I was very pleased to find out this afternoon that my blog (this blog!) has been named in the UK’s Top 100 Wedding Blogs list

When I think that there must be literally hundreds (if not thousands) of wedding related blogs out there, to have made the top 100 list, which is compiled by The Easy Search UK wedding services directory, at number 55 is fantastic.  The list contains all the UK’s most popular and famous blogs so to be on the list is amazing.

I assume that of the many factors which go in to to determining which blogs make the list, visitor numbers must be high on the list so I would like to thank everybody who takes the time to visit and read my blog – it is much appreciated and I hope you enjoying reading the blog as much as I enjoy writing the posts!

The full list of the Top 100 Wedding Blogs can be found here: http://www.easyweddingsearch.com/blogs/top100

I am very pleased to announce that I am the winner of the UK Wedding Belles Wedding Photograph of the Year Award 2010

The competition attracted almost 700 entries from wedding photographers all across the UK, so I am obviously delighted to have won the award!

12 photographs were shortlisted for the final and the winner was chosen by a month-long public vote on the UK Wedding Belles website.  In total, almost 4,000 votes were cast, of which mine received 858 votes.

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for my image – each and every vote was very much appreciated and I obviously wouldn’t have won without your support.

The wining photograph was taken at Jenny & Richard’s Manchester wedding last summer.  Richard and Jenny got married at Manchester Town Hall before moving to The Lowry in Salford Quays for their wedding reception.  The photograph itself (below) was taken on a bridge just outside The Lowry following the speeches as the sun was setting.  You can read more about why I like this photograph of the UK Wedding Belles website – and more photographs from the wedding itself can be seen by clicking here)

Finally, a big thank you to Jenny & Richard for helping me to create the wining image.  Having the idea for a particular wedding photograph is one thing, but without doubt the most important aspect is always the bride and groom themselves, and Richard and Jenny were both amazing!!

Thank you again to everyone who voted – all 858 of you!!

I am very pleased to announce that earlier this month I was successfully awarded a Licentiateship qualification with the BIPP (British Institute of Professional Photography) in the category of wedding photography

The BIPP are the official qualifying body for professional photographers in the UK and their qualifications are seen as a benchmark for excellence, so I am extremely proud to have been successful.

The Licentiateship qualification is the first of three levels of qualification. The next level is Associateship with the top level being Fellowship. So, although I am delighted to have been successful with my Licentiateship, the work towards my Associateship in wedding photography starts now…!

The qualification process involved me submitting 20 images for assessment, consisting of 10 photographs from one wedding and 10 from ten other separate weddings. I submitted my photographs to the BIPP‘s Head Office in May and then had them each professionally printed on as panels ahead of the formal assessment day in York earlier this month. I would like to point out that Colorworld Imaging, who printed my panels for me, were extremely helpful and the quality of the panels was excellent, so a big thank you from me to Colorworld Imaging!

Deciding on which images to choose for my panel was very difficult, as was deciding which single wedding to choose for 10 of the images! In the end I chose wedding photographs which I thought were the safest bets on being successful, not necessarily my favourites or what I consider to be my best wedding photographs, but those which I thought were strong and would favour well in the eyes of the assessors. Some I knew were strong as they had already won awards but others were from recent weddings that I had only shot a few weeks earlier.

From the feedback I received I can now see that I didn’t always make the right choices in terms of image selection, but that is all part of the learning process and it illustrated to me the importance of taking part in a mentoring programme and/or gaining feedback from other qualified wedding photographers before submitting for assessment.

I am delighted to now be a fully qualified Manchester wedding photographer with with one of the UK’s leading photographic organisations. To quote the BIPP’s website “World recognised, BIPP qualifications are a benchmark of excellence” so I am very proud to now be able to put the letters LBIPP after my name

Here are the wedding photographs which made up my panel of 20 images, the first 10 are from ten separate weddings and the second 10 are from one single wedding:

Photography has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember.  I bought my first digital camera in 1997 (an incredible 1 mega pixels!) and have been taking photographs ever since.

I have been lucky enough to take photographs in some amazing places all around the world including Africa, the USA, Europe and of course, sunny Manchester!  During this time I have taken many photographs which I am very proud of.

