Amy and Lee's Wedding in Peckforton Castle

What a stunning location for a wedding! Peckforton castle is in Cheshire and is a huge medieval style fairytale castle surrounded by forest with a proper gatehouse, moat, portcullis and banquet rooms. Amy and Lee contacted me at the end of last year after seeing me at Rachel and Dave's wedding in Fonmon Castle -Dave is Amy's uncle, although of course he doesn't look old enough to be(!) Of course I wasn't meant to be here so I told Amy and Lee that I couldn't photograph the wedding. Then Natasha and James decided to fly me home for their wedding in 2 weeks so it turned out I could photograph Amy and Lee after all!

I only found out last week, but for a while recently there was almost no wedding at all. Just over 4 weeks ago Lee was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was rushed into hospital and all wedding planning was dropped. Incredibly, Lee was operated on, the tumor was removed and he started to recover slowly. Last Wednesday, 3 days before the wedding he returned home, weak but able to walk and strong enough for the wedding to go ahead on Saturday. There must have been a lot of frantic last minute wedding work - Amy and her mum finished the table plan on Friday night, amongst other things.

Lee - this man was lying in a hospital bed 3 days before this shot was taken.



I love this image of Amy and Lee in front of the Castle, they have such a quiet, gentle way with eachother. You can just see an operating scar at the front of Lee's head here.



A couple of Amy before the ceremony. Can I just say, she MADE HER OWN DRESS. I have to be honest, I was expecting something very simple and kind of homemadey. This dress is an incredible peice of work, full of intricate detail on the bodice, with beads and antique lace that looked amazing in the medieval castle surroundings. I am just in awe, especially considering it was finished the night before the wedding! Amy looked very beautiful and serene all day.





The couple's son Oscar was the page boy,



And Lee's daughter Katie was the flower girl,





Lee read Amy a poem during the ceremony,





What a place to get married!



This shot is for Rachel :)



A couple of Amy and Lee together after the ceremony,





Amy's mum was busy assembling this on the day of the wedding(!) and just look how cool it is!! The icing figures have the same outfits as the wedding party and little Oscar even has his special cuddly donkey, brilliant.



Some very irresponsible father was encouraging this activity after the wedding,



Rachel and Dave looking very glam,



I feel quite smug about this shot - there were lots of peacocks in the grounds of the castle, and I caught this peacock and peahen having a wedding day kiss!



The hog roast





And it didn't even rain! Thanks for a great day guys xxx

Amy and Lee, one photo...

This is for my avid blog readers (all three of you...!) who I know are waiting for images from Amy and Lee's wedding on Saturday, which was just beautiful.



I'm looking forward to posting lots more tomorrow. I've had to sort out two software issues in the space of about 12 hours... without Steven's help! Normally if I have a boring software or computer problem I do a kind of girly swoon and get Steven to sort it out for me and then brief me with his results while I relax with a bit of cake. But Steven is in India! Lazing on a beach reading books and eating steak! So I was up till 2 am last night reading nerd blogs on the internet and doing various tests. Anyway, all is well now, but I am slightly behind my strict schedule so will carry on with that tomorrow.

Plus tonight I am making a blue cheese, red onion and walnut tart for my family, and I have yet to purchase any blue cheese, red onions or walnuts. And Max keeps pushing his filthy plastic cat toy in my lap and smearing me in dog drool... the life of a glamourous photographer ey?!

Dog in a coat

Yes I know, its wrong to put clothes on dogs, but listen, with all the rain we've been having in the UK and what with Max's long flowing fur, it makes sense for him to have a raincoat. I chose the most manly coat on offer in Petsmart, and it has practical features like a detatchable hood and adjustable waistband. As you can see, he love it.



Work it for the camera Max.

My friend's Fergo's wedding

I flew back to the UK last Thursday just in time to catch the train up to Norwich for my friend Ferg's wedding (of course, Ferg's nickname originates from the name of the main prison screw in 1980's Prisoner Cell Block H...). I was so excited to go to a wedding where I got to be a guest, gossip, drink cocktails and wear a fancy dress, woohoo! I took a few little photos before I put my camera to bed.











