway, these are a few of the photographs we took :)

For the photographers that read my blog these were all taken with the Canon 5dmk2 and the Canon 85mm f1.8 lens.

Grittenham Barn Wedding - Katie & Chris

2011-07-26T12:55:00.001+01:00

We were so lucky with the weather on Saturday for Katie & Chris's wedding at Grittenham Barn. Whilst it came over quite overcast at times it did stay dry and warm !

As well as croquet outside Katie and Chris had hired a bouncy castle, organised a tug of war and even wellie throwing to keep their guests entertained !

These are just a few of the photographs from their wedding day.

Mannings Heath Golf Club - Toni & Gary

2011-07-20T11:57:00.002+01:00

It was great to see Toni and Gary again last Friday for their pre-wedding meeting at Mannings Heath Golf Club.

Mannings Heath is a lovely venue with plenty of space for photography on the golf course with some fairly stunning views. All you have to look out for is the odd flying golf ball !

These are a few of the informal photographs that I took of Toni and Gary.

For the photographers that read my blog these were all taken with the Canon 5dMk2 and the Canon f1.8 85mm lens.

Maisie

2011-07-18T11:17:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to share a couple of photographs of Maisie who came in to the studio last week for her First Birthday session. Maisie is a gorgeous girl who really loved the chocolate cake, especially sucking it off her fingers... the studio smelt of chocolate for the rest of the afternoon !

Katie & Chris - Grittenham Barn

2011-07-06T12:14:00.000+01:00

Katie & Chris are getting married soon ! So we met up recently at Grittenham Barn for their pre-wedding meeting. It really is a beautiful place and certainly suits Katie & Chris's style of wedding.

Katie has taken on much of the organisation of her wedding herself, right down to buying the vintage china to be used at the reception, she will also be responsible for all the flowers although she does have the right experience for this.

Anyway, these are a few of the informal photographs that I took of the two of them.

For the photographers that read this blog these photographs were all taken using available light on the Canon 5dMk2 with the Canon 85mm f1.8 lens.

Wiston House Wedding - Jane & Nick

2011-06-28T12:24:00.001+01:00

After yet more rain during the week it did stay dry for Jane & Nick's wedding last Friday. They were married at St Marys Church in Washington and held their reception at Wiston House near Steyning.

Janes dress was supplied by Whyte Weddings in Worthing and she certainly looked stunning.

Anyway, these are the first few photographs from their day.

Jane & Nick - Wiston House

2011-06-22T12:33:00.000+01:00

It was great to meet up with Jane & Nick at Wiston house recently to go through the final details of their wedding. They are due to get married on Friday and are having their reception at Wiston House, near Steyning. This has got to be one of the most local venues that we work at, as well as the historic building you have beautiful gardens and stunning views towards Chanctonbury Ring.

These are a few of the informal photographs that we took of the two of them....

Anna & Marcelo - Sussex Wedding Photography

2011-06-21T10:11:00.000+01:00

On Saturday we had great fun photographing Anna & Marcelo's wedding. They were married at Patcham Church and the reception was held on Anna's parents farm.

I think it is fair to say that Saturday was rather wet with some torrential downpours. However we managed to dodge the showers for their photographs, their photographs also included Anna's horses and their rather gorgeous dog.... Luckily neither of them was phased by the mud... even when Anna ended up with a few muddy paw prints on her dress !

Anyway, these are the first few photographs from their day...

For the photographers who read this all of these were taken using available light on the Canon 5dmk2. The first was taken using the 70-200 f2.8 IS lens and the others were taken with the 24-70 f2.8 lens.

Preston Cross Hotel - Gemma & Rob

2011-06-14T10:53:00.000+01:00

We were really lucky with the weather on Saturday for Gemma & Rob's wedding at the Preston Cross Hotel, Bookham. The wind had dropped a little and the rain stayed away for most of the day so that everyone could enjoy the beautiful gardens.

