And the winner is.......

Congratulations to Sarah and Kevin who won our poll with 471 votes

A very close second place goes to Laura and Stephen

and just edging it into 3rd place are Gillian and Jack.

Thank you to everyone who voted. I hope you enjoyed looking through the pictures. Almost 2000 votes were cast and I am delighted so many different pictures picked up so many votes.

VOWS Awards Nomination 2015

I am overwhelmed and delighted to annouce that we have been nominated for a VOWS Award for the 3rd year running. A huge thank you to our brides and grooms who have voted for us. It just spurs us on to be the very best decision you make for your wedding photography. Thank you all very much indeed !!!

Solsgirth House Wedding - Helen and Paul

Solsgirth House Wedding

Amazingly we had another Solsgirth House Wedding the very next week. This time with the beautiful Helen, a bride who put so much planning, thought and detail into her wedding day and Paul who, er, got to choose a very nice car to arrive in. I was a huge fan of Helen's right from our very first phone call. She had so many great ideas and thoughts on how the pictures could work on the day. Her enthusiasm and excitement about her wedding day was infectious and she soon had me swept up with all sorts of plans and ideas for her pictures.





From the table plan written up on the mirror to the confetti shot, Helen and I concocted a 'plan of action' which meant that every idea Helen had and every shot I wanted to accomplish were taken and yet...... We still let aside time for Helen and Paul to enjoy mingling with their guests in the spring sunshine in a relaxed garden party style. It really was a terrific day





This wedding was also one which gained us an award of excellence in the Scottish Master Photographer Awards. And I am delighted to say that Helen and Paul were also the first recipients of our new matted 14x14 album which is possibly the most beautiful wedding album available.

I cannot say enough nice things about this day or this couple. Just wonderful !!

 

And the winner is .........

Winners annouced - 1500 Wedding Shot of the Year 2014

Laura and Stuart scoop the top prize in our wedding shot of the year competition with an astonishing 846 votes. Their stunning sunset picture taken at Boturich Castle proved to be the 'peoples choice' and the pick of our wedding images from 2014



Second place goes to Anna and Stephens nighttime shot taken in Royal exchange Square. They received 620 votes. Followed by Mairead who scored 436 votes with her [picture taken in St Mirrens cathedral in Paisley. Almost 4000 votes were cast and I don't think in all the years we have run the poll, the lead has changed hands so many times. Hearty congratulations to our winners and to our runners-up. I hope you are not too downhearted with such a fantastic showing. Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote and enjoy the pictures.

 

VOWS Awards 2014 - 1500 Photography Nominated

I am surprised, proud and delighted to announce that 1500 Photography has, for the second year running, been nominated for a VOWS award.

Now in their tenth year, The Scottish VOWS Awards celebrate and promote excellence in customer service within the Scottish wedding industry. This award recognise companies who strive to provide outstanding service and deliver consistently high standards of consumer experience. To be thought of, by our clients, as a company worthy of this kind of acclaim is humbling and rewarding. I can only thank my wonderful brides and grooms from the last 12 months who not only took the time to fill out a form and vote for us but who also must have enthused about us so much that it impressed the judges. The awards themselves are on the 24th November. I will keep you posted.  Thank you so much to all our clients. We are completely blown away.

Glasgow University Wedding - Katy and Danny

Glasgow University Wedding

What can I say about Katy and Danny's Glasgow University Wedding ? Quite simply an amazing day packed to the rafters with absolute quality, attention to detail and lots and lots of 'weather'. Brilliant sunshine, strong winds, torrential downpours and then back to a lovely day with a fantastic sunset.





Again this was another wedding mostly sourced and organise by the groom as Katy lives and works abroad. Choosing Glasgow University and Mar Hall as the wedding venues was an inspired choice by Danny. Two fantastic venues which give you so much scope for great photography. We started the day down at Katys parents house before making our way to the university. After a lovely service we packed all the guests onto the iconic stairs outside before taking Katy and Danny back inside the chapel for a few shots. Just as we were starting our group pictures in the quadrant the heavens opened. Thankfully everyone could take shelter in the cloisters (except the photographer and photographers assistant - sorry Gillian) meaning that we could carry on getting great pictures, like the shirt ripping superhero shots, in the dry.





