New site.

From today onwards all my new posts will be published to my main site - www.mattfryer.co.uk - It's all new and shiny so go check it out. Cheers.

38/52 - My driver.

38/52 - My driver., originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

Todays wedding was at a local golf club and I knew we had to get out on the course before dusk for some shots. So enlisting the help of the brides brother and good freind of mine, Barrie was my driver for what was possibly the scariest ride of my life. Not his driving I add, but the fact I had my camera in one hand, lowepro bag and other kit over my shoulder and fully extended light stand with 580exii being held out the golf buggy in the other hand. Have never laughed so hard in ages. Cheers mate and huge congratulations to Debbie and Steve.

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37/52 - Smile, ok jump then!

37/52 - Smile, ok jump then!, originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

This weekend saw me a little closer to home, Saunton Sands to be exact. A really fun wedding with a lovely couple. Wishing you all the best guys. This shot was taken as we tried to take a few quiet shots on the beach. Jumping, bride on a surfboard are just a few of what we ended up with. So much fun.
Taken with 3 speedlites, all shot ttl, one camera left, one camera right and the master on camera set to lower power to add fill flash. Works ok, but could have done with more power.

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36/52 - First Dance.

36/52 - First Dance., originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

A mamoth trek this weekend all the way up to Angelsey for the wedding of Chris and Emma. 8 1/2 hours to get there on bank holiday weekend. Not pleasent. But the drive up was fun especially along the A5 towards Bangor. The wedding was a fantastic day set against the back drop Snowdonia for the service then onto a stunning country Manor I couldn't pronounce let alone spell! But huge congratualtions to Chris and Emma.

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35/52 - Star fish.

35/52 - Star fish., originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

You always forget what's on your door step. This week is no exception. Took the boys to the excellent Ilfracombe Aquarium. A great small little place but loads to see and do. Well worth the visit.

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34/52 - Run aground

34/52 - Run aground, originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

This weeks see us as a family with some friends down at Fremington quay. A nice walk along the old railway line then a quick stop for some coffee and cake at the cafe. Once again taken on my iphone with hipstamatic app.

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33/52 - Family time.

33/52 - Family time., originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

I am puting down the camera for a few weeks whilst I take a summer break from weddings. So it's back to basics with my iphone and my much loved Hipstamatic app. Todfays was taken on Saunton Beach as we enjoy some much needed family time.

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My 52 project and mussings.

Sorry everyone for lack of blog post recently, but it's been a pretty hectic few weeks, back to back weddings, album design, new site design and new clients for 2011. Finding the time to update my current blog has been limited, but I have still been keeping up with it and should be posting the shots in the next few days.
Other things going on, well after my article in a national photography magazine (Images to follow) it seems everyone is interested in me, with an article on me in local paper next week and image submitions for a bridal magazine. It's all go go go. Just looking forward to being able to share my recent work and goings on with you all.

32/52 - Uber flash returns.

32/52 - Uber flash returns., originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

Another great wedding today, for another great couple, the bride grew up in Woolacombe so a proper village affair for the evening do with lots of old friends and faces saying hi.
The shot today was taken using our soon to be patent protected "uber flash", but this time using a calumet bounce umbrella. The couple had a videographer for the day and we managed to get him to film the beach shoot so keep an eye on my blog for that appearing very soon. Showed the couple this one shot before they went away on honeymoon and they loved it, showing anyone and everyone they could, think that speaks volumes about my work.

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Family entertainment.

Family entertainment., originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

We took the family out tonight to the sheepdog trial and falconary display at Borough Farm near Woolacombe, home to the Channel 5 tv stars of Mist and her sheep dog tails. Having lived i Woolacombe all my life I was a little sceptical about the whole thing, thinking it was just another tourist attraction. How wrong I was. First pleasent surprise, the price. £4 per adult kids under 6 go free for a 1 1/2 hour show. Bargain. Second surprise a stand selling homemade cakes. I'm happy. The first half of the show was David Kennard who runs the farm talking about and showing his dogs and the work they do. Despite seeing it all my life I was a still captivated, just as much as my boys were. The second half of the show was a display from Johnathan Marshall and it was amazing. Won't say too much as I strongly recommend you seeing it.
All in all it was a fantastic hour and a half for little money.

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31/52 - Family camping

31/52 - Family camping, originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

I must be bonkers, a rare weekend off from shooting weddings and I agreee to take the family camping for the first time. Aghhhhhhhh.
No it was really good, the boys behaved and slept well, the weather held out good and the campsite was a secluded secret hide away in the middle of Exmoor. A great weekend with great freinds. Just what i needed.
Oh forgot to mention this was taken on my iphone using the hisptamatic app.