These are the first few photographs from their wedding, I'm just in the process of editing them all at the moment....

For the photographers that read this blog all these photographs were taken with the Canon 5dMk2 and the 70-200 f2.8 IS Lens. They were all taken using available light only (even the first dance).

Post processing on the photograph of Gemma was in Photoshop CS4 using my own actions. The black and white photograph was processed using Nik Silver Efex and the only post processing on the third photograph was done in Lightroom (this particular shot was ISO3200 1/160 f3.2)

Emily's First Birthday

2011-06-10T11:45:00.000+01:00

Emily recently came back to the studio for her first birthday shoot. I love seeing how the children grow throughout the year. the little changes that you may miss on a day to day basis are very apparent when you only see the child once every few months !

Emily certainly has grown and is a gorgeous little girl.

These are a few photos of Emily, aged one.

Bailiffscourt Hotel - Rob & Sarah

2011-06-09T09:56:00.000+01:00

It was great to see Sarah & Rob again this week and meet up at Bailiffscourt Hotel to discuss their wedding.

I think what surprised me most when I was reading about the history of the building is that although it looks medieval with flagstone floors and mullioned windows it was in fact built in 1927 for the then Lord Moyne (Walter Guinness of the brewing family). It certainly feels as though it has been here for hundreds of years.....

It was another very blustery but sunny afternoon so we took the opportunity to have a look around the grounds.

These are a few of the informal photographs that I took of Sarah and Rob.

For the photographers out there they were all taken on the Canon 5dMk2 with the 70-200 f2.8 lens.

Shoreham Airport Wedding - Valerie & Martyn

2011-06-07T16:02:00.001+01:00

We had great fun photographing Valerie & Martyns wedding on a very blustery day at Shoreham Airport.

Valerie wore a stunning red dress from Karen Millen complete with matching shoes and bag... anyone who knows me will know about my love of shoes !

Anyway, these are the first few photographs from their day.

For the photographers out there these were all taken on the Canon 5dMk2 using the 24-70 lens... and all with natural light from a window.

Boudoir Secrets - Anda

2011-06-02T10:01:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to show a few photographs from a recent boudoir session with Anda. Anda was great fun to photograph and we created a few completely different looks during the session, one of which I have posted late last month....

Just now and again....

2011-05-26T15:58:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I go out with my camera to try out new techniques and new locations.... These photographs are the result of a recent outing. All of these were taken using available light, the light on the day was a mixture of bright sunlight, cloud and artificial lighting in an underpass.

Holly had dressed is a style to match the station we were shooting in... and I have used post processing techniques to try and capture the vintage feel of the station.

Anna & Marcelo

2011-05-20T15:22:00.000+01:00

It was great to meet up with Anna & Marcelo to discuss their wedding plans last week. They are holding their reception at Anna's parents farm; exactly where everything will be will be dependent on the weather and what fields have been cut, but it was a great chance to look round and see some of the locations we will be working with.

This wedding will certainly be a bit different to many and I'm really looking forward to it.

These are just a few of the informal photographs that I took of Anna and Marcelo at the farm...

One from this week....

2011-05-18T15:07:00.000+01:00

Just thought I would post one photograph from a boudoir session with Anda this week..... for part of the session we had a "South Pacific" feel !

I will post some more photographs in a few days....

Wedding Film Clips

2011-05-12T14:32:00.000+01:00

I just thought I would share this short compilation of film clips from recent wedding slideshows that Phill has put together.

All of this was filmed on the Canon 5dMk2.

2010 Wedding Clips from Phill Beaney on Vimeo.

Sample wedding clips from 2010

How I created the final photograph...

2011-05-06T12:32:00.000+01:00

I have had a few photographers ask me to explain how I created the final photograph that has just been awarded the Silver Award. So here goes !

To start with let me explain the kit I used :

Canon 5dMk2 - These just happen to be the camera bodies we are using at the moment, for weddings we have three identical camera bodies.

