How annoyed am I right now

I went to see a venue today. One that I have shot at a few times and I have further bookings for. The management are the most awkward characters to deal with and today I had to put my foot down. Not content with asking me to pay for advertising and not content with me supplying them with 2 albums (one of which they lost) they had the utter nerve to ask me for a kickback on any weddings I book through them.

Their grand plan is that I increase my prices for their venue by 20% so I can pass that 20% back to them as a kickback. So not only do the couple have to spend £10K on their wedding venue, the venue want the photographer to get even more money out of them.

So no. I won't be subscribing to that thank you very much. I pride myself in supplying top quality products to my couples and that certainly does not involve stitching them for more cash on behalf of the venue!

I'll be cancelling my advertising with them, demanding my album back and sending them the invoice for the one they "lost" If their wedding planners are only going to recommend certain photographers via a kickback then there is no point in me advertising and certainly not a venue I wish to be associated with. The link to their website will be removed in the next few days. I cannot and will not condone that kind of behaviour and I have no wish to be associated with them. I feel sick!

It's city time

Finalised the details with Martina and Stephen for their Leeds city centre wedding in three weeks. Martina and Stephen are a fab young couple from Ireland who's families enjoy a laugh so that should be fun :) Leeds Cathedral and Malmaison are our venues for the day with a 10 min walk in between the two. We are indeed blessed with this one because there is no shortage of locations. The church is stunning the city centre is amazing with everything from BIG columns to black marble facades. Traditional meets cool and funky. Talking of funky Malmaison is unbelievable. The designer has created a photographer's dream with accent lighting everywhere and cool things like mirrored lifts!

Can't wait!

You can paint a rainbow!

Jo and Darren had the most awful luck because it started raining right at the end of their ceremony but thanks to my car breaking down and having to wait for the RAC I spotted this one brewing and they were kind enough to dash outside once more before the heavens opened again.

I hope there is a pot at the end of their rainbow :)

Some from yesterday's wet wedding. We were lucky to get some breaks in the clouds and I'm off to process some rather tasty rainbow images. :)

Still busy!

Although I have had a very pleasant weekend of catching up on sleep! Just finished processing and order for a certain young lady's boudoir shoot prior to her wedding and run through the first design of a very expensive Loxley Apertura album. Shooting a wedding with Jamie on Wednesday, one of my own next Saturday and a pre wedding meet in Leeds on Sunday which I'm looking forward to.

Also been having a little play with some of the images from last week and starting the think about a little photography trip mid August with some ideas for that.

One from last week.

Dana and Francois

Had a brilliant wedding on Wednesday. Dana and Francois at Crewe Hall in Cheshire. A truly special day with a lovely couple and a super location. I had the pleasure of the company of Mark Pearson and we could have shot there for a week and not run out of ideas so having Mark keep me on the straight and narrow was much appreciated. I have a number of images I need to process but hopefully I'll have them all done this week and I'll ask Dana if I can share one or two with you. I'm still buzzing! Another booking on Friday and a couple to see in Leeds later. :)

Aisling Ennis

I had the pleasure of shooting Aisling and "Minnie", her amazing harp on Monday night at Shrigley Hall. Minnie is an Italian harp, 6ft tall and made of wood with 23 carat gold inlay. Did you know that harps have pedals? They allow the harpist to play sharp and flat notes just like the black keys on a piano, I didn't know that! Aisling is a very talented musician who has recently relocated here in Cheshire from Ireland and we were very lucky to get a slight window to do this shoot between a trip to China and a PR meeting in London. Aisling, you are a star :)

Wedding of Karen and Rob

Had the pleasure of second shooting with the lovely Sheila from Dove Photography yesterday. A scorching day in Blackpool and two nicer families you could not wish to meet.