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September 6, 2013September 6, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: Jayne&Bill @ Trigonos, Caernarfon, Gwynedd

Jayne & Bill got married at Trigonos, a lakeside retreat in North Wales, near Caernarfon.

Bill and some of the guests started the day by swimming in the lake, while Jayne and her bridesmaids where getting ready in the manor house.

The ceremony was outside, with the guests sat round in a large circle, so quite different from conventional weddings.

The photograph above has Snowdon in the background, although it’s obscured by cloud, and I think it’s a great advert for why couples should come to North Wales to get married!

in Weddings 10 comments

September 5, 2013September 5, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer : Pre-Wedding Shoot Llanrhaeadr Waterfall, Powys

Had fun with Jayne and Bill on their pre-wedding shoot at Llanrhaeadr Waterfall, Powys. Great place for bouldering as they demonstrated!

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August 7, 2013August 7, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: Pre wedding shoot at Llyn Padarn railway, Llanberis

Nice to meet up with Scott and Beth for an impromptu pre wedding photo shoot, ahead of their wedding at Seiont Manor in a couple of weeks.

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August 4, 2013August 7, 2013 by admin

North Wales Weddings Photographer: Lady of the Lake photo shoot @ Llyn Padarn, Llanberis

Had a fun shoot last weekend where we went for a ‘lady of the lake’ theme.

Model is Eleri Roberts, set design/wardrobe was Thomasine Tomkins , make-up was Rhiannon Pritchard , boat man was Al Colinshaw, also with support of Conrad.

We used the Llyn Padarn lagoons at Llanberis for our location.

We had some interested bystanders asking why we did the shoot. The main reason is it’s fun, but creative photo shoots are also a great way to play around, experiment and get better at what we do.

The main challenge during this shoot was the heavy rain, and the fact that Eleri was in a boat.

Eleri was in the water at about 9pm. Big thanks to her for being willing to get quite cold!

Also thanks to Al for bringing his boat, which he built himself (!)

Rhiannon is a very talented make up artist. You should book her if you’re getting married.

And big thanks to Tam who has a background in fashion and is very skilled at wardrobe/set design, all round creative type.

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July 17, 2013July 17, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: Karen & Simon’s wedding at Seiont Manor

Had a great time at Karen and Simon’s wedding at Seiont Manor. Here are a selection of photos from the day.

For guests wishing to see the rest, please drop me an email at tomsimone99@yahoo.co.uk and I’ll send you a link.

in Weddings 28 comments

June 30, 2013 by admin

North Wales wedding photographer: Look inside our amazing wedding venue

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This is a virtual tour for Google Streetview of Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw, where me and Caz got married in 2009.

As you can see, it’s a stunning venue and I’d highly recommend it to couples looking for something a bit different.

Once you’ve seen the staircase, the view to the sea, and the gallery room where services take place you’ll probably want to get married there too.

Be warned though, they only have a limited number of weddings a year, so you have to book really early!

If you are interested in my 360 virtual tour work, please check out Golau Media, home to my commercial photography.

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June 20, 2013June 20, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer – pre wed photo shoot Menai Bridge, Anglesey

We did this photo shoot in Karen’s parents’ garden, near Menai Bridge, ahead of their wedding at Seiont Manor next month.

I do pre-wedding photo shoots with all my weddings as it helps get better photos on the actual day, plus they’re lots of fun 🙂

I had brought some off camera lighting and an umbrella with me, which I’d planned to use as a primary light source if the sun went in, or as fill light if it was sunny.

Unfortunately my flash wasn’t behaving as it’s supposed to and it was a bit windy for an umbrella, so we used a reflector, my new favourite bit of kit…

Anyone who has had one of these shoots with me knows I like to make people – counterintuitively – feel a bit uncomfortable, or do something a bit silly.

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June 14, 2013June 14, 2013 by admin

North Wales wedding photographer – family photo shoot at Ogwen Bank

Nice to meet up with Glenys and family for this photo shoot last Sunday.

We decided to do it outside on location, rather than in the studio, as the weather was nice.

Location shoots can be trickier because I can’t control the sun, wind, or midgies 🙁 , but definitely worth the effort I think.

Here’s a link to my other site of some work I did for the council, with actors dressed in historical costumes. Bit different.

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June 9, 2013June 9, 2013 by admin

Holiday pics with canon 50mm 1.8

Bit behind with keeping this blog up to date, having not long got back from two week holidays at Disneyland and Eurocamp in France.

We had a great time, despite the really long drive!