Canon 24-70 f2.8 L USM Lens - This is one of my favourite lenses, it is very versatile as well as being quite quick to focus and quite a "fast" lens having the 2.8 aperture, at weddings it spends most of the day on one of the camera bodies.

Elinchrom Quadra Ranger RX Lights - These are battery operated lights that allow me to use studio flash on location. For this particular shot I used a slightly larger reflector dish than the standard combined with a honeycomb to control the light spill. I wanted to light Hayley & Craig without flooding the whole area in light.

Elinchrom Radio Triggers - I have been using these with the studio lights for years, it gets round the problems of infrared triggers and the receivers are built in to the Quadra control unit. they are a very neat little unit that doesn't get in the way.

This is the light without reflector & honeycomb... quite delicate really ! You have the actual flash tube around the outside and then an LED modelling light in the middle.

This is the Elichrom Quadra head with reflector & honeycomb attached, the honeycombs are the same ones that we use with our main studio lights, I normally carry a couple of different types so we can get the spread of light that we are looking for (along with portable softbox etc..)

The controller unit with battery pack attached (we normally carry two batteries with us)

The top of the controller unit.

While Hayley and Craig were busy chatting to their guests and enjoying their Wedding Breakfast Phill and I were looking at suitable locations and planning how we would set up te lighting. For us this is why the pre-wedding meeting is also important, it allows us to plan possible setups and shots before the wedding day although on the day the actual light will be different and there are always other considerations, in the case we had to wait until the last golfers had cleared the hole before it was safe to set up the lighting !

I then take a few test shots of Phill in roughly the right spot and use a hand held light meter to set the light level.

These are only rough test shots to get the lighting about right, at this point I have a clear picture in my head of what I would like to achieve. This is influenced by the dress the bride is wearing, the location, the weather and the interaction between the couple.

We then go and find the couple..... and when we get back the light would have changed, not dramatically but enough to mean we need to do a few more quick test shots...

I work with the couple on the pose and will quite often shoot the same pose from a few different angles to achieve the "feel" that I want to get. I will review the shots on the back of the camera to make sure we have got what we wanted but we try not to keep the couple any longer than we need to, after al it is their wedding day !

The rest is done on my computer......

I use Adobe Lightroom for all the base adjustments, image management and RAW conversions. The following is the starting image as it was imported in to Lightroom.

Initially I wanted to bring in more detail and colour in to the sky so I created a second version in Lightroom adjusted to give me the sky tones I was looking for - the following is the second version with the sky I wanted.

I then used Photoshop to combine the two images and layer masks to control which parts of each version you could see to give me the following :

Then, still in Photoshop, I used the Nik Color Efex suite to paint in the tonal detail that I wanted to bring back in to the image ( a good graphics tablet is a necessity !) to give the final finished image.

As you can see this takes more than a few minutes to achieve, we always try and setup as much as possible before we involve the couple and different locations call for different kit !

It may also be surprising to learn but all this kit, including lighting stands, portable video lights and all our camera gear does fit in to the back of a smart car :)

Silver Award - Wedding Traditional

2011-05-04T13:42:00.000+01:00

I was thrilled to find out today that I have received a Silver Award for this photograph from Hayley & Craig's wedding at Mannings Heath Golf Club.

For the photographers out there this was taken on the Canon 5dMk2 with the 24-70 f2.8 lens. ISO 100 1/125sec f2.8, additional lighting from the Elinchrom Quandras triggered wirelessly. Post processing in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Wiston House Wedding - Sarah & Steve

2011-05-03T12:21:00.000+01:00

Sunday was a beautiful day for a wedding. Sarah and Steve had chosen Wiston House for both their wedding ceremony and the reception.

Whilst it was slightly cooler than the Easter weekend it was still warm and dry enough for everyone to enjoy the terraces and gardens at Wiston.