After that it was onto the sumptuous Mar Hall where once again we were spoiled for choice with photo opportunities. My personal favourite is the last one we shot. After the stormy day we had such a beautiful watercolour sunset it was almost too easy to silhouette Katy and Danny against this magical sky.

Finally a word from Katy on her experience with 1500

Stuart and Gillian are truly wonderful people to have photograph your wedding! They are so professional and fun. Gillian is there holding umbrellas over you in the rain and making sure everything runs smoothly whilst Stuart works his magic creating stunning photographs. He managed to capture all the beautiful moments of our big day! We cannot thank you both enough! Xxx

Need to see more of Katy and Danny's big day ? Check out the video mastery of GeeWhiz and their channel on Vimeo. It's always a great day when you get to work alongside fellow professionals like Allister and Elaine https://vimeo.com/93857835. Well worth a look. Especially if you fancy a 'Marry-oke'

More Mar Hall Weddings by 1500 Photography

Coats Memorial / Crutherland House Wedding - Ashley and Devin

Coats Memorial / Crutherland House Wedding

One of my favourite weddings Ive ever shot, Ashley and Devin's Crutherland House Wedding, was just a perfect wedding day for a photographer.

We started at Ashley's mums house where one of the most stunning brides we'd ever shot was getting ready. It was already a cracking day but having such a lovely spacious house to begin with before popping outside into the garden in the blazing sunshine was a bonus. Then it was onto the wonderful Coats Memorial church in Paisley, an amazing building with a huge set of stairs for brides to negotiate before entering into a beautiful interior.

[caption id="attachment_4224" align="aligncenter" width="417"] Winner or our wedding shot of the year 2013[/caption]

Then it was onto one of the most unusual locations I have ever shot at. A turf farm. Acres and acres of bowling green smooth grass laid out as far as the eye could see. All except for one tree. Ashley 'grandfathers' tree which we used to create this wonderful silhouette shot.

 

After our pictures at the farm we headed onto Crutherland House. I must say I was really impressed with Crutherland. They were brilliant. We were running approximately 30 minutes behind schedule but knowing that we still had all our formal group pictures to shoot they altered their timings to make sure that the day continued to run smoothly with the absolute minimum of fuss. It was then over the Ashley's mum who gave the father of the bride speech and Devin's brother who delivered one of the funniest best man speeches we've heard. This then gave way to some singing waiting staff and one of the busiest dance floors we've ever witnessed. You can see from the shots just how much fun the bride and groom had on the day.

I love this wedding so much that I made it our main sample album in a bid to make sure that as many as my future bride and groom have a day like Ashley and Devin's. A top couple and a top day.

Our Wedding Shot of the Year 2013 is...........

Congratulations to Ashley and Devin who scoop the title of Wedding shot of the Year for 2013. It was a mighty close race between the top 2. Our winners polled 934 votes from a total of 4304 (a new record!!)

In second place was the beautiful Katy with Danny collecting 839 votes and our third place runners-up were Samantha and Euan. Thank you to everyone who voted and I hope it was your favourite who won. The winners get a 20" canvas of their print

[caption id="attachment_3334" align="aligncenter" width="417"] Wedding Shot of the Year - Winners Ashley and Devin[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3350" align="aligncenter" width="375"] 2nd Place with 839 votes - Katy and Danny[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3382" align="aligncenter" width="400"] 3rd Place - The lovely Samantha with Euan with almost 500 votes[/caption]

VOWS Awards Nominee and VOWS Awards Ceremony

Long time not update, sorry !

We will be sharing lots and lots of weddings with you over the coming months but first we would like to share with you some news on a recent success. Thanks to our wonderful bride and grooms we were nominated for a VOWS award this year.

VOWS stands for Voted Outstanding Wedding Supplier and is an awards body set up to recognise companies that offer excellent customer service within the Scottish wedding industry.

The awards are voted for by recently wedded couples through marriage or civil partnership and this year out of 14,000 nominations, 1500 Photography was included in the top 10 photographers in the country. On the night itself we sadly didnt scoop the big one but to be nominated in such an incredibly competitive field was a huge achievement and one that we are very proud of.