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30/52 - Beach uber flash

30/52 - Beach uber flash, originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

Someone must be looking down on me, the weather all week has been iffy to say the least with heavy downpours and less than summer like temps, but come Saturday it all changes with near perfect conditions for shooitng a wedding, blue skies with some light wispy clouds.
Only downside to shooting a summer wedding is you need a huge amount of flash power to really make the beach shots pop, so this shot was take with 3 flashes, 2 580exii's and one 430 exii taped together, all fired from my cactus v4's through my single flash softbox. Not the perfext solution but it works.


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29/52 - Wedding shoes.

29/52 - Wedding shoes., originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

Today was the wedding of David and Charlie at the stunning location of Pickwell Manor. Another great intimate wedding for a another lovely couple.
Spotted this shot as I was doing some detail shots in the morning with the bride.

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28/52 - Jim and Lisa - Woolacombe wedding

28/52 - Jim and Lisa - Woolacombe wedding, originally uploaded by ::matt.fryer::.

Had the immense pleasure today of shooting a lovely intimate wedding at The Woolacombe Bay hotel, for a lovely couple, Jim and Lisa. A great day with some surf in the morning for the groom and a stunning sunset in the evening. Wishing you both all the best in the furture guys.

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Samsung NX10 testing

First outing today with Samsung NX10 test camera. Just messing around to get a feel for it before real testing and article writing for Pro Photo Mag starts. Early impressions are good. Loving the 30mm f/2 pancake lens it's a sweet little toy.
Won't say too much about it otherwise it will ruin my report and it has only been one outing to test it with. Will be getting out and about more over the coming weeks testing it in all situation but primarily at weddings, not as a main camera but as a second camera for candid shots when the sight of a full size DSLR puts a lot of people off and shots are often missed as they shy away from the main camera pointed in there direction.
The NX10 is from the new generation of hybrid cameras. Small as a compact camera but with interchangeable lenses, full control on image capture like a DSLR, similar sized 14.6mp sensor but all in a handy small lightweight rugid body.

Samsung NX10 review on DP review site.

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27/52 - Fishy bench.

Treated myself to a fisheye lens the other week and this is the first chance I have had to get out and play. It's nothing fancy just an 8mm Samyung full manual fisheye, which is interesting but fun.
Being laid up with a bad back this week, there was no funky angles or high vantage points to make the image that much more dynamic, just a simple grab whilst on a slow walk along the tarka trail. In an attempt to spice it up a little I pushed the exposure 2 stops above and 2 stops below in lightroom, then run the 5 images through Photomatix HDR software to create this tone mapped version of the original shot.
Very pleased with the final result and had forgotten how good a well done tone mapped image can look. Might have like a bit more contrast on the wood of the bench if I had to be picky, but over all I'm very pleased with the result considering the circumstances.

For full impact of shot - View On Black

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New Moo business cards.

A quick blog post today, I took delivery of my new moo business cards this morning. it must be a slow day in the office if I'm blogging the opening of the post, well far from it. Loads of stuff going on at present including a feature in a national photography mag in the near future, but more of that in another post. This blog post is about how impressed with www.moo.com I am. I placed the order at the end of last week, got email confirmation that it would be 7-10 days before they got dispatched, which was cool. 3 working days later they are on my desk, in my wallet and ready to be distributed. Fantastic customer service in my book. Plus the quality is second to none and the price was spot on.
I think the part that attracted me most to Moo was the fact that I could have multiple images on the rear of my cards, so I have tailored this batch of cards to suit my wedding and portrait needs. Next time they will be based on some commercial and event work I do. Every card can be different but I went with just 10 designs, 3 portrait and 7 wedding. Looking forward to dishing a few out at the next wedding.
Well done Moo crew, you just made a new customer for life. Many thanks.

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26/52 - More of Alice.

Some of you may remeber my shots, back in the early part of this year, of Alice a new young model from North Devon. Previous Alice post
Well her friends sent a few of the shots I took into miss teenuk comp and she has been selected for a photoshoot in London next week. So in order to prep her for her 5 mins of fame in the big smoke, we set up another shot to give Alice some more practice, this time we took the shoot outside. Apart from forgetting half her planned wardrobe we managed a great fun little shoot.
Shot on my 7d with my 24-105mm f/4 L and single 580 exii speedlight on light stand fired by cactus v4 camera front left. If memmory serves me correct this was shot with flash at 1/8 power 50mm zoom on head.

