Simon Kemp – Hyde End Studios | Wedding and Portrait Photography, Reading, Berkshire U.K.

Berkshire Wedding and Portrait Photography

Category Archives: Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Pennyhill Park Wedding – Sarah and Chris

Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding Photography

A beautiful Saturday morning and I am at Pennyhill Park Hotel for the wedding of Chris and Sarah. Pennyhill Park Hotel is one of my favourite wedding venues – I first shot there in 2001 and have had the pleasure of recording many happy days there since. Chris and Sarah were great to work with, we met for some engagement pictures a few weeks ago and I knew then the wedding was going to be great fun to shoot. I’d been booked to shoot the evening celebrations, the first dance and also the hyde end studios photobooth so we were all set for a terrific day.

On Monday morning after the wedding, Chris texted me “The entire day was as we dreamt it would be…”

You can’t ask for more than that, can you?

Sarah and Chris are sunning themselves in the Far East so here’s a few images to tide you over until the complete gallery is uploaded. If you’d like to know when that is, click here and I’ll send you an email.

A couple of detail shots from the venue.

Apart from a beautiful bride, beautiful shoes are needed for the perfect wedding day.

Sarah gets ready…

…Chris waits downstairs.

A little detail shot.

At the top of Pennyhill Parks main staircase

A brand new wedding ring…

To have and to hold.

A couple of favourite images of the C & S.

mmmm pudding is on the way…

The receiving line.Photobooth!

Thanks again, Chris and Sarah. Have a brilliant honeymoon and see you when you get back.

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Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding Photography

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Wedding Photography – Before and After

Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding

It’s been a while since I last did a ‘Before and After’ so I thought it might be nice to look at this image from Nadine’s wedding to Nick at Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey.

As I am sure you know, digital images come out of the camera pretty flat and bleurghh, which is actually a good thing when photographing events like weddings. To state the obvious you only get one go at a wedding so most professional photographers prefer the images to be low contrast where possible and to set up the camera to produce a digital file which is flat and bland so that it acts a little like a blank canvas during the post-processing.

If you set your camera up to produce images with contrast and saturation, it’s difficult or impossible to lower the contrast and the punch in an image if that’s what you want to do afterwards. Some images look nicer with a lower contrast ration than others. That’s why no kind of automation works very well when processing the pictures. Much like the actual taking of the images themselves, the effectiveness of the picture starts with the eye of the photographer. Each picture needs to be individually assessed and processed appropriately. In this digital age of course there are far more choices than there used to be when film cameras were used. The last time I checked I had 17 different ways to convert my files to black and white for example.

All my images from everything I photograph get tweaked and polished on the computer in this way. You can see the difference in these two photographs. The picture has been cropped (bits chopped off the top and bottom) to remove distractions. it’s been ‘warmed up’ a bit and given a little texture to remove that digital feel which I felt was appropriate to this picture. An interesting border completes the image. Of course not every photograph would benefit from this kind of treatment but I like to think it makes Nadine look even more beautiful on her wedding day :)

Questions? Drop me a line.

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Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Detail Spotlight: Shoes

Posted in Avington Park Wedding, Bradfield College Wedding Photography, Highfield Park Wedding, Leander Club, Nether Winchendon House Wedding, Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Swan Hotel Wedding, Wasing Park Weddings, Wedding Shoes

There are many aspects to photographing a wedding – the journalistic pictures which form the bulk of the day for me, the family shots and the bride and groom pictures, ‘scene setting’ images etc. Recording the little things are also a very important part of the day for me as well. A typical preparation for the wedding day for the bride and groom (OK, mostly the bride :) ) is around a year, give or take, and a lot of that time is spent on deciding the little things that make the special day, well, special.

The small details that personalise the ceremony and the reception are often the things that take most of the time when planning the wedding. I always make sure we have plenty of detail images to choose from - this kind of image whether singly or in sequences, really bring an album to life. They often act like glue and bind storytelling sequences together. Usually I try and photograph these in a creative way, I think it’s really cool to have the details shots photographed contextually i.e. with the setting or background part of the composition. This is a really nice way of bringing the location(s) to life in the wedding album.

In this post I’d like to focus on shoes – during the bridal preparations it’s nice to have some images of the these – along with the flowers and the dress they often finish the day in a totally different condition than they were in the morning :) Here’s a few favourites from last years weddings.

Thanks for looking – comments always welcome!

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Posted in Avington Park Wedding, Bradfield College Wedding Photography, Highfield Park Wedding, Leander Club, Nether Winchendon House Wedding, Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Swan Hotel Wedding, Wasing Park Weddings, Wedding Shoes

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Surrey Wedding – Carly and Mark

Posted in Horsell Wedding, Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding

I had the feeling today that the Summer was on the wane and Autumn would soon be here. Mark and Carly’s wedding however was blessed with blue skies and sunshine. A good day to get married. The reason I say this is that today was also my wedding anniversary. Needless to say I have a very understanding wife to be OK with me working all day on our anniversary, but she has had 17 years to get used to it :)

The wedding was in Horsell, at St. Mary’s at the top of the High Street and afterwards at the beautiful Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot.

