New Blog address!

Our main blog has now moved to;

http://www.roberthooper.co.uk/blog/

A fresh new look and bigger images...

Thanks for dropping by :-)

Rob.

Modern wedding and portrait photography

The marriage of Tina Hills and Michael Dallman

Sunday 25th May 2008 saw the marriage of Tina and Michael at the Selsdon Park Hotel & Golf Club, Sanderstead, Surrey.

After a two month break, I'd been looking forward to photographing Tina and Michael's wedding day for a while now. Although Kevin was scheduled to assist, an unexpected fall and injury to his ankle just a few days before the wedding day made this impossible. Get well soon Kev!

Karen stepped into the fold, and despite having been sick with flu all week, kept up all day and into the night after some heavy doses of Beechams!

Tina looked fantastic and was beaming all day - as you can see from this shot taken during the ceremony.



Michael also looked relaxed and confident throughout. Here's another shot taken during the ceremony for you... Husband and Wife!



Of course, they weren't the only ones to enjoy themselves. Young and old, their guests seemed to have a great time. Here's a 'moment' for you, captured shortly after the ceremony.



Moving on a little, the next one is a shot taken during the ritual cutting of the cake... but instead of showing you a 'standard' cake cutting shot (yes, we do have those!) I'm going to show you this one I enjoyed taking...



So what's next? How about this one - Michael supporting his new wife as she recites an emotional and personal poem for Dad...



Wow.



And finally (for now)... a couple more shots of Tina and Michael enjoying the scenic grounds of the hotel together.





Great couple huh?

Great wedding guys, both Karen and I enjoyed photographing it a lot. I do hope you like the pictures, and would love to hear comments. Speak soon!

Full galleries will be available here after Tina and Michael get the first look! Tina and Michael wedding day

Rob.

Modern Surrey Wedding Photography

Andy Kostek - Guitar Hero!

I'd like to introduce you to Andy Kostek.

Andy is a musician currently based in Ireland, and flew over to see me last week looking for some portfolio photos for his website and general promotions. The brief started out as a simple headshots exercise... but as you'll see from the pictures we ended up getting a little more than that..!

Want to see some? Here we are then, take a look at this...



Like that? Great! Let's look at another one...



Andy was a great subject to photograph. Both he and I are passionate about what we do, and this led to a great photo session for a Saturday afternoon. We soon managed to over-run on our planned session time, but when you're "in the groove"... these things just have to be done ;-)

One more "Guitar Hero" shot for you before we move onto more traditional things...



Those shots were a blast to do, and made fantastic use of my most recent little gizmo - a portable smoke machine! This was the first time I'd used this cool little gadget so I was a little unsure what to expect - but with a little advice from Andy who's more familiar with such things, we were soon up and running.

So hands up who thought the shots above were shot on stage then??? Nope. All shot in my tiny little front-room studio. A little bizarre? Perhaps. Does it work? I think so :)

Naturally, we got other shots too. Here's a more sedate one for you.



More?



And finally, a "headshot" for you...



Andy is a great guy, really into his music and was kind enough to leave me a copy of his CD "One by One" which has been described as "A fusion of acoustic, blues and soft rock with a difference".

I love guitar orientated music, so this was right up my street - some really class playing on there. You can check out Andy's music for yourself by visiting his webpage at myspace:

Andy Kostek website

Thanks for a really fun session Andy. Your full galleries will soon be available online here:

Andy Kostek's headshots and portfolio galleries

Do feel free to leave your comments, I'd love to hear them.

All the best,

Rob.

Headshots and portfolios for musicians and singers

Helen and Paul's Wedding Day, Langshott Manor

Friday 14th March saw the wedding of Helen Heine and Paul Scriven, at the beautiful 16th century venue of Langshott Manor Hotel in Surrey.

Helen and Paul were a lovely couple, and right from the start it was obvious this was going to be a great day. Here's a confident Paul only 15 minutes before the ceremony, relaxing in the grounds during a break in the weather. With scattered light showers throughout the day, it was going to take more than a few drops of rain to dampen proceedings...

The ceremony included some wonderful heartfelt vows...

and felt intimate at all times...

Guests and their children all enjoyed themselves. Here's a great shot, with character shining through!

Another dry spell, and a few shots of the boys looking cool.

Of course, we can't forget our bride Helen, who not only looked fantastic, but also enjoyed and made sure everyone else enjoyed every bit of her day!

A few quieter moments for Helen and Paul to share together. Langshott Manor is such a beautiful location that it is just oozing with character and atmosphere, so it was important to me to try to convey this in our photography.

More atmosphere... this time in the dining area.

...and our happy couple still enjoying the day, and each other

until the first dance of the evening, and it's now time for Kevin and I to leave.

I'd just like to extend a big thank-you to the staff at Langshott Manor, who were helpful and courteous throughout the day and didn't once complain despite us having to share a rather busy corridor for some of those more intimate shots, while they were setting up the reception room for the evening disco.

And finally, a big congratulations goes to Helen and Paul. It was a pleasure to photograph your wedding day.

Full galleries here soon: Helen and Paul's wedding day

Please leave your comments below!

All the best,

Rob.

Quality wedding photography in Surrey

Charlotte's portrait session

Meet Charlotte. Aunt Claire bought Charlotte a portrait session as a gift last Christmas, so a few days ago Charlotte came along accompanied by Mum for her photo shoot.

Despite not having done this before, Charlotte soon relaxed and got into the swing of things. Here are a few previews from the session.

Not bad for a first shoot at just 14. I hope you like the pictures guys!

Full galleries here soon: Charlotte's portraits

All the best,

Rob.

Surrey portrait photography

Rebbecca's Cat portraits

Who likes cats?

Take a look at these two beauties... a gorgeous Siamese, and a lovely Russian Blue. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Beautiful aren't they?

By the way, did you ever wonder how we keep our cats interested when we're doing a shoot? Here's a shot of Rebbecca that might just give you a clue...

Thanks for your help Rebbecca. Enjoy the pictures!

Full galleries will be here soon: Rebbecca's cat photos

All the best,

Rob.

Cat photography in Twickenham

Jonathan and Russell's romantic portraits

Meet Jonathan and Russell.

Jonathan contacted me a while ago, interested in having some romantic portraits taken with his partner Russell. The original idea had been around Valentine's day but my schedule dictated otherwise, so Jonathan had elected to wait until I was available.

Meeting Jonathan and Russell, it was clear that they are very close. A quick chat about exactly the sort of pictures they were after, and we started shooting. Here are the lads at the start of the shoot.

After shooting a few 'standard' portraits to allow the guys time to relax it was time to start shooting the more intimate poses Jonathan had asked me for. It's a strange thing to be posing like this for a camera, but both the guys listened carefully as we discussed various poses, and happily followed instructions to the letter.

Anyone who has been to us before will be able to vouch for how bizarre and non-intimate my home studio really is... very little space, and certainly not the most romantic of settings when full of lighting equipment and various other photographic paraphernalia!

With this in mind, take a look at the pictures below, and I think you'll agree that the pictures really do have a very intimate feel to them.

And if you want an even more romantic look to your room (if the computers, lamps, tripods and stands haven't put you off just yet)... there's always candle-power!

Well that's it for now. Well done guys - I do hope you like the pictures.

Full galleries here soon: Jonathan and Russell

As is usual, any comments are fully welcomed... and if you want your own set of romantic or intimate photos with a partner, why not get in touch and we'll see what we can do.

All the best,

Rob.

Romantic portraits for couples