Codsall Photographic Blog

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

Today we attended a church for a much sadder occasion. It was the funeral of 6 year old Keelan Smith who had gone through a hard 4 year battle against cancer. It was only last summer that we photographed Keelan with other members of his family – and at that time you wouldn’t have thought there was anything wrong with him.

The picture above graced the front of the order of service.

Today the sun shone and the sky was blue – the Reverend called it a “Keelan day”.There wasn’t a dry eye in the church. Our love and sympathies go out to Craige and Tracy – and all the family.

Last Friday was a very special day – it was the wedding of Kim and Adam at the lovely Houghton hall near Shifnal. We have known Kim and her family since she was about 2 years old – so it was a great honour to photograph her wedding. It was also the only outdoors wedding we have done this season – a sad testament to the state of this summer! But what a great day it was. While Kim and the bridesmaids were getting ready upstairs:

Adam was arriving in a  VW campervan:

The outdoor service gave us some great photos:

And afterwards we went to the walled garden for some private shots:

And to finish of the evening there was a surprise fireworks show:

Our evening slideshow can be seen at: http://youtu.be/ZbAygEfEjEo

We can’t wait to get stared on the album design!!

Best wishes to Kim and Ad for a long and happy life together

Not quite the real Abbey Road – but when I saw the Zebra crossing outside the church I just couldn’t resist the temptation to get the shot…

Luckily Melina and Phil (and the bridesmaids) were happy to go along with my idea: