The day was perfect and taking a bride and groom through Bristol market straight after the ceremony on a busy Saturday was a great experience.  Check out a few of my favourite pictures from the day here and feel free to leave a comment at the end if you like what you see.

Friends and family can see the full gallery at www.robbooker.co.uk/shop.  Please ask Jo and Theo for the password or get in touch with me.

This is the lovely Fiona from Beehive Brides Make-up, in the middle of finishing Jo’s curlers.  I love it when brides embrace the morning preparation shots and are happy to have it all recorded.

I arrived at The Royal Marriott where Theo and his family where all getting ready.  This is Solomon, Theo’s son beating his Dad off the mark.

I think he has a few more years before perfecting his tie-knotting skills.

Gotta love shirts with details like this, subtle and cool.  Plus check out Solomon’s socks below which were purchased to match.

Here’s Sol again waiting in the hotel foyer, holding tightly a box containing the wedding rings.

Nice relaxed portraits of the boys are what we all like before the ceremony.

I think Solomon was eager to get to the ceremony (or relinquish responsibility of the rings!).  Here I was running in front of him firing off loads of shots.  A bit blind, but caught this one where all the gents are looking good and Theo’s looking at his son.  Winner.

I then headed back to Jo, to catch the last minute Bridal preps and a few of her family.

This is the amazing Camilla who had flown all the way from Italy to be here for the wedding.  She spent ages checking herself in the mirror before finally giving up with this “I think it’ll do” shrug.

“Cheese” cake!

Winter sun is in pretty short supply, and just after Jo & Theo had welcomed all their guest to The Rummer Hotel, where the reception was, I grabbed them for the last few minutes of daylight.

I hadn’t realised the huge group of people that had been waiting for us to finish our mini photoshoot, and Jo was smiling at all the attention.

The reception began with the ladies doing some wine tasting, whilst the gents got taken down to the cellar to do some whiskey tasting.

This is one of my favourites from the evening of Theo chatting to the hotel manager.  It reminds me of The Ratpack.

All the guests got given a bottle of olive oil from Theo’s family distillery in Tuscany.  I got handed one and have to say it’s tastier than anything you get from a supermarket in this country.

Anyway, below are a few of my photos from the today’s fly-by visit.  Most of these were taken during recording, and being stuck in one place with one lens during the takes was quite restrictive but also quite liberating.

Below are just a few of the dozens of crazy snaps I’ve captured of people during their headshot session (I hope they don’t mind!).  Some of these are captured mid-session, and some are the very last shot of the day – when I tell people this is the last picture I’m taking of them, they tend to go all out.

For the strobists amongst you: I was working with one Canon Speedlight 580 EXII, using a lastolite 80cm umbrella-box on a light stand, triggered using an Elinchrom Skyport, and both camera and flashgun were on manual.  f-stops were around 5.6, shutter speeds anything between 1/30th and 1/160th, with ISO again starting at 200 increasing to 800 as the daylight vanished!

The first workshop we held was “Urban Portraits”, a one-day course on shooting people in the everyday urban environment using only natural light and minimal camera gear.

We started the day with a quick lesson in basic exposure and camera settings to get our delegates up to speed for the day ahead.  After this, I headed up the morning’s sessions by teaching how to look for backgrounds and suitable places to shoot.  Developing an eye for great places to photograph people against is crucial in getting good shots.  I showed the group that there are always plenty of opportunities wherever you look, and gave some advice on what to do when those opportunities run out.

This shot of one of our models, Alex, was just around the corner from a busy entrance to a restaurant.  This could’ve been easily overlooked, but by changing your viewpoint and using the curved walls, we created a background out of something that isn’t necessarily obvious immediately.  The changing light on the walls also helps to add interest and contrast.

I then went on to give advice on communication.  How to talk to anyone that you’re photographing, to get the best out of them, whilst making them feel at ease and relaxed.

Below is one of Phil’s shots from the day and one of my favourites.  Here, he’s used the leading lines of the ceiling lights to add some movement and dynamics to the shot without distracting from the subject.