Carly and Mark had six bridesmaids and five groomsmen so plenty of help was on hand. The wedding was great fun to photograph, Carly and Mark were relaxed, moreso *after* the ceremony for Mark :) and everything went terrifically.

Here’s a few favourites from the day to be going on with. I am processing the rest of the images (all our pictures get lovelingly tweaked and polished before you see them) whilst C & M are on honeymoon.

If you’d like an email when the gallery goes online – **CLICK HERE** and you’ll be the first to know.

Yup, it’s the 5th of September (L) and Carly’s beautiful dress (R)

The beautiful bride. Fabulous hair!

Make-up is a spectator sport.

A warm welcome at the church :)

The boys. Or should that be “Da Boyz”? I’ll have to ask a young person.

“If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…” (cue cheesy music).

A couple of images before the ceremony. Bouquets available on the way in (L) and Mark’s Dad with a few words of advice.

Paperwork eh? The deal is sealed.

Mark and Carly at Pennyhill Park.

The brand new Mr. and Mrs.

In case you were wondering, Simon Alexander was the cause of much merriment. He’s brilliant, if you’re planning a wedding, give him a call.

A couple of favourite detail shots.

I love receiving lines. I feel a caption competition coming on…

There are few things more scary than the Powerpoint presentation of embarrassing photo’s. Best Man Richard takes to the stage.

The happy couple take to the dance floor.

Thanks again Carly and Mark, have a brilliant time in the Far East!

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Posted in Horsell Wedding, Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Donna and Greg tie the knot

Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding, WIndlesham Wedding

Donna and Greg got married today at St. John the Baptist in Windlesham. The hottest day of the year so far I heard. I did notice that come lunchtime, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Today the photography started at the house, it’s always really nice to have a ‘before and after’ aspect to the day and great to give the bride and groom a glimpse of each others morning.

Donna and Greg have three children and it was lovely to see them all so involved in the day. The wedding album is in some ways, a frozen moment in time, and it’s great to have children at the wedding as I think it makes the wedding pictures more important as the children grow.

Here’s a few favourite images from the day. The full gallery goes up when D & G get back from honeymoon. Let me know if you’d like an email when all the pictures are available for viewing.

What would a blog post be without a shot of the shoes?

Lora did the makeup today.

Donna’s Dad gets buttonholed.

Greg the groom and his boys.

Donna’s dad checks the speech one last time before the ceremony starts.

The groom keeps cool with a little help from his best man.

Drinking during the ceremony…shocking :)

The beautiful bride. They really should make these table plans easier to read. (R)

The paparazzi!!!

That speech again.

Donna and Greg’s Photobooth!!!

A smoochy dance floor moment.

Thanks for booking me Donna and Greg, have a fantastic honeymoon and see you when you get back.

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Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding, WIndlesham Wedding

Friday, December 19, 2008

Sarah & John

Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding

Today’s wedding was at St. Peter’s Church Hersham and Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot. I was photographing the lovely Sarah and John. I’d already shot some engagement pictures last month so I knew today would be great to photograph. It was a really good day, you never know what weather to expect this time of the year and we actually did pretty well, not too cold and quite bright and sunny. John and Sarah were very laid back and easy to photograph.

Today was also the world premiere of the Hyde End Studios Photobooth! Sarah and John (and their guests) were great sports and I’d like to say thanks to everybody who participated in the inaugural Photobooth, it was a blast to photograph, great fun.

Their full gallery will be posted after S & J have seen the pictures so email me if you’d like to know when the pictures are available for viewing.

In the meantime, here’s just a few of my favourites from the day.

Sarah showed me this image of her with her Mum and Dad – it’s lovely to connect the old and new like this on a wedding day.

“So that’s 24 12″ Pepperoni Pizzas at the church at 1.30 – thanks…”

Sarah and her Mum sort out the beautiful veil

Blomster Designs arrive with the flowers

John shows off just one of his amazing super powers.

Eyes down for a full house…

In ten years time we’ll be laughing at the size of the phone

Cute bridesmaids shoes

I love this image of Terry, Sarah’s Dad

Arriving at the hotel in the very swish Rolls

The beautiful Sarah

What? Who hasn’t had a snog in a phonebox before?

The premiere of the mighty Hyde End Studios Photobooth! **CLICK HERE** if you’d like details of this addition to our normal photographic coverage. Warning! Not very sensible pictures follow…

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Thanks so much for booking me, Sarah and John, see you after Christmas!

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Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Helen and Barry

Posted in Pennyhill Park Hotel Wedding, Surrey Wedding

Today I had the pleasure of photographing Helen and Barry’s beautiful wedding at Pennyhill Park. They were both so friendly and happy on the day it was a pleasure to be there. It was clear that a lot of hard work had gone into organising the day and it was great that the late October weather behaved itself and family and friends were able to enjoy some time on the terrace at the hotel,

Here’s a few images from the day that caught my eye. Let me know if you’d like to be informed when the complete gallery is uploaded.

Beautiful handbags of petals for the bridesmaids