News/Blog

This portrait of Chris on his Lambretta won me a silver award in January's IPPN monthly competition. The IPPN (International Professional Photographer's Network) is a forum based web site for photographers to share ideas, ask advice and general hang out together - as we're a lonely bunch :)



It's always good fun doing these monthly competitions, as it keeps a level of self critique going... now to try hit a gold award !

We've our 2012 sample wedding albums in at Cat's Row studios, to give our lovely wedding couples more ideas about their album choices. From 6x8" up to 14x10" , acrylic covers, micro sets... parents albums.... lots of ideas to choose from.



It can be difficult to plan your wedding album until you've seen what photos you want included, how many can you squeeze into your album, what size ? Full page of several to a page ? Maybe you're just paying initially for the photography coverage with the CD/DVD package and plan on getting an album later... either way heres a small guide on what's possible and price guides for options.

Our packages list albums with 'included photos' but unlike most photographers, we don't live by hard and fast rules. If a package states '40 photos' , that's an average. If you pick 50 favourite photos, we'll try to get all your choice included without any extra expense. But then again, if you'd like lots of full page photos, the only way possible might be to include extra pages & leaves in your album to fit them all in.
Every album is unique... just like every wedding we shoot.

The photographers job starts way in advance with all the preparation, on the day of the wedding, the photography starts for real, but then the week after the big day is when another 4 or 5 days of work in photo preparation for printing & albums goes on... but don't you worry about that, once you've seen your portfolio.

We've put together a PDF price list & guide that we send out to all the wedding enquiries we receive. We can also send hard copies too.

For the whole of February... something for all you lovely couples... whether your just going out, engaged or old married couple like me 'n Ali... a great special offer...

A double session, outdoor on a wee walk about, nice and informal & friendly AND a session in the studio. Also includes an 8x10 and a 5x7" print.

This would normally rrp at £110 but it's only £55 throughout the whole of February.

Get booked in now.... and get close with the one ya lurv :)



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Jings, what's happened ? :)
Lots of enquiries now for 2013 AND 2014 weddings.
We're still holding our offer just now where you can book your 2013 or 2014 wedding photography with us for a low deposit of £50 - and we'll hold 2012 prices for you.
As well as that, we'll also give a £50 discount when the balance is due - 2 weeks before the big day !

Even if you don't have a date yet (like some couples for 2014) you can still book us, and when the time comes that you choose a date, and we're booked... we'll give you your full deposit back - no problems.

So take advantage of this great offer, pop over to the Wedding Photography page and get something else ticked off your list !

Well 2012 is certainly off to a flyer.
We've been very busy in Cat's Row Studios with portraits of all shapes and sizes... small individual jobs, and parties of up to 12 giggling excited teengers.

Wedding bookings - our main event - have been coming in thick and fast too. Bookings up to now have surpassed total weddings covered in 2011. We've bookings for all over the place. Our wedding photography doesn't stop in East Lothian, with a good few Fife dates, Glasgow and of course Edinburgh - even into Northumberland again.

We'll be in some great locations this year... Edinburgh Castle, Rosslyn Chapel, Ravensheugh Lodge (quite a few times), Loch Lomond... as well as all the usual fantastic East Lothian spots & hotels.

I just love covering wedding photography, and i think our couples are catching onto that. Our last wedding of 2011 was (to me anyway) summed up when the bride wrote "Grahame is in fact so lovely, if you don't have him as your wedding photographer, just have him as a guest instead." Aw ... how nice is that !! Braw :)

Back in Cat's Row Studios, we are still trying out new ideas, still building new sets so we can always offer something different. In the last week or so, we had portraits in our themed room... which we intend to set up as lots of different small sets, a mile away from the plain background sit & smile portraits (which we still do by the way :) ), and we used our cube for the first time... this is great fun for families & groups of friends... best way to explain it is to have a look at the pictures below.

So onwards & upwards... please keep telling your friends about us, and keep hitting the wee "like" buttons on the Facebook buttons...Thanks for everyone's support x G.

We've limited dates left for February & March this year, so to fill off the diary we're offering some fantastic deals for wedding photography packages in February and March 2012.

If you've left things late, were on a strict budget or thought you might not want a pro photographer... well if your date falls into one of limited free slots, we could shoot your wedding from as little as £300 !

Fill in the form on the Weddings Page asap and we'll get right back to you if it's one of our free dates.

Decided to get along to Dunbar's East Beach with the camera... shorts & crocks on and get in the freezing cold New Year's Day water to catch some photos of the "Loonie's" doing their Dooks for charity.

Don't know who the biggest loony was as I stood waste deep waiting on everyone coming in :)

A good laugh all the same and a lot of people made some good money for charity.

There' around 100 photos over on our face book page which is ...

GWS Photography Facebook

If you like these pics, or are in them... please like our Facebook page to keep us excited :)

**Additional Friday 6th Jan ... Hazel & Bruce's portfolio is all but ready - they'll be having a private viewing over the next few days, then they may let you lovely people view them as well :) Watch this space.**



The last wedding of the year... Hazel & Bruce had a very relaxed...with friends & family wedding in Edinburgh's Caves. The Rowantree section.
Gorgeous setting with amazing ambient light that the designers ignored what photographers would say though :)

But an amazing place, and Hazel & Bruce's day went fabby. Everyone relaxed and enjoying themselves from arrival to the end.

