Katy's Blog

On July 4th 2009 I was privileged to photograph Ryan and Clare’s wedding in Doncaster.  They had a beautiful wedding and were so much fun to photograph.

Ryan & Clare

Chocolate Fun

Now, just a year on I was really excited to receive a phone call from Ryan and Clare to say they were pregnant and wanted to book me for a Shutterbug “Bump to 1st Year” photography package.  I was over the moon to be part of another important stage of their lives and couldn’t wait to go round to photograph Clare and her beautiful bump.

Beautiful Clare

Reflect

The Beautiful Bump

Happy Parents

Happy Smiles

Love the baby bump

After our shoot Clare and Ryan showed me the new nursery and I now cannot wait to meet their little one when they arrive.  Clare is due this coming week so I hope to be able to show you photos of our newest Shutterbug in the next month.

Saturday’s Captivating – The Heart of Fashion was an amazing evening for both fashion and entertainment.  It was a spectacular event where so many talents all came together in one place.

I had the priviledge of photographing the event and wanted to share a few photos with you that highlight the sponsers from the event as well as the entertainers and a few “behind the scenes” shots.

Before the event kicked off there was a VIP reception for those who had supported and sponsored the event.  The headline sponsors were Autosave.  Other sponsors were Capita Symonds, SuperTram, Sheffield City Taxis.  It was all put on in association with Sheffield Hallam University, Bravura, City Hall, Sheffield City of Culture, HallamFM, Creative Sheffield & Natasha Lyons Styling.

Katrina Bagshaw with some of the sponsors of the event.

Jenny Gilpin & Siobhan Dhillon with the ladies from ICE dance troupe

Dave Gilpin with the headline sponsors; Autosave

The ladies from City Hearts and Sheffield Hallam University

The evening started off with a fantastic performace by the Hope City Theatre Group.

She Falls Asleep

She Falls Asleep

She Falls Asleep

She Falls Asleep

To end the first half of the show we had a wonderful performace by the stunning Sophie Mei.

Sophie Mei

Sophie Mei

Sophie Mei

During the interval I went back stage to see how everyone was getting on.  There was a real buzz with everyone running around getting their outfits on and having their make up retouched.  Here are a few shots to give you the feeling of what was going on.

Getting ready for the 2nd half of the show.

Each To Their Own designer puts the finishing touches to an outfit.

Conrad's team retouches the make up and hair for the models.

Conrad oversees the hair and makeup

Waiting to have the finishing touches

Conrad and his team of hair stylists & make up artists

One of the Sheffield Hallam design students with her disposable wedding dresses.

Britain's Got Talent ICE and Sophie Mei

To kick off the second half of the show ICE came on to perform.  They were awesome to watch.

ICE make an entrance

ICE

ICE

To finish off an amazing show the Hope City Theatre Company came back on stage to perform a flawless Grande Finale from Hairspray…”Welcome to the Sixties”.

Hairspray

Hairspray

Hairspray

Hairspray

Welcome to the sixties

An amazing show which raised £25,000 for a very worthwhile charity.

I am looking forward to Captivating – The Heart of Fashion 2011.

Last Saturday saw months of hard work from lots of people in Sheffield come together in an amazing fashion show at City Hall.  Captivating – The Heart of Fashion was a fashion show put on to raise money for City Hearts, a wonderful charity that helps vulnerable young women.  The event was organised by Katrina Bagshaw from Bravura who worked closely with Siobhan Bullock and Jenny Gilpin from City Hearts to put on this amazing show.  Katrina brought in the wonderful Natasha Lyons to do the styling for the show as well as Sophie Mei who helped to choreograph  as well as perform and model on the evening.  Behind the scenes Conrad Blanford and his team of make up artists and hair stylists were on hand to transform the models and touch up the make up and hair during the interval.

The evening wasn’t just an opportunity to showcase some of this season’s must haves but also a chance to introduce some new designers as well as be entertained by Sophie Mei who did a wonderful belly dance at the end of the 1st half.  To kick off the 2nd half of the show we had the chance to watch an amazing performance by ICE who are a Rotherham based street dance troupe who got through to the semi finals of Britain’s Got Talent this year.  Then to start and finish the show were 2 fantastic performances by Hope City Theatre Company.  All in all it was an amazing evening with 1000 people filling up the Irwim Mitchell Oval Hall in the City Hall in Sheffield.