I would like to thank all our fantastic couples of 2012/13 who cast a vote for us - you guys are amazing. Thank you

[caption id="attachment_3020" align="aligncenter" width="300"] © Kim Cessford[/caption]

Here I am with Gillian and fellow nominees Victoria and Richard from All Dressed Up. It was nice to know that two wedding suppliers from the Loch Lomond area (small world fact : Victoria and I actually went to primary school together) had been recognised. You can see more pictures of the evening awards here

1500 Photography - VOWS Award Nominee 2013

Collodion Wet Plate - Shooting photographs like 100 years ago

Over the summer I had the wonderful experience of meeting artist Alastair Cook and attending his collodion plate workshop in Dunbar.



Collodion plate photography is one of the very earliest forms of photography. It involves coating a glass, mirror or metal plate in a rather nasty chemical mixture, loading the plate into the back of a camera, focussing the subject under a cape and then making a guesstimate exposure of a few seconds. If this sounds like the kind of thing you may have seen in western movies and Victorian period dramas on a Sunday night, then you've got the picture exactly.

  

After a little chat about the history of the process and some stunningly beautiful plates, both antique and from Alastair's own portfolio, we were let loose in the darkroom. It was fantastic. It took me right back to when I had a darkroom in my bedroom aged 17. We took turns posing for each other holding our heads steady for the exposures by jamming a cup against a wall with our heads! Then we removed the back plate from the camera, took it back into the darkroom and washed the plates in the develop mixture.

That's when the silvery fog started to lift and experienced the total thrill (that is now long gone in our digital age) of watching an image ghost into life.

As someone who now goes to a wedding and shoots 1000 images in the space of 2 hours it was such a revelation to go back to the very beginning of photography and slow things way, way down. Alastair pointed out that all these pictures are taken while the sitter has thoughts going through their head and their hearts are beating. A real slice of time rather than today's photography - shot at a 1000th of a second and instantly uploaded onto facebook.

There is a gravity and sincerity inherent in these pictures which is totally captivating.

I loved my experience at the workshop and would urge you all to get along to Alastair's exhibition currently running at Dunbar Town Hall. Its a work of great joy, depth and beautiful images.

 Alastairs Exhibition in Dunbar runs till 20th December

 

Scottish Master Photographer Awards 2013 - 2 in a row 'Best Complete Portrait'

I am absolutely delighted to announce that we picked up two winning trophies at this years Scottish Master Photographer Awards including our second 'Best Complete Portrait' in a row !! We had a fantastic day at the Glynhill Hotel in Paisley with guest speakers Vinnie O'Byrne and Dutch Master, Henk Van Kooten. After two hugely entertaining and educations seminars it was onto the awards dinner.

We picked up an award of excellence for our black and white shot of Muti taken at the Summerlee Heritage centre. This image then also went onto win the Fashion and Glamour category

Then our images from the fashion shoot we had for the 'Stanley Place' label also picked up an Award of Excellence. These shots were taken at Ramilia's Hair and Makeup salon on Bath Street (whisper it - one floor up from a photographers!!) This shot was the one I was most pleased with but which also went onto to form part of the 'Complete Portrait' award which was also won.

As well as winning two Awards we also scored highly with the judges for our wedding work. Two of my favourite weddings from 2012 (for very different reasons) picked up awards in the Complete Wedding category. Firstly Craig and Clairs wedding at Moorpark House which was great fun as I had shot the bestman and bridesmaids wedding the year before and they are a brilliant couple. Craig and Clair were absolutely brilliant on the day and I am delighted that their images were rewarded.

Then finally - Marianne and Johns wedding which gave me one of my favourite shots of the year (which I am disappointed to report - did nothing) However, as part of a Complete Wedding these shots were awarded and 'Award of Excellence' just missing out on the top spot. This wedding at Cameron House was a more intimate affair with the couple, close friends and family and possibly the most memorable character I met all year - Marianne's Gandmother !

All in all a very happy evening with just one last shot to share - my big daft mug (left) receiving one of my trophies from Regional Chairman, Seppi Preston (right)