I took most of my holiday snaps with a canon 50mm 1.8 lens, which is really small and therefore easy to carry.

For anyone starting out in photography, I’d highly recommend it as it’s very cheap (£60-70) and because of the wide aperture it’s nice for blurring backgrounds.

If you’d like to see the rest of my holiday pics, find me on facebook.

Also, congratulations to Margaret and family who won our studio portrait photo shoot.

She brought her nine grandkids, so that was a fun day 🙂

in About Tom Simone / photoshoot / Portrait Photography 2 comments

June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer – Toby the horse

I thought Toby the horse was so full of character that we did another quick mini-shoot following the last bridal horse photo shoot.

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May 4, 2013May 4, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: bride & horse photo shoot, Newborough, Anglesey

This was a shoot that I’d been wanting to do for a long time, so a big thank you to everyone who helped make it happen.

The bonnie bride is a friend of mine called Bev, whose wedding I photographed last summer.

More often than not brides hang up their dresses in their wardrobe and forget about them. How much more fun is it to get all dressed up again and relive some of the memories of your wedding day!

Sam Bryan was hair, make up, and stylist for this shoot (kept it much more simple than last time). Great job!

The horses – Pearl & Toby – belong to Elen, whose only 16 but massively talented with everything equine. Could not done this without her help and know-how.

Also big thank you to Kate and Cen, who helped with organisation and transport.

And, thanks again to Lyndon Marshall for video, which have not edited yet. … (note to self… got to get better at getting these videos done!)

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May 3, 2013May 3, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: commercial work with Golau Media

I’m excited to tell you about how well my non-wedding photography business is doing.

Browsers of this blog will know that I run a company called Golau Media – (golau = light in Welsh) – which deals with commercial, product, & event photography, and a bunch of other related stuff.

Although weddings are what I really love photographing, about half of what I do comes under the category of ‘other’. For me, this ‘other’ is a big input into my wedding photography, whether it be other creative projects or commercial work.

Recently I’ve been photographing 360 panoramics of businesses for Google Street View. Who knows how this could be used at weddings…!

Take a look at golaumedia.co.uk here and here is a google tour we did of Bangor Cathedral:

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in commercial photography 1 comments

April 26, 2013April 26, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: 1930s fashion photo shoot part 2

I’d intended to have a bts video of this photo shoot up up by now, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day…

Lots going on at www.golaumedia.co.uk at the mo, the company I run which deals with commercial work. Excited about doing work for google…more on that soon.

Also, very excited about bridal shoot tomorrow with Beverley and Pearl, a magnificent black horse 🙂

Meanwhile, here are a few more 1930s images to be getting on with:

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April 2, 2013April 2, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: 1930s model fashion Rolls Royce photo shoot

Here are some of the photos from our 1930s photo shoot with models on the Faenol Estate.

Thanks to our team:

Tom Simone – photographer

Y Gelfa – studio at vaynol location – www.ygelfa.com

Millie Claire & Ruth Bunton – models

Julia Nicholls – hair stylist – www.julianicholls.co.uk

Rhiannon Pritchard – make up artist – www.rhiannonpritchard.co.uk

Tam – wardrobe – http://www.facebook.com/thomasine.j.tomkins

Alex & Gemma – extra wardrobe

Lyndon Marshall – video

Snowdon Classic Carriages – Rolls Royce – www.snowdonclassiccarriages.co.uk

This was a really fun photo shoot to do, and I was very lucky to have an exceptionally talented team of people to work with.

We were also lucky with the weather, as it had been snowing the weekend before. Still cold though, so apologies to our very professional models Ruth and Millie for that!

Our wardrobe was incredible and there’s loads of stuff we didn’t get to use. Great job by Tam and co to give us this very authentic look.

Julia Nicholls and Rhiannon Pritchard are true artists with hair and make-up respectively. If you’re planning a wedding in North Wales, chances are you’ve heard of them already.

This is apparently not Snowdonia Classic Carriage’s most popular car for weddings – brides tend to go for their stunning white classic cars – but I love the look of this one. Big thank you to Meinir for coming out during a busy period.

I had planned for an overcast day, with various warming gels, filters and lights. As it happened, we had sunshine and so for most of the photos we just used a reflector, which allowed us to shoot a lot of poses in a short time.

I always do pre-wedding photo shoots when I’m booked for weddings, and usually try and time them to make the most of natural light.

These also are a lot of fun, they allow me to get to know my couples before their wedding day, and this helps us create better photos.

