Tuesday 13th February Barcaldine Castle

After returning home late Sunday night, it was off south again on Monday afternoon. Drove to Fort William and stayed there overnight, before moving on to Barcaldine Castle, near Oban in the morning. Rachel Headon and Andy Heald, from West Sussex were getting married in this amazing Castle. The bride got ready at Barcaldine House before arriving at the castle for a 4pm wedding. I wish the wedding had been an hour earlier as we could have had some amazing shots, but I was very pleased with what we got in the time before the light faded. Back up the road tonight for yet another wedding, this time in Thurso!

Sunday 11th Drumossie Hotel Wedding fayre

Drove from Cupar to Inverness overnight to attend a wedding fayre at the Drumossie Hotel, Inverness

The fayre went really well, with loads of interest and a few bookings on the day, with many enquiries to follow up.

I finished the day off shooting some images for Bellisima Brides, Inverness, who had two models wearing their dresses during the day. Rachel kindly stayed back and modelled one of the dresses for a few shots around the hotel. It was fun and we got some pretty decent shots in the limited time available.

Saturday 10th February

Todays wedding was at Craigsanquhar House, Cupar, Fife. Lisa Hodgson and Darren Sivewright, both of Drumoig, Leuchars were married in the beautiful country mansion.

Friday 9th February

Wedding of Susan Dunnett and Matthew Tucker, both of Macleod Road, Wick.

The bride got ready at her mothers home on Thurso Road, before leaving for Mackays Hotel, for the ceremony. The couple then went back to Susan's mums house for some pictures before returning to the hotel. Flowers by Amandas in Wick, Cars by CFD.

Immediately after this wedding I had to drive to Perth in preparation for tomorrow.

Four Weddings and a Fayre.

Just completed 4 weddings, a wedding fayre and 1200 miles in 6 days. Been in Wick, Perth, Cupar, Inverness, Fort William, Oban and Thurso since Friday. What a week! More info to follow on these once I get to grips with all the images.

4th Feb Wedding Exhibition

The Wedding Exhibition at The Spa Pavilion, Strathpeffer. A good event, which generated a lot of interest. Well done to Margaret McAtier who put the event on.

2nd February Urquhart Castle

Today we went to Urquhart Castle, on Loch Ness. It was an unbelieveable day for the time of year, warm and beautiful blue skies. Today Natalie was modelling along with Ruth with the same suppliers for dresses and flowers.

Here are a few of todays images:

1st Feb Carbisdale Castle

Found out a month ago through DWF that David Beckstead and Kevin Kramer were coming to Scotland to shoot a wedding at Skibo Castle. They were looking for some fun on their spare days so we arranged to visit a couple of castles with models and wedding dresses. First up was Carbisdale Castle today. We were joined by 2 other photographers and had some great fun. Models were Natalie and Jenna. Dresses were supplied by Avorio Bridal (Fochabers) and flowers by Amandas Flower Shop (Wick). We had a good day. It's an unusual sort of place with lots of statues and art about. Here are a few images:

New Caithness Photographic website

The Caithness Photographic website has been neglected for some time now, so I've had it re-designed and it is now up and running. There are quite a few changes from the previous version, and I hope it looks much better! I will be changing the images fairly regularly.
www.caithnessphotographic.com

16th January Back to Reality

It's been a crazy week, and it's back home now. I had an amazing week and have made some wonderful new friends from all over the world. I went to talks by Michael Redford(USA), Patricia Fernandez (Eng), Martin & Ryan Schembri (Aus), Tony Corbell (USA), David Anthony Williams (Aus), Gordon McGowan (Scot), Doug Gordon (USA), Peter Prior (Eng), Dino Cappalletti (Italy), and Jerry Ghionis (Aus). Some of which were quite brilliant. I took part in a private shoot with Martin Schembri, as well as inpromptu shoot at 2am in the bar with Ryan Schembri, Sean Kelly (USA) and David Beckstead (USA). The trade show was great also, and my clever tactic of leaving my wallet in the hotel safe the first 2 occasions I visited worked well, and meant I didn't go completely mad on new equipment I didn't need!!
4600 people attended the convention apparently, and it was a wonderful event. I am going back next year, providing the hotel haven't run out of Jack Daniels.
Highlight of the week was obviously winning the award, but apart from that, there were too many special moments to mention. Unforgetable!!

