Portrait and Wedding Photographer - Susie Lawrence Photography » News

A walk on Ilkley Moor with my new camera

susie — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:45:10 +0000

Happy New Year! I haven’t taken or shared nearly enough personal images over the last year. So my (only) New Year’s resolution is to do more of this. The first step was to treat myself to a new camera, a Fujifilm X100. The photographers reading will know about this camera. It’s very compact and incidentally looks beautiful, which in no way swayed me of course, and takes absolutely top quality images, as good as would come out of my D300 with me in charge anyway. I took it out for the first time on Saturday as I persuaded the children and Karl (and Digby, though he needs no persuading) to come out for a walk on Ilkley Moor behind the Cow and Calf rocks. It was a beautiful day, but really cold as you can see from the ice shots and from the frost on the ground. And the low sun made for some challenging photography when I hadn’t worked out properly how to adjust my settings. It’s a good job I’m a fan of flare! But for a first attempt, I was really pleased with what came out. Next, I’m going to read the instructions…

There’s some sort of game bird in the middle of the shot on the left below. Is it a grouse? It was making a funny noise. Anyone who has an X100 will know that tracking moving wildlife isn’t probably what it was made for so even though it’s a technically dreadful photograph (and not the only one, I know! Bear with me, it was my first time…) I see it as a small miracle all things considered. Don’t bother straining your eyes to see it in the shot on the right. It had long gone by the time I panned around a bit.

Yes it’s a shame about the bin bag. Maybe if a client wanted this on their wall I would photoshop it out but life is too short for my blog, sorry…

A very welcome sight at the end of a very chilly adventure. It was a lovely afternoon though. I can’t wait for my next trip out with my X100 and you should be seeing more of my family and what we get to up as a result. Please let me know what you think of this first set.

Changing seasons as children grow up

susie — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:53:57 +0000

Here are regular clients Oliver and Anna. You may remember them from earlier this year (you can see that post by clicking here).We had a fabulous portrait session in their beautiful new garden as they’re recently moved house. It was a wintry day as you’d expect at the moment, but wrapped up warm and with plenty to explore and play with, nobody minded. Fabulous as it was and happy as I am with the resulting photographs, I have to admit that I was very pleased when they told me that they’re going on holiday to France next summer so would like me to do their next session there. As I’m based in the Languedoc for a few weeks each summer, it’s a perfect opportunity to get some lovely relaxed family holiday portraits in the wonderful French light. In the meantime, back to not-so-sunny but equally picturesque Yorkshire and some photography at home.

Oliver has recently started school and was keen to model his cute uniform…

Give a little visual joy this Christmas

susie — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:48:15 +0000

It’s December tomorrow and I’m sure that means it’s OK to talk about Christmas now. I know I’ve just realised that presents need buying soon as time is running out fast. If you’ve got the same dilemma, I’ve put together a seasonal little newsletter with a few suggestions. Note the bit at the bottom – I’ve got some really exciting plans for next year so why not make it your resolution to really make sure you’ve got some wonderful family portraits for posterity? Now, on with the shopping…

Debbie and Jonathan’s wedding at Chevin Country Park Hotel

susie — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:43:14 +0000

This is what love looks like. This wedding really needs no other explanation and I hope my photography has captured the incredible passion Debbie and Jon have for each other. Like so many people at the moment, they had to scale back their wedding plans when they realised they just couldn’t afford the big lavish event they’d dreamed of. So they had a small intimate civil ceremony with a handful of close family and friends in the Garden Room at Chevin Country Park Hotel followed by an emotional and personal blessing outside on the deck overlooking the lake. Their photography was important to them and they were brilliant to shoot. We walked around the lake after the ceremony and then went out again as the sun went down to make the most of the gorgeous light. Considering everything was done without a vast amount of money, the details, the flowers (from The Willow Garden in Hebden Bridge) and even the weather came together beautifully. But really it was all about the love. Debbie borrowed her mum’s old wedding shoes and had an old penny taped inside one of them…

The Chevin Country Park Hotel has a spa as well. There weren’t many people around that day (it was a Monday – great day to get married!) but those there were added to the holiday atmosphere…

Now I’m not very good on my bird species but this was a big bird-of-prey type creature. A kestrel maybe? I took four shots of it as it graced us with a fly-by, all with my lens still at f1.8 (this is for the photographers reading this, tune out if you’re not interested). Every one was pin-sharp. Not sure how I managed that but it made me smile.

