Martin Crombie Wedding Photography

SWPP - Mario Acerboni 4 in 1 Competition

The SWPP recently teamed up with Mario Acerboni of Italy (Wedding Album company) and they have introduced a new Wedding category for 2012. I looked at a few weddings from 2011 and felt the 'Art Deco' feel from Maxine & Neil's wedding at Morecambe's Midland Hotel had some great moody b&w images I could use to show the day.
 
Here's the Overall Winner for the month winning GOLD for January within the Category.

I hoped the judges would be looking for an arrangement & when I inserted the bottom right image last, I saw the jigsaw fall together. Apparently there is a prize of some sort from Mario Acerboni so I look forward to reporting back what it is....

 

2 x SWPP Golds for November Monthly Awards - Personal Work

2 Landscape shots entered this month, big surprise to get 2 Golds in Monochrome & Open for essentially the same photograph in this months SWPP Awards.
1 straight out of camera, the other Photoshopped to high heaven :-).
 
This was literally a drive out 1 afternoon on top of Horwich's Winter Hill, pulled the car over took the 70-200 out of the boot, pointed the camera at something misty, took a snap at 100asa and back in the car literally a 30 second job - it was a cold evening!
I wanted a warm glow for that sunset glow effect.

OPEN CATEGORY - GOLD


MONOCHROME CATEGORY - GOLD

  
Slightly upset to not have won more than 1 Gold all year in Weddings however on a positive note gaining 7 Golds in 2011 is not too bad.
(2 x Fine Art, 3 x Open, 1x Monochrome & 1x Wed Contemp)

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the SWPP convention as Debbie is expecting in next 3 weeks. Hopefully next year. :-)
Thanks everyone involved for making it a good year for me.

2011 Awards Night at The Hilton Hotel, Newcastle - The MPA/ Mario Acerboni

Debbie and myself drove up to our first MPA awards night presentation evening at The Hilton, Newcastle.
We drove up via the A1 which was a pleasant experience.
We had our pictures taken by the photographers there in the entrance and had some drinks.


All the Mario Acerboni 2011 Regional Winners from around the UK & Ireland
  

My 3 images are the blue & yellow and the 2 next to the right.

The display of many hundreds of images by photographers worldwide.




  
Inside the Hilton Hotel, Newcastle  


Me & Debbie (7 months pregnant)





The Acerboni collection so far didnt win the carriage clock btw :-)

 
All the Region's 3rd down on left across is our entry



An excellent awards night by The MPA

Silver Upgrade to Gold SWPP September Entries

1x GOLD in OPEN CATEGORY - September

A very quick still life created whilst at a wedding and enhanced alot in computer.

 

MPA/ Fuji Wedding Awards 2011 - Martin Crombie in the finals!

The MPA/Fuji UK Wedding Photographer Awards. It's seems this image is loved by everyone, hopefully it will winas I have very fond memories of seeing great photographers like Keith Thompson & Nigel Harper win it back in the 90's and early 2000.

We have this image also in The Mario Acerboni 3 in 1 final, surely it must win 1 ??.
UPDATE : Didn't win this time my image possibly finished up 2nd as it has now featured next to the winner Sandra Parris on The MPA 2012 Entry Form, but who knows. Will try again next year. Its nice to be in the mix for a big award.

   
Click on the link to see The MPA/Fuji 2011 competition from the 2 rounds of judging
My image is the 3 guys in the archway. 

Put October 9th in your diary & add me as a friend at Facebook to find out.
I must have spend 2-3 days in January working on this image if it wins I will post the original and take you all through how it was transformed.

Regardless of which wedding photographer wins  - a wedding couple will receive £1,000 cash :-)
 
  

Mario Acerboni Awards - Martin Crombie - The North West Region Winner 2011

Being a BIPP member has its benefits, being able to enter The Mario Acerboni Wedding Awards is 1 of them.
 
