Josh And My Canon 5Dii

Josh is now 3 1/2 and loves to pick up and use my cameras. From an early age he has been interested to find out which bits to what, and although he has a small kids camera he always prefers to use mine. Although they are quite large for his small hands I love the way he is so careful and considered with them, and doesn’t just randomly press the shutter.

One afternoon just before Christmas I had my Canon 5Dii in the house, and he decided that he wanted to get some photos of me, so I filmed it with my iPhone. One of these images has become my profile picture on my social media pages, and I wanted to share how the picture came about….

Posted in Personal Photographer, portrait photography | Tagged camera, canon 5dii, child, i love my son, james crockford, joshua crockford, photography, small boy taking photos | 1 Comment

Our favourite Photographs from 2011

Picking out our favourite photos from the last year has been really tricky – we have had such a great year, and looking through the thousands of photographs has reminded us how lucky we are to be able to have our own business doing what we love. Some of you may not realise that we cover a huge range of both social and business photography, which is what makes our job so interesting and keeps our photography fresh. There are lots of exciting developments coming up in 2012, so don’t forget to come back and take a look at what’s new in the coming months as well.

Huge thanks to all our friends, family and clients for your support this year – and Happy New Year for 2012.

K&J

Posted in architectural photography, Baby Portrait, commercial photography, corporate photography, dog portrait photographer, pet portrait photography, portrait photography | Tagged baby portrait, birmingham, children, engagement shoot, family portraits, informal, lifestyle, midlands, pet photography, photographer, photography, portrait, portrait photography, pre-wedding photographs, relaxed, stylish, wedding photographer, west midlands | 1 Comment

Introducing… Baby Theo

Bonnie & Toby from the gorgeous wedding venue Alrewas Hayes recently had a beautiful baby boy, Theo. I felt really honoured to take photographs of such a warm and genuine family.

Posted in Baby Portrait, portrait photography | Tagged baby portrait, birmingham photographer, family portraits, midlands, photographs, photography, portraits, relaxed | Leave a comment

Abi & Duncan – Lincoln’s Inn, Savoy & Highbury Hall Wedding Photography

Earlier this year, I was very happy to be a part of Abi and Duncan’s intimate wedding down in London. Although they both live in Birmingham, when they were looking at where to get married, they decided that it had to be in London, because of some strong emotional connections to both Lincolns Inn, and with the Savoy Hotel – both of them beautiful venues, and perfect for a small and very personal wedding.

Abi spent the morning getting ready at the Savoy (she had a Jenny Packham dress that suited the style of the hotel perfectly), in one of their stunning suites – the Katherine Hepburn Suite, with fantastic views over the Thames, before taking the short journey to Lincoln’s Inn for the ceremony at the chapel. One of the nice things about small weddings is that you get to know the family and close friends much more, and they in turn participate more in the day. This wedding was no exception. During the ceremony, as I was walking down the aisle to photograph the signing of the registry, several members of Duncan’s family were walking in the opposite direction. It took me a moment to realise that they were heading for one of the choir stalls, where they proceeded to give the most stunning choral rendition – it seems they all sing together in a choir, and Duncan would normally be there with them (but for the fact he had the minor task of making the marriage official).

After the ceremony the guests went down to a beautiful vaulted cloister for tea and cake, and enjoyed the extremely unseasonal bright warm sunshine. Lincoln’s Inn is a lovely setting – with impressive buildings and a sense of calm in central london (certainly on the weekend anyway). After which the wedding party went back to the Savoy for drinks and the wedding breakfast in one of the stunningly renovated rooms – wood paneling, even a bust of Winston Churchill… and as you would expect, impeccable service.

Two iconic venues, just 30 people and an Indian summer’s day made it very memorable….

It was followed up by a fabulous reception party with their friends and family at the historic Highbury Hall back in Birmingham a few weeks later, which I also had the pleasure of photographing.

Posted in wedding photography | Tagged intimate wedding, jenny packham, Lincoln's Inn, midlands photographer, savoy hotel, The Wedding Club, wedding, wedding photographer, wedding photography | 2 Comments

A bit of Soul Food….

One of the things my lovely little boys love is baking with Mummy. This is one of my first experiments with the video on my Canon 5Dii and editing it into a movie.

Love my boys…. And their Mum.

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Majid Family Portrait

The beauty of children is that they don’t care whether it is a sunny day, they just love being outdoors. I met with the lovely Majid family in Sutton Coldfield last week and we spent some time just enjoying the park, and capturing that on camera.