Every wedding we photograph is very different, and each has its own memorable moments; one of the most memorable moments of the day has to be Sarahs fathers speech after the wedding breakfast. It is not often we see a whole room full of people hanging on someones every word !

Anyway, these are the first few photographs from their day.

Royal Wedding

2011-04-27T11:21:00.000+01:00

Well, not long now until the Royal Wedding.... As with all weddings this is about two people making a life long commitment to each other, the main difference is that this is one marriage that will be watched, and scrutinised by the worlds media.

Whilst Prince William has grown up with the media attention Kate Middleton has not but she comes across as a lovely, level headed person who has come to terms with the level of media attention that she now attracts.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the style of wedding dress that she chooses. So far as a couple they seem to be living more of a "modern" life than previous Royal couples; after all they have been living together in Anglesey for a while ! I wonder if this will translate in to a more modern dress choice ? I doubt it wil be as revealing as the one that she wore in the University fashion show !

I wish them both well. Yes, they have all the advantages that money and Royalty brings, but they will also have to live their lives at the centre of the media attention and deal with the pressure that will bring. It will certainly be one of the most watched weddings in history with millions of people tuning in all over the world.

Mannings Heath Golf Club Wedding - Hayley & Craig

2011-04-19T14:21:00.000+01:00

We had gorgeous weather on Saturday for Hayley & Craig's wedding at St Mary's Church in Horsham and Mannings Heath Golf Club.

Hayley is a local teacher and her class were waiting for her outside the church with their own archway for her to walk through.

Hayley wore a Maggie Sottero dress with some amazing detail, her theme for the wedding was very much a spring theme with favours consisting of miniature nests with chocolate mini eggs in them.

Anyway, these are just a few of the photographs from their day.

For the photographers that follow my blog these were all taken with the 24-70 f2.8 lens on the Canon 5dmk2. the first two were taken using available light, the third was lit with the Elinchrom Quadras.

New Sample Album !

2011-04-07T17:16:00.000+01:00

Well, our new sample album has arrived ! We used the photographs that we took at Merihan & Kevin's wedding in February for this sample album. The cover is red leather with the photograph printed and mounted on the front and this album is in one of Album Epoca's rather lovely briefcases (your wedding album is a family heirloom, it should be kept safe !)

The new range of covers available this year is fantastic, we now have swatch samples of all the new materials as well as brochures for our brides to choose from. We will be adding to our samples throughout the year and will keep you posted.

Anyway, these are just a couple of photos of the album.

Family Portraits

2011-03-31T10:57:00.000+01:00

It is always great fun photographing children, especially when they bring some of their favourite toys and dressing up clothes with them !

These two children were really great to photograph, both very different characters so we created two separate looks in the studio for them.

For the photographers out there the first photograph was taken using my Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens at 1/125 f9 (ISO 100) and the second using the Canon 85mm f1.8 lens at 1/125 f8 (ISO 100) both on the Canon 5dMk2. They were both lit using the Elinchrom studio lights.

Surrey Wedding Photography - Gemma & Rob

2011-03-30T12:32:00.000+01:00

It was great to meet up with Gemma & Rob on Saturday for their pre-wedding meeting. Gemma & Rob are getting married at Preston Cross Hotel in Bookham later this year. Hopefully the weather will be as good as it was over the weekend !

I always love hearing about the plans that couples have for their wedding days. Every wedding is different and every couple has things planned that are special to them, this is why I think that these meetings are so important. We get to talk to the couple about what is important to them, and everyone is different ! It also means that when we arrive on their wedding day we are not complete strangers :)

Anyway, these are a few of the informal photographs that I took of Gemma & Rob. For the photographers out there they were all taken on the Canon 5dMk2 with the 70-200 f2.8 lens.

SWPP Convention 2012 - Masterclass Speaker

2011-03-24T16:25:00.000Z

I just thought I would let you all know that I have been invited to speak at the SWPP annual convention in January 2012.

The convention will be running from the 10th - 15th January 2012 and is one of the largest in Europe.

I will be running two masterclasses, one on starting and building a photography business and the other on my boudoir photography or "What Women Want !"

I will post more information on this later in the year but it is always a great event to attend :)

A real cutie !

2011-03-23T14:07:00.000Z

I love photographing babies, especially when they are as cute as Oliver was on Saturday. He is only just 4 weeks old and this is his first portrait session, I will be photographing him throughout his first year and I always love to see how they grow.

When you are watching your own children grow up it is easy to forget how much they change because you see them every day. It is the little things, like the size of their hands in yours or the way that they wrinkle their faces. Before you know it they are starting to crawl, then walk..... you then only blink and they are at school, blink twice and they are leaving !

These memories are so precious.

For the photographers out there the first two photographs were taken using my Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens; the third was taken using my Canon 85mm f1.8 lens. Elinchrom studio lights were used to light all three photographs and all were taken on the Canon 5dMk2. The camera settings for all three were ISO100 f9.0 1/125.

Focus on Imaging 2011

2011-03-17T15:12:00.000Z

Last week we went up to the NEC for the annual Focus on Imaging exhibition. For us this is a great opportunity to meet up with existing suppliers as well as seeing new products that are coming on to the market, both photographic equipment and products for our clients.

Canon announced that they were pulling out of the show about a week beforehand and there has been much speculation as to why but even without Canon there the show still seemed busier than it was last year.

One of our existing album suppliers has launched a new range of covers for 2011 and it was great to be able to see them all, the only difficulty now is trying to decide which one we should use as a sample !

The other thing that I saw that I though was really interesting was the Fuji X100 camera. This is a compact camera with a difference.... it has an APS-C size sensor (similar to lots of digital SLR cameras) and a fixed 35mm equiv f2 lens. What makes this camera quite special is the viewfinder, as well as being able to see "through" the viewfinder it also has an electronic viewfinder that displays what you can see through the lens. SLR cameras have a "through the lens" viewfinder that works with mirrors and prisms, when you take a picture the mirror has to move out of the way before the shutter opens; on the X100 there is no mirror to move out the way the image that is seen through the lens is displayed electronically in the viewfinder.

I had a couple of minutes to play with one and came away wanting one, not to photograph weddings with, but for street photography and some of the "fun" photography that I like to do.

Another big advantage of the X100 is that it is an awful lot more discrete that the dSLR's that we normally use and therefore if you are taking photos at any of the main London landmarks you are far less likely to attract attention to yourself.

The low light capabilities also look good, we took some test shots at ISO 6400 and they looked relatively free from noise.

This is a link to the Fuji X100 site

Will I buy one ? well, I'm not sure at the moment. The price when they are launched will be £999, although Amazon are already advertising them at £899. I would like to have another play with one and I have lots of ideas of things I would like to try with it....

I also don't yet know when it will be shipping to the UK. The factory that Fuji has to manufacture the X100 is 20 miles away from Sendai and was damaged in the earthquake..... I must admit I cannot comprehend what it must be like to be in Japan right now and I know all the major camera manufacturers have been effected. What Japan will need is its industry to help generate the income needed to rebuild and recover from the devastation.

Mannings Heath Golf Club Wedding - Hayley & Craig

2011-03-09T12:30:00.000Z

It was great to meet up with Hayley & Craig at Mannings Heath Golf Club at the weekend to discuss their wedding plans.

After discussing the timings of their day and hearing about everything they have planned we went for a short walk around the grounds to look at some of the locations we will use on their wedding day.

Mannings Heath Golf Club is another great venue in Sussex for a wedding and with fabulous views and plenty of space outside for photographs I am really looking forward to their wedding day.

These are a few of the informal photographs that we took.

