London wedding & portrait photographer – in Greenwich, Blackheath and Westminster

Amy & Rob’s engagement portrait session around London landmarks in the early evening included the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral and a view overlooking the Houses of Parliament. Here are more from their portrait session, after last week’s single. I SO love Amy’s cute dress and shoes that she wore despite glacial weather.  What you also don’t see from these portraits is her hot pink bag – a fab gift from her future mother-in-law.

Amy and Rob had a London portrait shoot today, capturing a number of the city’s landmarks on Valentine’s Day weekend.  They’re getting married in Houston in November and have become platinum frequent fliers staying in touch in the past two years while Rob has worked for an American firm, helping to set up its London base. We went from the South Bank Centre to St Paul’s Cathedral and on to Scott’s, where they had a dinner reservation. This is one of the last of the day, taken about three minutes before they went into dinner and the heavens opened with an icy downpour … talk about timing!

Jennifer and Anthony booked two weekend engagement portrait sessions in readiness for their wedding early next month. We started at 8.30am for lovely light, meeting at a cafe in Primrose Hill. They’re so sweet together – and as Anthony is a very keen photographer himself, he found it interesting to be on the other side of the camera.

Jennifer and Anthony loved Primrose Hill’s coloured houses and relative quiet that allowed us to use it as a backdrop.

We climbed to the top of Primrose Hill for the view over London.

We took a close-up of Jennifer’s engagement ring.

And used the early morning’s light for some more portraits.

Jennifer and Anthony’s second engagement session was based around Liverpool Street station going through to Bank, as chosen by Anthony.  We had overcast and gentle skies to start – and this imposing Richard Serra sculpture.

From there we went on a walkabout, ending up at Leadenhall Market, near the site of the world’s first set of traffic lights; it was brilliant having Anthony as tour guide.

I’ve just edited Vicki and Dave’s engagement photographs from York. We went there because this is where many of their dates have been, with Dave living about an hour outside it and Vicki living in Bedford.

Because I don’t know the area, I asked for advice from a couple of colleagues in the area about the best places to go and they spent quite a bit of time pointing us in the right direction. That was incredibly helpful.

We started off in the centre of York with a doorway I’d found and loved while doing a bit of shopping.

I emailed Vicki at 1am today with a link to her and Dave’s photos – and had a reply at 2am saying how happy she was with them and would be going to bed with a smile on her face.
“Thank you so much for the link. I can only say “WOW”! You have done a fantastic job in capturing the essence of our session, especially “where’s wally in little shambles?” I loved the whole thing, whenever I look at those taken at the York Minster, I can’t helped but giggle.”

I was so chuffed she liked how they had been captured.

This was another portrait taken just off The Shambles.

Then we moved to York Minster, where Dave decided to pick up Vicki, taking her completely off guard. He’s so naughty!

After Vicki had had a chance to catch her breath, we used the minster as a backdrop for individual and together portraits.

We then used some ruins as a backdrop for what turned out to be our final portraits before the weather stopped being threatening and started raining properly.

When I suggested to Ellen & Andrew that they might like to have their engagement portraits early on a Sunday morning for great light, they very helpfully agreed. So at 8am today, we met in Hampstead to walk over the heath. They had ridden their bikes there and have been on several cycling holidays in the past, so it was entirely appropriate that the bikes had a role in some of the portraits.

We found an area with lovely backlighting and used the shadows, then walked deeper into the woods for a more lush, green background.



We had an audience for some of our shoot.

But after a short while, they lost interest.

After some more close-up protraits, we went to some quiet grassland overlooking Highgate. Our original plan was to head to Parliament Hill for the last portraits, but we got lost on the way and decided this view was better and possibly quieter anyway.

I’m looking forward to Ellen & Andrew’s August wedding at The National Theatre’s The Deck and then Regent’s College. Another bonus from today was finding out that there are branches of Euphorium Bakery and Le Pain Quotidien just near Hampstead Station and (on advice of Andrew), spotted ANOTHER Euphorium branch at nearby Belsize Park. I’m yet to meet a client who isn’t in tune with yummy bakeries. Managed to resist today but have made plans to return there with a friend who lives in North London.

Kate and Neil liked some wedding photographs I took at the Prospect of Whitby last year and so we used this as a starting point for their engagement portraits – and quite frankly, I’m all for meeting clients in one of London’s most atmospheric riverside pubs.

We started with some involving sculpture and moved onto the nearby bridge.


We walked by the Thames some more and found these spots … although initially Kate and Neil got wet feet – spring tides and a windy day meant some of the waves were a little too friendly and we moved to higher ground!

Raelene really, REALLY wanted her and Kevin’s engagement portraits to be taken when cherry blossom was out – a two week window. Luckily, they live close by and we were able to take time out at short notice to catch the blossom. The portrait session was great fun and definitely cherry blossom makes a wonderful back-drop.


They are just so lovely together.

Catching up on photographs I’ve taken in the last couple of weeks, so here are Mel & Ed’s engagement session, from London one morning. They very kindly agreed to get up very early for wonderful light – and weren’t disappointed, despite the 7am start.


When the sun was a little higher in the sky, we visited this muddy track.


After a very short while, storm clouds were gathering and there was a very bright, direct kind of sunlight that happens just before heavy rain against heavy skies. It gave us a great opportunity for this portrait. We were quick, thankfully, as the light died minutes later.

Our last stop was in Richmond, because Ed loves the village green. As we found parking and his favourite haunts, it became clear that he navigates by pubs. This has been proven to be an entirely valid navigation method, as is navigation via cake shops (my preferred choice!) In honour of Ed, we had to take some photographs in this aptly named street … alongside a chocolate shop … something more for Mel.

It’s going to be exciting working with them both in Cornwall next month for their wedding.

Zara and Jamie chose the location for their engagement portraits, in readiness for their wedding in July. They found the perfect street name near their Clapham home, about four streets away from where I used to live many years ago.

Alongside the lane was a park with wonderfully hewn wooden furniture. This bench was beautiful for its shape … and could be symbolic of their journey through life together.

Ooh, vintage street lamps and iron railings.

Then we moved into the adjacent graveyard, which suited Zara and Jamie’s gothic roots.

Zara is ticklish, apparently…

… and looks fabulous with her hood up.

Jamie had individual portraits as well in the last of the warm afternoon sun.

Awww, aren’t they just so lovely together! Can’t wait to shoot their wedding!