Folkestone TCM's St George's Day Photography Competition...

Hi All,

Thanks for tuning in. I am just writing a quick one today to promote Folkestone Town Centre Management's St George's Day festivities, which will incorporate a wide variety of activities and shows, including a photography competition. I am very proud to be involved in this particular segment of the celebrations, as all entries will be judged by both myself and local photographer Dan Desborough. Here are the details you will need to get involved:

FTCM are organising St. George's Day Celebrations! As part of the celebrations, there will be a PHOTOGRAPHIC competition.

Prizes include:

- Winners of each category featured in the Discover Folkestone Hythe & Romney Marsh Visitor booklet (over 50,000 distributed yearly)

- A meal for two at the Grand

- Photo frames

- Vouchers

-  ALL will be displayed in Shadow Artworks, Guildhall Street for the public to view

- ALL put on the Folkestone Tcm & Discover Folkestone, Hythe & Romney Marsh Facebook pages

There are four categories:

1) Natural Folkestone (Three groups: Under 12s, 12 to 18s & over 18s)

2) People of Folkestone (Three groups: Under 12s, 12 to 18s & over 18s)

3) Heritage of Folkestone (Two groups: 12 to 18s & over 18s)

4) What Folkestone means to you (Two groups: 12 to 18s & over 18s)

To enter:

Send us your PRINTED pictures (no larger than A4) and contact details by 15th April to:

Folkestone Town Centre Management

The Management Suite

Bouverie Place Shopping Centre

Folkestone

CT20 1AU

or drop it into us at the address above. We are on floor 1M of Bouverie Place Shopping Centre (Above Asda)

They will be judged by local photographers Dan Desborough & Matthew Ebbage.

Winners will be announced at the St. George's Day Celebrations on 23rd April.

Spread the word and GOOD LUCK!

You can get more details about Folkestone TCM on facebook here: Folkestone Town Centre Management. This is going to be a great event as the Folkestone TCM events always are.

I am also very proud to announce that ebbage-photo will again be shooting the Folkestone Multi-Cultural Festival this year after last year's successful weekend. You can see last year's images in the event section of our website, or you can visit the Discover Folkestone website here: Discover Folkestone and find your way to last year's article.

Good luck to all who enter the St George's Day competition and thanks for tuning in. As always, catch you on the flip side.

Matt

Mr & Mrs Jeavons...

Hi All,

It is with a huge sense of pleasure that I write this blog to update you all about Saturday's shoot. We were both very proud to spend the day photographing the wedding of Dave & Laura, the new Mr & Mrs Jeavons! Dave and I (Matt) worked together for over a year and he is a great bloke so it was a privilege to shoot their special day. He and Laura are a fantastic couple and were so relaxed on the day it made our jobs so much easier.

After an early start we headed over to Laura's mum's house in Whitstable to shoot the standard bridal prep shots. After a quick stop for a hearty breakfast, we arrived with Laura 'mid make-up' and looking great thanks to the work of her make up artist for the day, Jessica Hawkins (www.jessicahawkinsmakeup.com), so we grabbed our cameras and got on with documenting the day.

As wedding's go, Dave and Laura were by far and away the most relaxed couple we have had the pleasure of being around and it was an absolute delight to document their day. From the prep in the morning to the evening's festivities, the day went without a hiccup and they looked completely at ease being the centre of attention.

A big thank you must go out to Jodie, The Blazing Donkey's resident event organiser and wedding planner, for making us feel so welcome (and for feeding us a lovely 3-course dinner!). Jodie worked tirelessly throughout the whole day and her smile did not break once, as did her staff who all did a great job. We also owe a huge thank you to Dave & Laura for letting us be a part of their special day and following them both throughout. You were an absolute joy to be around and we hope you had as much fun as we did!

Here are a few sneak-peek images from the day. More to follow on the website soon.

Thanks for tuning in, catch you all on the flip side!

Matt & Chris

Our New Blog...

Hi All,


Thanks for checking in and welcome to our new and improved blog! We will be updating as regularly as our busy schedules will allow in order to keep you updated with the new stuff going on for us and the shoots we have lined up. We will also be publishing some sneak peek images as per our previous blog on our website at http://ebbage-photo.com, including a couple of images from the recent wedding we shot for Mr & Mrs Jeavons. 


Stay tuned, Catch you on the flip side!


Matt & Chris

Jenny & Chris' Engagement Shoot...

Hi All,

Thanks for checking in. So, our new year has started well and we are well and truly kicking into "Wedding" mode already. On Sunday afternoon we headed out into Dover with Jenny Sutton and Chris Townsend to spend some time getting to know them and shoot their pre-wedding images prior to their wedding on 1st April (and yes, it really is going to happen!)

I (Matt) actually met Jenny a few years ago as her sister was dating one of my housemates from University. As it happens, they are now engaged and due to be married in February 2012, so congrats to you both!

