Emma and Simon

Emma and Simon got married at the Bolholt Hotel in Bury last month. Fantastic venue this, perfect set-up for weddings with top class co-ordinators making sure everything is perfect on the day. It was lashing it down for almost the full week leading up to this day and had me worried we weren't going to get good use of the fantastic exterior of the venue. But as luck would have it, it stayed dry for long enough to get some good shots of the happy couple. Highlights below...

FACES OF ECCLES

Last week I held an open photoshoot at Eccles Community Gallery. The idea was to photograph as many people as possible in one day, then display the photographs in the gallery for everyone to see.

I realise I didn't post any information about this on this blog and there were 3 very good reasons:

1) I have been busy wedding wise recently and have lots of work to do (photos to appear soon)

2) I don't even know if anyone actually reads this blog - 2 followers? LAME!

3) I forgot

Now I'm under no illusions about this... Rankin Live it definately wasn't! To prove it, take a look at my state of the art studio set-up below...



A sheet of black fabric from Dunelm nailed to a wall. I forgot an attachment to my light stand so the flash and brolly were strapped on using masking tape! The brolley was actually broke. In the room, I had the choice of either bright flourescent strip lighting or pitch black darkness, no natural light at all so I chose pitch black darkness and a 60 watt lightbulb in a desk lamp for a model light.

Despite all this I had a really good day and met & photographed many wonderful and weird people. Some photos below.










Took photos of over a hundred people on the day, all of which will be displayed from tomorrow (Satuday 19th Sep) for 4 weeks. If you can get yourself down there please come down and have a gander. The art gallery itself is a great little place, made from an empty shop front in Eccles precinct. It is the personal passion of a lovely lady named Karen Illingworth who runs it on her own with no funding, relying on donations and the help of volunteers. I've made her a little website to help with promoting the place, check it out if you get time at www.ecclesgallery.moonfruit.com

Thanks to Salford Online for running numerous articles promoting the events, the most recent one can be seen by clicking here.

Oh and special thanks goes out to Roxanne, Sharon and Charlotte! My glamourous assistants on the day worked wonders - fluttering eyelids, flashing pretty smiles, handing out flyers and frog-marching people to the gallery. The event wouldn't have been what it was without yous!

All Saints Church

I had the pleasure of being invited over to All Saints church in Whitefield, Manchester this morning to take some photos. I've been past this church countless times and have been in awe of the architecture every time. Have wanted to photograph it for ages but have never gotten around to sorting it out until now.

As I was snapping the outside, I was approached by an elderly gent who informed me that the church is a 'Waterloo church', meaning that it is one of a hundred and odd churches that were built to celebrate the battle of Waterloo. He also told me that the architect who designed this church also designed the houses of parliament! I was given a leaflet with some more history once I got inside, but I cant be bothered typing it all up on here for you.



















Weather today was of a typical summer day in Manchester, so decided to greyscale the outdoor shots. The inside was every bit as nice as I imagined it to be, hope I get to shoot a wedding in there sometime. I didn't really go very well prepared so I intend to go back to re-shoot the inside of the church with some proper lighting gear.

Up in't 'thills!

Took this up in near Burnley somewhere last week.. Doesn't quite have the same effect when it is small on this page but I can't be uploading massive files on here unfortunately.

Manchester

Man, I love this city... so here are some photos that I have taken of it!

TWISTED

OK so not really photography related but I've always fancied myself as a bit of a graphic designer too. My friends have started up a club night called Twisted, held on the last Saturday of every month at a club in Bury. They asked me to do them a poster advertising each night so I thought I'd share the first 3 with you!

Rebecca and Mike

If there is one thing I've realised recently is that I am rubbish at keeping this blog up to date.

OK so here are a selection of photos taken at the end of May at the new Mr. and Mrs. Bates wedding. Venue was Scaitcliffe Hall in Todmorden, a beautiful place which seems to have its own microclimate! Weather was threatening to be against us all day but luckily it stopped raining for just about long enough to get some cracking shots!
















Congratulations to the pair of you, it's been great making friends with you both and hope to have a few beers at another gig soon!

Jo and Mike

So my second wedding in May was with Jo and Mike. The service was held in Salford Cathedral, an absolutely breathtaking church. I've wanted to photograph a wedding here since I first visited it a few years back. The reception was at Lancashire Health and Racquet Club in Middleton. After a shaky start to the day, the weather came good just at the right time and we got some quality snaps.













Congratulations the pair of you, I had a really good day and had some fun shooting you two.