I also took the opportunity while we were there to experiment with some HDR photography. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and it involves taking a series of photographs with different exposures and then merging them together afterwards. This allows you to produce an image that has a far wider range from light to dark than a cameras sensor can normally capture. The editing process on these can be a little more time consuming but it allows you to create images with a very different look.

These are two images that have been processed as HDR images.

Boudoir Secrets

2011-03-04T09:33:00.000Z

It was great to see one of our previous brides again recently for a Boudoir Secrets session. This session was arranged by her husband and it is obvious when you meet them quite how much he adores her.

These are a couple of the photos from the session, published with their permission.

Baby & Family Portraits

2011-03-03T09:00:00.000Z

It was great to see Alex again recently for his second portrait session. We will next be seeing him on his first birthday for one of our chocolate cake and balloon birthday sessions. Photographs from all three sessions can then be used to make up an album of his first year. I think sometimes as parents we forget how quickly our own children grow when we see them everyday, but seeing our clients children every few months we really do notice the changes in them !

Alex certainly is a sweetheart and I'm sure he will continue to charm the women in his life as he grows.

Wiston House Wedding Fair

2011-03-02T11:05:00.000Z

Just thought I would show a photo of our stand at the Wiston House Wedding Fair on Sunday. It was a great day and lovely to see the sun shining in the morning (even if it did rain later !).

I love the views out from Wiston House across the South Downs towards Chanctonbury Ring and I'm really looking forward to photographing our weddings there this year.

A big thank you to Amanda Dean for the superb organisation, especially having people to help load and unload ! It was also good to catch up with our other photography friends especially Peter Prior and Sarah Critchlow (also photographed below)

Sussex Portrait Photography - Steyning Studio

2011-02-28T14:40:00.000Z

I just thought I would post a few photos of our studio in Steyning. This is not your "normal" square box studio ! We are lucky enough to have high ceilings, beams and tons of character. What this does mean is that I am able to produce a wide range of styles in my portraiture, from the plain white High-key photography to available light from the leaded windows.....

Speaking at the London & Essex MPA/BIPP Group

2011-02-18T14:41:00.001Z

I was thrilled to be asked to speak at the London & Essex MPA/BIPP group this week about my Wedding and Boudoir Phototgraphy.

I always enjoy meeting and talking to other professional photographers, everyone has different ways of working and I think as an industry we can learn so much from each other.

Part of my talk covered how we are now using the video capabilities of the Canon 5dMk2 cameras and incorporating it in to my wedding photography. The Canon 5dMk2 is capable of recording full HD video and coupled with the wide aperture prime lenses available it provides filming opportunities that have only previously been available on high end professional film cameras (think BBC high quality at this point....).

The skill sets between videographers and photographers are quite different. Working as a husband and wife team enables us both to concentrate on our differing areas of expertise, mine is the stills photography and Phill's is the filming and movie slideshows. Whilst what we produce is definitely NOT a wedding video it brings elements of the day to life.

So, a big thank you to Kevin Pengelly and Martin Barnard for inviting me to speak and I look forward to meeting up with everyone from the London and Essex group again in the future.

This is one of the slideshows I used during my presentation.

South Lodge Wedding Photography - Merihan & Kevin

2011-02-16T10:05:00.000Z

We had a great day last Saturday at Merihan & Kevin's wedding. The ceremony was held at the orthodox Coptic Church in Hove and the reception was at South Lodge. This is the first time that we have photographed an Egyptian wedding and I was glad that we had been along to the church rehearsal so that we knew the differences in the ceremony and the important parts we needed to capture.

I would like to say a big thank you to Father John and everyone involved with the Coptic Church, a very friendly group of people that made us feel so welcome.

After the rain and wind during the week it was wonderful to see the sun shining at South Lodge, this meant that we were able to get outside on to the terraces for some of the photographs. The staff at South Lodge are marvelous and the whole day went like clockwork (another big thank you at this point to Jenny and Marc) .

Anyway, these are the first few photographs from Merihan and Kevin's wedding.