The shoot would not have been possible without Y Gelfa studio accommodating us on Easter Sunday. This studio is a hot spot for musicians wishing to record in a pro environment at incredibly competitive prices. They also provide photography and video services… check them out with the link at the top of this page.

Bts video will be coming out later in the week, courtesy of my video man Lyndon Marshall.

Thanks for coming to take a look … Tomx

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March 20, 2013March 20, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer – children’s portraits

Here are a couple of photos of kids from recent photo shoots at Golau Media Studios in Menai Bridge.

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March 20, 2013March 20, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer – bouquets with a difference

If you want some arty and unique touches at your wedding then www.asparasdesigns.co.uk might be just who you’re looking for.

I took these pics of some of their wedding bouquets last week – how awesome is the one made out of buttons!

in photography / wedding marketing 9 comments

March 11, 2013March 11, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: How much editing will I do on your wedding photos?

One of the most common questions I get is ‘Can you photoshop…. x,y or z?’

And the answer is yes, most of the time, but that’s not to say I would.

In fact, I do very little retouching unless my client specifically asks for it; I prefer to make people good ‘in camera’.

Everyone has an angle, a side, or features that look better than others, and it’s much easier and preferable to use lighting and camera angles to make you look your best.

Having said that, although I may not do a great deal of retouching, I’ll often do things like change the exposure or colours of a photograph, or even removed unwanted elements from a picture.

The image below gives an example. This sort of thing can take quite a bit of work, but I include it in the price of all my wedding packages.

I liked this location at Beaufort Park because the slope meant we could really show-off Hayley’s dress.

The foliage and tree branch also make for a nice compostion.

My umbrella, the power cables and the fence weren’t so great, so removing them was the first step.

I could have made Hayley climb over the fence so those things wouldn’t be a problem, but I’d already made her do that on the pre-wedding shoot and I didn’t think she’d be too impressed if I asked her to do it again in her wedding dress!

The next thing I did was make Hayley and her dress lighter and the scene a bit darker, to make her stand out more.

Finally, I added blue to the image and removed a bit of green, … looks better, doesn’t it?

Apologies to Hayley for making her stand on a slop in her wedding shoes x

in Photoshop / Editing 0 comments

February 24, 2013 by admin

North Wales Wedding Photographer: Seiont Manor Wedding Fayre

We had a great time at the Seiont Manor Wedding Fayre today, met loads of nice couples and other wedding vendors.

Here are links to the ones I chatted to:

Dylan Cernyw – harpist – www.dylancernyw.com

Gav’s disco – www.gavsisco.co.uk

Asparas designs – bouquets, buttonholes, lovebird cake toppers, corsages, chair covers, sashes, table centres, gifts, – www.asparasdesigns.co.uk

Snowdon Classic Carriages www.snowdonclassiccarriages.co.uk

Cardiau Ellen’s Cards www.cardiauellenscards.co.uk

Lee Price Productions wedding videographer – www.leepriceproductions.co.uk

Julia Nicholls Creative Hair – www.julianicholls.co.uk

Trefor Jones Mens & Boys Wear – www.trefor-jones.co.uk

Jane Rose Cakes – www.janerosecakes.com

Lloyds Formal Hire – www.cariadbride.com

If you missed this week, we will be at the Anglesey Arms Wedding Fayre next Sunday (March 3rd).

in wedding fayre 3 comments

February 20, 2013February 20, 2013 by admin

North Wales wedding photorapher: Forget the best man, imagine having this guy delivering your wedding rings!

Met John Islwyn Jones of Pen y Bryn Falconry at a job at Ysgol Llangefni today.

Apparently this is the first owl to deliver the wedding rings at someone’s wedding – pretty cool!

There’s info about him and his birds of prey here http://www.hiraethog.org.uk/content.php?aID=9&lID=1&nID=5

in Waffle / wedding fayre / Weddings 4 comments

February 19, 2013February 19, 2013 by admin

North Wales wedding photographer: Newborough 1930s photo shoot – Anglesey

Had lots of fun doing a 1930s style photo shoot on Sunday.

Thanks to my models Abi Low & Lyndon Marshall, and to Alex Plows and Tam Tomkins for wardrobe and styling.

Please find them at http://facebook.com/thomasine.j.tomkins and http://weimarproductions.wordpress.com/

We started with this painting called the singing Butler by Jack Vettrianno, which we used as a reference image for the kind of look we wanted to go for:

We then took all our gear, costumes and props – including a bottle of wine – down to Newborough beach on Anglesey and made the most of the nice weather we’re having.

It was loads of fun, and here are the images…

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