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Brothers in Love

We recently met Amrinder and Dhanwant, two brothers who were about to get married on the same day, to Bavinder and Hardeep. We met them through our fabulous Jewellery partner Rudells, who are based in Harborne (Birmingham) and Wolverhampton. The outfits for their shoot were stunning and brightly coloured, so the shoot was a real pleasure…

Posted in Uncategorized, wedding photography | Tagged Engagement Rings, engagement shoot, pre-wedding shoot, Rudells, Sikh, Wedding rings, west midlands | Leave a comment

Introducing… Jasper

Jasper is a beautiful little rescue cat, who was given a loving new home by Sarah & Ed in London. Because of his past, he is a little timid, so I took my time, letting him get to know me, and then followed him on his adventures…

Going for a stroll

Hello gorgeous

Who are you again?

Surveying my land

Don’t forget – you can buy portrait shoot vouchers for the pet lovers in your life for Christmas – or something from our exciting Christmas Hamper Range too

Posted in pet portrait photography, Uncategorized | Tagged birmingham, Cat photography, Christmas Gift options, london., pet photography, Vouchers for Christmas, west midlands | Leave a comment

Julian & Thelma’s Pomeranian Portraits

One of my other recent photoshoots in Jersey was with Julian and his friend Thelma, or more specifically, with their pomeranians. They both breed pomeranians and between them they had 17. It was always going to be an interesting shoot…. There were manic times when all I could see was a blur of fur (Blur of Fur sounds like an 80′s new wave band…), and trying to calm down 10 dogs enough for them to sit, even just momentarily took a concerted effort from all three of us, but at the same time it was fun, especially seeing the personalities of each of the dogs – some excited, some showing off, others just causing trouble in the pack.

I wanted to get a mixture of groups and individuals, and I had an idea in my head to get them all together for a photo (although for various reasons we couldn’t get all 17 of them together, but we did manage 10), and I really wanted to get some images exploring my new direction for my dog photography which is developing at the moment.

I have posted some more previews on my Facebook page too, but here are some of my favourites. A big thank you to Julian and Thelma for their patience and help corralling the dogs, and to their beautiful pomeranians for an unforgettable shoot (in a good way)…

Posted in dog portrait photographer, pet portrait photography, pomeranian | Tagged beautiful, channel islands, dog photography, dog portrait, Jersey, midlands based photographer, on location, pet photographer, pet photography, photographer, photography, pomeranian, stylish, uk, unique | Leave a comment

Master Photography Awards – Commercial and Wedding Photography Success

I really feel honoured today. Last night I was at the Master Photographer’s Association 2011 Awards. I had received merits for three of my images – which I was thrilled with, and I was really looking forward to the Awards night, as they are a good night out, a good chance to catch up with photography colleagues and an opportunity to see what the best in the industry are doing. There were some truly inspirational images on display in the exhibition and I was genuinely pleased to be sharing a platform with my fellow MPA merit winners.

After the meal the awards started. One of the early catagories was the Mario Acerboni Creative Wedding Award – 3 Images from 1 Wedding. I knew I had been awarded the West Midlands region award and went up on stage to collect my trophy with the other regional winners, but having just sat down again, I was thrilled to hear my name called out to win the overall national award. The photos were from Christine & James’ gorgeous wedding at Edgbaston Golf Club, and it was such a surprise to win.

These are the images:

However, that was just the start of the night…..

I have been quietly developing my architectural photography over the past couple of years, and although it is not something I shout about much, I have been building up a portfolio of both interior and exterior architectural images, and it was one of these that really took me by surprise.

First up was the Architectural category – with some very strong competition, and I assumed that I was just going to be given an award of excellence, so I was excited to be given MPA Architectural Photographer of the Year.

To be honest, I hadn’t really considered what might happen if I won a category, so it was even more of a surprise when all of the commercial awards winners were shortlisted for the award of MPA Commercial Photographer of the Year – which I won…..!

I almost fell off my seat when I was announced as the winner….

At this point I was just gobsmacked and had been furiously texting Kat (who was not able to make the awards), and was just enjoying the rest of the ceremony… until the point I realised that I was then shortlisted for yet another award – Best UK Image…. and I almost fell off my seat when I was announced as the winner. This is such a prestigious award to win, and it was incredible to be given an accolade.

What an amazing evening….

The image that did so well was from a Birmingham client of mine, who has been involved in building some amazing new schools in the region, and I was commissioned to photograph them as they were finished. As I was going around one of these schools, there was this one particular water fountain that caught my eye, with a bright red background. It had such a strong visual impact I had to make sure I got a shot of it… quite glad I did now….

So here it is: