Blog - Latest News

Just had a lovely wedding meeting with Gemma & Kevin at the home of Gemma's parents in Baglan, Port Talbot. Absolutely stunning home and the plan is hold the service and reception in the grounds of the home.

I am absolutely delighted to report that after seeing several photographers Gemma & Kevin have booked myself to help cover their important day, I cant wait.

The Moroccan themed marque to house 150 guests in a Spanish styled wedding, is going to be some wedding!

Just completed a lovely workshop at Margam Castle. Actually found I didn't really learn that much but it was reassuring to find that most of what I do is good practice already.

Managed to get one or two lovely images of the model Bride we had for the day as there were plenty of other photographers jostling for position

The added bonus is that I have a wedding booked Margam Castle next year and this was a lovely opportunity to find some greta angles and lighting set ups for some truly wow factor images

Just as my learning and my thirst for knowledge never stops, neither does my re-investment in my business.

I am continually striving for perfection, I am very self critical and even though my work is being continually valued and complimented upon I still search for that next level.

Canon 5D Mark 11
To master Wedding Photography the way I wish to capture it requires controlling very low light situations. My current EOS 1D Mark 11 & my 1Ds Mark 11 continue to produce exceptional quality images but recently I have added to this the much acclaimed 5D Mark 11 which I used for the first time (after a week's intense practice) on Ruth & Andrews Wedding at the Coed-y-Mwstwr Hotel, Bridgend.

To be able to shoot at such high ISO settings and still produce excellent quality images is amazing. It has opened up another world of settings for me, which in turn will allow me to be more creative.

Canon 85mm 1.2 11 L USM Lens
Oh boy the 5D Mark 11 with one of thee fastest lenses produced is the ultimate wedding photographers combination! This is a monster of a lens with such a narrow depth of field at 1.2. This not only has its challenges but once mastered will produce some of thee most dreamy images attainable.

The Future
I have several world renowned wedding photographers web sites stored in my favourites and constantly review their work. I relate to their styles and truly believe in what I am achieving and can visualise the future style of my own work.

My arts background is allowing me to see the possibilities and the relationship with everything I have studied as a trained artist and the high quality cameras and lenses I now possess.

Mastering light is getting closer and closer

We like it varied but we have excelled ourselves these passed few weeks! -

Belly Dancers in Newport


Sunset Beaches in Southerndown


Steam Trains in Bridgend


Welders in Riverside Bridgend


High Tides breaking at Porthcawl Lighthouse


Welsh Guards Marching through Bridgend


Bridgend County Web Site Launch at the Heronston Hotel


And the fabulous Awards Evening at the Pavilion in Porthcawl for Adult Learning which was a truly humbling experience


Oh and don't forget the lovely weddings of Kelly & Matthew


& Lisa & Charles


- All this within the space of a couple of weeks!

Colgau Gold are providing the rings for the Royal Wedding and in an effort to publicise this event they are carrying out a promotion up at McArthurGlen Bridgend Outlet. On 29th April the first couple through the doors and propose on the stool will get their rings for free!



Here's a few shots of the models carrying the stool to the shop and carrying out a proposal.



There is a possibility that one of our images might make national press this week!

Point to Point at Ystradowen 16th April 2011

What a great day out for the family.



The races started at 2pm, 7 in all, you can have a bit of a flutter, a picnic out the back of the range rover and a bit of sunshine to boot.



The horses come passed at such a speed its hard to appreciate on television the power of these magnificent animals. The beauty of shooting at such an event that I can get right up close to the action.



I have added just a few of the hundreds of images shot just as a sample of whats available at such an event.

We had such a busy 2010 that the Wedding gallery was beginning to burst at the seams. With the diary forecasting at least 20 weddings for 2011 we had to make some changes in readiness for the extra albums.



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You will now find sample galleries of each part of the wedding day, from the preparations to the first dance. In addition to this are the montage samples for the Bride & Groom to see what is possible with designs to maximise the viewing of so many great pictures from the wedding.

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The albums which haven't been completed yet with the Bride & Groom are still password protected in a separate gallery. In addition there will be a new gallery containing the Albums which have been approved by the Bride & Groom and are then viewable in their entirety for several months by the guests and family.

Just been learning how to apply a tattoo to an existing image. Fab, looks so impressively real! Drop me a line if you fancy a Portrait Shoot with some great tattoo's added.

