North Wales & Cheshire Wedding Photographer: Kayleigh & Craig at Rossett Hall Hotel (Copy)

Time once again to delve back in to my wedding archive and to May 2015 with Kayleigh & Craig. I must admit there were so many beautiful moments at Rossett Hall Hotel.

Enjoy.

Ray xxx

They met one halloween some 5 years ago.  Kayleigh had  known Craig's sister for many years and that halloween Craig's sister introduced them!

They added each other on Facebook but didnt properly speak until they bumped into each other in February.  They got together in the May of 2015.

A while later they got married.....

North Wales & Cheshire Wedding Photographers: Lee & Stacey's Wedding, part 1

This was a wedding I'd been waiting for for so long and for so many reasons.  Lee & Stacey both had their wedding preparations in Flint and after the ceremony at Soughton Hall for their reception and stay over the weekend.

It comes in handy having two photographers during weddings to capture the all important bride's preparations and the groom's too.

Lee's prep was in Flint and Stacey's in Bagyllt.

This was one special day....

One man and his dog.

We’re on day 26 in this ‘lockdown’ as they’re calling it. The expression, probably taken from a movie but this is no movie for lots of people, and when I hear folk saying, the current situation is an equaliser, I think It bloody well is not! Those with little have even less and those with a lot see no difference! Capitalism and even celebrity has shown it’s inequalities and celebrities are no longer getting the attention!

As far as isolation is concerned, I don’t really see a big difference. For the majority of my time I’m at home working on my images and business. If anything, I’m working even harder. A realisation this morning, that I need to calm down and try and enjoy time with the ones I love.

I still have to kind of pinch myself that I have my dog called Alfie. We seen him on the net and fell for him. Although, he does have a lot of issues with other animals but it amazing with people. I don’t think the last family he was with told us the whole of his background.

I love Alfie!

The Good Life: becoming self sufficient, well almost

As I write this post, I’m thinking about the future in a big way, starting with food.

It was well before coronavirus arrived, that we decided we wanted to become more self sufficient in vegetables and with a vast amount of space here, we weren’t stuck for a place to start digging and planting.

We also lost the last of our chickens last year and are currently looking for a supplier of chickens, preferably rescued battery hens would be a good choice, letting them live a more natural life.

As soon as spring arrived, so did the beautiful weather. We’ve planted so far onions, radish, spinach, etc. Reminds me of a time when I used to help dad with his vegetables in the back yard when I was little.

Ray

P.s. If you know where we can find rescued chickens, please send me a message.

Four images shortlisted: Pink Lady Food Photographer 2020

Great recently discovering four of my images have been shortlisted for the most prestigious food photography competition in the world…

Taken for:-

Olive Tree Catering, Runcorn; The Swan, Marbury and Raymond Jones Images, Chirk.

North Wales & Cheshire Wedding Photographer: Looking back with love...

Hello all. I hope you’re coping with the present situation and hopefully, it’ll be over within a few months.

I’ve been doing this photography thing for a long time and weddings since 2006. I thought I’d look back, randomly, for a selection of weddings to let you view.

Why do I still do photography? Recently, I’ve been asking myself this and it’s because I love capturing the moment, the split second of a feeling, a hug, a tear and the beauty of life and what’s more beautiful than a wedding!

While looking though Sian and Jaime’s wedding photographs a few days ago, so many memories came flooding back. I remember taking each photo as if it were yesterday. Surprising for me as I don’t have the best memory and find it hard to remember yesterday at the moment.

Let’s go back to August 2010 for the wedding of Sian & Jaime beginning at Sian’s mum’s house in Bagyllt, North Wales.

One special day…

Please share this post, either by here or by my links on other social media platforms. A share goes a long way!

Love and best wishes,

Ray xxx

Wedding Checklist

With the wedding season fast approaching, it’s worth considering you have all you need to make your photography experience as flowing as it should be. Here’s a few tips to consider:-

• bring a flat pair of shoes for when I wisk you both off for those private romantic shots, providing your dress is long enough;

• have a small spray can of hairspray with you as the wind can blow;

• hair clips come in really handy;

• I’ll probably ask you to kiss quite often and if you wear lipstick and you want that lipstick look, bring it with you;

• pearl-headed pins are handy also for button holes and for bouquets that are not behaving properly;

• talking of button holes, just in case you don’t know, are worn on the left hand side but NOT placed in the button hole where it never sits quite right;

• just enjoy the day because it will fly.

Ray xxx

Finding and creating perfect lighting: Ray's Tog Tips

Searching or creating flattering light

Light is key to all areas of photography. From photographing gorgeous food to a family portrait flattering light is key. Without light, I can’t get a photo!

For example, the below images were taken in and with great lighting.