This guy was a very accomplished breakdancer.







Awww. I'm very excited now about the 3 weddings I'm home to shoot over the next 4 weeks. This Saturday I'm off to Manchester to photograph Amy and Lee in Peckforton Castle which looks stunning. Steven is enjoying the sun in the meantime on a beach somewhere in Goa before he flies out out to Thailand to meet me in September. Infact he was probably strolling into the sea to cool down yesterday at exactly the same time as I was huddled on Southerndown beach with my scarf and coat on. In August...

Cows and moustaches and things like that in India

I'm finally at the last destination on our journey before I return to the UK at the end of next week.

We are in Jodhpur, a big city in Rajasthan, India, after arriving in Delhi late last Thursday night. Its funny, even though we've travelled a huge distance over the last 10 or so weeks, seen some strange things and got used to being in different places, and even though this is the 3rd time I've been to Johdpur, India is still like one big fat smack in the face :)

Entering Mongolia on the train and seeing the vast expanse of steppe dotted with ger camps was incredible. And walking over the border into China to see a city full of street traders and people on bikes was really exhilerating. But its nothing like coming out of Delhi airport and walking into the thick heat, the colour, the noise, and 100 people who all want you in their taxi.

I love it here, but part of that is because it's such an extreme country, so incredibly different from anywhere else. 20% of each day is so rewarding that you can forgive the other 80% that is frustrating, hot, sweaty, and smelly.

Some things I've seen in India in the last 4 days:

• A man praying to a cow in the street
• 2 adults and 3 children travelling on the same motorbike
• A festival
• Men with gigantic moustaches
  
• Hundreds of pilgrims walking with flags
• 4 cows lying in the road creating a brand new roundabout
• 2 car/motorbike crashes
• 3 crippled dogs standing together
• People queuing to pray in a shrine building lit up with hundreds of lights and filled with flowers
• A woman determined to sell me a turnip
• Babies with big kohl eyes looking out from the back of a rickshaw taxi
• One old man cycling 4 young men up an incline in Delhi
• The rooftop view of Mehrangarh fort from our guesthouse in Jodhpur
• Deep fried red chillis
  
• At least 4 million men standing around street corners in jeans and a shirt staring at me

The funny thing is we aren't really here to sightsee. We came to Jodhpur just over 3 years ago and found some beautiful furniture manufacturers. Since we are on our way over to New Zealand in September we thought we would stop and buy (pretty much!) all the furniture for our new house. We'll ship it over in one big container. So for the last 3 days we've been visiting shops and factories trying to locate some nice things and discuss logistics with lots of different owners and suppliers. I'm also getting a dress made for my friend's wedding on the 22nd. Very exciting!

So far things are going really well, and we've met some incredibly friendly, genuine people.

Sooo, no photos this time I'm afraid, because we've spent all our time on the furniture. That doesn't mean that every few yards I walk along the street here I don't see an award winning shot (or two). I really hope that one day I can go out with my camera and just take photographs. Although it will be very difficult because each time a westerner stops in the street here (without a camera!) 10 people stop with them, including 5 small children who want money, 3 handicraft shop owners, 1 man who wants to talk about cricket and 1 man who wants to stare at your chest.

We're in Jodhpur for the next week, so if I have any news or photographs before we go home I'll blog again. By the way, I know most of my readers are suffering with the yucky UK weather at the moment. Today it was stiflingly hot and I was starting to moan about it when the monsoon rain hit and it POURED down for about 2 hours, so much that it turned the streets into rivers and soaked my nice pair of shoes, grrr. Now it's stiflingly hot again and I wish it was raining. xx

Just Laaazin' on a beach...

Feels like ages since I last wrote, but maybe thats because we've covered so many miles in a short space of time! From the central west of China, down to the lush green south, across to Hong Kong and then (on the first flight of our trip so far!!) here to Thailand, from where we are flying to Delhi in India tonight. Phew.

