Today I was able to get backstage at the Brentwaters Rally Stages event in Bentwaters Airfield Suffolk. My wife knows one of the CoDrivers Lindsey Watson who very kindly invited me along and gave me a service car pass to get into the events main preparation area. I’m a massive car fanatic and so any forms of motorsport really interest me but I’d never been to a real life rally before and so I took Lindsey’s arm off for the invite! Her Driver was John Talyor and they were driving a Ford Escort MkI which for me is a fantastic car and one I’ve always loved. 
I’ve posted a couple of pictures from the event but security was very tight on safety and so I couldn’t get very close to the track at all and so a long lens and an amount of cropping was needed! next event I may speak with the organisers about getting a spot on track to find a better viewpoint.
Back to Crondon Park Golf and Country Club for another of our wedding workshops run by myself and Mark. We were battling with the weather once again but this time it was a November day and so the weather was pretty typical of the time of year and needs to be factored into a wedding photographers plan. That said we were able to get a good hour outside with our brave models Gareth and Rio enduring the high winds and low temperatures before the rain came and forced us indoors for the later part of the training.
The setup was the same as always with the morning spent running through the events of a wedding day and how to plan it out as well as things to watch out for. Then the models arrive during a nice hot and cold buffet lunch and once everyone is fed we head out to take some pictures. This part of the day is fully hands on and we run through how to use the natural light for individual portraits up to full wedding guests group shots.
We then move on to the bride and groom portraits and show the delegates how to find great shots from almost any area of the venue. We then talk a lot more about posing and using the surrounding for the shots to give the delegates much more confidence to position people and see the shots before even setting them up.
My personal project “Love In Essex” launched this week with an article in the Brentwood Weekly News newspaper covering my plans. Little did I know that it was actually featured in the front page! As a result of this the uptake has been fantastic and I’m getting a great list of couples e-mailing me requesting to join the project.
So today was a big day for me, I had a wedding to shoot locally in Brentwood registry office for Joanne and Dan Green but I wasn’t needed for the afternoon and so we had a party of our own to celebrate my son Nathaniel turning One! The party was held in a church hall in Doddinghurst and lots of Family came along as well as lots of his little friends that we met through the NCT (National Childbirth Trust) AntiNatal classes. I tried to leave the camera alone and enjoy the party but with my portrait photography insticts and loads of available candid photgraphy to shoot, I took a few shots of the day and I’ve posted a couple on here for all to enjoy :O)
