Katie and Adam's wedding photography at Gosfield Hall

We had some great weather at the end of May, the 30th at Gosfield Hall was an absolute scorcher. Gosfield Hall is a great place to work, the venue has so much character, and the staff are really friendly and helpful. It's one of those places where I push myself to find a new idea for a shot every time I visit...there are just so many great features to work with.

Katie and Adam married at Gosfield Church which is just a short walk along a rural path from the main hall. They have a very encouraging perspective on photography at the church, I was requested by the Vicar to shoot as much as possible and ensure Katie and Adam had some wonderful memories of the service. This sadly is quiet rare these days with churches, it's always worth checking well before the big day on what exactly the church will allow with regards to wedding photography.

Heron Cyclesport Go-Race series 4...my second road race

Last Thursday I was back at the Dunton test track for my second race in the Heron Cyclesport Series. After the first race I came away thinking that I wanted to be a little more adventurous than just running the race mid-pack, and attempting a sprint for a decent place at the end. So, from the start I found myself working at the front for a couple of laps. The wind was blowing along the back straight which made the going quiet hard and energy sapping.

An early group broke away and I attempted to chase along with my training buddy Matt Haig...big mistake, lots of energy wasted,and the breakaway was caught by the main group within a couple of laps anyway.

Then things got really hard for me. I had an attack of cramp in my calf and had to drop to the back of the group and recover while hanging on for dear life. Two laps of pain and I got over it and got back into a reasonable rhythm. I found myself in a reasonable position for one of the prime laps, but got totally blown away in the sprint.

Around 40 minutes into the race the cramp set in again, this time in both legs. I should have pulled out, but again dropped right back and got out of the saddle to try and stretch my legs and shake off the cramp.

With 5 minutes to go I felt quiet good and moved right up to the front of the pack with visions of putting in a good sprint for a decent finish. 3rd off the last bend, I waited for the two guys in front to sprint and then gave it everything. sadly my everything wasn't up to much, I got wacked into by a team mate who is a big powerful guy...not sure who's fault or if that's just racing! but I backed off pretty much spent before the line as virtually the whole field flew past.

A not so good 23rd. Disappointing after a solid finish in 8th for my first race.

So, time to practice sprinting, any maybe next round I'll be a little more humble and aware of what my current abilities are.

It's one hell of an adrenalin rush though!

Katherine and Adrian at Newland's Hall

May 29th saw me back at Newland's Hall as the Essex wedding photographer for Katherine and Adrian. The weather was fantastic...sunny and very warm. Katherine and Adrian were keen to make the most of the beautiful evening light and we created some great artistic pictures. These work really well alongside my documentary images, and as I work very quickly, we had a good variation of creative portraits in around 20 minutes.

First road race

On Thursday 4th June I entered my first cycling road race. This was held on the test track at the Ford Dunton site. After a slightly shaky start I managed to stay with the pack for the entire race, and even had enough left after an hours racing for a sprint and a reasonable finish. I got 8th out of 46 riders. It was a good day for the Essex Roads CC with Rob Young winning, Trevor Phillips 5th, myself 8th and Ben Sayles in 9th.

Sleep just wasn't going to happen afterwards! I spent half the night staring at the ceiling....maybe the caffinated energy gels were not such a good idea for an evening race. There are another 5 races in the series which I plan on entering.