Romantic Portraiture in Venice, Italy | Gavin Conlan UK Wedding & Portrait Photographer | www.gavinconlan.com

Venice is an amazing place quite possibly my most favourite place in the world it's a photographers dream.  I've been lucky enough to spend quite a lot of time here in the past and have built up a large image library although I still need to see the place in the snow and when it's underwater.  

I am currently in the process of updating all the imagery on my website (finally!) and as I was sifting through my photographs it made me think about re-editing some of my favourite images taken over the last few years. What started as a cool idea has led to hours of work (i'm not complaining one bit) to take some of my favourites and give them a total make over, using some of my new and current styles of post production techniques it has breathed new life into them.  

I hope you enjoy these pictures; once I'm finally up-to-date with my work I am going to start posting before and after images to show you how my techniques have evolved over the years.

Portrait Photography at Ingatestone Hall, Essex www.gavinconlan.com | www.londonspeedlitescene.co.uk

A couple of weeks ago I attended my first London Speedlite Scene meet up, I've followed the group for a while now on facebook and they put together fantastic monthly meet ups.  The Ingatestone Hall meet up was perfect for me being fairly close to where I live and by the fact that I've wanted to do a shoot there for a long time.

I honestly didn't know what to expect from the day I went there with a completely open mind and my god it was awesome, everyone made me feel really welcome and it was such a great laugh.  The LSS put so much effort into these meet ups and whether your a photographer, model or Make Up Artist/Stylist you get so much out of it - everyone was awesome.... 

A HUGE thank you to all the models and make up artists because without all your efforts nothing would be possible. The models were provided by Elect Model Management and MUA's by Intense Make-up Artists both agencies formed out of the London Speedlite Scene, please check out the links below;

http://www.intensemua.com/

http://www.elect-models.com/

http://www.londonspeedlitescene.co.uk/

I've put together a selection of my images from the day, I hope you enjoy them.  If you would like to view more then you can do so via my facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/gavinconlanphotography.

I really can't wait until January's meet up, the location looks amazing in Shoreditch and it'll be great to catch up with everyone again.

Anna and Tom's Wedding at Maidens Barn, Essex | www.gavinconlan.com

Anna and Tom's Wedding is my last of 2011 and what a way to end the year, their day was amazing and so much fun.  It's great being a photographer when your surrounded by fun people, it makes my job so much easier as we just laugh our way through the day.  

It was the first time I'd shot a wedding at Maidens Barn and I must say it's a perfect venue which I'd totally recommend - I even managed to set up my own studio space in the balcony area.  There were so many highlights for me with the main one being.... (well you'll just have to watch their slideshow - towards the end) I don't want to spoil the surprise for those that didn't attend.

I also want to give a shout to the playlist for the evening, so many classic songs one of best DJ sets I've ever heard.... and to Anna for making their wedding cake I hope the images do it justice because it looked beautiful on the day.

You'll see below I've posted a small selection of images from their day and below the images you'll find their online slideshow.  

I really hope you enjoy viewing their pictures and feel free to leave a nice comment (it'll make my day :) ....

now enjoy their personal slideshow.....

I love this photograph - family portrait session | www.gavinconlan.com

There are certain images you can't explain but just fall in love with and this is one of those.  I was photographing my little cousins a couple of weeks ago and absolutely adore this shot it's jammed packed full of his personality and it just makes me smile so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Photo shoot with Dina in Halstead, Essex | www.gavinconlan.com

This is our third shoot together - we have such a laugh.  When we finished chatting and I remembered how to shoot we captured some really great imagery, in the short time we had we still managed to shoot in three locations and had three outfit changes.  Below are a selection of photographs from the shoot, if you want to see more then visit my facebook fan page where they'll be uploaded when I've finished the rest of the edit.

I've sampled some of my new post production techniques on these images and I'm really loving the look and feel I'm creating.  All images were lit with either a mixture of nikon speedlights, daylight balanced video light or just available daylight.