Stella and Mick – wedding at Leeds Civic Hall and 3 Albion Place

susie — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:00:39 +0000

This wonderful wedding was a feast of Leeds city centre venues and understated sophistication. Like more or less every groom I’ve ever photographed, Mick claimed to be camera-shy but it wasn’t hard to capture him and the very beautiful Stella as they enjoyed their day. Stella was effortlessly stylish and gorgeous and I felt really lucky to photograph and share the day with two such fantastic people and their lovely family and friends. It was set off perfectly by the big red bus and all the lovely details. Congratulations Stella and Mick! I know I’ve gone a bit overboard blogging lots of images of Stella but I’m sure Mick won’t mind who can blame me when you get to photograph a bride that looks this amazing…

Teenagers in ruins! – Bolton Abbey portrait photographs

susie — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:04:38 +0000

These girls are just so beautiful it was a complete treat to photograph them at Bolton Abbey. Chiara on the left in this first photograph, is in her last year at school so her mum and dad wanted some portraits to celebrate her coming to the end of her schooldays. Emilia meanwhile is coming up for GCSEs this school year though no strain was showing the day we met! We had a great walk around the Abbey, on the river beach and over the stepping stones. George the dog came along too as he’s very much part of the family. It was hard to pick favourites but here’s a snapshot of what we got up to:

Perfect Languedoc wedding – Jason and Thalia, Chateau du Puits Es Pratx, Ginestas

susie — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:35:12 +0000

This wedding at the fabulous Chateau du Puits Es Pratx in the village of Ginestas in the South of France was a dream in every way, especially for a photographer! Jason and Thalia chose to get married in the lovely vineyard there surrounded by their closest family and friends to ensure that the day was memorable but intimate and unusual. Of course the sun was shining, as it almost always is in the Languedoc and the day was relaxed, full of happiness and fun and gorgeous details to set it all off. I had an absolute ball. Congratulations to Thalia and Jason and thank you for making me so very welcome. Here’s a selection of shots telling the story of their wonderful day as I photographed it.

Portraits for a new start

susie — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:35:44 +0000

I had a real treat of a portrait session last week. This gorgeous family is about to embark on a new chapter in their life as they leave Leeds and head to Devon. They told me they are going to keep chickens and have an eco-hot-tub and it sounds like a dream! To remind them of the happy times they’d had while they lived in Yorkshire, we spend a blissful hour in a tucked away corner of Meanwood Park to capture some images of them to make portraits for the walls of their new home. They move today. Good luck! Leeds will miss you but I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful life in Devon. At least the weather might be a bit better, though we did manage to persuade the sun to make a brief appearance for us while we did our session…

We caught a grasshopper! If you look carefully you can see it jumping out of Nicky’s hands…

‘Summer’ in the City – portraits

susie — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:08:30 +0000

Richard is a great friend of mine. To celebrate his recent birthday we decided to do a portrait shoot around the City of London with him and his partner Martyn. It was an absolutely miserable evening weather-wise and normally I would have postponed a portrait shoot in such dark and wet conditions, but we’d arranged it all so carefully and I don’t get to London that often, so fuelled by copious quantities of champagne, we went ahead and had an absolute hoot. Like a policeman of course I wouldn’t normally drink on duty but as Richard is a close friend and was buying the champagne, what could I do?! He’s an architect and was responsible for the fitting out of the Swiss Re Tower (AKA the gherkin), so we got special permission to go to the top to take photographs. Then we wandered around in the rain before heading to Shoreditch House for dinner. What a treat!

Richard has a very cool Egg chair in his office, where we started the shoot…

The top of the gherkin is amazing inside and we had it all to ourselves. Sometimes the fisheye lens is called for…

When we headed back outside it was absolutely chucking it down. It was totally gloomy and my equipment was rather pushed to the limit without resorting to flash but I’d had a glass or two of champagne by this point and was convinced I could make it work! I’m glad we carried on regardless as I love the umbrellas and the reflections off wet pavements.

By the time we got to Shoreditch House I was soaked to the skin and looking extremely unglamorous. Luckily they have very cool bathrooms with hairdryers and straighteners so I was able to transform myself almost back to normal to mingle with the trendy media types. It was a fantastic evening and the shoot, while not done in the lighting and weather I would chose, was one of the most fun and memorable ever!
Thank you Richard and Martyn and I hope you like the results.

My own children, in Wales

susie — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:55:52 +0000

It’s high time I updated my personal photography especially as Karl’s working away at the moment so I’m having to be a full-on mum most of the time. We went to Wales during the Easter holidays and I bravely took my camera with me when we went to the gorgeous Penrhyn Castle one day. It’s not a popular thing when I point the lens at my own children. I think I may have done it a little too much a while ago and now it meets with resistance every time. But I took the flack and managed to get Sasha, Maisie and Jasper off guard a few times and they even obliged occasionally and gave me a smile. So here they are, my beautiful children. And of course Digby, the beautiful dog.