Image 1 was taken at the end of the day during the summer. I positioned the engaged couple under the tree. I love this kind of light in summer. Back lighting is great for food photography too. Why is it so good? It highlights the back of your subject when positioned correctly and when viewed from the front it gives a beautiful hair light! The same lighting can be achieved with studio lighting.

The bride’s shoes were photographed in doors, on the carpet, with vertical blinds partially closed. I remember taking this as if it were yesterday. I also remember turning off exterior tungsten lights as I didn’t want other light to pollute the scene!

The engagement couple met me at Loggerheads and the rest is history. The lighting here is oh so flattering especially on a cloudy day although I still have to be careful with downighting from the sun as it doesn’t really looking flattering to anyone. When I’m outdoors on a shoot I’m constantly looking for closed shade. When I find it, I can create the most stunning Wow images!

The final image of the dessert was photographed in a hotel with studio lighting. Why studio lighting? It was late in the day in December and I was struggling for light outside so I had no other choice. Another advantage to using studio lights it that they knock out external lighting resulting in a beautifully coloured image. Images that pop!

See you soon,

Ray

Image 1

Ray's Tog Tips: the effects of interior lighting...

Available Light

I mentioned the effects of interior lighting on products and especially food. It can taint colours. Tungsten often produces a yellow tint. Flouresent can tint blue. It’s important to get colours close to the actual product as possible which is extremely hard to do with available interior light only.

Another pitfall of shooting products indoors in available light is that it’s coming from everywhere. What do I mean? There’s no direction to the lighting. It’s not exciting or dramatic, it’s just an image taken in available light!

I photographed the below image with available light with my phone. iPhones struggle in low light! There was window light from the left and tungsten lights above, to the right, in fact everywhere.

You can learn a lot by looking at images like this, dissect them and photograph again in better light later on.

Analysing Images

There are many highlights in the above image. On the right side of the dish we have a big window light highlights. I strive to get large window highlights like this in food images. They normally have impact but here they don’t.

On the left side of the photograph, specular highlights can be seen which are from inside artificial lighting. I find these distracting. There is also a major white balance problem which happens when shooting anything in mixed available light. The left side of the image is off white and has a yellow tint to the dish. On the right side of the plate, the light is from the window and much cooler

Solutions

There are a number of solutions to improving the above image;-

• Move the dish of food near a window to flood it with window light;

• Turn off indoor lighting;

• Block artificial interior lighting from the food.

• Use flash.

I’ll be talking more about lighting in the next Tog Tip when I’ll also be looking at creating perfect light with natural light and flash lights.

Don’t forget to give me a little support on my posts on here or elsewhere. I would really appreciate that.

Ray

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Ray's Tog Tips: It all comes down to light, pure light!

Light

Let there be light, pure light! I’ve been thinking a great deal recently about lighting and what I look for on any shoot whether it be a beautiful wedding or a delicious meal on a plate. I’m constantly looking for pure light.

Pure Light

In wedding/food photography, I want to create a images that have nice colour. In a restaurant or church, for example, most often has artificial lighting. Although this lighting has been designed make the church/restaurant look good, the lighting is poor for photography, especially food photography in a restaurant.

Tungsten Light

Probably the most awful lighting I’ve come across in churches, restaurants and pubs are tungsten lighting. Tungsten often creates a yellow, murky kind of light, which can look nasty on an image!

Natural Light

It’s all about finding natural light. For food, that may be by a large window, door opening, etc. However, when I’m shooting at night with no natural light, I turn to my studio lights and create my own beautiful light!

Stay tuned for the next instalment where I’ll be looking at the effects of artificial lighting with photos and analysis.

Cheers,

Ray

PS Please support my post on social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Believe it or not it helps!

The business of Raymond Jones Images & its evolution

Social Media Management

Monday morning and here I am planning social media posts for other businesses for the rest of the week. You probably see a great deal of my images on social media but without knowing it. My business has changed so much in the last three years.

Weddings & Commercial Photography

Yes, I do still photograph beautiful weddings. I love them but as they are seasonal and I get most of my work from them during summer time. The commercial side of my business has increased considerably especially with my food and product photography.

It’s impossible for me to do every kind of photography! I specialise now in weddings & commercial advertising images.

Learning

Learning new skills. Self education is so important to me. At the moment I’m studying graphic design as this will complement my advertising work which I’m really enjoying! Education certainly is power

Raymond Jones Images: Brockley Bean Cafe Plastic Free Status

It was such a pleasure yesterday visiting The Brockley Bean Cafe, Charles Street, Wrexham. I’ve been supporting this business for over a year and I’ve seen so many changes.

Jess Daniel’s, owner of The Brockley Bean cafe work’s so hard preparing healthy food options with an emphasis on “clean” with food and packaging.

The certificate was awarded by Hannah Blythyn AM, Lesley Griffiths AM and Carrie Harper.

A Year Without Mum...

