Codsall Photographic Blog

Codsall Photographic were commissioned as the photographers for the launch of Story Brands new range of premium soft drinks “Story”. Comprising of four fruit flavoured pressés, the new range fills a gap in the market for a premium non-alcoholic drink. A range of shots were required in our brief, including individual shots that can be easily composited into a range of other shots. Control of light on the bottles was a challenge to both show the gloss effect of the bottles and labels, but without losing the details.

“Codsall Photographic” and “Photographs by Margot” have organised a bridal fayre on Sunday 21st October 2012 at Codsall village hall. All profits from this fayre will be donated to the Midlands Air Ambulance charity – and we hope to raise a good amount on the day. We are now inviting local wedding suppliers to join us on the day. A maximum of two stalls of any trade will be present on the day. For those exhibitors who are interested, please take a look at the fayre website at www.codsallfayre.co.uk and get in touch with us to raise plenty of cash for this very worthwhile and popular charity.

After what seems a marathon of wedding fayres over the past weeks it’s nice to have a Sunday to ourselves again. Just one final fayre to go before the summer – and that’s the fayre at the Holiday Inn at Junction 10 of the M6 – that’s NOT the Holiday Inn Express – but the much nicer hotel tucked away on the western side of the junction towards Willenhall. Just follow the signs for the hotel on the motorway island (it’s the turning after the Black Country Route).

And wedding season has already started for us – and from April onwards we really see a large number of weddings in our diary. So much so that we are not looking to take on any more large weddings until after the end of September 2012. However bookings are now coming in thick and fast for 2013 – so we do hope to hear from many more prospective customers in the coming months.

The next few weeks see us at a number of local wedding fayres – you know – the events where the bride-to-be drags her partner around the various stalls to work out what she is having at her wedding!

The next one is at the Prince of Wales centre in Cannock on Wednesday 1st February from 6pm onwards. This is followed by the huge fayre at the spectacular Shugborough Hall near Stafford on Sunday 5th February between 11am and 4pm.  See in the servants quarters kitchen – right opposite Caroles cakes.

We look forward to meeting lots of new customers at both Fayres!!

The Mercure Hatherton House Hotel in Penkridge are holding an exclusive wedding fayre on Sunday 19th February between the hours of 11am and 4pm. Come and meet up with a great selection of wedding suppliers – including ourselves!

The Hatherton House Hotel can be found in Pinfold Lane in Penkridge, ST19 5QP - their website is at www.hotels-stafford.com or call them on 01785 712459

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our customers, old present and future!! Lets hope that 2012 sees an upturn in the economy and we can all start to get some more security in our outlook, re-open all those shops that have closed – and get those new factories built and working!

We are open all over the holiday season to accept enquiries for wedding, events or any other photographic work – just drop us an e-mail or give us a call on 01902 844883

Last week saw a return visit to local company Plastic Bottle Supplies to do a “Christmas” shoot. When I first received the e-mail with the ideas and outline brief – I had to have a chuckle to myself – however the craft skills of their marketing department and our photography resulted a range of excellent plastic bottle themed Christmas cards and images. A little more work in Photoshop resulted in the following image which will also be turned into an animated e-card.

A Christmas tree just had to feature in the main 2011 Christmas card for customers:

And maybe you wouldn’t be too impressed if your stocking on Christmas morning looked like these – but they suit the company just fine:

The company e-brochure and website also features all the photographs we have taken for this booming local company.

Shameless star Tina Malone (Mimi) cut the ribbon to open Poundlands new store in Park Street, Walsall. We were there as Poundlands official photographers.

Following the opening Tina signed autographs for the scores of fans who had turned out to see her.

And she couldn’t resist doing a bit of shopping too

By the way – in real life Tina is thankfully NOTHING like her on-screen character!!!

We were the photographers at the Power place Golf day on Thursday 6th October, capturing each team as they played through the first tee. The venue was the excellent Warwickshire Golf course. A photo for each team member was printed on the day – and presented to them before the evening dinner.

But despite the recent great October weather – the day was not quite so good – and a heavy downpour resulted in the spectacular rainbow across the course:

And it later gave a great view of the Warwickshire golf club leisure centre:

This was the second year that we have been the official photographers for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust’s Cat and Fiddle challenge. It’s a 55 mile cycle ride starting and ending at Stoke – and taking in the spectacular road up to the Cat and Fiddle – the second highest pub in England. Brian O’Rourke cycles play a large part in organising and running this event – and it is one of the biggest annual fund-raisers for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

In 2010 the challenge lived up to it’s name – being held on one of the wettest and windiest days of the year. the number on entries were well down, however there were still around 800 participants. You can  see how bad the conditions were:

But it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm:

However the 2011 challenge was in much better conditions. We were based next to the Cat and Fiddle and photographed well over 1000 cycles passing us:

A significant percentage of our revenue from on-line pictures sales are donated directly to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust to help them in their on-going battle to find a cure for this crippling condition. The 2011 photos can be found at: www.codsallphotographic.com – and go to client galleries > other events