After last years overall success UK 2nd place I felt I had more to give & wanted to really give it 1 more shot before baby Dominic arrives in late December this year. As my hands may be tied for a while after this year, we will see. I got the email just as myself & Debbie were going for the 6 month hospital scan so I had a GREAT day thanks MPA/ Mario Acerboni :-)
 
So I pulled my best image from last year (the yellow doors wedding in Lancaster) and found a couple of other images from that wedding I knew had potential. I had also entered 4 other sets of 3 this time as I really want to win the UK Title this year.

Here's the email from The MPA to say I'd won the North West Region again back to back, to now go through to the UK Final Awards presentation with the other Regional winners held at Gateshead in early October later on in the year where 1 winner is drawn from the 14 regional winners.
 
 
Here are the 3 images  (3 from 1) that won the NW Region Wedding Photographer 2011 title for 2nd year running.

These images were taken in Lancaster at St.Thomas Church just opposite KFC :-)
 
 
MPA Awards Night

Mario Acerboni wedding album link

Personal Work - SWPP June Entries

A few weeks ago I shot a few very quick landscapes on the Wales coast.
Debbie has relations over that way so we went over to Colywn Bay & Llandudno on a very grey and overcast day...god I love PShop. 
Here's 1 of the images I have worked on for 30 minutes or so for the SWPP landscape category. 

UPDATE : 1 SILVER IN WEDDING CONTEMPORARY

 
I love my veg and equally love studying their unique forms - this time asparagus. A straight shot.  

The garden gloves received 'the treatment' this time.
Laid out on the Vetch (i think it is called) - a beautiful orange and yellow flower in my front garden.
The colour has been enhanced in PShop. No flash just daylight.   
  

I call this 1 Alice in Wonderland - The mind boggles on this perspective like a maze.
This image has been shot very quickly we had approx 10 minutes shot at 1600asa leaning over the bannisters to see everything.
Again plenty of Photoshop work making use of red/ blue strong primary colour combinations. 
  

SWPP May Awards 2011

This month I submitted a selection of images ranging from Landscape to Wedding and also set up some still-life sets involving various articles I find when out shopping.
SWPP stands for The Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers and is a UK based organisation with entries from all over UK/ Europe.
 
1x GOLD WINNER - OPEN Category


 
This image was all about the arrangement of the Cep mushrooms (from the Bolete group of edibles).
I was always fascinated with mushrooms and have photographed many kinds in the wild over the years maninly within forests. Obviously these have been photographed inside using natural daylight + Canon 5D on a tabletop.
  
3x SILVER WINNERS - Contemporary Portraiture

 
This was taken in a building using a silhouette and I loved the window shapes.

I also won 2 other silvers within the wedding category, which you may remember helped me to win overall 2nd in last years Mario Acerboni awards.
 
1 of my overall favourities only received a bronze below - go figure. Taken at Llandudno, Wales
 

See all the winners 

Landscape - Gold/ Personal Work April SWPP Awards

The Winners for April 2011
  
News & Press UPDATE: GOLD AWARDED
The below image has had a nomination for SWPP News & Press Photographer of the Year 2011.

 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email from SWPP

Dear Martin
Congratulations!

Your Gold Award image in the Category of Press & News has been nominated by our panel of judges for the award of Press & News Photographer of the Year.
Your image will be placed in the limited edition of ‘The Societies Collection’ book (available to pre-order now by contacting Head Office) along with the other nominated images, all of which are eligible to win the title of Press & News Photographer of the Year.
Should you be successful you will then stand the chance of winning 3rd place, 2^nd place or Overall Photographer of the Year.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   
  
The smouldering heather's taken on top of Winter Hill, Horwich mid afternoon on the West Pennines during the recent moorland/ forest fires. A Police helicopter drops water on to the buring smouldering terrain - so a very topical image, which has been darkened, smoke highlighted & finally sepia toned.


At Blackpool College (many years ago now) we used 5x4 view cameras for Still-Life Photography using mainly tungsten lighting and tungsten balanced film Fuji 64T. I never really could get interested in the subject matter or the vast amount of time it would take setting up the shot in camera & all the lights,  waiting for tranny film to get developed at the college.

