AWP by Royal Appointment…? well no, not quite!

A couple of months back I was contacted by The Nottinghamshire Hospice about a special job. Anyone who happens to follow our progress will know we do quite a bit for the Hospice (photography-wise), so I guess that’s why we were asked about this one.

Recently the Hospice has undergone some modification, thanks mainly to their Department of Health Grant and a legacy from Sir Joseph Pope and the Late Lady Evelyn Pope.

After seeing the improvements to the building first hand, additions such as a complimentary therapy room, consulting rooms, a quiet room and a sheltered courtyard I can tell that they are a real asset to the Hospice and its current services. The newly extended dining area and kitchens are also going to be a great help.

HRH the Duchess of Gloucester was invited to tour the new facility, meet the patients and staff and ultimately officially open the new wing…. And that’s where we come in!

We were given the opportunity to be the only official photographer for the royal visit which took place on Wednesday the 2nd November 2011, and I (Andy) was quite nervous about it, as an events photographer; this is the sort of job I was waiting to do and now it’s actually happening!

Worries of whether my kit will do the job, was I good enough, will I have to speak to any of the party, how many other photographers/media people would I be fighting against to get the shot?

Of course all this was completely irrational and I suppose it was happening because I really wanted to do well and not let the Hospice down.

The day came and checked my kit (for the 100th time I might add!), Batteries – check!, Memory cards – Check!, Flash guns x 3 well you can’t be too prepared – check!

As it turned out I had all I needed…. Why did I doubt myself so much…? I’d done this 100’s of times before!

I arrived at the hospice feeling as if I was going to the doctors, my stomach doing somersaults and my head ached, but as I stepped inside and saw some friendly faces it soon faded, a quick run through, cameras ready and I felt fine. I was to be the only photographer allowed to follow the visitors through the tour and as such had to have security clearance to be one of the tour party (much to the disappointment of the Evening Posts snapper!)

After what seemed like a life time of waiting, security staff arrived sporting discreet earpieces, they carried out a sweep of the building and I of course set to work convincing one of them that he needed to attend one of our brilliant beginners photography workshops!.... what?

The Duchess arrived around 20 minutes behind schedule which meant that the visit may be a little shorter than planned, but never the less she was not rushed and was extremely pleasant, friendly and eager to speak with as many people as she could. Some of the patients had gifts, one of the ladies, Barbara Roweth had made a bag for the Duchess, as she was presented with it she quickly transferred all the contents of her bag in to the new one, a really lovely gesture!

As the party wandered the route my only concerns were: I must keep in front of the party and don’t get in the way! You will be pleased to learn that I managed not only to do just that but I was able to get some great photographs too.

The tour ended with a speech or two and the unveiling of the lectern with the plaque mounted on it. With Sir Joseph Pope at the Duchess’s side they lifted the blue velvet cover together.

Just before the party left for the station the Duchess signed the new visitors book then received a posy from a daycare patient, Gillian Flemming, whilst the Evening Post’s photographer and I jostled for position!

After being at the Hospice for around an hour, they left………………………..

I could sense a collective sigh of relief along with an over whelming sense of achievement from all as the patients and staff moved in to the spacious new dining room to have ‘Royal’ tea of sandwiches and cakes along with a well deserved cup of tea, all served on beautiful porcelain plates, except the tea!

All in all a fantastic experience for all and a great opportunity for us, Thank you to all at the Hospice for giving us the chance to do it!

Those that would like to see the photographs can find them here: www.andywallisphotography.co.uk and click ‘client gallery’ in the top right hand corner of the home page and more details will soon be available on www.nottshospice.org.

Birth pools and Ball Gowns

Its been a while since our last blog entry and a lot has happened since.
Arlo, our new addition has arrived. A little boy 6lbs 8oz.

He was born on Sunday 16th October at 17.19, i can hear a hungry cry as i type. He's a very content little Wallis, but that will change if his Brother, Dad and Grandad are anything to go by, you only have to read my facebook page to see i can't sit still for long!

The photography workshops are now in full swing and we are booked up to February 2012 so far! we now offer both SLR and Photoshop workshops, on Saturdays and weekday evenings. Our venue has been extremely good to us, accommodating our every wish, Thanks to Gillian at St Leonard's Community Centre in Wollaton for all your help.

Because Arlo was about a week early, there were a couple of photo workshops to run in the week after his birth (i had scheduled a break in the run specifically for the Arlo's arrival). The Tuesday after the Sunday saw me front an evening DSLR workshop. This was at the height of my tiredness if i recall, after having not a wink of sleep Monday night! i asked the class to poke me should i start to snore!
It went ok, goodness knows what i actually told them!

Off the back of the workshops has sprung (well its on the diving board) a monthly Photography Group where People can drop in on the evening, have a coffee and a chat about photography with Andy the rest of the group.
The first one is set for Wednesday 7th December and starts at 7pm. It will be held at the Workshop venue (St Leonards Community Centre, Wollaton). the first one is free and if it takes off will be £5 a session. we intend to talk photography, critique and question, have guest speakers and hopefully get more people making better use of their camera's. The occasional evenings takings will also go to charity.

All those who fancy it, email us at info@andywallisphotography.co.uk.

Next on the list of news is a new website we have been asked to produce. The site is now complete.
www.smallstepsforsophie.org.uk is a website centred around a lovely little girl by the name of Sophie, she has Cerebral Palsy and desperately needs an operation to help her to walk.

"Sounds simple" i hear you say - well, it is really, the only difficult part is that the surgery will take place in St Louis, USA and will cost around £60,000 in total.

When we were asked to do it we were told that what ever it cost the bill would be footed by another party. we of course refused payment for such a great cause. and as it turned out that third party have just donated our fee straight to the family!

Please check out the site, spread the word and please donate if you can.

So, it should also come as no surprise that we now offer website design amongst all our other photographic services!

More events to cover for our lovely friends at nottinghamshire hospice, a strictly learn to dance final. The dancers have been in training for around 10 weeks now and the final is second week of November.

Check out the website for tickets and more! http://www.nottshospice.org/NottinghamshireHospiceNews/StrictlyLearnToDance2011/Blog-13-10-2011

Good luck to all.



Also we are covering the opening of a new wing at the hospice too. I'll tell you all more about that later as the details aren't in.

And Lastly, there is a couple of winter weddings and a few more booking being taken for 2012.

Thank you to all that are making our 2011 such a rewarding one, its been fantastic so far.

Long may it continue!

New LeftLion magazine article

Andy Wallis Photography has been running Photography Workshops now for a little over a year. In that short time they are really making a name for themselves. With the likes of Sony, being one of their newest enquiries for staff training.

“Up until this year we have primarily been Weddings and Events photographers covering events for Nottinghamshire Hospice and Unison Power to name but two. But nearly every event we cover usually sees us discussing the ‘ins and outs’ of photography with a guest or two. We love our industry so we are always happy to talk camera.” Andy told us.
But all this talk gave us an idea. Why not offer this advice in a more structured way? So we began writing our first DSLR beginners workshop. Since we launched the course we have gone from strength to strength and by the end of this year we aim to have training over 300 people.”

The main venue for all AWP’s workshop classes is almost next door to Wollaton Hall. Being so close to such a picturesque location gives their students the opportunity to practice their new skills in the grounds.

Our newest workshop ‘Photoshop Elements 9 for Beginners’ takes place on Tuesday evening and helps to demystify basic editing techniques, giving attendees a bit more freedom of expression with their images.

Along with camera and editing workshops Andy Wallis Photography also offer ‘One to one’ training as well as consultancy work. “The one to one training is great” said Andy, “we come to your home, we will even take you to your favourite spot locally, to help you get the best of the environment.”

Want to get in to Landscape photography but don’t know how? AWP can help there too. Working in partnership with www.landscapetreks.co.uk they supply tuition, after which you will be taken by expert Paul to some stunning locations just in time to catch that golden hour before sundown.

Workshop class sizes are small, taking a maximum of 10 and workshop prices start at just £39 with a ‘One to one’ day costing only £100.

For more information or advice contact Andy on 07588 218851 or visit www.andywallisphotography.co.uk/photographyworkshops

Sledging with dogs, photos and wheel spinning.

This weeks Beginners Photography Workshop saw a few changes. Firstly i set up in a different room, bigger this time and more importantly, cooler! There was much more wall space too so i was able get a much better and clearer projection, critical if your dealing with photographs.
Also, this time, to help explain Aperture more accurately, i rigged up a camera with remote shooting. This way i could show the varying differences between the settings directly on the wall.

There was a lot more group discussion than some of the previous workshops and that really helped carry the morning along, so much so in fact that we ran over by 30 minutes.

I also spent a bit of time learning my lines. Not that i need to be reminded of my favourite subject, its just such a massive subject i have make sure im not diverting off too much so as not to confuse people. But the fact i wasnt chained to the ipad also helped to give the session more flow.

The rain stopped just as we left for our walk around Wollaton Hall, which was very welcome. As the sun came out i felt a bit over dressed in my waterproof jacket and the walk up the hill made me puff and blow a bit.

