Spanish Guitarists, Amy and Martin

I love what I do, but when I also get to photograph musicians it's even better - I was in heaven when I was photographing spanish guitarists Amy and Martin. They are both students at the Royal Northern College of Music and already play professionally on their own and in a duet together. It was a real pleasure to photograph them as they played. Their photographs will be used for their future publicity, and here is a small selection of what they'll have to choose from.

Jamie and Sarah's Pre-Wedding Shoot

Jamie and Sarah came over for a pre-wedding shoot at my base on Stanley Grange this week. The weather forecast was for rain, so it was a bit of surprise to have wall to wall sunshine! Sarah started to the session off by telling me that she has never had a good photograph taken of her - so I think she was a little surprised that right at the beginning we got a gorgeous photograph of her! Here is a small selection of the photographs from the session.

Cecil Beaton Exhibition at The Walker Art Gallery

I'm very excited about being asked to work alongside The Walker Art Gallery in promoting the forthcoming Cecil Beaton Exhibition, running from 26th June 2009 to 31st August 2009. More information to follow shortly, but it looks like there may be a competition, some of my work being exhibited, and some portrait sessions in the Gallery.

Lucy and Jules Pre-Wedding Shoot

In September Rob and I will be photographing Lucy and Jules's wedding in The Lake District, but this weekend they have been really brave and come along and joined me as models (not their day job!) on a photography training workshop. It was really brave of them to put themselves forward to be photographed by a gang of people all pointing cameras at them, but they were totally up for it and joined in the fun! As a thank you for helping out, Lucy and Jules will be selecting a pre-wedding shoot image, but in the meantime, here is a little taster of my images showing how great they were at modelling for us all. Thanks Lucy and Jules, you're stars!

Image Critique

For those of you into photography who follow this blog but have not yet got into following the training blog, you may find the article on image critique interesting - click here to read it.

Heather and Andrew's Wedding, The Nunsmere, Cheshire

On Saturday we were at The Nunsmere in Cheshire to photograph the wedding and handfasting ceremony of Heather and Andrew. We were really fortunate to work alongside Sarah and Tanya of Sarah Haywood Weddings who must be about the best wedding planners in the UK. It made my day so much easier!

I love this photograph of Heather - my work is heavily influenced by art, and I love it when I can create the opportunity to make an image that has that feeling of art about it.

With Andrew wearing the top hat I just had to play around with the half face image! It's not often you get grooms wearing top hats, and they just lend themselves to creating a different kind of portrait.


After the civil ceremony we all went out into the grounds of The Nunsmere and Heather and Andrew had a handfasting ceremony, with Bear and Jo as the officiants. It was a really beautiful ceremony, and lovely to observe.

Heather and Andrew had a mount board for everyone to sign that used one of their engagement photographs where they were running away from the camera - they wanted to recreate that image on the wedding day, and thankfully the grounds to The Nunsmere gave a gorgeous backdrop for doing this.



We hoped we might get an image with the moon, but sadly after working for such a long day I ran out of energy well before the moon was high enough in the sky. But even so, I love this night shot we managed to capture before Rob and I left for the night.

Race for Life at Knowsley Hall

I haven't run in years - I used to run 10k's before I was pregnant with Ellie but a really bad ankle break when I was pregnant stopped me from even being able to run across a road for about 3 years! So now, Ellie is nearly 17, I am unfit, and we have decided we will run the Race for Life at Knowsley Hall on 14th July together to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

We have gone for a modest amount of sponsorship as we are looking to raise £70 between the 2 of us, not having done anything like this before. And we'd love it if you would help us out with a contribution, however small, to Cancer Research UK. You can either click below or go to our fundraising page on the Race for Life website.

Now, where are those running shoes!

Special Offer for Model Portfolios near Liverpool

For a limited period, and for shoots during weekdays only, I have a very special offer for aspiring and new models, or models who wish to add images to their books. Instead of the usual £300 fee for a shoot, 6 images on disk and 2 prints for your book, I am offering the same shoot for a mere £50 until October 2009. Additional images can also be purchased. This is an excellent offer when you think that the agencies charge you £15 per print on top of the usual shoot fee. This offer is only available until October as I am working on a specific project that these shoots will assist with.

I will need to specify the location and time of the shoot to create the right kind of images, and all shoots will take place Monday to Thursday. If a make-up artist is required this can be arranged with the MUA fee being paid directly to her.

Please get in touch to book your model shoot now! As the North West Fashion Photographer of the Year 2009 I know that I can guarantee you the highest quality images for your book.

zoe@zoephotography.co.uk

Danielle and Jason's Wedding Photographs

Friday, May Day, saw the wedding of a great couple, Danielle and Jason, with the wedding in Clevedon and the reception at the Cheltenham Chase Hotel. It was a lovely day, with lovely people, and I felt well cared for and looked after all day long. It was a real delight! Here is a small selection of photographs from the day.

I think I may have a thing about shoes this weekend - I threw out 8 pairs yesterday, no woman should have to throw out that many shoes in one go! But hey, at least I can enjoy looking at Danielle's wedding shoes, they were gorgeous!




Mum's have such lovely ways of grooming their children, and here I caught Donya doing just that.

I love the way Peter, Danielle's dad, is reflected in the car window in this shot.
It's those shoes again!



Danielle and Jason had this shot in mind when they first booked me last year, so I was glad to be able to capture it with such an amazing sky.
Mrs Bamfield the elder who couldn't join the reception, so we were able to capture this gorgeous image at the church
I love doing family groups in a way that shows all the members of the family off, just like in this photograph.

The first dance, ahhhhh.
Thank you for a lovely day, Danielle, Jason, Peter, Donya, Lauren, Andrew, Liam, Kelly, Peter and Karen, you all made me feel very welcome all day long.