Last Sunday was the wedding of Carlina and Matt.

Carlina and Matt love black and white images, so they have asked for all the images to be provided in black and white. Of course because of the way digital cameras work, the photographs are all also available in colour should the couple later decide they would like some colour images.

Carlina and Matt got married at the Admiral’s House, at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich

The happy couple - Carlina looked stunning and Matt looked a very happy man.

The reception was held at the Queen Mary Suite at the Old Royal naval College. The Old Royal Naval College is one of the most beautiful and historic wedding venues in London, and the Christmas decorations really added to the charm.

Matt and Carlina

Everyone danced with such enthusiasm throughout the night and the bride and groom were no exception!

Carlina is a very talented singer-songwriter and she got on stage to sing to her guests. Ably accompanied by Matt on keyboards the pair wowed the audience who were clamouring for more.

The band got everyone singing - here the men and the women try to out sing each other

For the past eight months I have been taking photographs of jewellery for Pebble London. Pebble London are a small company based in Central London that sells really unusual and striking jewellery. Sourced from accross the globe, Pebble London’s jewellery has appeared in most of the top fashion magazine from Vogue to Elle to Harper’s Bazaar. My job has been to photograph the jewellery for the Pebble London Website. Pebble has an enormous stock and I only started taking pictures for them in March, so there are still quite a few images on the website by other photographers. Here are examples of what I do:

I photograph necklaces in 3 different ways: From above; at a 45 degree angle and close up. Please click on the image to see a larger image. The style of the website is to have no shadowing so it creates a very clean look on the page.

I mainly take straightforward catalogue style photographs of the jewellery, but occasionally I am asked to photographs items in a different style for different parts of the website. These is a pair of earrings from their popular new lines of silver and gold leaf-skeleton jewellery.

Pebble is extremely popular in the fashion glossies and regularly appears in top fashion shoots. Here are a couple of images using one of Pebble’s necklaces. The one on the left is from Harper’s Bazaar and the one on the right is Russian Vogue, sadly I did not take these photographs!

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Here are my photographs of that necklace that appears on the website:

Photographing for the web like this has really taught me a lot of new skills. A lot of my other work is reportage style - taking photographs of people at events, weddings, or Press and PR shoots. Taking pictures like this requires a good understanding of lighting and a real eye for detail. It also requires a very good quality macro lens. I bought a Canon 100 F2.8mm Macro specifically for this.

Earlier on this blog I mentioned how I occasionally Second Shoot with other photographers, and on Monday I did this again with acclaimed photographer Mark Seymour.  Danielle and Dovi got married in a traditional Orthodox Jewish wedding, at the Manor of Groves Hotel, in Sawbridgeworth.

Danielle enjoys a few moments with a young bridesmaid

The Rabbi accompanied by male relatives comes to see the Bride for the signing of the Ketubah.

The groom underneath the Chuppah. A traditional Chuppah is set up with open sky above it, so the ceremony was outside. It was raining heavily so everyone was crowded round with umbrellas.

Danielle and Dovi, happily married.

In traditional Orthodox weddings the men and women celebrate the wedding separately. If you look at the photograph you can see the hall has been divided in two. The woman sat to the left and the men to the right. The top table can be seen in the foreground, and the band were down the far side of the room. This way the men and women can both dance to the music, either side of the partition.

The men lift up a table with the groom on it during the dancing.It was quite unsteady but Dovi managed to stay upright.

The mother of the bride laughs during the Rabbi’s speech.

Although the men and women generally stayed separate during the wedding, occasionally Dovi would pop through to dance with his new bride and their family.

This week is Colleges Week, which celebrates the role Colleges play across the country in unlocking talent in communities and transforming the lives of learners. Today I photographed the Secretary of State John Denham, who was addressing local business leaders at CoNEL, in North London,  which was one of the venues participating in the UKs biggest business breakfast.

You may notice in the background there is a large poster advertising Colleges Week. I also took these photographs several weeks ago, at the same time as I did the photographs for the Colleges Week Website. These posters have been sent to all the colleges throughout the UK. Please click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.

There was a particularly large banner of the ad, that must have been about 2 meters by 4 meters. It just goes to show how large modern digital files can be blown up to (click on the thumnail to see a larger image):

If you are interested in seeing more of my corporate work please visit my website or contact me on 07833985436, or by my email, photos@helenmaybanks.com

On Saturday I was in south London for the wedding of Nadine and Tom

I started at Nadine’s house as she prepared herself for the day. The wedding had a ’30s theme, and Nadine looked stunning in her dress, designed by Claire Trapnell.