The show was a great opportunity for me to work with some real talent and inspirational business men and women in Sheffield.  I loved seeing the outfits by Yes Orange, Miss Sienna, Urban Thread, Roc and Doll, as well as some amazing pieces from the fashion students at Sheffield Hallam University.  Other collections were provided by M&S Per Una, Each to Their Own, M&S Formal, John Lewis Holiday & John Lewis Formal. The show finished with the dissovable wedding dresses which had hit the headlines a few months before.  It was an honour to photograph such wonderful talent.  (I picked out a few pieces I’d love to add to my wardrobe too!)

Here are a few shots from the fashion show.  Part 2 of my blog will show the entertainment and  behind the scenes shots

Our wonderful hosts Beth & Lois

Jenny Gilpin, the founder of City Hears & Beth Blois

The catwalk - Yes Orange

Yes-Orange (on the left) M&S (on the right)

The beautiful Sophie Mei wearing Yes-orange

M&S ladies wearing John Lewis

Elegant evening wear by KS

Evening Gowns by KS

M&S Kids

Roc and Doll

Urban Thread

Each to Their Own

Each to Their Own

Each to Their Own

Hallam University Fashion Design

Hallam University Fashion Design

Hallam University Fashion Design

Hallam University Fashion Design

Hallam University Fashion Design

Hallam University Fashion Design

Dissovable Wedding Dresses designed by Sheffield Hallam University Students

Dissovable Wedding Dresses designed by Sheffield Hallam University Students

Wow!  I’m sure you’ll agree that it was an amazing show with some exciting names in design to watch out for in the future.  I’d love to know what you think of these outfits so please leave your comments below.

If you want to know any more about City Hearts then please follow this link and read about the amazing work that this charity does.

Of the 5 weddings I had in May we didn’t have to use our wedding umbrellas once for the photography.  On May 22nd we had the most glorious day when we went to the Norfolk Arms in Sheffield to photograph the wedding of Julia and Shaun.  I don’t think I’ve seen the sky quite so blue this year, it really was a gorgeous day and a privilege to be able to take the photos for Julia and Shaun.

Here’s a taster of their special day.

The beautiful bride

The girls and the blue shoes

Finishing touches

The boys

Bring on the boys

Calming those nerves

The ceremony

Exchanging rings

Signing the register

Confetti

The bridal party

Bridal bouquets

The newly weds

Mr & Mrs

Blue Sky

A quiet moment

The coolest guy at the wedding

A few extra guests

It was a gorgeous day.  I wish Shaun & Julia all the best as they start their married life together.

I had the pleasure of doing another “Rock the Dress” shoot with Jennie.  I actually photographed Jennie and Adam’s wedding nearly 2 years ago so it was lovely to be able to take more photos of Jennie in her gorgeous dress.

We chose a beautiful day for the shoot and started off in Chesterfield.  I really wanted to get a venue with a piano for the shoot with Jennie as she is an amazing musician and Head of Music at Aston Comprehensive where I used to teach.  Having done a wedding fair at The Pacific Lounge Bar in Chesterfield I saw that they had a white baby grand so thought that the modern, chic bar would work really well with Jennie.  We only had about 45 minutes to do the shoot here as they are a very popular bar and on a gorgeously sunny day it was soon getting really busy.

The Musical Bride

Beautiful Bride

Beautiful Jennie

Rocking the dress

Elegance

After taking photos in Chesterfield we didn’t want to waste the gorgeous blue skies and sunshine so we ran back to our cars (Jennie in her wedding dress & me with all the camera equipment) and decided to head out into the Peak District. We drove out to Surprise View near Hathersage as it is one of my favourite places.  It was gorgeous out in the countryside and because of the wonderful weather the views were amazing.  Jennie looked stunning and was brilliant at clambering up onto rocks for the photos that I wanted to take.

Rocking the dress on the rocks!

Just stunning

Surprise View

A beautiful bride in the beautiful countryside.

I had a brilliant time doing the “Rock The Dress” shoot with Jennie. It was so much fun to get the chance to let Jennie get back into her wedding dress again and have a chance to take some stunning photos.

I had the pleasure doing another Rock The Dress shoot with Jen.  Jen works for Gemini Directories which produces the Made in Sheffield Magazine and Hillsborough Directory. I met Jen at the Perfect Pink Tea Party which was put on to bring businesses together and raise money for the Weston Park Cancer Care charity.  When Jen heard about my Rock the Dress shoots she was really keen to get the chance to wear her wedding dress again.

