Blog offline in May and June ….
Thanks to some nasty attacks from Germany and the Ukraine hacking our website via a security weakness in the blog software we have been in a computer twilight zone.
I hope that these holes have now all been plugged. The bad guys are being banned from accessing the server …. and abuse reports logged with their service providers.
Hopefully we can resume normal service …
Over the course of the next few weeks I shall attempt to catch up with everything that’s been happening (lots) and expect a flurry of posts.
As you can imagine these ****** have impacted our whole business and consumed hours of our time fixing, tracking and patching our server unfortunately at the expense of our production schedules. Our own service provider has been as much use as a chocolate fire-guard (on the end of an expensive telephone), so all the fixing has had to be done “in-house”.
Three of our couples are waiting much longer than they should do for their albums, for which we apologize profusely, everything is almost back on track and back to normal.
Thanks for your patience.
Published by admin on July 2nd, 2008 Tagged Uncategorized | Comment now »Thank you for being our photographers ….
Fran and I really appreciate e-mails like this one …..
Dear Bob and Fran,
Thank you for being the photographers (and guests) at our wedding. It was great to be able to meet you before the wedding to discuss our expectations and then for you to record what was the most fantastic day.
It truly was perfect.
Prior to the wedding we had not expected our photographer to have so much input into our album design, and we have been totally impressed. The album has exceeded our expectations and has drawn so many amazed comments from our friends and family. To not only have wonderful memories but to have such a sophisticated and beautiful album to bring it to life, is the best record we could ever hope to achieve.
We would not hesitate to recommend you.
Thank you again. Hannah and Mark
Hannah and Mark’s “Brief Taster Gallery” can be seen here
Published by admin on July 2nd, 2008 Tagged Raves | Comment now »Venue Visit - The Vale Hotel - Rhodri and Lucy
It’s a year since our engagement shoot around Tintern Abbey with Lucy and Rhodri. Their wedding is now just 6 weeks away and our signal to visit the various places involved, home, church and reception.
It gives us a chance to meet parents, vicars, wedding co-ordinators and make sure that we are all working to the same plan. Guest numbers are known, timings sorted out and lots of little details that are essential to know as a photographer if you are going to effectively capture the “story of the day”.
Any ex-military personnel will always tell you that the performance rests largely with the preparation (the 5 ‘P’s !!)
So we discovered beautiful light in Radyr church (no pictures during the ceremony whatsoever (!)) … and fabulous locations in and around the Vale Hotel as well formulating a “wet” weather plan.
It’s such an important day … nothing is left to chance.
Published by admin on April 21st, 2008 Tagged Pre-wedding and venue visits | Comment now »Raves - James and Natalie
We get lovely e-mails from our couples after their weddings, viewings and when they get their albums that we normally just keep to ourselves.
At the end of the year I always mean to collect them up and create a “raves” section on our website but bever get around to it … having been nagged by Fran I have created a new “Raves” section on the blog and will post them as we get them.
Natalie and James (highlights here) sent us this after their viewing on Friday last ….
Hello Fran and Bob!
We just wanted to say thank you so much for a great day on Friday! We had so much fun re-living the day through your beautiful photos and both came away very very happy! You have done a brilliant job and our album will most certainly be worth the wait!
We very much appreciate all the little things you have done for us!
All the best
Love
Nats and James
It’s great to feel appreciated as we do try very hard to make every wedding special and get the best out of the circumstances (in this case gales and torrential rain!!)
Published by admin on April 21st, 2008 Tagged Raves | Comment now »Pre-Wedding shoot - Sian and Dave
It’s that time of year when we get very busy behind the scenes with pre-wedding shoots and venue visits. All part of the service!
Our future bride, Sian, takes photographs herself and when she saw our display and sample albums at the Cardiff International Arena bridal show in February, she knew that she wanted us as her photographers for her wedding to Dave at Canada Lodge in March 2009 (no pressure then!).
We try and get out with our couples soon after they book for an “engagement” shoot, so that they can see photographs of themselves early on and tick the photography box and feel relaxed until the wedding comes around.
Sian and Dave wanted their intial shoot at Castell Coch. It was a very sunny morning and we were using diffusers and reflectors to show how we control the light in challenging conditions to get fabulous images. On this occasion we were accompanied by our work-experience young lady from Monmouth School, Alice, who is looking for a career in fashion photography. I think during the week Alice was with us she picked up quite a few hints and tips!
Life is never dull as a full-time wedding photographer!
Published by admin on April 21st, 2008 Tagged Pre-wedding and venue visits | Comment now »Manor House, Crickhowell - Helen and Paul - 5th April 2008
From the ridiculous to the sublime. The weather gods have a real sense of humour this year, amidst foreboding forecasts of storms and snow, we had the perfect summer day, with downpours the day before and after.
Helen and Pauls wedding just had the perfect day and early evening we had the perfect light too! A glance at the “brief taster of the day” will show just how good conditions were … Fran and I clocking up 1200 pictures between us. 
Like quite a few of our weddings now our couples are previous connections at weddings we have already photographed - always a benefit because they can see how we work, what we get up to and have a real album to look at from an event they attended. Helen and Paul were guests at Sarah and Nick’s wedding at Llansantffraed Court Hotel in October 2006 and virtually booked us on the spot, so we had quite a long time to get to know them and the more comfortable our couples are the better the pictures. Fran and I were at the venue from hairdresser through to Caelidh and first dance … how the guys are going to choose album pictures we have no idea … it looks like 3 volumes.