The walk usually lasts a couple of hours and usually sees us walk up to the front of the hall and through the gate on the left. We then spend most of our time at the rear of this grand property. I have spent alot of time on these grounds over the years, from sledging with my dad to wheel spinning my first car on the main grassy car park(we picked up a meandering dog on one slope i remember and the three of us sat together laughing all the way down) To be fair the dog probably didnt laugh much, and the wheel spinning ending in me being 'removed'!

Anyway the point is, the rear of the Hall is a part that feels quite new to me and a few of the attendees comment on not often (or ever) seeing this lovely part of the estate. We usually explore all over gardens here then make our way back to the cars.

I find meeting all these new people facsinating and some the reasons people are finding themselves sat on one our workshops chairs can be very inspiring.

Heres to many more great sessions!

Wireless printer my arse!

So it's been a while since I managed a proper blog post, I'm finding it hard to clear the decks to make space for it!

I can't remember where we are up to, did I tell you about the Nottinghamshire hospice walk? .... Well if you can't remember either I'll tell you.

It's a walk that starts and ends at the City ground and it's in the evening, it raises money for the hospice and we were asked if we could photograph the event. I always love covering their events as they are always so well organised and this one was no exception. The special guest this year was John Partridge, he plays Christian in East Enders. Surprisingly he and a friend completed the whole 10k! What a top bloke!

The photos we took on the night, we have made a gallery of in our client gallery area and the sales of these images meant we have been able to donate £50 to the cause so far.

The next thing we have been knee deep in has been our groupon beginners photography workshop. The course has been completely rewritten and now contains much more great and useful stuff for us to pour in to your brains. It now takes place just 5 mins walk from Wollaton Hall in St Leonards community centre. A relatively new building as it has been stood up around 5 years. We sold around 230 vouchers through groupon so we have lots to do! Last saturday 13th august saw the first one kick and all seemed to go well. The online feedback forms so far reflecting a success. For all the people who come along to our beginners workshop we are running a photograph competition. More details and prizes will appear on our facebook page in the next day or two.

Oh and by the way...
We have also written a photoshop for beginners workshop, this is already booking up so get in while you can.

The groupon workshops have opened so interesting and exciting doors too, on the day the voucher appeared we got a phone call from Sony who we are now talking to with a view to training their staff. Not only can we use their training facility, we also get some of the kit to play with. On top of that we may well be advertising our services in store as well as being able to give away some nifty kit as prizes! So look out for that in the future.

New additions to the family alert!
Yes that's it you guessed it... One new camera body and 2 lovely new lenses! Oh and a new little baby boy due in October!

Should that have been at the first thing I said? Maybe...

Anyway back to trying to get wireless printer to print wirelessly! "look, I can see the printer (turns laptop to see printer) why can't you!"



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thank you but...

With the price of entry level digital SLR cameras dropping and the quality of these units going in the opposite direction, more and more we are hearing the words "thank you for seeing us but, we are having a family friend do our wedding photography". To be honest it's one of the reasons we now run beginners photography workshops, you can't beat the price of a free job. Who knew!

As I'm sure some bride and grooms now realise, it takes more than a 'decent' camera to make a photographer.

Never have I heard that put better than by a friend of mine. Put simply: "The sum of materials to build a house may only be £20,000, but you will have pay a builder to make them in to a home."

Something to think about.

Our one day Beginners digital photography workshops start at £39 and run all year round.

Its been too long...and other things

Its been too long since i last visited the blog. As i mash my fists in to the keyboard to it catches the random letters and rearranges them in to something that almost makes sense.

Three things to report since the last post:

1. Groupon - Our Groupon voucher kicked off on the 15th July and ... it ... went ... mental!
By the end of the first 24 hours we had sold 206 vouchers and had nearly 700 hits on the site! Wow! after a few errors with the admin on the site, so far its going OK.
People are still redeeming the vouchers and we have around 15 dates sitting on the site ready to fill. it does look like we are going to be over subscribed for the ones already agreed, so expect alternative dates or confirmations winging their way soon.

All in all, a great experience so far. We also received correspondence from a large electronics company, looking for us to supply training for their staff..... "Hello, is this actually happening?" i thought. Turns out yes it was. More to follow on that.

2. The Nottinghamshire Hospice Moonlight Memory Walk 2011 went very well. Over £10,000 was raised, the weather was kind, all went off without a hitch. TV star John Partridge lead the walk and was gracious enough to hang around all evening, getting involved with the balloon release (which saw nearly all 260 people dabbing the tears from their eyes), as well as holding on to many a fan whilst smiling for various cameras, including ours.

All the photos are already on line and can be seen and bought via the 'Client Gallery' link on our website.