Anyway, back to Sunday...initially it appeared we might get rained off thanks to the 'delightful' Dover weather that has been hanging over us for what seems like weeks now, but we managed to catch a break in the rain and got out there to shoot at our 4 chosen locations. Neither Jenny or Chris had spent any time in or around Dover before, so it was a great opportunity to try out a couple of new places and show them the sights at our chosen spots, including Kearsney Abbey and Russell Gardens.

Both the guys quickly felt at ease in front of the camera, which was awesome to see considering their worries prior to the shoot, having not really spent any time in front of a camera before. This allowed us to be really creative with them and we had a great laugh in the process and I think that comes across in the final collection of images we will be giving them. Plus, it really does make your job as a photographer easier when you say to the bride-to-be "hey, fancy just climbing up that wall there?" and she says.......Yeah sure!!".

For now though, it was decided that these were the shots of the day. The grey, overcast conditions really lent themselves to black and white images and this first one, taken in a quiet corner of the Abbey grounds, really stood out during the edit and is one we are both especially proud of.

Thanks to Jenny and Chris for being being great sports on the days and a great couple to shoot. We can't wait for your wedding to roll around!

Thanks for checking us out, catch you on the flip side.

Matt & Chris

A Day With Alice Dawn

Hi All,

Just another quick update for you on the coming's and going's of life as a photographer! Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend one of the most romantic days of the year with the gorgeous and talented Alice Dawn.

Now, you may be saying "well, of course you did.....she is your girlfriend after all", but we did venture out with a purpose other than merely enjoying each other's company on one of the only sunny days the south-east has seen for a good few weeks: to get some new images for her new website.

Ali had a good idea of what she wanted from the shoot, so we decided to head down to the beach to take advantage of the good weather and get some lovely natural shots. I also took the opportunity to have a proper play with the HD video function on my Canon Eos 5d mkii, as I have not yet really tested it out. I must say that it performed admirably and I can already feel the "I want to shoot more video" bug coming on!

We ended up with some great shots on the day, both stills and video, thanks largely to Ali's very relaxed and natural approach to being in front of the camera. She really is a joy to work with (and no, I am not just saying that ;-) and we are both super happy with the final images.

It was decided that the shots below were the shots of the day, but if you would like to see more, you can see them on Ali's website:

www.alicedawn.co.uk

You can also check out the video on Ali's Youtube channel, MusicAliceDawn here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDmDPB004vs

I hope you enjoyed the images and video. Thanks for checking them out and for reading, hope to see you soon

Matt

Steve Bradley Images...

Yesterday was another fantastic day for ebbage-photo, thanks to a great days shooting and editing with Steve Bradley,a local actor and performer. I met Steve a few months ago when he performed in the musical production of The Wedding Singer that I shot (see events photography section of the website) and it was great to see him again and shoot some headshots and a few portfolio images for him.

Steve brought a great array of outfits and accessories so being creative with his images was very easy for me, as he is a great guy and very open to trying some new things and goofing around in front of the camera. We nailed his headshots pretty quickly so we went for a coffe and then decided to use some of the items he had brought along and tackle some portfolio images.

While his headhots were the main focus, I feel pretty confident that Steve would agree that this image (left) is the shot of the day! As soon as we got back home and got set up in the study with the laptop, we were both keen to get this image edited and finished because it looked like a winner straight out of the camera.

Steve also knows my girlfriend Alice well, so after our shoot and editing session he was happy to accept our invitation to stay for dinner and catch up on some musical theatre chat whilst watching the movie version of Rent. Good times had by all.

Thanks to Steve for a fantastic day, both during the shoot and the hours spent editing and chatting afterwards. We certainly had a great day and I hope that comes across in the images. You can see the full catalogue of images from the day on Steve's awesome new website. Go and check it out, you won't regret it!

www.steve-bradley.co.uk

Cheers for tuning in, catch you on the flip side!

Matt

Gospel Choir...

So, the work is starting to come in thick and fast now, which is a fantastic feeling. The life of a photographer just keeps on getting better and I have already had some great shoots with some fantastic people.

Thursday night was no exception, as I was over at Barton Evangelical Church in Canterbury where a friend of mine , Phil Hornsey, has set up a new Gospel Choir. Phil has done an exceptional job as the group have only been together for 3 weeks and there are already 30 - 40 people attending the rehearsals, and they are sounding great!

Phil asked me to pop along and see if I could capture some of the atmosphere of the group and provide him with some images for their website (coming soon) and for any press releases, and of course I was more than happy to oblige. Here is one of the many images I took while the choir were rehearsing. To see a the full collection of images, you can visit http://rogc.co.uk.

I am now turning my attention to a few new projects that are in the pipeline, including some model shoots, some more corporate work, and of course putting in the prep work for the weddings we have coming up.

Thanks for reading. Catch you all soon.

Cheers
Matt