Wednesday 30 May 2012

Wedding transport

Killorgan horse fair, Eire, this bride and groom might just be brother and sister

The arrival of the bride

The  choice of vehicle is a very important one in the list of 'to do's' before the great day.
        One thing very few brides seem to consider is how they will look getting out of it or even just sitting comfortably in the back seat of the rental car so often hired for the day.
      
          And delightful as that pony and trap is, it's pretty high risk in 'soft' climates like Wales or Ireland where it may well rain endlessly in July and August.

For wonderful wedding photos in South Wales
http://patsyfaganphotography.co.uk/

Friday 18 May 2012

Dramatic Landscapes in Wales

Moorish landscape under the sun

When I first came up to live in Wales it was with no very clear idea of what I intended to do. After 25 years as a newspaper photographer it was time for a change.
        After getting my tumbledown house on the edge of the Brecon Beacons into a liveable state I set out camera in hand to create life-changing art. I intended to record great, dramatic, soul enhancing Welsh landscapes.
         It never really occurred to me that this is something to which I am totally unsuited.  After a couple of weeks of reducing the rolling scapes of Brecon to flat, unsatisfying prints it began to dawn on me that as I don’t much like walking and I like getting wet as much as the average cat, dramatic climactic effects are perhaps not my area of expertise.  I spent a week of evenings chasing sunsets over Three Cliffs Bay on the beautiful Gower peninsula,  and I got stiff, tired and soaked for my pains without a single glimmer of red or gold in the sky. Every evening the sheep in my field of choice crept nearer and by the last night I swear they were laughing at me. Ha…ha, baahahha!
           As a landscape photographer I was a non starter, I missed the people, the interaction and the pressure of capturing an event.
          In the past I had done many weddings in the course of my journalistic career, it was time to dig out some pictures and start again.
Photojournalistic wedding photography in Wales
http://patsyfaganphotography.co.uk/



Remembering one or two nice waterfalls in the Rhonda Valley while I was shooting a wedding in Margam Park I decided it was too soon to give up. And set my sights on gentler, more attractive landscapes, those that make good wedding venues, the bays around the Gower Peninsula.

Rhossili Bay on the Gower Peninsula



    Gorgeous Rhossili Bay is impossible to spoil and never seems to be crowded with sun worshippers not because it lacks sunshine but perhaps the heat of the sun is not sufficient to encourage even the hardiest worshippers to get their kit off.
Maybe Worms Head is different, it certainly had them basking when I was there.

Worms Head with basking Cattle











Langland Bay on a summer morning



Langland Bay, water's edge with people



Another of my all time favourite bays on the Gower Peninsula is Langland. But it wasn't until I shot this 2nd image just because I was there and it was there that I realised what it is that was missing in my landscapes........People! To contact me on my wedding website:
http://patsyfaganphotography.co.uk/