14th January London Awards Night

Well....... I have had a great year in the monthly print competition but never expected one of the big ones. UK Photographer Of The Year for Wedding Portfolio. I am still in a state of shock and struggling to take it in. Here's me still shell-shocked with Phil Jones of SWPP and my award. What a feeling. For a relative newcomer from Caithness to walk up in the footsteps of some massive names was an incredible experience.

The wedding portfolio category involves entering a CD with 10 images from one wedding. I had 4 monthly winners over the year, but it was my October entry featuring Nicola Falconer and Scott Farquhar which won the award. Here are the ten images:

13th January London

Just found out that no less than four of the six 20x16 prints I entered in the International Print Competition here, are hanging with merit ribbons on them. There are some really big names hanging up there alongside mine, and it makes me very proud. I really didn't expect anything from this competition! These are the four winners.....

09-01-06 SWPP Convention, London

Arrived in London today for the SWPP/BPPA Convention at the Novotel Hotel, Hammersmith. More to follow....

9th November - Ullapool

Travelled up to Ullapool on Wednesday night to meet Alexis Halliday and Filipe Santos, who both stay on Jersey, but were getting married in Ullapool. The wedding was at St Martins Catholic Church in Ullapool with the reception being held at the Arch Inn in the village. As the wedding took quite a time, we didn't get long outside for the couple shots. We went to Leckmelm Gardens where the autumn colours were lovely - I just wish we'd had an extra 15 minutes or so. I also had a Blair Witch encounter :-o which I will explain in detail if you ask me but it was....scary.....!!!!! Alexis and Filipe will know what I am talking about...!

8th November - Another Success Story!

Today I found out that my Associateship panel I sent to the SWPP was successful, so I am over the moon! I am now John Baikie ASWPP!!! And only 6 months after I achieved Licentiate level so this is a really big one for me. I concentrated on the wedding side of things, despite that being the hardest discipline to get it in, but that's what I like doing best and it has given me incentive to create unique images at every wedding I attend. I had to submit 20 images at 16x12 size and I am just stunned that I have done this already! I have attached a few of the successful images but will be displaying them all at some point soon. I also found out today that I had scooped another 3 monthly print awards with the SWPP, in wedding, bridal portrait and landscape sections (the 3rd of my Lochinver shots shown on 19th October below.....). So, quite a week!

4th November

Todays wedding was another local one in Thurso's West Church. Jill MacRae, who is manageress in the towns Royal Hotel was getting married to Calum McAlpine. Jill got ready at the Royal, before being driven by Dunnett's Limo to church. It stayed dry but was very cold, so a trip to Thurso Castle was kept to a minimum, but we managed to get some great shots. I was saddened to see the bad weather of a week or two back has brought down all the ivy from the tower. This is a real shame as it was one of the nicest features of the building, and it looks bare without it. Goodness knows how many years it had been there for! Anyway, then it was on to Lybster to the Portland Arms for the reception.

28th October Eileen & Michael

Today was the wedding of Eileen McAdie and Michael Loynd. They were married at St Joachims Church in Wick, with reception in Mackays Hotel. Eileen got ready at her mum and dads house in Newton Avenue before arriving at church in a White Rolls Royce from Caithness Prestige Cars. The couple made a very brief visit to Ackergill Tower for a few pictures before leaving for the reception. Flowers were by Amandas Flower Shop in Wick.

21st October

Today was the wedding of Lesley Ross and Andrew Fraser, from Lossiemouth. They were married at Croick Church, with the reception at nearby Carbisdale Castle. It was a fairly decent day when I arrived at Carbisdale, but by the time of the wedding it was absolutely bucketing down, so no outdoor photography possible!!