We'll have the full portfolio up on the site in around a week, once the new Mr & Mrs Strang have been into Cat's Row Studios to view their slideshow & photos on the big screen... in the meantime here's 3 previews for you.

And all the best once again to Hazel & Bruce (and happy birthday Hazel... you looked gorgeous - told you you would !)

We've started to get quite a few enquiries for 2013, some just loose enquiries with no confirmed date yet ... so here's an offer for 2013 couples !

Reserve a date now, or just reserve us as your photographer for only £50, and we'll hold 2012 prices for you AND we'll take the £50 booking fee off your total price.

Should the date you eventually want become booked out before you confirm your date, we'll refund you in full.

So no risk, small booking fee, 2012 prices with £50 off , and most importantly I want to do your wedding !!!

Give us a call now or drop an email in, and mark "book a great, passionate wedding photographer" off your list :)

Here's a small compilation of some of the weddings from this year.
There's more to add, and another still to shoot... but thought I'd start rounding 2011 up... a great year taking us from Northumberland - to Glasgow & Stirling , Edinburgh and all around the Lothians.

Thanks to all our wonderful couples... and here's to the 2012 couples to be !

It’s time to start thinking about the holidays, and I’m excited to introduce you to my new vendor for holiday cards and photo gifts: Pinhole Press. I recently started to use Pinhole Press because of the simplicity of their design, beauty of their crafted books, and high quality of their paper and printing.

As a professional photographer, Pinhole Press gives me access to a collection of exclusive products that are not available to all customers. I’d like to share these products with you! In order to access these exclusive photo gifts, you can go to Pinhole Press using my link http://www.PinholePress.com/?prc=GWSPIN

Pinhole Press just launched their new holiday card and gift guide collections. Now you can take those portrait and wedding photos off your computer and include them in a number of gifts that are perfect for the holidays.
The photos can be taken by anybody... so long as you can upload them and you have the rights to print them... you can take advantage of this fantastic, huge range of quality products.

I'd have thought we'd be all wrapped up by now, but on good ol' Hogmany we'll be shooting the wedding of Hazel & Bruce in the gorgeous Edinburgh Caves. What a cracking way to end the year... then start with a mad & busy 2012 !


Check out the venues ratings...

Nominated for BEST WEDDING VENUE in the 2011 Vows Awards

WINNER of BEST SMALL VENUE in the 2009 Scottish Event Awards

Nominated for BEST UNUSUAL VENUE in the 2010 UK Events Awards

Cool eh.

It's always a lot more relaxed at weddings where the happy couple have been there and done that... maybe been married before etc.
Yesterday's wedding was like that with a lovely relaxed atmosphere around. Not to say there weren't still some last minute nerves... but that's probably more down to stage fright than anything else :)

The Open Arms in Dirleton is a great (fair enough , not huge) venue, with lots of nice, different rooms all carefully planned out and immaculate. The ambient light everywhere is gorgeous.
David & Barbara's wedding ceremony was over all too quickly... so I let everyone settle in with a drink before we did a quick 10 minute group shot outside in the fading sun. I'm always aware that the guests are there to be around the happy couple and enjoy themselves... not be ordered around by a photographer, so we got our shot and let everyone get back to the lounge until their evening meals were ready.

So ... off I go to select & edit a working set of photos for David & Barbara's album, the rest of their portfolio will be up here for family & friends within the week.

All the best to Barbara & David... Mr & Mrs Chalmers.

Destiny Church, Edinburgh was the venue for this wedding... a converted cinema on Gorgie Road. The obvious thing about cinemas is the lack of windows for natural light... so for the first time I had to use some flash lighting. Thankfully Pastor Pete who was running the ceremony was ok with that.

But because of the fast flow of the wedding from front of stage to back cafe area I couldn't afford the time to mount up my speed-lites into the stands on the stage then dismantle them for the other areas, so I had to take along two of our studio heads to light up the main stage area, with my portable speedlites set-up to be slapped onto the camera when we switched areas.

Anyway, enough of my technical gibberish :)

The wedding was lovely, Julie & Bruce are both born again Christians but without overpowering their friends and family with religion, they & Pastor Pete led a very emotional and loving ceremony, which it was obvious to see, meant so much to the couple.

The Church band played rousing versions of Hymns through an excellent in house PA system that any band would love to be plugged into, and between the live music & singing, the ceremony was really uplifting and emotional. Have to admit there were a few times I almost got caught up in it all and joined in... having to remind myself I had a job to do... as I darted from stage left, to stage right, up to the balcony and back again... no wonder my legs are aching this morning :)

Julie & Bruce had a great day, and as a small extra bonus to all three of us we're doing a post wedding shoot... with wedding dress , kilts and all at Dirleton Castle next month. (Julie had seen Louise & Allister's photos and loved the photos from within the Kings Chamber).

