Claire and Matthew have just had a fabulous wedding day, centred on Orton first, then moving on to Linthwaite House over Windermere. Seems a while since I featured a wedding on the blog, but this is definitely an event to showcase!



While Claire was getting ready...



Matthew was gathering friends and family nearby.



And when Claire emerged, she looked beautiful and ready for a ride in Doris to the church in Orton.



The ceremony was held in grand surroundings...













with guests in fine voice! :-)



And onto Linthwaite House overlooking Windermere, with Claire and Matthew arriving in Doris, an impressive vintage Bentley.



As evening drew in...



The Coolers from Manchester set up their gear for the night's entertainment... they seemed to go down very well!



What a day!

Melanie and Matthew are engaged to be married in Askham-on-Furness before their winter celebration at Merewood House on Windermere later this year.

As they were coming up to the Lake District from London, we took the opportunity to meet up again and hold an engagement session in the grounds of the Merewood.



We ended up in some woods at the back of the car-park with the sun appearing and disappearing behind the clouds.



Lots of opportunities to make cool images of the happy couple...



and so we enjoyed a lovely shoot on what could have been a rainy blustery day!

Claire and Matthew will be married in Orton with a celebration at the fantastic Linthwaite House hotel overlooking Windermere.

Driving through the storm clouds on my way to Claire and Matthew's, I was pretty sure we wouldn't have a bright sunny day ahead... but in the end I'm glad we didn't get that for their engagement session... because there's no way we'd have made this image after a short climb up the local crags (this image looks amazing blown up huge in the studio here):



Anyway, moments before that, at the base of the crags we looked out over the beautiful valley below...



And on the way up through a nature reserve we stopped at this old old tree:



Since we're going backwards through the shoot, here's Claire and Matt where we started at their home (Matt's there somewhere, honest!)



And the lovely couple together at home...

A recent portrait session in the shadow of Pendle Hill saw us doing battle with some crazy weather as you'll see below.

We started indoors with baby Annie (how cute?!)



... and with proud Mum...



Well, the time had come to venture outside and our hopes for a break in the clouds proved a bit optimistic... maybe a bit uncomfortable out there in the gale... but quite dramatic results!

(Uncomfortable, and a bit funny when I had to chase my lightstands blown over in the mud!)



But then the crazy weather cleared and we had blue skies to play with!



Well, then we went back indoors and the boys played in their bedroom with the coolest desks rescued from an old school. Reuben drew characters from Toy Story (can't wait for the new one to come out in a few weeks!)...



... and Ethan made a hammer aeroplane car out of lego (before dressing up as Woody :-).



Finally, we finished off in the peace of the sitting room... here's Mum and Dad relaxing after our hectic afternoon!

I crossed the border into Scotland to meet up with Joanne and Mark for their engagement photo-session. Joanne knew all the local hidey holes from her childhood so we found some great locations!

This field full of buttercups was a real find!



The next photograph was shot down in a river-gulley that we scrambled down: well worth the effort!



And the weather held up for us in this lovely corner of Dumfriesshire.



J&M: enjoy these and there's a load more to come in due course... :-)

I met up with Nicole and David for an engagement photo-session near their home in a lovely area near Bradford.



We ventured out to the canal nearby...



then to a country estate with some lovely architecture...



and cool features in the gardens.



Couldn't wait to get a preview of this shoot processed for Nicole and David... and now I can't wait for their wedding later in the Summer! :-)

How cute are Zach and Evie perched up there with their toys?!

And here's the rest of the family in one of their fab rooms...



Zach and Evie are twins... with the best eyes ever!








Meanwhile, we did something a little bit different with the girls outside. Love this one:



and this one too!



But when we went outside, Zach and Evie decided to play a funny game in some big planters... so funny!








OK, enough for now: we made loads of different photographs... it's been tough to choose just a few images to process quickly for this preview!