3. We appeared in an article in the August edition (out 15th July) of Perfect Wedding Magazine. the article was called 'Britains Best Wedding Photographers' it contains a short piece written by us about being a wedding photoist and also includes a couple of images. We seemed to have got the largest section and its already turned up a new client!

You can also find us in next months too, this time we are in the 'dos and don'ts mode' advice for brides.

See you next time i feel guilty about neglecting the blog.

Andy

Best review of the year so far award!

A really nice customer review received last week, hand written in a lovely card along with a little Thorntons sweet bag.

To Andy and Lisa,

Well I just wanted to say on behalf of me and Flloyd a huge Thank you! for your wonderful work you did on our wedding photographs!

All of our wedding photographs are “simply beautiful and simply timeless! You both knew exactly what type of photographs me and Flloyd like and that showed in the finished results!
Everybody who has seen our incredible wedding photographs have commented on how stunning they are… even how many there are.

Once again thank you, me and Flloyd have got to get to know you and Lisa as a couple and we both feel that you have become a friend of our family
I can’t believe that the wedding is over! But knowing that we have our incredible wedding photographs to look back on in future years makes us feel a very happy husband and wife!

Grey Walls and Wasps!

"I knew I was a bit nuts, but it shows that much?"

Was my reaction when asked if I would photograph a friend’s wedding a couple of years ago.

I heard myself saying "yes"... I almost put my hand over my mouth in a Jim Carey type way!

I convinced myself all would be well, and in the months leading up to that Saturday in June 2009, all was well. The night before on the other hand was different! Not only did I start to question my ability as a photographer, I started to wonder whether I would ever be out of the bathroom long enough to take the photos!

It all went quite well, the results were ok, my friends were happy and nobody died. My pals were lucky, they knew an amateur photographer with a creative eye, who, and this is the critical bit, was willing to stick his neck out and act like a professional wedding snapper.

Me.

Since turning pro I am often sat in front of laptop whilst wedding photos by "Our mate Dave" whizz by. Although I smile, nod and say aah once or twice, one thing always strikes me.... Brick walls always look a horrible shade of grey in black and white photos. That might sound an odd thing to say but try it ...go on....I'll wait..... You see, grey! Who wants a photo of themselves looking fantastic in front of that?

As a professional wedding photographer, I don't just look at my subject, I look behind, a round the corner, from above and below. Nice sharp images of a beautiful bride beaming with happiness next a waste bin full of wasps ...we'll leave that to Dave.

A professional photographer looks through the viewfinder and connects with you and if the lightings right you may even witness a tear. Yes I have actually found myself moved by my own photos at weddings; it's the first dance... Gets me every time!

My advice to anyone wanting photos of their big day is, get a professional in, because their images of your wedding may just make you cry and not just the first time, but every time you see them.

Why not get in touch with us? website, www.andywallisphotography.co.uk or ring - 07588 218851.

Nottinghamshire Photography Firm Celebrates New Studio

Tina Clough at Poppy PR puts our article writing to shame once more!

Nottinghamshire Photography Firm Celebrates New Studio


A Nottinghamshire photography firm is celebrating today after acquiring a brand new studio equipped with over £14,000 worth of equipment.

The new studio based in Carlton means that Andy Wallis Photography can now offer baby, family, pre wedding and boudoir photo shoots which was previously unachievable.

Andy (37), who offers professional Nottingham wedding photography, event, corporate photography and even photography courses in and around Nottinghamshire, said: “Choosing the studio was simple, this one provided such fantastic equipment and the director was so helpful and attentive. We book the studio as and when the demand requires, so we can usually get access within a couple of days which is very useful.”

“The studio has private client seating with refreshments and a bathroom and changing area so you can feel relaxed and at home in this state of the art facility.”

Andy Wallis Photography offers a range of packages to suit your needs, including a one hour studio session priced at just £30.

As part of this special package, as many shots will be taken as possible, of which you can then purchase a CD of 30 images for £199 and or 20 images for just £149, which includes any editing that is required. Andy Wallis photography also produces products and prints of various sizes.

What’s more, their new ‘recommend a friend’ offer entitles those who recommend them with one free 16" x 12" print of their choice from their shoot images. To be eligible for this special offer, customers must book a studio session with Andy Wallis Photography and purchase the CD deals, then simply recommend Andy Wallis Photography to someone, and as long as they book and buy a CD, you will receive your free print. Andy added: “With the new studio service in place, we really do offer a complete photography package. We have received an immense amount of bookings due to our new attractive studio and packages, so booking in advance is essential.”

For more information on event photography in Nottingham or his forthcoming competition, please contact Andy Wallis on 07588 218851 or alternatively, visit http://www.andywallisphotography.co.uk/