From the Yangtze, we caught a taxi, then a bus, then an overnight train, then a taxi, then another bus until we finally arrived in Yangshuo, hundreds of miles further south, near Guilin in Guangxi province. The journey probably would have been more fun if it hadn't been 35 degrees or above, and if I hadn't filled my rucksack to tip 18 kilos on that shopping spree in Beijing. Hey ho, I won't go on about the less glamourous aspects to travelling!

In Chengdu, China, we visited the Panda Park, which is a breeding and research facility for the Giant Panda and also the little Red Panda. For us that means you can go and look at little baby pandas at close quarters! We didn't have much time in Chengdu and could only visit the park in the afternoon, which is nap-time for nearly all the pandas - they are so furry that the day time heat in the summer means that they spend most of the time indoors in air-conditioned rooms. However we did manage to see the giant panda babies all curled up, fidgeting and snoring in their sleep (so cute!!) and some big fatty pandas eating bamboo before sprawling out on the floor to sleep.

The point and shoot camera struggled in the low light I'm afraid:

The little red pandas are more active and happy to sit in your lap for a fee. And some apple bribery:

Actually I have the cutest little video of Steven holding a red panda but my blog doesn't like it so I can't show it to anyone now.

Yangshu, where we stayed in southern china has some of the most unique geology in the country, with huge limestone river cut hills towering above sleepy little farms. The town is relatively touristy for China, but still quiet enough to be relaxing, and surrounded by the dark green of these limestone peaks and the bright lush green of the rice paddies. Its so beautiful. We spent 4 days there not doing very much, but we did hire bikes one day and take a trip down the river on a bamboo raft. Most of the time it was just sooooo hot we could only really slope around looking at the view. Which was fine, because I feel like we haven't stopped much during the last 3 months!

Buses in China aren't designed for big white western men:

A little snap of an impressive water and light theatre peice we saw in Yanghuo, where fishing boats with little lamps filled the water, and the surrounding hills were lit up, all set to music:

A touch of smog.....one thing I'm not sorry to say goodbye to in China.



So for the last week we've been hanging out in Thailand, with my brother and his girlfriend playing hosts for us. We stayed in a beach hut on Koh Samet, reading, swimming and eating for 4 days, and now we are back on the infamous Khao San Road, escaping from the heat and the tie dye in a little air conditioned internet cafe.

Look at the cool tee shirt my brother bought me! I love it!!

Because the good news is that in Hong Kong, I bought myself a very swanky new camera, and a brand new lens! Both of which I treat like my babies. The point and shoot is still in action because camera and lens mark II aren't allowed out of the hotel. My main professional camera is safely tucked up in bed back in Cardiff, so this my second camera, but my only camera out here so I'm taking good care of it.

I'll leave you with a photo of Koh Samet, taken just before I went for a little dip in the sea. Ahhh, this is the life!

xxx

A trip down the Yangtze

We spent the last few days on a small chinese cruise ship (don't get any illusions about luxury though!) sailing down the Three Gorges to the new hydro-electric damn on the Yangtze. Here are some photos from the trip.

Steven helping the driver fix his bus before we set off for the port:







Sinead and Steven become minor celebrities on board as one of only 4 westerners. There was an official photographer on board that people bought a package of 10 photographs (of them infront of various parts of the river) from. Some people insisted on having us in the photos with them! This poor girl doesn't look entirely happy about her mother wanting a photo of her with the celebs:











We disembarked onto smaller wooden boats at one point to sail down the Little Three Gorges which was beautiful:



The water level of the river backed up behind the damn for 550 kilometres has already risen by 145 metres, displacing whole cities of people. A massive 1.3 million people have been re-located as a result of the project.

The damn will be finished in 2009, which is when the water level will rise another 30 metres to 175 metres. All along the river are markers indicating what will soon be underwater, such as this family's small farm:







The amount of construction in this area is incredible. Here is a new bridge being built to replace one that will soon be submerged. It is gigantic, and one of many massive building projects.



We are off to Guilin today which is meant to be stunning, so I can't wait.