Jen got married on the beautiful island of St Lucia so it was great to be able to do a shoot with her in the English countryside.  At this time of year I love the bright yellow colour of the rape seed oil fields so we decided to do the shoot in one of those.  It really complimented her colouring and added to the romantic feel of wearing the wedding dress again.

As before when I did the Rock the Dress shoot with Liz I took Jen to Vicky from Passion Beauty Studios to have her make up done for the shoot.  Jen looked gorgeous and it was a real pleasure to photograph her in her beautiful wedding dress.  She rocked her dress as well as the Strawberry Hat!

Beautiful Bride

Beautiful Bride

Hidden

Beautiful Bride

Makeup by Vicky from Passion Beauty Studios

The Stunning Dress

A Country Bride

Rocking our "Strawberry" Hat

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Eliot Kennedy and the guys at The Steelworks Studios in Sheffield.  Eliot has worked with a lot of music artists around the worth both writing songs and producing them.  He asked me if I would be able to take some photos for Paul Pashley who is one of his newest artists.  Paul is an amazing swing/jazz singer and I’m really excited about seeing him do really well in the future.  Ladies, you’ll love him!

When Eliot asked me to do a shoot with Paul I asked Tash from Natasha Lyons Styling to come on board and style Paul.  We had a great meeting at the studios listening to some of Paul’s tracks (which I am still singing now..they are that catchy!) and discussing what we wanted from the shoot.  The word of the day was “juxtaposition”!

Tash, Paul and I spent a day in various locations around Sheffield with numerous outfit changes.  It was a brilliant day and we got some great shots.  I can’t wait to see how they are used to help promote Paul and his music.

Here’s a taster of someone to watch in the future.  Thanks to Paul and Tash for making my job so easy!

Paul Pashley

Paul Pashley

Paul Pashley

Paul Pashley

Paul Pashley

Paul Pashley

Paul Pashley

Paul Pashley

Paul Pashley

Paul & The Strawberry Hat

Audience

Performer

Paul Pashley

I am really excited to announce a new portrait shoot that we are now offering here at Serendipity Photography. We love photographing weddings but also having the chance to get creative and do more artistic photoshoots so our “Rock the Dress” shoots are a perfect combination of both  of these.

Rock the Dress shoots are an idea which are becoming more popular here in the UK.  They started in the USA but more brides are jumping at the chance of wearing their dresses again.  The Rock the Dress style shoots can range from “Rock” to “Trash” or “Paint” the dress.  We featured a Paint the Dress shoot on the blog from March.  A “Rock” shoot is more about a fashion style shoot where the dress isn’t ruined in any way…it might need a trip to the dry cleaners but if you do the shoot shortly after your wedding you’d be doing that anyway!  A “Trash” or “Paint” the dress shoot is more for those girls who don’t mind “ruining” their dress by getting it wet or throwing paint all over it.

Rock the Dress shoots are a wonderful chance for brides to wear their wedding dresses again have their hair and makeup done and then have a wonderful photo shoot.  What girl wouldn’t want to do that?  It’s a chance to relive those wonderful moments and indulge in some real “girly” time.  The photo shoots that we have done have been with individual brides but we’re looking at the idea of “Rock the Dress” parties where a few girlfriends can and do a shoot together.  A perfect girlie afternoon.

We team up with Passion Beauty Studios who do the make up for the girls and then we head off to a location which is chosen after talking to each bride individually to see what they are looking for and what they enjoy doing.  This makes the shoot individual and personal.

Last week we did a wonderful Rock the Dress shoot with Liz who had a beautiful lace wedding dress.  Liz was super excited about wearing her dress again and being pampered.  We took the photos down in a wonderful old cemetary.  Liz loves amateur dramatics so we had looked for a theatre for the shoot but then we found this location which had a real dramatic feel to it.  For a couple of hours we had fun taking beautiful photos of Liz.  Here are a few for you to look at.

Entrance of the bride

Bridal Avenue

Framed

Elegance

Contrast

The Strawberry Hat

The end

Here at Serendipity Photography we love the Shutterbugs side of our business.  There is nothing better than meeting a new baby and capturing wonderful photos of them for their proud parents.  If you have had children you will know how quickly they grow up.  That newborn stage doesn’t last long and then they start to smile and grabbing for their feet.  Before long they are sitting up and starting to move around the floor.