Nadine and her bridesmaids turned up to the ceremony in Morris Minors

The couple got married at their local church, St Augustine in Forest Hill

A quiet moment after the wedding

Everyone went on to Charlton House for the reception

Tom and Nadine share a kiss during Tom’s speech

Instead of a wedding cake, Tom and Nadine had a wedding cheese

The Colin Peters Quartet were the band for the evening.

The first dance

On Wednesday I photographed the wedding of Diana Lazenby and The Revd Richard McLaren

I started photographing Diana at home as she prepared for the day. Diana looked fantastic in a Beatrice von Tresckow dress.

The couple got married in Richard’s church, St Mark’s by Regent’s Park

Richard looked extremely smart in his suit from Theatre d’Arte at the Odeon in Paris

Just married!

The reception was held at London Zoo. The guests had an opportunity to explore the zoo which everyone loved. One of the gorillas was sitting by the window looking very thoughtful.

A make-up artist was on hand to paint the guest’s faces if they chose, and the fun wasn’t restricted to the children.

Richard gives the Groom’s speech

During the reception, a member of London Zoo staff brought out animals for the guests to admire, including this Kestrel. She was unperturbed by the guests and seemed to enjoy looking around.

Cutting the cake

Recently I was recently commissioned to photograph a selection of people for the forthcoming Colleges Week. This involved travelling around different parts of the country meeting people who are in one way or another involved in colleges - be they students, principles or employers using colleges to help train their staff. These photographs will be used by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Learning & Skills Council in a forthcoming poster campaign and are also used on the Colleges Week Website.

I didn’t take all the photographs on the website - the big colour image you can see on the left of the page is a still from the video made at the same time. If you would like to see some of the images I have taken that have been used on the website or elsehwhere in the campaign then click on the thumbnails below.

I was in London on Sunday for the wedding of Shoshana and Roni

The wedding was held at Ivy House, in Golders Green

Rabbi Jeremy Gordon shares a laugh with Roni and his two witnesses whilst holding their beautiful Ketubah.

Roni hugs his bride during the Bedecken

The groom covers the face of the bride during the Bedecken.

The happy couple

Shoshi’s brothers carry her during the Hora

Roni and Shoshi laugh during the Schtick

An affectionate moment between Shoshi and her mother during the dancing

I travelled up to Lancashire for the wedding of Charlotte and Will.

Charlotte got ready at The Inn at Whitewell near Clitheroe. Here Charlotte’s Mother and bridesmaid help her with her dress.

Charlotte looked stunning in her dress and veil, made by the designer Suzanne Neville.

Walking down the aisle

Will and Charlotte got married in St Leonard, which is a very pretty church in Downham

The happy couple

It was back to The Inn at Whitwell for the reception. The bride and groom paused to take a few photographs before dinner. It was wonderful to be overlooking the beautiful Lancashire countryside.

Charlotte and Will cut the cake

Will is a very talented musician. For his speech he sang a self composed song to Charlotte and the guests, and then during the dancing he was accompanied by friends and family for a great set of music.

Most of the weddings featured on this blog are my own commissions, where I am the sole lead photographer.  Like many other up and coming photographers, I like to occasionally work as a Second Shooter with a well established photographer. This means they are the lead photographer, but I take photographs as well. There are many advantages for me to do this from time to time, I get to learn new skills from a senior photographer, I get a chance to photograph people or events I wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to do, and I have a bit of freedom to try new shots. This month I worked with the very talented wedding photographer Mark Seymour at the wedding of Sonya and James.

The wedding was held at The New West End Synagogue, which is a beautiful Synagogue in Bayswater.

Sonya smiles at James as she circles him seven times underneath the chuppah.

Sonya and James walk down the steps of the Synagogue in a shower of confetti

The Reception was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Park Lane. Mark and I took some formal photographs of the couple, and afterwards I watched the bride climb the hotel stairs and I liked the movement of the dress as she walked, so I took this photograph.

The wedding cake in the foreground whilst the best man gave his speech in the background. I like this photograph as it almost looks like the couple on the top of the cake are watching the speech.

James and Sonya’s first dance. The couple were showered with ticker tape, which gave a really lovely effect.

Usually I don’t use flash during the evening reception (I have never used it during the ceremony), but sometimes it is fun to play with lighting a little bit. During the first dance it wasn’t necessary to use flash, and it would have changed the beautiful lighting.  During the high energy dancing you can get some great effects by using flash with a long shutter speed, as seen here in this photograph of the groom, best man and a friend.

Sonya and James dancing