I have always enjoyed sharing my favourite shots with others and  I am now pleased to announce that many of my favourite personal collection photographs are now available to purchase in a new online gallery.  I have tried to be quite selective in choosing which photographs I make available to buy and have only included what I consider to be my very best work to date.

To view the online gallery (currently split in to two galleries, ‘Wildlife‘ and ‘Landscape‘) and purchase prints, please click on the link below:

http://neilredfern.zenfolio.com/personal

I hope you enjoy looking at the photographs as much as I have enjoyed taking them Photographs can be purchased as prints and canvases as well as many other items such as keyrings and t-shirts.

Here are a selection of shots which I have now made available to purchase:

You may remember that last month I photographed Rachel, Simran, Judith and Jordan of The Leos Quartet in Manchester – one of the North West’s best string quartets!

My favourite photographs from our shoot in Manchester can be seen by clicking here.

As well as myself taking photographs, the amazingly talented Tom Harrington of Silk Wedding Videos filmed the photoshoot for us and has just finished editing the video.  Tom’s video is fantastic and illustrates the fun personalities of the quartet perfectly!

For more information regarding The Leos Quartet or Silk Wedding Videos, please take a look at their websites:

The Leos Quartet – www.theleosquartet.co.uk

Silk Wedding Videos – Silk Wedding Videos

I am very excited to announce that I will shortly be launching a brand new website: www.weddingphotographyadvice.com

As the name suggests the site will be dedicated to helping new and aspiring wedding photographers.

I have been photographing weddings for almost 4 years now and, whether it be through my own experience or from that of other photographers, I have learnt so many things which have helped me develop in to a better wedding photographer and I will be sharing my experiences and advice through this site.

However, as I still have lots to learn myself and I am always looking to improve my own photography, as well as writing posts myself I will also be encouraging other wedding photographers to contribute their own tips to the site. Over time, as more articles and tips are added, I hope that the site will become a very useful and valuable wedding photography resource.

So, to all my wedding photographer friends, if you would like to write a post for the site, please email your article or suggestion (and an image should you wish to showcase your work) to me at info@neilredfern.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

The site will be launched this St. Valentines’s Day so please keep your eyes peeled!

As this will be my last blog post of 2009 (and of this decade..!) I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish all my friends a very happy New Year

I am really looking forward to 2010, I will be covering lots of fantastic weddings and I have some exciting new ideas planned too.

I’ll be starting 2010 with a new logo and updated branding. I’d been using my old logo for over three years now and thought it was about time I had a change. I really like the new logo and colour scheme, I think it looks much more professional and elegant than the old one and is more representative of my wedding photography and the service which I offer.

Happy New Year everyone – all the best for 2010!

I have now set up Facebook Fan Page!

I have had a Facebook Group for a while now which now has over 125 members but Fan Pages offer a number of big advantages over Groups so I am going to stop updating my group and hope that all members will instead now join my fan page instead. As I did with my Facebook group I will be updating the Fan page with my latest wedding photographs and related news.  ”Fans” will also be able to post on the page’s wall.

To join my Fan Page, simply click on the link below and select “become a fan”

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manchester/Neil-Redfern-Photography/102456937975?ref=nf

Many thanks to all who join!

My wedding photography Facebook group now has 80 members which is great considering I only started the group a couple of months ago. A big thank you to everyone who has joined!

If you are on Facebook but have not yet joined, please do so using the link below.  I regularly send messages to group members, post new photographs to the group, add links and encourage members to leave messages and questions on the group’s wall. Members are also welcome to comment on any of the wedding photogarphs I upload.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=73154597585&ref=nf

Please also feel free to send the link to friends who you think may be interested in my work.

Thank you once again to everyone who has already joined, it is very much appreciated.

I am now the proud owner of a new 17″ MacBook Pro.

The MacBook will help me in a number of ways such as allowing me to work on location and show slideshows of my work when visiting potential clients.

The thing that I am most looking forward to with relation to my wedding photography however is the ability to offer couples the option of viewing a small selection of their photographs as a slideshow on the wedding day itself. Whilst I am working at full day weddings, during the time that the wedding party are having their meal, I intend to edit a small number of their photographs and then have the laptop on display during the start of the reception so the bride and groom and their guests can view some of the photographs. Later this year I plan to take this a step further by buying a projector which will allow me to display the images on to a large screen. All very exciting!