Well, here we are in 2013 … and here we are almost at EASTER !

As always I have absolutely no idea where the time has gone.  All I do know is it has gone fast.  Very fast.  As I sit here responding to emails, arranging shoots, following up enquiries for various jobs, eating soup (pea and ham to be precise) I just thought I’d say hi.  And to let you all know the recent (horrible) flu bug didn’t kill me after all.  Just in case you’re on facebook and wondered, etc.

I’ve already kicked off my 2013 wedding season with a beautiful wedding in York … the season continues tomorrow at a local venue, including a church ceremony and some fun portraits in the evening … oh and potentially snow, again !!  I have some beautiful weddings again this year at great venues, I promise I will play catchup here and let you see some stuff.

I’ve also had some lovely portrait shoots.  There are loads more booked in over the coming weeks and I can’t wait to share those with you … from couples to babies to families, so much variety !  My studio (haha) Shugborough opens this weekend and I shall, once again, be using it’s many backdrops to my advantage over the coming months.

Following a fabulous workshop down in Bristol recently, I am now taking on Newborn Photography … as in, first 10 days kinda thing, totally cute, scrummy hats and blankets at the ready … know anyone due soon?  Get them to give me a bell for some incredible “opening” offers !

I’m thinking about rebranding too.  I know, I love love love my brand, I really do.  Unfortunately many people in the industry loved it so much they decided to do it for their businesses, which has kinda diluted mine (and theirs, oh well) … so rather than try to go round and slap people in the shins for copying me, I thought I’d do the better thing and change mine.  Sigh.  Still, onwards and upwards … this may take a while, it’s going to be like tearing off a plaster you’re actually rather attached to (in more ways than one).

So, leave me a comment, say hi, whatever.  Let me know what you want to see … weddings?  portraits?  all the above?  You know, I have about 65 shoots to share with you … maybe more !!!!

Take care xx

I have no idea who said it but the following quotation is very true … and applies to whatever computer platform you work on …

“It is not a matter of whether a hard drive will fail, it is a matter of WHEN”

As a professional photographer (who also used to work in the IT industry) who cares about my client files, I do everything in my power to ensure your files are safe.  I am not, as it turns out, as careful with my personal data, photos, etc.  I only found this out when my drives went KABOOM last week.  Not literally, that would have been a little dramatic.  But when you get the black screen of death, which followed the screen which said “hey, look here, this drive is screwed” (or words to that effect) a little bit of you dies inside.  And you throw up in your mouth a little.

Thankfully I have a backup machine (aka laptop) with which I was able to access my backup drives to see what state I was in.  Well thankfully as always I had backed up all my client work.  At least, all the raws, the vast majority of the output jpegs and the vast majority of album designs.  I was faced with re-doing some work from scratch but actually I didn’t care.  I had all my clients’ work, safe, on external drives.

But absolutely ZERO personal work.  Nothing.  Holiday photos, gone.  Family photos, gone.  Personal files, gone, finance files, gone (ok so JT had the latter on his drives thankfully, as he is my accountant, but I thought I would try to inject a little bit more drama haha).

So what do you do in this instance.  I am fortunate to have an IT guy who is really switched on.  Unfortunately he needed to have the machine in front of him so he could see what was going on.  He lives in Berkshire.  So, cue JT in the snow, hurtling down the motorway to get the machine to Paul.  I don’t drive in snow.  What a husband !  Paul did his best but althought he could SEE the data, he couldn’t access it.  He installed a new SSD for running windows and programs and sent me it back.

What now.  Well, there happens to be an awesome company in Stafford (like 10 mins drive from me) who spoke to Paul and told me to bring the machine in.  Fingers crossed.  Oh, by the way, they are called DataWreck.  Their website states that they can take up to a week to get data back, so I knuckled down for the wait.

OMG.  I got a call literally at lunchtime yesterday to say … hey we can access your data, drop us your new drives around and we’ll get it all sorted for you.  They’re also screwing them in and setting the RAID volumes up.  Brilliant.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW RELIEVED I AM.

So what lessons have I learned …

First and foremost that I need to start treating my own data the same as I treat other people’s … it is just as important, to me.

That the above quote is so true, believe me, true as a true thing from true-tonia.

That installing SSD drives is a waste of time (apparently) and that if one of those puppies goes you might as well iss your bank account goodbye trying to retrieve data (and yes, they do go, frequently).

That all said, now that the Christmas and New Year break is over and my IT hell is coming to an end, normal service will soon be resumed.  Very soon.  With photos and EVERYTHING !!

My wedding season starts this weekend with a beautiful York wedding … what a great start to the 2013 season !!

Dear Blog

I realise you are feeling very neglected these days.  I felt the need to explain.

See, the thing is, I’ve been cheating on you with Facebook Business Page.  There, I said it.  I’m sorry, but FB is just easy, you know?

Please forgive me. Etc.