Thanks both for your wonderful hospitality and co-operation, also to the Manor Hotel who were very helpful. The grounds are very well kept and the view across the beacons is just awesome.
See a brief taster from the wedding here
St. Mary’s Monmouth - James and Natalie - 29th March
James and Natalie’s wedding tested our equipment, experience and resourcefulness to the full. We had probably the worst weather in five years … it was blowing a hooley for most of the day with driving horizontal rain. Not that the guys let that put a dampener on their day at all.
These kind of conditions are hard work for us. So it was up with the mobile flash packs, lights and umbrellas to capture the family group shots in the church (thank you Richard (the vicar)) as inside photos were the order of the day.
James is in the army and recently attached to the Monmouthsire Engineers (Militia), so they were privileged to use Great Castle House in Monmouth (the HQ) for their reception …
James’s brother Ben was the bestman and should probably be on the stage, it was very difficult to stop the camera shake and take a picture at some stages during his speech. Again we were using both flash packs and brollies to make the best of a very dark room.
We are just thankful that when the going gets tough, we have all the toys and knowhow, as well as the timing and creativity to still capture fabulous pictures.
Natalie and James are off to Mauritius to top up their tans … with the prospect of trawling through hundreds of beautiful images when they get back!
A brief taster of the day can be seen here
Clearwell Castle - Paul and Jessica - 9th March 2008
Paul is very interested in astronomy and all I can say is that he must have been born under a very lucky star! With an atrocious day on Saturday and the lowest depression and biggest spring tides of the year forecast to come in on Sunday evening with heavy rain and storm force winds, Paul and Jessica had an idyllic day on the Sunday for their wedding with superb light and apart from some rain in the afternoon (during which we shot the “family history” groups with studio lights in the library) it was the perfect day for photography. We met with the guys down at the Norwegian Church at Cardiff Bay a few weeks previous to go through the various arrangements, timings and take a few pictures and give some hints on how to look great in your wedding pix. All that preparation pays dividends and makes for a relaxed couple and fabulous pictures, as everyone knows what to expect.!
Fran and I tell everyone that it’s the couples wedding NOT our photoshoot, so we are very careful to be as non-intrusive as is possible and make sure that our couples have plenty of time with their guests and are not rushed from pillar to post or worse still hijacked for three hours as seems to happen at weddings where we have been guests. Clearwell Castle really is the ideal all-weather venue as there is plenty of space and beautiful light indoors or out. Paul and Jessica were the perfect couple from our point of view, keen to have lovely pictures and very co-operative, which meant we could push the envelope and get some really stunning shots for them … Fran and I really love what we do
A “brief taster” from Jessica and Paul’s wedding can be seen here
Published by admin on March 11th, 2008 Tagged Wedding | Comment now »Email frustration …
It seems that our domain name has been hijacked and spoofed by spammers and subsequently our genuine emails and responses to your queries are sometimes either not getting through at all or disappearing into a “spam” folder. Very frustrating for us as the legitimate owner of the email address …. it seems particularly prevalent with mail that we respond to with hotmail and yahoo addresses.
If you think we are rude in not answering your email then please check your spam folder … we try to answer ALL emails within 24 hours and most by return. If you add service<AT>abbeyhousestudios<DOT>co<DOT>uk to your address book then our response should get through as we will use “reply-to” originating from that address.
PLEASE if you do not “seem” to get a response from us within 24 hours ring Bob or Fran at the studio on 01291 680089 and blame those irresponsible few who abuse the technology and spoil it for the majority.
Published by admin on March 10th, 2008 Tagged Uncategorized | Comment now »Magic picture pixie dust …..
When people see our printed work they are always impressed with the “look and feel” of our wedding photography images.
There is a lot of time involved in achieving this, probably more than anyone realises ….. What we do is work on each and every image after they leave the camera, the equivalent of “hand processing” in the old darkroom days, where each image is assessed and burnt and dodged, contrast enhanced and so on.
We shoot all of our images in RAW to get the highest possible level of image data (42 bits per image … an out of camera jpeg is just 24 bits) and use proprietory software with the best conversion engine in the industry to get the best colour, sharpness and contrast that we can.
We feel that our brides and grooms deserve the best, after all … they are entrusting us with recording one of the most important days of their lives. Hence we spend an average of FIFTEEN hours per album optimising all the images to get the very best from them (about six minutes per image on a 150 picture album) … when you consider the meetings, pre-wedding shoot, rehearsal, wedding day with two photographers shooting, preparation of viewing, selection of images, optimisation of images, album design and meetings there is FIFTY to SIXTY hours in every wedding.
Which is why we close our books at around 30 weddings each year …. otherwise there aren’t enough days in the year. If we were charging the same as your plumber or local garage then our fees for the average wedding should be about £5,000 by the time we have bought and paid for the album as well.  At a third of those rates our wedding photography is a bargain!!
In the panel (shown left) the image from the camera is shown on the top. The middle image is the retouched album one (including a judicious amount of air-brushing to make everyone look their best) and a black and white version shown underneath … even at web-resolution you should see that the original and the final image are chalk and cheese. Look at the sense of depth, dimension and separation in the bottom two images and the rather flat, lack-lustre look of the top picture … it is worth the extra effort and like everything else with our service we go that further mile on the road to exceptional.
Published by admin on March 7th, 2008 Tagged Techniques | Comment now »