After a full-on buffet lunch, a question and answer session, and warming up after shooting all morning in the chilled January air, we were all back outside where Phil led the afternoon’s session.  He first talked about composition; the basic rules and then how to break them.  He gave some great advice and ideas on how to change your viewpoint to get a completely different shot.  Starting off with just a brick wall and a model, we got the delegates to think about creating as many different photos with just these two things.  He also gave some practical tips and guidance on how to deal with different natural lighting, whether that be overcast, direct sunlight, shade or sunsets.

We gave everyone plenty of opportunity to shoot the models, whilst sticking around to answer questions, give advice, and help out when all else failed.  Before we knew it, all the delegates had taken over the day and were dying to shoot the models in every location they could find using all the advice we had taught them all day.  It was great to see how their confidence grew, and how their shots were improving throughout the day.

Below are a few more of my shots I managed to sneak in between the delegate’s time with the models.

This is Katy, who was our make-up artist for the day.  After getting our models ready for the afternoon’s shoot, she stepped in for a few shots herself.

At the end of the day, we headed back to our conference facilities at The Round Foundry Media Centre, in South Leeds, where Barnaby was busy on a MacBook Pro.  He had taken a dozen or so of the best shots from the day and gave the group a practical demonstration on post-processing using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.  He showed how to get the best from the RAW files out of the camera, pushing them to give them a final polish.  In preparation for the day, we had developed some of our own 3B Media Adobe Photoshop presets, which can be quickly applied to create several effects or just to push the picture in the right direction.  These we gave away in a little goody bag, along with detailed course literature from the day on everything we had covered.

Several cups of coffee and a final question and answer session to settle any last niggling queries, we wrapped up and headed to the pub for a quick pint.

All in all a fantastic day, and we got some really positive feedback from all the delegates.  We will be holding the next Urban Portraits workshop soon, and regular blog readers will be the first know.  If you’re keen on getting involved and want to find out more, either email me directly or via the 3B Media email – info@3bmedia.co.uk  We’ll also be announcing our other workshops in the near future, so stay tuned for these and if there’s any training days you’d like to see, then please get in touch.

In the meantime why not become a 3B Media fan on facebook?

Download brochure now!

Among the new features I’ve integrated are:

• Faster and easier image viewing
• Download images directly from your gallery
• Side-by-side picture comparison (All you actors have been dying for this!)
• Flag your favourite pictures and come back to them later
• Black and white previews of colour pictures
• Secure online payments for sessions and wedding booking fees
• Secure online payments for prints, downloads and other photo products
• Secure payments can be made via all major credit and debit cards

There’s a few more features I’m still working on, and please let me know if there’s anything you’re keen to see and I’ll try and get it sorted for you.  The shop will be open for business at the end of January, and of course all you blog readers will be the first to know.

Keep your eyes peeled for the issue which will be on the shelves of all good magazine and book sellers across the nation soon.

I’m excited for 2010 and have some great plans in the pipeline, including a trip to New York in August to celebrate my 30th.

I have lots of amazing weddings booked in some fantastic venues with some brilliant couples.  I have a new range of headshot packages, for all you actors and performers looking for a new year kickstart. More about these later this week.  Myself and the rest of the 3B Media team have our Urban Portraits photography workshop lined up for the end of this month – there are still a couple of places left if you’re quick!  Download the brochure here and we’ll be developing a full range of courses over the next year.  Phil Barber challenged us both to row 1,000,000 meters by the end of the year – just short of 20,000 a week; that should sort the post-Christmas weight out!  I’ll be creating my new Facebook fan page, so you’ll get to see more pictures and have fun tagging yourselves, and of course the blog will be updated regularly too, along with Twitter.  I’ve also got me an entire 6 season’s of The Sopranos to watch courtesy of my girlfriend.  28 discs and 4675 minutes of the best TV you’ll ever watch (Yes, even better than The Simpsons and 24).

Anyway, I hope 2010 is a great year for you, and see you all soon.

Rob.