And then of course there is the “I’ve been busy” excuse … well I have … and then there was my birthday and then and … sigh …

See you soon.

Your ever-loving-very-sorry-for-neglecting-you Photographer xx

I have been shooting weddings professionally now for the last 9 years.  I love weddings.  Everything about them still excites me and I love my clients that I get to work with.

I also love shooting portraits … families, babies, people with their pets, pets on their own, children, teenagers, boudoir, engagements … you name it, I love shooting it.  Over the years I have been very fortunate to have been chosen my so many families to record their memories … with such an abundance of photographers out there, along with the current technology that means everyone with a camera is a photographer (LOL) I do feel awfully chuffed to be the one they choose.

However, the portraits side of my business has always been a bit of a tag-on to the wedding business.  It’s not that I haven’t taken taking the photos seriously, but if I’m completely honest, I haven’t really taken the business seriously.  I don’t actively market portraits, I just take them as they come along.

I enjoy them so much I want to do more of them.  End of.

So after a small straw poll with some of my clients, I came to the conclusion that if a bride (or groom) is looking for a wedding photographer, they want to see photos of wedding, brides, details … they don’t necessarily want to see photos of babies !  It made sense, therefore, to split the websites out.  The domain name I wanted for the portrait site was available, so I snapped it up right away !  It is live but there is no content currently.  This was to be a winter project but I seem to have jumped the gun a little too early (I didn’t want to lose the domain!) … in the meantime you can still view my portrait work on my wedding site and as soon as it is all split out properly I will let you know to go check the new site … it’s gilltaylorportraits.co.uk in case you want to keep tabs !

There will be new pricing, some really fab products, lovely photos I have taken and very likely never shown, some old favourites and of course new stuff from this year !

Gill xx

This past weekend found me doing something I haven’t done since I was a very young girl … ok, 18 and 21 years young !!  Back then I toured France twice with my friends, on motorbikes.  We took our time and saw many wonderful places.  I always wanted to have a chance to do it again, but without the camping and in a car.

So I was shooting a wedding in the south of France last Saturday and after looking at the abysmal options for flights (hand luggage allowances etc) I decided to drive and take a couple of extra days to do it in time and to get back to the office afterwards.

John decided he’d rather like to come along, so I had the added “stress” of finding somewhere I would trust to leave my dogs for a few days … eeeeek … after many recommendations for the same place (Quintessential Quarters) in they went and off we went.  It was a lovely drive down, I decided to drive the whole way, I enjoyed it that much.  I really got on well driving on the right and, apart from that illegal U-Turn in Paris that we will never speak of again, I was practically native by the time I reached Calais on the way home.

I decided to keep the professional photos for the Saturday wedding and to take some iPhone photos of the trip instead … here are a few …

So this was the trip according to Google maps … daunting at best …

Leaving Dover …

I didn’t lift a camera again until I got to the wedding … this was the ceremony in the 13th Century Church in the stunningly pretty village of Bram …

So, on the way back home, we stopped in the gorgeous City of Orleans … naturally I had to stop in and check out this church on route to our walk along the River Loire and to the pub, of course …

Orleans …

In no time at all, we were back in Calais … time flew, as did the driving … all 1900 miles in the end … Au Revoir France !

We were back too late in the evening to pick up my babies … this photo of Tess and Daddy says it all when we picked them up the next morning …

I think Millie is also glad to be home …

Thanks for checking out my blog, I hope you liked my journey … naturally I shall be blogging the wedding but in the meantime here is a sneak peek, taken on the banks of the canal just behind Dad’s house in Bram …

French Wedding Photography

I get enquiries for dates I am already booked all the time.  Of course I hear you say.  Rather than just go back and say, sorry I’m booked, I like to check within my professional network to see if I can at least go back with some recommendations, specifically with recommendations of photographers who are available.

I got a rather panicky email from a bride (and separately the groom, within minutes of each other) today and so I did my usual.

I got this from the bride, who wanted to give me a testimonial !!!

Absolutely delighted, thank you Alex, this is lovely.

“This wonderful woman went above and beyond the call of duty when I had my photographer cancel on me with a few months to go before my big bank holiday weekend wedding. I was obviously in a blind panic due to the fact it had taken me four months to find the first one but, there was Gill Taylor. Although she was already booked for that day herself, she responded to my email within seconds, had called me within minutes and had sent a list of recommendations within half an hour – Proof that this lady I have never met has what it takes to be a wedding photographer. Not only are her photos really very pretty, she is kind, conscientious, diligent and organised and has a marvellous knack for de-stressing bridezillas in their moments of madness. I’m just peeved I didn’t go to her first.”

Staffordshire Wedding Photographer

I am thrilled to be able to show you the latest edition of the newly revamped Staffordshire Bride magazine … I got the cover !

Dont forget to pop out and get your copy … they hit the shelves today … congrats also to my lovely bride Claire … you can check out her engagement shoot and wedding here too !

Here it is … thrilled …

Staffordshire Wedding Photographer