I take your name and say "I do"...

.. or the best event to share with the rest of the world with (well, I suppose there could be a couple of those :)))



Images displayed here are from the wedding that I have recently photographed. It was full of joy and great spirit, which I did my best to capture. However the small details are great, still, and I find they sometimes portray the atmosphere in a no less acurate was than the big shots of people having fun.



Weddings are wonderful events to photograph, it's funny, when I was a child I always wanted our family to get invited to weddings more often - I just wanted to dip myself into the wonderful spirit of celebrating love and devotion.


Well, it did not happen as often as I wanted then, however, these days I can be a part of many - and not only that, but also capture great moments which will become treasured memories -special and different for each couple...

Photo cards

I am in the process of producing a range of greeting cards with my photographs in them. This idea has been in my head for a while, just did not have much time to materialise. Finally, I think it's time now. The images I am displaying here today and just an idea of what could become a greeting card. These are relatively abstract, later on I will post images for other "themes".



To be honest, thinking back now when I was very young I thought if I am ever a photographer, I'd like to produce images for greeting cards. Well, not much of an ambition maybe, but at that point I did not have much of a clue of what else there is.



Plus a part of me believes that my tastes and preferences have been shaped by the place I grew up in - that is, Saint Petersburg, a beautiful Russian city with a European exterior (in the centre at least!) and with a Russian soul. A city that is as young as America (yes, just over 300 years old!) and yet looking older as all architectural styles came to Russia from Europe with a bit of a delay... hence people refer to them as "Russian Baroque", "Russian Classicism", etc. You get the idea. And even after years of living in another country I am still very much a Doctor Jivago kinda girl :)

Back to the street - girls

Chatting, laughing, gossiping, giggling - it's fun to shoot a group of women talking - they often looks so animated!



At a street concert I noticed three friends enjoying the performance. I did several shoots of them, at different moments of their interaction.



Again, as before, the unsaturated finish enhances their expressions and draws our eyes to their personality rather than distract us with bright colours..

Lensbabies

I have been away from the Blog for a while, I hope you forgive me. But to make up for it, I have exciting news! My new lensbaby has arrived today, and it's wonderful.

This funny-shaped lense creats nice effects, and adds a new dimention to often quite ordinary images. Here's the lensbabies website: http://www.lensbabies.com/

I am posting three photographs which can truly be called test shots. I can't wait to try it out for portraits, weddings, and anything else that will catch my eye!

Street photography

I love street photography. Especially if you are in a busy place, a city, and especially if there is an event going on.

The pictures for today were taken at a street festival in London. What a great place for observation. We went to an exhibition at the V&A and when we came out we still had some time to wonder round. Colours, expressions, textures, candid moments and just bizarre things - it was all there. We just had to open our eyes and take it in.

I chose these photographs for a reason - they feature things that stood out for me, they don't show much, but it seems to me, they tell a lot. They are a bit symbolic, frozen in time and space, they kind of almost did not belong to the hustle and bustle of the whole event, the atmosphere, the pace of everything that was happening around us.

The girl in turquoise tights - she looked very interesting altogether, like a design student would look... She had short blond hair and a skimpy leather jacket on... Where is she going? through the crowd, not stopping, but not speeding up either...

That man sitting on that surreal uncomfortable pink sofa, next to someone else's bag (whose???), with people walking by and throwing slightly surprised glances at him and the whole composition...

That very classy looking lady with red scarf around her neck, with beautiful posture and face, with her hair tied back - staring away, through the crowd, the noise -what is she thinking of? She looks like a Russian ballerina who has just come out of the Royal Albert Hall after a performance...

All these people we see in the street just for a second, our eyes pick them out of the crowd just for a moment - wouldn't we just love to know more - sometimes?

Fashion: behind the curtains..

Last week I shot a mini fashion show. I was a bit late and when I squeezed into the Theatre where the show was taking place it was full packed of people and I had to stay at the door..

Fortunately, being near the door also meant being near the curtains behind which the models were waiting their turn. So you could say I got my personal instant preview and also a great position to take more unusual shots!

The models were stunning and the collection was great and as always I was very interested in getting the "personal angle", the facial expression, the look, the thought behind that look... As Tyra Banks keeps saying, it's not just the beauty on the outside that counts, right?

Perception of self

You might agree - the desire to photograph comes to us more often than the availability of potential models. So, when this happens, we test it on ourselves. at least I do.


And, of course, the endless curiosity! of how we appear to other people, how others see us. I believe self-portraiture can be quite theraputic, as if we have a chance to look inside ourselves, see how our feelings translate when they come out on the surface.

Also, I am becoming very fond of unsaturated images, on the verge of black and white, but not quite (like the one in the middle). Their subtlety and 'understatedness' really appeals to me - I find it more expressive than bold and bright colours - or, at least, when applied to portraiture... What do you think?

A bit of colour for a rainy day

.. But perhaps colour with a twist - still!.
It's raining, it's pooring today - in all corners of the world, at least this is how it feels...
Last week I happened to visit a picturesque village Sharnbrook, situated in North Bedfordshire. I was there on an archaeology trip with a group of young people - something I happened to be a part of through work.The place is absolutely beautiful, stunning old cottages, lovely gardens, little pretty gift shops and everybody says hello when they walk past each other - truly a place to be and to enjoy English lifestyle! This experience left me with a warm and glowy summery feeling.

I had my camera with me so took some shots of everything that was looking at me - people, bikes, flowers, buildings... Posting three today in my traditional manner. There will be more on my Flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/mcordwell). Wishing you all a nice bank holiday weekend - and rain doesn't mean we can't enjoy it, right?