Ooh, my first full wedding blog post of 2012, but it’s actually of a wedding I photographed in 2011 – is that cheating? I don’t think so…

Emily got married at the magnificent Manchester Town Hall just before I went on holiday last year.  I had been looking forward to their wedding for a long time, I felt like I got to know them both really well before the wedding (not least because Mike himself is a very keen photographer!) and that always gives the wedding an extra special feel.

The whole wedding day was so relaxed and I think that comes across in the wedding photographs. The only time I really detected any nerves was Mike’s little look up and intake of breath as Emily walked down the aisle – I love that moment

A special mention also goes out to Emily’s father who not only made all the flowers for the wedding but also composed a unique piece of music for Emily’s walk down the aisle. Not only that but he played it himself! Such a nice, personal touch.

Also, this wedding was brilliant because Emily and Mike had The Leos Quartet playing for them – the best string quartet in Manchester and I am proud to say are very good friends of mine. They played Blue Monday, one of my favourite songs of all time, what more could I ask for?

To Emily and Mike – thank you so much again for asking me to photograph your Manchester Town Hall wedding. It has been a pleasure getting to know you both and I am so pleased you are so happy with your photographs. I wish you both a lifetime of happiness together x

Last month I photographed Suzann & Mark’s fantastic wedding at Manchester Town Hall, followed by their fun-filled reception at Stock Restaurant in Manchester city centre.

I started off by taking photographs of Suzann as she got ready in The Radisson Edwardian Hotel, just a short walk away from Manchester Town Hall, before walking to meet Mark and his groomsmen as they enjoyed a touch of Dutch courage in a nearby pub

Suzann looked absolutely stunning in her beautiful wedding dress and you could feel the emotion as she walked down the aisle to the string quartet playing Elbow’s ‘One Day Like This’. The ceremony ended with Suzann’s brother conducting a short Jewish blessing for Suzann & Mark, a really nice personal way to conclude the ceremony.

After the wedding ceremony, Suzann, Mark and I walked from Manchester Town Hall to Stock Restaurant.  I really enjoyed this part of the day as it gave us a chance to take lots of cool wedding photographs around Manchester city centre! It was also fun to see the reactions of Saturday afternoon shoppers as a bride and groom walked by them on Deansgate

Suzann & Mark – thank you very much again for asking me to cover your wedding photographer. It was a pleasure working with you and I am really pleased that you are both so happy with your photographs.  I wish you both all the very best for your future together

Here are a selection of my favourite wedding photographs from your day:

Last month I had the great privilege of covering Jenny and Richard’s wedding at Manchester Town Hall and The Lowry in Salford Quays, and WOW, what a day it was!

Richard and Jenny were blessed with beautiful weather the whole day and we really made the most of it by taking bride & groom wedding photographs at both Manchester Town Hall and The Lowry.  Everything went perfectly for Jenny and Richard and I couldn’t have been happier for them.  The whole wedding day was filled with laughter and smiles and it was a pleasure to be part of it

Although I have covered weddings at Manchester Town Hall before, this was the first time I had taken photographs at a wedding at The Lowry in Salford Quays and I couldn’t have been more impressed with it – what a fantastic wedding venue!  The Lowry has the luxury of having an amazing, specious interior as well as having lots of outside space around Salford Quays which is perfect for wedding photography.  Manchester Town Hall is very similar in that sense so using both venues for a wedding day works extremely well from a wedding photography point of view.

Jenny & Richard – thank you so much again for asking me to be a part of your wedding day.  I was so pleased that after all your hard work in planning the day, everything went so well for you both.  It was a pleasure working with you both and I’m very pleased you are both so happy with your photographs.  I wish you a very long and happy marriage together!

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:

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing Rachel, Simran, Judith and Jordan of The Leos Quartet – one of Manchester’s finest string quartets, and what an amazing day it was!

I first saw The Leos Quartet playing at a wedding last year at Manchester Town Hall and they were absolutely amazing, which isn’t surprising bearing in mind that the quartet was formed at the prestigious Royal Northern College of Music! Since that wedding I have kept in touch with them and recommended them to bride and grooms whenever I can.  Have a look at the video at the end of this post to hear how good they are!

The photographs from this shoot are going to be used on The Leos Quartet’s website and we wanted them to show off Rachel, Simran, Judith and Jordan’s fun personalities whilst also illustrating the fact that the quartet are based in Manchester.  We split the photoshoot in to two, starting off taking photographs in Manchester city centre before moving on to Salford Quays.  We were very lucky that we chose to do the shoot on what must have been one of the warmest days of the year!

As well as myself taking photographs, the shoot was also filmed by the amazingly talented Tom Harrington of Silk Wedding Videos.  Tom is primarily a wedding videographer (and easily the best wedding videographer that I know) but very kindly offered to film this shoot for us.  Tom’s video will also appear on the The Leos Quartet‘s website alongside the photographs so watch this space!

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

The following photographs were all taken around Salford Quays, located a couple of miles from Manchester city centre.  Definitely one of my favourite portrait locations!

The photograph below is my favourite from the day

Finally, a couple of very quick photographs of Tom Harrington of Silk Wedding Videos who worked tirelessly throughout the shoot.  I can’t wait to see the finally video, knowing the quality of Tom’s work it will be fantastic!

I was recently asked by Manchester Town Hall if I would provide them with some photographs which I took a Manchester Town Hall wedding last year so they could be included in the Town Hall’s latest wedding brochure.

I was more than happy to assist and today I received a copy of the printed brochure.  The wedding brochure itself is excellent and really sells Manchester Town Hall well, not that it really needs it, most couples interested in getting married at there fall in love with it when they visit.

I’m really proud that a couple of my photographs are in the brochure – it is a really beautiful wedding venue to be associated with

I was pleased to find out last week that one of the photographs I took at a Manchester Town Hall wedding last year has been published in Live Cheshire magazine.

The wedding photograph was published as part of Live Cheshire’s wedding section, within a feature about weddings at Manchester Town Hall.

Manchester Town Hall is a fantastic wedding venue, extremely photogenic, and it came as no surprise to me to read in the magazine that the Town Hall is almost completely booked out already for 2010 weddings.  As a Manchester wedding photographer I am lucky enough to have another two weddings there this year and I am already looking forward to them!

Wow, I have never seen as much snow in Manchester as we’ve had today!

I couldn’t resist taking some photographs as I doubt we will get snow like this again for many years.  The photographs below were all taken in Sale, apart from the last one which is Manchester Town Hall.  I will be covering another wedding at Manchester Town Hall in a few months – I’ve a feeling it will look very different by then

For the photographers out there, the first 4 photographs are all HDR images made up of 5 different exposures. I combined them using Photomatix.

The slideshow above contains a selection of photographs from a wedding I covered at Manchester Town Hall on 27th March.

The bride and groom, Fran and Richard, are friends of mine so it was an honour to cover their special day for them.

I will post some more shots from their wedding soon.