Sleeping babe

Precious

Baby Feet

At Shutterbugs we like to capture all those special moments and make sure you have photos and memories to treasure for ever.  We specialise in our different photo packages from “bump to newborn” (2 sittings which include a bump shoot and then newborn baby shoot).  “Bump to 1st year (5 sittings from pregnancy and then 4 times during the first year). “Birth to 1st Year” (4 sittings from newborn to 1st birthday).  All of these capture truly special moments as your little one grows up.   (We also do one off Shutterbug sittings too).

Blue Eyed boy

Feet grabbing

To celebrate National Family Week (31st May – 4th June) we are launching a competition for a family to win a one off baby portrait sitting.  This is a fantastic prize where Katy from Shutterbugs will come to your home to capture your little one in your own surroundings.  She will spend time capturing those really special moments for you and then you can view the photos on an online gallery where you can choose your favourite to be a 10×8 framed print.

Bob the builder

Big Smiles

In order to win this great prize we are asking for you to email your name and contact details to katythomson@serendipityphotography along with a brief explanation as to why you or a family you know deserve to win this prize.*

Full of giggles

*The closing date for the competition is the 25th June 2010 and is open only to people within the Yorkshire Region.

The winners of the prize will have to arrange a date for their photo shoot at a time which is convenient both to them and Katy Thomson from Shutterbugs.

The prize is valid for 6 months.

Just over a year ago I was introduced to Simon and Kate through a mutual friend.  We had a great first meeting and it was such a pleasure to photograph their special day on Saturday 8th May.  We met up at The Moorside Grange Hotel, up in the High Peak in March, and it was very clear that the surroundings would be beautiful for their wedding photos.  I was instantly thinking “Wuthering Heights”.  Whilst having a look at the reception venue Simon and Kate took me to see the church where they would be getting married.  We drove down this little one track lane and at the end of it was a really quaint church where Kate’s grandmother had been married.  I love it when there are such special parts of a couple’s day.

Having done a great engagement shoot with Simon and Kate in Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens I was really looking forward to taking photos on their special day.  On Saturday morning I packed up the car (including the wedding brollies which once again didn’t need to be used!) and headed out to Kate’s parent’s home in Macclesfield.  I arrived to a very serene bride and mother of the bride.  Kate’s bridesmaids lived down the same street so they came round about an hour before the ceremony to get their dresses on and add the final touches.

The beautiful dress

The beautiful bride

After taking photos of the final preparations I headed to the church to meet the groom and his groom’s men.  Both Kate and Simon and very happy and relaxed people which really showed throughout the day.  They are quite possibly one of my smiliest couples yet!

Simon and his bestmen at St James' Church in Taxal.

Waiting for the bride to arrive.

Here comes the bride.

I do...

After the ceremony I took Simon and Kate away for a couple of photos at the side of the church whilst all the guests lined the lane to throw confetti on the newly married Mr & Mrs Ross.  Not everyone had confetti so I was really impressed with the use of cherry blossom.  I don’t think I’ve seen quite so much confetti at a wedding!

Cherry Blossom...the improvised confetti!

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Ross

After heading up to the Moorside Grange Hotel the guests enjoyed a glass of pimms with strawberries.  Having taken a few photos of Simon and Kate with strawberries in their engagement shoot I had to do the same on their wedding day.  Unfortunately Simon isn’t a fan of strawberries so Kate obliged before we headed out onto the moor for some blustery and very cold photos with their immediate family and bridal party.  We were so lucky to have such stunning scenery which complimented Simon and Kate’s love for the great outdoors.

Another strawberry wedding

Heading out to the peaks..

Simon carries his bride over...the cattle grid!

Kate and her beautiful bridesmaids.

Simon and his groomsmen

"Heathcliffe and Kathy"

After braving the very cold winds out on the moors we headed back indoors for warm cups of tea, speeches and the evening meal.  To top off the amazing day Kate and Simon got the most stunning sunset so I took them out for a few more shots to capture it for them.  It was the perfect end to a truly wonderful day.

Kate and Hedgy. (Hedgehogs were a running theme throughout the day due to her love for Hedgy.)

Lots of laughs during the speeches.

A stunning end to a truly beautiful day.

Couldn't resist another sunset shot of the happy couple.

The evening finished with Simon & Kate’s first dance and then all the guests were issued with silly hats.  It was a brilliant way to get everyone involved and keep the celebrating spirit going.  As I left the venue it was clear everyone had had an amazing day celebrating with a lovely couple.  I wish Simon and Kate all the best as they start their married life together. Feel free to add any comments for them here.

First dance gives way to silly hats!

Happy Guests at the end of a Happy Day.