An April (Showery) Wedding

Last Saturday, we photographed Karen and Paul's wedding in Gosport. It was a wonderful day, though not weather-wise unfortunately, so we had our first proper wet wedding to contend with. We went armed with brollies but actually managed to dodge most of the showers and even exited the church into glorious sunshine!

 

Gosport's Trinity Church is one of our favourite churches in which to photograph a wedding - the light, the space, the fact that everyone is seated in a circle facing the happy couple - it always seems to make it an even happier occasion.

Then it was on to Explosion Museum for the reception. Karen and Paul arrived in a beautiful black open top old Beetle, and the rain even held off long enough for the outside shots. The inside of the museum is lit quite atmospherically, and although it's quite dim, it does make for some interesting photographs using the available light. A great choice for a wedding venue.

Congratulations to you both, may you have many many happy years together!

Easter at Winchester Cathedral (#2)

This year, we were invited back to Winchester Cathedral to photograph a local school's Passion Play. Just like last year, it was another great day, with amazing sunshine that poured through the windows of the Cathedral. Far more interesting in terms of photo-taking than a flat cloudy day.

As we were simply documenting the day, this meant that we had endless opportunities to get some unposed portraits that we love so much. From the members of the band, to the audience members engrossed in the performance, to the kids themselves acting out the Easter story.

We also finished quite early in the afternoon so had a chance to wander round Winchester itself and take even more photos!

Our very own photography exhibition!

Towards the end of 2011, we were commissioned to undertake an exhibition for the Stables Gallery in the town of Diss in Norfolk. (This is where Lucy's parents live which is why we have a connection to the town.) The brief was quite open - basically, something to do with the heritage of the town. We decided we wanted to combine some text alongside a set of portraits and also be able to show some photographs that were in our documentary style.

And we ended up with "Diss Past Present - A Photographic Portrait", an exhibition about some of the historic buildings in the town and the people who live and work in them now. So not simply a historical account, but a slice of the 'now', a look at how people today interact with the buildings of yesterday. We focussed on 12 buildings, and conducted interviews with one or two people associated with each place, took a portrait of each person and a set of photos for each.

So, after months of planning and phone calls and emails to get people involved, various trips up to Norfolk to carry out interviews and photograph buildings, and weeks of typing, printing, mounting and tearing our hair out, it finally went up!

We received some wonderful feedback from both the Corn Hall Trustees (Who own and run the gallery) and people of the town too. So all that hard work paid off!

It was a great experience (although very fraught at times!) and I think we learnt a lot in the process. On the plus side, we also got to meet and interview Elizabeth Talbot (the auctioneer at TW Gaze auction rooms, who can often be seen on Bargain Hunt/Flog It), the Mayor of Diss, were interviewed by the local press, got to meet some very interesting people, and hear some amazing stories, and saw behind the scenes of some incredible old buildings!

 

365 Project

This year, a friend of ours suggested that we all take part in the 365 Project - taking a photo a day for a year (or rather, 366 this year). It sounded like a wonderful idea, a chance to set yourself small projects, or to aim to learn a new technique or try a different subject matter that you hadn't tried before. We liked the idea because it serves as a visual diary for the year, and it sounded like a good challenge and a chance to get to know our cameras even better! You can choose to just take a photo for yourself, or you can upload them to a community website each day, where other people can view and comment on your photos.

So far, it's going well, we've each managed to keep up with it and got some (we like to think!) good photos in the process. Here's the links to each of our pages on the 365 Project website: http://365project.org/lucyk/365 (Lucy) and http://365project.org/angelabuxton/365 (Angela). Some of our images are below...

A short but wonderful trip to Amsterdam

This was a birthday present for Lucy's 30th, four days in Amsterdam. From the moment we arrived, we saw photo opportunities everywhere. So many old, picturesque buildings, wonderful reflections in the canals, and some interesting sights that you just don't see every day! We spent most of the days just a-wandering, and went out at night to try out some night shots in the city too. A canal boat trip on our last day took us to all the bits that we didn't get a chance to see on foot. We'd love to go back, maybe next Spring to see the bulbfields..?

A trip to France, and a museum of Vegetables!

September saw another trip to France. Same location as last year, different day trips out. One such trip was the Vegetable Museum, an amazing outdoor garden/museum devoted just to vegetables, wonderful!

 

A portrait session on the beach

A breezy sunny morning on the beach at Lee on the Solent, for a family portrait session. Five kids plus two photographers equals a challenging but fun couple of hours!

Boat Wrecks

Don't you love finding hidden gems that you never knew existed? Well yesterday we discovered the boat wrecks in Gosport. Hidden away on the banks of the creek behind Forton Road, are dozens of boats, all from different eras, some well known, just sitting there, wasting away. They're all covered in barnacles and rusting terribly but they're truly amazing. The colours are stunning - oranges, greens, browns. If you get a chance, go and see them.

Celebrate Gosport

Celebrate Gosport would have been glorious in the sunshine. Alas, the rain didn't stop falling all day. We tried to make the most of it though, aiming for some atmospheric grim photos!

Our journey started at Stokes Bay, where we boarded a VIP bus along with the Mayor amongst others. First stop was Fort Brockhurst. We'd never been inside the fort before, seen it from the outside many times though. The inside reveals a completely different story to what you see on the outside. It's huge for a start. And there are countless corridors and rooms to go into. We found that the best bit was the light. Where none of the rooms were really lit, there was just an abundance of natural light pouring into them, which gave us some amazing photo opportunities. Lots of peeling paint and random objects. Great fun!

Next stop was Clarence Marina for a spot of lunch. Finally, a cruise round the harbour on a Gosport ferry. Still pouring down with rain but a very enjoyable tour!

Easter at Winchester Cathedral

Recently we were asked to photograph a local school performance of the Passion Play, at Winchester Cathedral. This was the first time any school has been asked to perform this in the Cathedral so it was a bit of a coup, and an amazing experience for us to be able to photograph within such a magnificent building. As well as the school photos, we also had the chance to wander round the cathedral and take some shots for ourself. The performance itself was a great chance for us to practise our natural, unposed photography, which is what You-Nique Photography is all about. We're trying to steer clear of any photoshoots which involve telling people what to do, we much prefer to be documenting proceedings as they happen.