For the photographers out there they were all taken using the Canon 5DMk2 with the 24-70 f2.8 lens. the first three were all taken with available light, the last one was partly lit by video light.

Wiston House Wedding Fair - 27th February 2011

2011-02-09T10:36:00.000Z

Just to let you all know that the next wedding fair that we will be exhibiting at is at Wiston House on the 27th February 2011.

Wiston House is a stunning venue set in acres of parkland at the foot of the South Downs just outside Steyning. If you are planning your wedding in Sussex then it is certainly worth coming along and having a look !

For us it has to be the most local venue we work at, literally five minutes away from the studio. The map below shows where to find it.

View Larger Map

This short movie slideshow shows a wedding at Wiston last August.

Portrait Photography - Silver Award

2011-02-03T14:05:00.000Z

It was great to hear that I have won a Silver Award for this portrait photograph. This was taken on location in Leamington Spa using our battery operated Elinchrom Quadra lights.

Ashdown Park Hotel Wedding - Silver Award

2011-02-02T11:03:00.000Z

I was thrilled to find out this morning that I have received a Silver Award for this photograph from Kelly & Jason's wedding at Ashdown Park Hotel on New Years Eve.

South Lodge Horsham - Wedding Fair 6th February

2011-02-01T11:46:00.000Z

It will great to be back at South Lodge on Sunday for the wedding fair. The doors are open from 10:30am until 4pm with fashion shows at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.

We will be on the ground floor (the same level that you come in on) so come along and say hello !

If you are planning a wedding in West Sussex this is a great wedding fair to attend with over 80 exhibitors split over 3 floors. South Lodge is a great venue for photography, as well as the stunning backdrop of the building and terraces there is the lake and paths around it. Inside there are wonderful staircases, bars and fireplaces all that make great locations for photographs.

These are a few photos from some of this years winter weddings at South Lodge.

Scarletts First Birthday

2011-01-31T09:21:00.000Z

I had the pleasure of photographing Scarlett recently for her first birthday. She is a gorgeous girl, full of life and fun !

I think her favourite part of the day was the balloons....

These are a few of my favourite photographs.

West Sussex Family Portraits

2011-01-26T16:56:00.000Z

It is always great fun photographing children, when they are young you really do have to work with them to encourage the expressions and looks that you want to capture.

We make sure our studio sessions are fun and encourage people to bring along a few favourite toys or dressing up clothes. Sometimes the soft toy has its own importance, it could be a gift from a special friend or relative or "the one" that will still be on the end of a bed as a teenager.

These are a few photos from a recent studio session.

SWPP Convention 2011

2011-01-20T17:01:00.000Z

I had a great few days away last week at the SWPP Annual Convention in London. I was presenting a masterclass on Starting and Building a Photography Business and it was great to see so many people attend, it ended up as standing room only with people sitting on the floor at the front as well !

This is one opportunity to meet up with fellow photographers from around the world, to catch up with old friends and make new friends.

As well as a full seminar schedule they also run one of Europe's largest trade shows in the photographic industry so it is also a chance to look at any new products on the market.

I thought I would post here the slideshows that I used in my masterclass. The first two are about two minutes long and show a selection of my boudoir and wedding work. The third is a cut down version of the movie slideshow that we present to clients and is about 4 mins long.

Avisford Park Hotel Wedding Fayre - 23rd January 2011

2011-01-19T08:50:00.000Z

Just to let you all know that we will be exhibiting at the Avisford Park Hotel Wedding Fayre on Sunday 23rd January. The doors are open from 10am until 3pm so come along and say hello !

View Larger Map

Bridal Boudoir

2011-01-12T17:28:00.000Z

I just thought I would share a few photographs from a recent bridal boudoir session. These were taken at our studio in Steyning and the finished photographs were mounted in one of our gorgeous 6"x6" albums as a very special present for the Groom !

