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 and Bridal shoot in the gorgeous City of Amsterdam, Netherlands | www.gavinconlan.com

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of spending a couple of days in the beautiful City of Amsterdam with some great friends.  Myself, Bandele and Evette had travelled from the UK (London and Birmingham respectively) and Tasha travelled in from the States with her friend and now our friend too, Alisha.

Special thanks go out to Tasha for organising Charlotte our amazing model and the fashion outfits and Evette for bringing the bridal wear and being our make up artist, she is an amazing beautician as well as a photographer and Bandele for booking us into a great boutique hotel with not only free wifi but also free drinks sadly for me no alcohol....

If you are thinking about having a break in Amsterdam then I recommend you check out this place its called the Hotel Hermitage (click here) it's really close to a metro station and is walking distance to all of what Amsterdam is famous for - a word of warning though keep your eyes on them bikes they seem to ride them everywhere.....

I had so many great laughs while I was there, learnt loads and generally just chilled out for two days.  Walking through the red light district was an eye opener I'd heard the stories but to see it in person was slightly surreal I've gotta give the girls credit though they were looking damn fine apart from one or two that I'm still trying to forget about...... On the last night we all took a canal boat ride all joking aside it was pretty good just a shame we chose a boat with no bar and a sexist driver, still can't believe he would only allow the girls to steer the boat. Seeing the narrowest house in Amsterdam and quite possibly the world with the width of one meter (3 1/2 ft) was my personal highlight of the canal tour.... 

Here are the links to my friends websites, please check them out they are all amazing photographers;

Bandele - www.bandelezuberi.com

Evette - www.evettechiverton.com

Tasha - www.tashawalkerphotography.com

I have selected a few of my personal favourites from the shoot with Charlotte, I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to post a comment.

Anyways enough of me, here is the imagery;

blast from the past - London Eye

Back in the summer of 2007 I took a gamble and entered a major photographic competition by the then sponsors of the London Eye British Airways, the competition was in celebration of hitting it's 25 millionth customer to take a ride on the Eye - Tracey Emin was the guest judge. Before this competition I had only entered local competitions which I was lucky enough to win also. My point is that entering competitions is a great way to measure the level you are at and to get your name out there. Recently on a workshop I had a couple of images critiqued it was such a great learning tool because it has made me more aware of the fine details of the image which I honestly had never noticed before, you should never be scared to have your work critiqued as you'll learn a great deal.

The reason I am writing this is because I am a definately going to enter work into the SWPP and WPPI print competitions next year, I am going to push myself this year to improve and development my skills and will use these competitions to gage how my progress is going heading into 2012.....

I've attached below my London Eye shot which won me regional winner, it was on display outside the London Eye for around two months, I did at the time visit the Eye loads to watch people looking at my image, it was such a buzz ...lol...

The Wedding of Jodi & Jon at Cameron House, Loch Lomond, Scotland

I had the absolute pleasure at the start of the year to photograph Jodi and Jon and their gorgeous little girl Tilly, their portrait session kicked started the new era of my journal (you can click here to view that amazing first post) and now my latest installment is from their perfect wedding day.

Their wedding took place at the amazing Cameron House on Loch Lomond, this was my first visit to Scotland and I don't think I was actually prepared for the natural beauty of this part of the world but you know as soon as my eyes grasp these amazing views I was in awe of the surroundings.  Sitting, relaxing and watching over the Loch was one of the most tranquil moments of my life..... 

The journey started for me with a flight to Glasgow from Stansted the day before the wedding, after overcoming the first hurdle (my clothes arriving on the same flight as me) I made my way to my hotel with two of Jodi's friends, girls you were great.

My photography began with capturing images from the meals in the evening, both Jodi and Jon separated with their families and friends and had their food, talking of food the steak that I had was amazing it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.  If anyone is interested I have a photograph.... :)

The Wedding day, oh my god the weather was perfect, great comfortable temperature, blue skies and the Loch looking as stunning as ever, needless to say I was a little warm, you know I think it's the concentration that makes me hot either that or it's due the fact I'm carry a few extra pounds... :)  The Wedding was such an amazing day and due to the intimacy of it the schedule allowed me as much time as I needed to capture their photography, I really couldn't have asked for more.  If I had to choose a highlight of the day for me then as difficult a question it is there are two, the first being the images I captured of Tilly sitting in the aisle as her mummy and daddy were declaring their love and commitment to each other and the second was the raw emotion felt during all the speeches.  Every word spoken was so heart felt, you know for me the whole satisfaction of being a wedding photographer is when you surround yourself with the most amazing couples, their family and friends and capture these memories that will live a lifetime with them.

Cameron House has this saying "The perfect place to create new memories with old friends" and you know what I couldn't agree more....

Please take time to view their sideshow and images and rejoice in their magical and emotional day, their reception at the Langdon Hills Golf and Country Club is to follow shortly...