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25/52 - Sunset couple.

A good friend of mine got married and as my gift to them, I gave them my wedding photography skills. This was shot on the lower beach at Ilfracombe tunnels, where they got married. After this shot I ended up doing a heap of couple portrait shots based on the same set up. Very pleased with end results. Just they are too.

Shot on my 7D with my 17-40mm f/4 L, single 1/4 power 580exii fired by cactus v4 on VALS to camera left.

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24/52 - Spring bride?

Shoot a great fun wedding yesterday for Katie and Eugene. Lovely day, stunning weather and so intimate with just 60 guests. Folowing on from a chat with the local bridal magazine looking for a spring bride shot, I jokingly suggested a bride on a trampoline. Katie and Eugene were up for up it, so why not. It's the kind of thing I love to do, something out of the ordinary.

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23/52 - Wedding workshop.

Had an amazing two two days with Lovegrove consulting. First day was a business of wedding photography seminar, which was an real eye opener. Then the second day we went up to Stonehouse court near Stroud for a wedding shoot with Damien and Juile Lovegrove. I could ramble on for pages about how good it was and how much I learnt. But I won't. I'll just leave you with one shot for now and the rest of the set to follow later. Huge thanks to Damien and Julie for all the guidance and support and Franko and Sarah for an being excellent couple for the shoot.

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22/52 - The happy couple.

Had another great pre wedding engagement shoot today with Charlie and David. Despite overcast and foggy weather we managed to get out in the grounds of Pickwell Manor for a few shots. Lovely couple with so much love, I know that the wedding imagery will convey that.

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21/52 - Withypool Bridge.

Back to reality with a bump this week. Decorators in doing loads of work in my house so a spot of peace and tranquility at the spot is what's the order of the day. Still can't put down the iphone..

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20/52 - Whitehouse revisted.

Still keeping with my Jersey theme, I have re tweaked an image already uploaded, original was editied on my laptop which has shocking monitor calibration. Have edited now on main machine to achieve the look I was after. Still might lack sky details for some. but hey ho!!

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19/52 - Moo you looking at?

Out here in Jersey for the week visiting family. Got my full camera gear but went a wandering with my iphone and my beloved hipstamatic app. Seemed fitting to choose a Jersey icon as my first shot.

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18/52 - Becky and Tom.

Had a fun engagement shoot with some wedding cleints today. Weather was great, overcast, windy and slight chill in the air but we made it fun none the less. If the shoot is to go by then the wedding is going to be great day.

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17/52 - Roll of the dice.

Taken for a comp entry on the theme of numbers. Can't remeber exact settings, but it's bounced on camera speedlight with dice placed on lid of my laptop. Tweaked in lightroom to give it a little more punch.

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Vicky and Dom -22nd August 2009

Coming to the end of my 2009 wedding season review now, with only a few more notable weddings to post. This retro is from Dom and Vicky's wedding. Shocking weather in the run up to it, but on the day someone was smiling upon us. Shame the entrance to field didn't think so. Plenty of mud. But aside from that it was a lovly wedding. Very relaxed with the groom and even the bride taking a few swings with the golf clubs in a pitching comp between the lads. In the evening the marquee was rammed and it created an excellent atmospshere. A great way to start your married life together.

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Goldcoast Oceanfest.

18 19 20 June 2010

Well that time of year is fast creeping up again and it will be soon time to head down to croyde for this years goldcoast oceanfest. Once again I have been asked to help cover the event and I am pretty stoked to say the least. After last years front stage slot to see Jason Mraz, this year is going to be even better with the Magic Numbers and Joshua Radin ont he Saturday. I can't wait.
For full nfo on all band, events and goings on check out
Goldcoast Oceanfest
Maybe see you there.

Mike and Louise :: July 2009

Starting off at Ilfracombe Parish church and then onto my favourite venue of the Woolacombe Bay Hotel, this July wedding throw it's best and worst at me, a great fun couple made the day so much better but heavy rain mid way through the formal's saw us resort to using a corner of the bar to finish off getting those few missed shots, it just goes to show why the Bay Hotel is one of the top locations in North devon, in my opinion, it is just so versatile. Although this wedding was my one and only wet wedding of 2009 we still managed to get out at sunset onto Woolacombe beach for a few shots and trash the brides dress with sand and some scissors! I kid you not. It was such a great day and I wish Mike and Lousie all the happiness for the future.