Portraits of a friend

2011-01-07T17:28:00.000Z

I have just come back from a few days away. I took the opportunity to photograph my friend and mentor Martin Grahame-Dunn. These photos were taken using a mixture of natural light and battery powered flash.

The post processing in the warm tone photos has been done in Photoshop and the blue tone in Lightroom (I already had the LR preset sorted :) )

The first photograph was taken at ISO 800 1/100 f3.5 the others were taken at ISO 800 1/15 f11 using the Elinchrom Quadra's to light Martin but balancing it with the ambient light to keep window detail.

Lisa Beaney Photography

West Sussex Wedding Photography - Stanhill Court

Wiston House Wedding

Stanhill Court Hotel Wedding Fair - 29th January 2012

SWPP Convention 2012

Boudoir Christmas Presents

Bridal Boudoir - West Sussex Photography

Surrey Wedding Photography - Sarah & Adrian

SWPP Convention 2012

Ewell Wedding - Sarah & Adrian

Another one from earlier this year...

Captured Moments

Samuel

K3 Bluebird - Engine test

Guy Thatcher - Hire A Camera - IOV Area Meeting

Sarah & Richard - Gaynes Park {movie slideshow}

Harriet & Paul - Upwaltham Barns {movie slideshow}

Avisford Park Wedding - Rachel & Lee {movie slideshow}

Devils Dyke Wedding - Gemma & Marcus

Ewell Court House - Sarah & Adrian

**** Boudoir Christmas Special ! ****

Gaynes Park Wedding - Sarah & Richard

Avisford Park Wedding - Rachel & Lee

Canon 1DX - First Look....

Gemma, Marcus & Josh - Devils Dyke Golf Club

Special Offer **** Christmas Cards

Upwaltham Barns Wedding - Harriet & Paul

Avisford Park Hotel - Rachel & Lee

Vanessa & John - South Lodge {Movie Slideshow}

Woo hoo ! It's Live !!!

Family Portraits - First Year Book

Harriet & Paul

South Lodge Wedding - Vanessa and John

K3 Bluebird - Float test

Vintage Wedding Photography

Marco Pierre White - Wheelers Barn Wedding Fair

Eastbourne Pier Wedding - Daisy & Tim

Alexander House Wedding - Nichola & Paul

Alexander House Hotel Wedding Fair - 11th September 2011

Babies

Gaynes Park - Sarah and Richard

New Training Course - How to use your Camera

Mannings Heath Golf Club Wedding - Toni & Gary

Christmas Album Deliveries

MPA National Awards - Merit

Horsted Place Wedding - Elaine & Paul

Horsham Wedding - Nicky & James

Daisy & Tim - Eastbourne Wedding

Alexander House Wedding - Sarah & Joe

South Lodge Hotel - Vanessa & John

Alexander House - Nichola & Paul

Phoebe

Bailiffscourt Hotel Wedding - Sarah & Rob

Nicky & James

Silver Award - Wedding Photojournalism

Horsted Place Hotel - Elaine & Paul

Sarah & Joe - Alexander House Hotel

Grittenham Barn Wedding - Katie & Chris

Mannings Heath Golf Club - Toni & Gary

Maisie

Katie & Chris - Grittenham Barn

Wiston House Wedding - Jane & Nick

Jane & Nick - Wiston House

Anna & Marcelo - Sussex Wedding Photography

Preston Cross Hotel - Gemma & Rob

Emily's First Birthday

Bailiffscourt Hotel - Rob & Sarah

Shoreham Airport Wedding - Valerie & Martyn

Boudoir Secrets - Anda

Just now and again....

Anna & Marcelo

One from this week....

Wedding Film Clips

How I created the final photograph...

Silver Award - Wedding Traditional

Wiston House Wedding - Sarah & Steve

Royal Wedding

Mannings Heath Golf Club Wedding - Hayley & Craig

New Sample Album !

Family Portraits

Boudoir Christmas Special !