Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who entered my first Facebook competition, the prize for which was a 30″ x 20″ canvas print of one of my recent safari photographs.

To enter the competition I invited members of my Facebook page to post a comment against their favourite photograph in this Facebook gallery, with the best comment being the winner.  The comment could be funny or serious.

In the week that the competition was open I received over 60 comments, which is fantastic!

What I hadn’t envisaged beforehand though was how hard it would be to actually choose a winner!  So many people left comments which were worthy of winning that I felt very guilty for only choosing one comment to win… so I’m choosing two!

The first winner is Richard’s B’s comment “Snobby monkey mimics The Thinker by Auguste Rodin” which really made me laugh!  Richard is right – the pose is uncanny – click here to see The Thinker by Auguste Rodin

The second winner is Richard W’s comment “I would love to win this picture as this is the one you had just had printed when we visited you to discuss our wedding, and it is absolutely stunning! It would be a wonderful memory of the fun we had planning our wedding.” Apart from it being a lovely comment, I was both surprised and proud that Richard had remembered I’d shown him this photograph when he booked me to photograph his wedding.

Congratulations to both winners!

Most of all though, thank you to everyone who enetered I wish I could have chosen more winners but I’m not sure I could afford it!

Please keep an eye on my Facebook page as I plan to hold more photography competitions in the future, but I think I will try and incorporate a voting system next time so I don’t have to choose the winner myself as I just feel too much guilt!

To celebrate my Manchester wedding photographer Facebook page reaching 1,000 members, I am holding a competition to give away a free 30″ x 20″ canvas print of one of the photographs I took on my recent safari in Kenya to one member of my Facebook page.

To enter all you have to do is go to my Facebook page, become a fan (unless you have already done so) and, in the album called “Canvas Competition – January 2010″, leave a comment underneath the photograph which you would like to win stating why you would like that photograph as a canvas.

The album can be accessed here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141033&id=102456937975&ref=mf

The winner will be the person who in my leaves the best comment. The comment can be funny, serious, complimentary, short or long – I will leave it up to you!

All comments must be made by Wednesday 27th January 2010 – so one week today. Once this date passes I will choose a winner. People may comment on more than one photograph but no more than one comment per photograph please. Unfortunately the competition is only open to UK residents.

If you would like to invite your Facebook friends to enter the competition please click on the ‘suggest to friends’ link on the left hand side of my Facebook page, select all your friends (or those you wish to invite) and click send.

Thank you again to everybody who has already joined my Facebook page, I am very grateful.

Good luck to you all!

Wow, what a fantastic year 2009 has been! I was named the SWPP Members Choice Wedding Photographer of the year, I photographed more weddings than in any previous years, I set up a new wedding photography website, blog and Facebook page and, best of all, I got married myself!

I have been extremely lucky to have worked with so many lovely people at some fantastic venues, including Shrigley Hall, Rowton Hall, Belle Epoque Brassiere, Manchester Town Hall, Didsbury House Hotel, Ashton Memorial, Gosfield Hall, Mytton Fold, Mitton Hall and more.

What is really encouraging is that despite the financial difficulties everybody has been feeling over the last year, I already have more weddings booked in for 2010 than I covered in the whole of 2009. I will be photographing weddings in some really great venues, including quite a few that I haven’t worked at before, including Stoneyhurst College in Lancashire, Egypt Mill Hotel in the Cotswolds and Brocket Hall in Essex.

I also have some exciting plans for 2010 which I am really looking forward to working on. One of my ideas to start holding regular competitions for members of my Facebook page so please do invite all your friends to join the page (simply click on the ‘Suggest to Friends’ tab underneath my logo) so they can be kept up to date too!

So, as 2009 comes to a close I would like to say a huge thank you to all the bride and grooms I have worked with this year and I sincerely wish you all the very best for the future. I can honestly say that I have enjoyed working at every wedding I have been to this year.

And to all the couples I will be photographing next year, I hope your wedding preparations are going well and I can’t wait to work with you all in 2010!

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year everyone.

Here is a slideshow of my favourite wedding photographs from 2009 .  12 months work in 3 minutes! I hope you enjoy it

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.