VisibleForm

Tom & Sarah’s web gallery went live last week - click here to get to it - and if you’ve forgotten your password details, either get in touch with Tom & Sarah, or contact us directly.

Has to be the coldest weather we’ve had so far at a wedding - barely above freezing all day, so not a lot of wandering around outdoors - but still a great day, and some unusual opportunities for frosted scenes!

We had a lovely email from Tom & Sarah, and we hope they won’t mind us sharing this bit: “Thank you again for the photographs - they are absolutely stunning. And yes, you managed to surprise us with how many nice natural smiles you captured.”

To be asked to photograph anyone’s wedding is a real privilege, something Ann and I absolutely love, but also something we take very seriously - so to receive a comment like this, for just doing what we do, makes it really special for us!

Here are a few of our many favourites from Tom & Sarah’s day…

Just finished updating our online image galleries with masses of new photos from more recent weddings…

“People” now contains 138 images (previously just 49)
“Places & Things” now contains 86 images (previously 30)

Our galleries now give a much better impression of our shooting style - although we’ve deliberately restricted the number of ‘formal’ posed shots included in the galleries (if you particularly want to see more formal shots, please contact us).

So take a look around and let us know what you think - even if you viewed our galleries very recently!

Direct link to gallery pages here: VisibleForm Galleries

Rob & Ann

Ann and I never really expected to be shooting weddings in December, let alone one right before Christmas (and very nearly the shortest day of the year!). So we had a strange mix of excitement and fear when Aran and Ruth asked us to shoot their wedding on 22nd December 2007. The shortage of daylight worried us, but the prospect of a reception at Dartington Hall with all its Christmas decorations in place soon overcame that.

Well, it was a fantastic day - we even had time to stop off and take some photos at the lovely spot where Aran had proposed to Ruth. We delivered several hundred photos of the day, so picking out just a few to show here is incredibly hard - hope this gives you a flavour of the day, and what we were able to achieve - more will be added to our galleries very shortly.

Rob

3 days late, but nevermind - hope you had a great Christmas, and Ann and I would like to wish you all a happy and prosperous 2008!

Some exciting things coming this year - we’ll shortly have some fantastic new album options from a new company in the US - they have a massive range of cover materials, and their products are excellent quality and even come in environmentally-friendly packaging. More details here soon as our first samples arrive (or contact us if you can’t wait that long!).

Rob

Well yes, we do need more room - but we’re actually talking about the band!

We had a Saturday off this weekend, because Tom had treated us both to tickets for the Crowded House gig at Nottingham Arena 1st December. We saw them recently on Jools Holland, where they were less than stellar, so we weren’t sure what to expect at the Arena - thankfully they put in a great performance, and we never realised we knew so many of their songs! Shame the sound quality wasn’t better where we were sitting - very boomy and muddied. Fascinating towards the end though as they encouraged people to wave their illuminated mobile phones about - to see a room full of lit up mobiles really brings home how much technology has affected our lives.

We didn’t take a camera for fear of security not letting us in, so you’ll have to make do with a link to their website, and a downloaded image from there…

www.crowdedhouse.com

Nic and Eben were able to go home a week ago - both doing fine, which is great news!

Eben Harrison Kirkwood
(our 3rd grandchild) decided 00.35am on Friday 16th November was the time to arrive - he is 3.5 weeks early, so it’s fair to say he took all of us by surprise - not least our older son Nathan and his wife Nicola for whom Eben is their first child. Rob took this shot of him when he was 14 hours old.

Thankfully everyone is doing fine, and we’re all hoping Nic and Eben will be able to get home sooner rather than later.

So big congratulations to Mum and Dad, and we look forward to being able to do all the usual grandparenty things with him as he grows up!

‘Eben’ is not a name we were familiar with, but (googling!) it apparently has Hebrew origin and means ‘rock’ or ’stone’ …so we guess that’s similar to Peter?

‘Harrison’ for his middle name was a lovely touch, and very special to Ann, because her Great Grandmother’s maiden name was Harrison - and a print of John Harrison was found among her effects. John Harrison invented the first reliable Ship’s Chronometer, and there has been quite a bit of publicity recently over what he achieved and how he was treated by the authorities (a quick google will bring you loads of information). With the aid of friends we’ve been trying to prove the ancestry link for some years - we possibly never will, but we’ll keep on trying, and maybe Eben will grow up to be proud of where his middle name comes from - who knows!

Rob & Ann

We have 2 dogs - Dibley, a 12 year old Mongrel Terrier who we got as an abandoned puppy from the RSPCA in Nottingham; and Tess, a 3 year old ‘Spollie’ (Collie cross Spaniel) who came as puppy from our friends’ farm in Devon and actually belongs to our younger son Tom.

This is Dibley in April this year…

Over the past year Dibley has been showing increasingly worrying symptoms - among other things he’s been drinking huge amounts of water, eating ravenously and being very lethargic. Because of his age, and the fact that Ann and I have been away from him so much while shooting weddings over the past 18 months, we had trouble figuring out whether he had an illness, or whether it was simply old age or anxiety.

We were aware that there was an illness known as ‘Cushings Disease’ which could produce the kind of symptoms we were seeing - we happened to mention this when chatting with a couple who’s wedding we shot recently (groom is a Vet), and he gave us the confidence to ask for Dibley to have some tests with our own Vet.

Well, outcome is that Dibley tested positive for Cushings Disease, and, while this has been a bit of a shock for us, in many ways we’re relieved to know there is actually an illness behind what’s happening to him. Cushings Disease is caused by a tumour (either on the pituitary gland, or the adrenal glands) which leads the body to overproduce cortisol - meaning Dibley has been on a high state of alert for months. There is no cure for this, but fortunately there is nowadays a treatment that can control things and reinstate a proper balance of cortisol - left untreated Dibley would just continue to go downhill and develop further problems like Diabetes, or even kidney failure.

Dibley started on his treatment this morning (tablets every day for life), and already there is a noticeable improvement with him drinking far less water than he has been. So while he can never be free of this, and we’re faced with continuing expense, we’re hoping that the treatment will give Dibley his quality of life back again.

I think with Dibley we’ve managed to spot and diagnose the problem before it caused any secondary problems for him - and I would encourage anyone else with a dog showing similar symptoms to get them checked out sooner rather than later, a simple blood test will show whether there could be a problem, and there is a definitive test called an ACTH stimulation test which tracks whether or not the body responds normally.

A good overview of Cushings Disease in Dogs can be found by clicking here.

Rob

Just updated our image galleries to a new system - now more pictures, many new ones from weddings this year, and hopefully much easier to navigate.

Direct link here: Galleries Page

Rob