Solent Studios - The Blog

By no means was this wedding small … not when the groom buys a classic British mini for his bride!

The day started when one of the Best Men, Matt, (who must be the world’s tallest best man) pulled out two scooters for him and Marty to travel with the wind in their hair all the way to the pub and church. I had visions of an accident arrising and Marty saying his “I do” with a plaster taped to his chin … but they got there without incident.

Claire arrived at the church looking absolutely stunning … not that she’s a minger the rest of the time! But between how good she looked and her personality that oozes sunshine, she was the finishing touch to a perfect setting (Marty scrubbed up pretty good too).

Charlie at St Anne’s Church in Portchester Castle got the ball rolling for the day and got the legalities sorted … top vicar, fab service and extremely warm and approachable.

After some rather ‘phonky’ B&G portraits down by the sea we headed to the reception at Southsea Castle where the party really started with a BBQ that got my stomach gurgling for food (I don’t usually eat at weddings), the smell was incredible … and when Chef offered me lamb chops marinated in all sorts of yummy sounding stuff I didn’t resist.

Anyway, enough of my waffling … here’s some wedding photos

Last week Ant & Greg photographed the Southampton University’s Medics Ball. Just have a look at the gallery if you want to see how hot the next generation of Doctors are!

Anyway, while sorting out the gallery I found quite a few pics of Ant taken by Greg … and hey, they were just too good not to post on my blog!

Ant runs his own very posh studio in Southampton and also is the official photographer at Southampton Guildhall for all of the live music acts they have there. Greg runs his own photography company … Thurtle Power … and has recently become president of the Nikon owners club of Dorset.

Ant, also minister for silly walks

Good photographers practise yoga regularly

Just another beautiful day behind the lens

Glad there was no Canon branding in this shot otherwise it wouldn’t have been posted!

Now you see it …

Now you don’t!

… and here he is, the chocolate monster himself, Greg!

Here’s a few photos from Rose and Brian’s wedding on Friday 4th July 2008. The ceremony was held at Ringwood Registry Office and the very relaxed reception was held at Rose’s mums magnificent garden! (and if any grammar gurus want to let me know where the apostrophes go in that last sentence it would be appreciated).

The full gallery for Rose & Brian’s wedding is now live

Here’s a couple of pics with my new Sony 5MP camera phone taken while walking Mr Monty last night

I find it impossible to not stare at these two gardens. Two old boys (Bill and Ben) keep them in tip top condition. Each year they seem to have a competition.

Ben, on the right, is definitely winning on the turf war but Bill is leading on the flower front.

A little bit further down my road is this beast that’s just been built. When my folks visited last week they found out all about it!

It’s been built for one family … extends at the back and has a rather large triple garage to the side.

I caught up with The Bexter last night after work … as we hadn’t had much time together over the weekend I offered to treat her to a slap up romantic meal at Pizza Hut in Hedge End. After our 1-visit to the salad bar our Pizza came. Steaming deep crust halves of pepporoni one side and prawn & crayfish tails the other.

The waitress apologised that the pizza was uncut, and I quote … ”due to allergies, the pizza chefs are not allowed to cut a pizza that contains both meat and sea food”. But she still gave us a pizza cutter to slice the thing ourselves.

Has some strange terrorist group driven an underground cell disguised as politically correct health and safety executives to drive England into mayhem or am I just being really obnoxious, rude, naiive and stupid to not know why you can’t cut a pizza made of both meat and fish?

I wouldn’t call myself superstitious but when it came to photographing Claire and Marcus’s wedding on Friday 13th June I triple-quadruple checked all of my camera gear before leaving.

Claire had a bit of near miss prior to the wedding with her honeymoon passport being delivered to the wrong address. The day was flawless though, apart from the wedding cake being bashed up a little in an emergency stop on it’s way from Surrey.

Half of the wedding party flew down from Scotland and some of the kilts and such that were being worn were awesome.

Anyway, here’s a few images from their wedding day at Holiday Inn, Fareham, which by the way, looks quite fab since it refurb after being struck by lightning, and the full gallery is here.

On a very wet Monday evening in Stokes Bay at the Alverbank Hotel the girls of Wykeham House arrived in style for their school prom. Pink Limo, stretch hummer, horse and cart and very kewl black ferrari were amongst the vehicles that got gridlocked in the hotel’s very small car park.

The full gallery for this event is here.

So today was the day Becky got to enjoy her birthday present (from February) and what a day we had. A quick zip into London, a mandatory tourist photo, a burger from heaven in a v. cool sports bar, catch up with some friends and off to Hyde Park for the most excellent of concerts.

Although Jack Johnson was headlining the rest of his friends joining him were just as awesome. Mason Jennings, G-Love & Special Sauce,  Ben Harper and none other than Jimmy Buffett! (Jimmy Buffett’s book, Where is Joe Merchant? … was the first book that got me into reading).

The whole day was absolutely perfect. Although the rain tried to spoil things early on, the sun kicked it’s wet butt and dazzled some warmth over us all. Pear Cider was tasted by all, Austalian Pies with mash and peas were eaten by many but the Bexter and me came boringly prepared with Sprite and Tesco sandwiches.

My little bro disses Jack for all his songs sounding similar … I can understand his point but I’d happily argue Jack Johnson produces symphonies flavoured with Hawaiin relaxation, spiced with Reggae chill and drizzled with oodles of mellow to produce a musical art that can’t be rutted into singles.

Thanks to the Bexter for choosing me to go with her on her spare birthday ticket x x x

Jeeez … today has been a day of statistics … the 500th Event Gallery has gone online and at some point over the last week the blog alone received it’s 10,000th visitor!

So a humungously sized thank you to all those have visited or had their photo taken by Solent Studios … and an even bigger uber-humungously sized thank you to those who’ve bought photos, used us at an event or hired me for a wedding … you ROCK!

Kalle Spera

The Bexter and me just got back from the most awesome of holidays in Cyprus … skins glowing (or in my case peeling), fully refreshed and raring to rock’n'roll back into work mode.

Marcus & Kai were amazing hosts as per usual and fed us mountain mezes and BBQ’s with the biggest pork chops in the world, in the day we floated in their 30-degree pool or drove the MX5, top down and wind blowing from Ayia Napa to Polis in 43-degrees of pure sunshine between beach visits to Nissi, Lady’s Mile, Aphrodite’s Baths, Pissouri and a few others that I can’t remember or spell.

Apart from almost getting scammed by a taxi driver educated at the College of Halloumi, who tried to get us arrested for not playing his little game of hiking the meter before you get in his cab, the holiday was perfect … (and on that note I’d like to thank PC Cheech and PC Chong for their understanding, assistance and handling of the situation but we could not take up their suggestion of diffusing things by driving our own car home while over the legal limit).

Seriously, Cyprus is an awesome place to visit and I’d suggest a trip if you’ve never been there … but how the minority of Brit football hooligans built an unwanted reputation for the rest of us travelling abroad a few years ago the Cypriots have had a minority of Xenophobes (ironic how that is made of two greek words) for at least the last 14-years that I’ve been visiting there that has helped destroy what I would suggest, the reputation that is the majority,  and that is a very warm and welcoming island of people.

Here’s the blatant plug for Marcus and Kai if you’re considering buying a property in Cyprus!