So... all the best to Julie & Bruce... Mr & Mrs McEwen... see you both very soon !

(Full portfolio will be up in the gallery for friends & family soon, once J&B have had their viewing)

We still have a few Fridays & Saturdays available for weddings in January, and we're offering £90 off all our Ceremony packages, and £150 off all Classic packages.

That means we could photograph your wedding for as little as £400 !

We do wedding photography in Edinburgh and all around the Lothians, as well as Northumberland and up to Perth & Glasgow.

If you or a friend would like to take advantage of these offers... drop me an email at gs@gwsphotography.co.uk or call 07976 802944.

The ups and downs of night time photography !
We'd planned on doing a re-shoot of one of the calendar shots... the New Year one on the High Street, with the girls all wrapped up in tartan coats and the Town Clock in the background... BUT...

During the restoration of the building, the outside lights have been removed. None of us noticed until we went out to shoot the picture :/
The girls spent about an hour getting ready too... ooops. So I grabbed a shot for their efforts and we wrapped up - without the shot we wanted... not enough ambient light.



On another note though, I've had a few successful nights doing landscape work under the strong moonlight this week... my favourite being the one below... showing the Bridge to Nowhere, Bass Rock, North Berwick Law and the Plough (in the stars).
It's weird doing this kind of picture as when I'm standing there for a very long time in complete darkness.. I can't see a thing... but give the camera long enough, and the moonlight will light up the surroundings quite well.


This picture could well have come straight out the camera like this, but I DO like to add a touch of glow to landscape images, so I gave it a wee one. Other than that, a very simple image to capture.

So, it's back to wedding work from Friday. A consultation in Cat's Row studios for a wedding next week, and also a pre-wedding shoot in Edinburgh. Followed by Julie & Bruce's wedding on Saturday. Happy days :)

A good busy day yesterday as we met up with around 40 families for the annual Dunbar Woman's Group charity portrait sessions.
Lots of happy smiling kids (and yeah a few grumpy chops but that's kids for you). Everyone seem to enjoy themselves anyway.

It was a great day for Cat's Row Studios though as we pushed our energies, equipment and old legs to the max. 9 1/2 hours of constant flashing for the studio lights is testament to the manufacturers build quality - well done to Lencarta & Bowens there !

Got to admit though, I was getting slow and sore towards the end of the night, but my fish supper reward was well received :)

We set up 3 different shot options, with high key white full length background, a dark brown sit down area, and for the older kids - a funky black & white wall/pillar shot.

We managed to rig the light in 2 set ups that lit the 3 areas how we wanted them though, to keep the areas as clear as possible.

So the portfolio is up now, and we are making a donation from every sale to Dunbar Woman's Group. Thanks once again to Karen Bell for setting this up, to Ali for being my time keeper and co-ordinator and most of all to everyone that came along to take part.

We had a good afternoon at East Links Family Park on Friday, shooting the last session for the Youth Cafe project calendar.
The theme for this month was "On Safari" so we tried a few shots on the carts, young Ryan Scougal looking brilliantly like someone from a Carry-On film , pith helmet, binoculars and all.
The girls were fashioned up by Jacqui again, and were tremendous in giving us the serious fashion-esque looks... a complete contrast to Ryan's comic input.
A bit of off-camera flash gave us some fake sunshine look in this in-the-woods clearing, as we dodged all the holiday visitors to the park in their pedal carts!

I can't stop thinking of the old TV classic "It Aint Half Hot Mum" :)

So it's up to Jo & Jacqui now to pick the 12 shots and get a calendar finished... I've done my bit :)

Despite having had my nose operated on this week, I was keen to catch up with Suzie & Iain at Longniddry. They get married on December 3rd - our last wedding of 2011 (just now anyway - still getting bookings in).

It was a blustery day, but the stormy skies gave us some drama to play with. I was just glad to get out with the camera and meet up with our guys here again.

So apart from a few emails back and forward over the next 6 weeks or so, that's us on the way to their wedding now. Looking forward to it !

There's a LOT more of these pictures over on our blog at http://blog.gwsphotography.co.uk



We do a pre-wedding shoot for free with every wedding package that we offer. It's a fantastic way to get to know the couple better, see how they act together (see if either of them are blinkers :) ) and a chance to have a nice informal chat , away from the pressures of a sales pitch or a group of friends standing around watching them... that comes at the wedding !

It's great to do it at a place that means something to the couple, but we always have Cat's Row Studios in Dunbar to fall back on if the weather is really bad.

I'm not going to just turn up at someone's wedding after they've booked, grab some photos and leave... I want to build up that relationship that may well last many years, see how people tick and just as importantly, let them see how I work.
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You can now buy Gift Vouchers from us online.
An ideal present for a friend or loved one at any time of the year !
From the Shop section above, you can buy the vouchers ... from the online shop that are only available in quantities of £45, but if you call on 01368 864500 or pop in to see us in our shop you can buy any value of £20 and over.

If you like, we can even post direct to the person to receive it, adding your personal message for you.