Price £75 for a 2 hour location / your home shoot, or £95 for a studio shoot with editing on 3 different images. Images available as med/low res downloads suitable for computer usage such as facebook etc Add £15 per image for 10x8in prints

Triple Triumph Floating Gallery Blocks Photo Shoot

Having recently returned from 'Focus' - the photographers equivalent of a childs Santa's Grotto! I have purchased several new products which I am really excited about.

One of these is the Child's Portrait Triple Triumph Floating Gallery Block Display. It is a real work of art, made by a small British company who painstakingly produce exquisite works of art for every occasion, from weddings to Funky Teenage bedrooms to the beautiful child and baby bedroom image displays.



I will very shortly have an original using images produced by Graham Davies Photography as a sample to show you the client. Until then I have made two mock ups of the style of the art work. It is a 21in square 3 dimensional display made by craftsmen.



The cost of one of these displays inclusive of a 2 hour photo shoot (either on location or studio) is priced at just £275

Before booking a photo shoot you are welcome to view a sample product with no obligation to buy just call Graham on 07968208076

January may have started quite but February has been anything but!

Wedding bookings have been accumulating along with requests for wedding days I am already booked out for! This is always a shame and keeps tempting me to expand, but at the moment I am contented with our own development but definitely something for the not too distant future.

I recently landed a great 8 Sports Centre Project with the local council which I am thoroughly enjoying. Using triple exposures and fusing them to create one perfect exposed image. The only down side is the weather hasn't been good enough to get some great outdoor shots of the centres just yet, and time is running out. I might need to source my library of skies!



In addition to this Astra Games have commissioned me to produce some commercial portraits for some of their staff who are being showcased in the company's annual report.



Recycle Direct a local company but under their managing director Nigel Davies have become a global success producing their recycling unit here in Bridgend and shipping them world wide! I have been very fortunate to be asked to produce a series of images for their latest brochure and web site.



So all this plus Bar 46 great menu images and numerous portrait sessions and other smaller projects for the council has proven February to be a busy creative time for Graham Davies Photography.

I have just finished a commission for Bar 46 on Broadlands, Bridgend. They required several images for their latest menu cards in A3 format. This image is just one of the 16 images provided during the 1 hour shoot.

I am so delighted with the atmosphere the lighting has created that it has made not only my Top 20 but I have placed it 5th in my all time list!



For those interested in how I achieved this image:

I place a mono block flash 300w unit behind the set, low to the table and off centre right with a honeycomb grid placed over a snoot. The setting was twice as high as the large soft box main light which was placed high and off to the camera left. Again with a grid to help direct the light more at the table.
I used a tripod with a shutter release cord to reduce any movement.

Settings:
ISO 100
F 6.3
Shutter Speed 1/80th of a second

Finally some added contrast and dodge and burn techniques with CS3

Graham Davies Photography has recently won a contract with the Bridgend Borough Council to photograph all 8 Sports Centres in the Borough over the next few weeks.

Internally and externally these images will be used in all future publications for the borough.

Samples of these images will appear in our Commercial Section shortly but we have included a few samples of some of the centres shot so far

When you compare how busy we were in December with January it appears that January has been a quiet month. But in fact when I consider the several projects I have undertaken for the Bridgend Borough Council, the 3 wedding meetings and bookings for 2011 and 2012 along with completing my accounts for 08-09 and 09-10 I can look back and feel quite satisfied with the start to 2011.

All outstanding work has been completed bar one, even that is but one's edit away. Cameras are cleaned, new backdrop has been tested and I have began looking in to iStock Photography.

In addition to this I am also looking to launch the School Photography section to our work. This is going to be quite an undertaking and one I cant wait to embark upon. However with such a venture I have to make sure the process from school booking to shoot to ordering to prints arriving at the parents doors' is smooth and uneventful. This will take several months to iron out and test before launching this programme later this year - watch this space.

The festivities are over, the tree has gone away for another year and left the room with bare walls. We've counted the christmas cards for fun to see how we faired (46 not a bad year lol). So now its time to recap over the passed year, establish where we currently fair in the photography business and plan for the year ahead and set our goals high once more!

When I look back at 2010 it has proven to be great year for setting the building blocks for Graham Davies Photography. We gained an amazing contract with the Bridgend Borough Council, which in turn lead to numerous other local businesses employing our skills to help them too produce some great images to promote their businesses.

The Bridgend Outlet has used us on so many of their assignments I feel like their resident photographer. I have photographed Barry Cryer which was a real honour and he was such a gentleman. the list of photo shoots reals into the 80s, far to numerous to mention each one.

However Weddings which forms the base of many a good pro photographer is growing at a fast pace. 2009 we began with 7 weddings, 2010 we produced 18 weddings and for 2011 we already have 14 booked and its only January 5th, so 2011 target has to be 30 weddings!

My goals equipment wise are set on a 1.2 or 1.4 canon 50mm L series lens; 500-600mm canon lens; a mobile printing studio to name but a few of the high end products I am still striving for; we can all dream cant we!

Happy New Year to all my clients passed and new

Graham

After months of preparations shooting over 280 images between London & Birmingham Swesky Limited has finally launched their exclusive ring collection on the Debenhams Web Site!

I was thrilled to see the photographs we took of both the collection of rings and the lifestyle shoot with Danielle.

Click on Debenhams to visit the site

Swesky Jewellery a local company run by David & Rachel have managed to secure a contract supplying Debenhams with Jewellery for sale in their on-line shopping pages of the Debenhams web site.

This is a massive achievement for the local couple and I have been commissioned to produce the ring shots for them. This is no mean task as any pro photographer would vouch for, jewellery photography is probably one of the hardest forms of photography out there.

We have so far been to London & Birmingham photographing beautiful crafted rings which will be on line to sell from October onwards. This is an exciting time for the young couple who have big plans for the future of their company and the further developments to start trading from within Debenham stores in the not too distant future.

Here are a small collection of the first 250 rings to go on sale this October

Have to say during these hard times that I must be doing something right.

Commercial work is steady, Bridgend Borough Council are using my services on a regular basis along with several of the companies that I have become associated with through my work for the council.

Wedding Season seems to be extending. Work for next year is steadily growing. This time last year I had about 3 bookings which has quickly become 20. Next year is already at 7 with 3 more pending appointments next week alone.

Portraits are steady but a nice alternative to the rest of my work.

Events have been fab. Loved the 3 Belly Dancing Haflas I have attended. I have been amazed by the spectacle of their events. I am hooked. The music the costume and the dance styles are a great event and just brilliant for photography.

My equipment purchases of late mean quality will be even better. I recently purchased an EOS 1Ds Mark 11 full frame camera, which means 17mb of pixels creating detailed images of superb quality. The IMac has been a crucial part of my upgrades creating much quicker work flow speed. With 12gb of ram the new Mac is zipping through my latest files which over the next few weeks will see a much faster turn over in print and album creations.

All in all half way through the year, just turned 50, work is fab and life is great

Just remember positive things happen to positive people and i sincerely hope that you too are having as much fun as I am

Right off to walk the dogs, clean the house and get ready for the Evans family Portrait this afternoon, take care

Here is a sample of their shoot uploaded within 4 hours of the shoot

We have been in operation just over 2 years now and things are going from strength to strength. In fact, work is coming in daily from all areas of photography at present.

I am currently working on Weddings, Product shots for a local Innovative Company called Pouch, Bridgend Borough Council work, McArthur Glen 90 Store Shoot, Grass Roots Gymnastics Event Photography, sevarl Belly Dancing Hafla Events, numerous Portrait Shoots to name but a few.

So I thought its time to invest some of the profits back in to upgrades.

I now have the EOS 1Ds Mark 11. Now that wont mean much to most people but it is one of thee top professional cameras available. 17 mega pixel Full Frame which is going to allow for large poster style images with no loss of quality, amazing detail in all images taken, plus a true use of the Canon L Series wide angle lense I use.

If your still non the wiser - to you its going to mean even better pictures!

This is the ultimate in Wedding Packages. A stylish, elegant premium wedding album from Loxley Print - Bellisimo Perfetto Wedding Album. coupled with a full service package from Graham Davies Photography.

Perfetto Platinum Wedding Package for the ultimate Wedding Album & Service.

The Perfetto Platinum Wedding Package contains:
Engagement Photo Shoot with a 20x16in Framed Print,
10 x 6x4in Prints from the shoot,
Preview Wedding Album containing up to 700 images from your wedding (an album in itself to keep),
Password Protected Web Gallery,
The Bellisimo Perfetto Wedding Album containing up to 40 pages,
2 Perfetto Parent Albums each containing 20 pages
Professionally produced DVD containing up to 200 of your favourite images from the wedding day.

This is the ultimate in wedding packages from Graham Davies Photography

Would love to hear from anyone who has viewed my work and would like to get in touch or at least be kept informed of future projects and promotions with Graham Davies Photography.

I have just set up a Group on


Click on the link to join, come say hi