Some days I wake up wanting to shout, “Fuck you world for taking my mum and dad!” Other days I wake up crying like it’s been a crappy nightmare. But now I’m waking up most mornings with a smile thinking about how lucky I am to have had the best mum and dad anyone could have and I have the most wonderful memories as a gift! (Sorry for swearing!)

If someone had said to me 5 years ago that in 5 years, mum & dad would have passed away, I will become self employed and I will move away from the village that I’ve always lived in, I would have probably laughed!

But it all happened. A year to the day when I visited mum in that ward in hospital, surprised to see her deterioration from 4 hours earlier. Mum’s health had deteriorated after dad passed away.

It’s been a successful year seeing and experiencing my business grow.

It’s been bloody tough, tough without mum. Emotionally, I’ve been angry, tearful, breathless, etc. She’s left a massive hole in my life that I can’t fill! But I’ve been determined not to bombard social media with photographs of mum because I’m very private and Mum was the same and to me, well, it’s just not me!

Thanks to my amazing partner and my little dog for showing me lots of love, continued love, especially today and thanks to my friends and family for your great amount of love.

Cheers to Mum & Dad for bringing me up and the happy memories I now have of them and with them.

Ray xxx

Ps. Mum loved flowers and custard creams like me!

North Wales & Cheshire Commercial Photographer: "It's all down to the camera!"

Quite often I get comment like, “It’s all down to the Camera” 

Modern day cameras do take some good images in auto mode, the camera can only do so much. In auto settings try and take a picture in low light without flash. You most likely can’t!

A photographer will know to drop the shutter speed, pump up the ISO, and drop the aperture if needed. Good photographers think of different perspectives, know how to frame a good photo, and know how important the composition is. While the camera may be able to do many things, the camera cannot do it with out someone who has the knowledge of how to manipulate the settings to capture what they want to photograph.

Think about it and so it isn't all down to the camera!

Ray 

Commercial Food/Business Photography in North Wales - Brockley Bean Cafe

At last time to blog about my commercial and wedding photography!

I've been helping Jess Daniels, owner at Brockley Bean Cafe promote her business in Wrexham, North Wales with great success.

I returned their earlier this week. "I'm a lover of food and eating well, with years of experience in health & fitness. Then in the '90s I spent my college days catering and working in restaurants.

Now 22 years on, I have finally achieved my dream of helping people feel good about the food they eat, with my very own Cafe! So here I am today, here to give you some food hope, ready to help you with your own journey and most of all eat some Yummy FOOD!!

Jess" ​

Events Photographer: MOW Gardening, come rain or shine...

It was great fun photographing Mow Gardening recently with Justin Madders and Andrew Pinkham of Amey Construction who gave, up a few hours our their time to clear away a mass of overgrown foliage, debris and leaves at The Beeches Care Home at Sutton Way.

Cheers for asking me along. I must remember to take my brolley for future outdoor shoots.

Here’s some of my favourite images…

Commercial Events Photographer: Ashton Peoples Solutions

I met Paula Ashton from Ashton People Solutions some time ago through networking with Networx.

Ashton People Solutions offer a bespoke HR service for small businesses or for businesses that outsource their HR. Paula asked me to photograph a workshop hosted by herself and Jo Robinson for local businesses who employee people and businesses who are about to employ people.

I too over 400 images of the workshop and here are a few of my favourite images taken at Abode, Chester.

Commercial headshots & portraits: Rebecca Caslin & Not Just Scribbles

Today we have Rebecca Caslin business owner at Not Just Scribbles. Rebecca runs a successful graphic design business from Little Sutton.

Beki’s business can be found on all the major social media platforms where it’s not enough nowadays to just have a formal corporate headshot. She wanted a variation of images showing her professional side and lifestyle side . Here’s Beki’s thoughts on her images:-

“Ray is a pleasure to work with, I hate having my picture taken but he instantly put me at ease. His relaxed style is perfect for the shots I needed for my business, offering a different take on the traditional headshot.

He went out of his way to make it a fun experience and I loved being able to have my dog with me (my co-worker!).

I was also impressed with the amount of shots I had to choose from. I would definitely recommend Ray for any of your photographic needs.

Rebecca Casling - Not Just Scribbles”

Commercial Photography: Bonfire Night at The Swan, Marbury

I had so much fun recently capturing the goings on at The Swan, Marbury. Lindsay (Operations Manager), a while back, messaged me about capturing happenings at the bonfire, the atmosphere in the pub, the kitchen, interior, etc.

Lots of low light photography with high ISO’s were required and the light began to fade. My favourite shots:-

Commercial Food Photography: The Bakeoff at The Druid, Mold

A few weeks ago, the owner of The Druid got in touch asking for images of their upcoming new menu and some images of their rum and gin selection for social media, website, etc.

It’s certainly was an exciting evening and definately a winning menu.