However in the days of digital now Still-Life really has re-ignited my interest again. I find it very therapeutic and very different to the hussle & bussle of wedding photography.
Here's a few of my latest efforts mainly shot for the SWPP monthly awards  (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers)

Wooden Spoons Re-Worked PhotoShopped UPDATE: SILVER AWARDED
  
 

What I enjoy about Still-Life photography now is I can spend more time at the computer enhancing an image & not having to adjust lighting positions, camera exposures to get an effect I'm looking for. 
Instead I can use filters/plug-ins & PhotoShop Actions to get something far removed from the original flat and boring shot of 3 wooden spoons in my kitchen draw. The wooden board was an old warped cutting block/ board gone all battered in the dish-washer and with some computer help to distress it even more.

Dragon Fruit with enhancement

Walking around Tesco the colour of this thing just shouted 'buy me' with its purple coat and green edging. I still had some red paper left over from a chilli shoot I had done previously so I tried it behind the fruit and it really popped I thought 'yes' as I photographed it in the kitchen sink.

Obviously I have introduced a poloaroid effect to make this subject matter dark and more abstract.
The depth of field is very limited around 5.6 but I only wanted parts of it in focus, I needed to make it look different somehow.  UPDATE: BRONZE AWARDED

 

Monochrome entry 

This was a blaze on an industrial estate which I took from a high vantage point overlooking Westhoughton, nr Bolton. Seeing the smoke from my window, I then drove for 10 minutes to get this shot. UPDATE: SILVER AWARDED

 
    
Wedding Contemporary UPDATE: SILVER AWARDED

 

This image won a Gold a few years with the SWPP which I'd share with you.
Taken in my bedroom at 3200 asa and toned in PhotoShop it was originally a grey looking image.

SWPP Awards March 2011

This month i gained 1 Silver and 1 Gold award.
   
Firstly the Silver - a shot taken at Chadderton Town Hall, Oldham last year.
A beautiful Russian bride who really was very Dynamic to photograph providing me with lots of variations. Probably the image hasn't been manupulated enough for it to be classed as a Gold with the SWPP, but non the less a nice image.

 Gold - Chillis

 
 
When I attended Blackpool & Flyde college many years ago they encouaged us to look at all types of subjects to photograph. I just kept these on the window sill until they went bright red and wrinkley, and made a few shapes. Shot at 1600 and toned and finally sloppy bordered.

 


Last month I entered another still -life which I believed was stronger than this Gold winner only managing a Silver but very strong.

Silver February UPGRADED TO GOLD

 
  

 

BIPP North West Awards 2011

Well it was another year gone by and the awards night were upon us again this year at The Blue-Coats in Liverpool. All the images had been entered as jpg's back in January, and we had received the shortlists of the prints to get mounted and finally handed in at Statham Lodge, Lymm for judge assessment by George Dawber and others.
 

SWPP - Gold Award February 2011

WEDDING CONTEMPORARY: GOLD AWARDED
 
1 of my wedding images won a Gold Award in this months SWPP awards Wedding Contemporary Section.The image was taken in December at Julie & Ian's wedding, St.Thomas church, Lancaster.
Here's the winning /image this month. Entries from all over the world. Only 9 wedding Golds this month from 300.

http://www.swpp.co.uk/image_competition_Feb_11/winnerspg01.htm

Debbie managed a bronze from her 1st wedding (well done deb jones)

This image has also been shortlist into this years BIPP NW wedding awards & SWPP Dec finals.
I will post the orginal after the April awards on 2nd (he,he)

2nd Place - Overall Mario Acerboni MPA/ UK Photography Awards

 
http://www.masterphotographyawards.co.uk/2010-winners-mario.php
Just a quick update on my set of 3 images (3 in 1) winning Mario Acerboni North West Region, finally went on to finish UK Runner-Up 2010 to Kris Dickson who is probably the No.1 photographer in the UK for the last 3 years. 
Thank you to The MPA for the recognition and also to Danielle & Dan (bride & groom) again :-)
Will post up the award when it arrives.   

Mario Acerboni Awards - The North West 2010 Winner

A few months ago I decided to put in for the Mario Acerboni awards (Wedding Album Company) 2010.
I have always admired this company for this award because the photographer gets the chance to win both  Regionally first (in my case North West) & also at National level which I have been invited to attend.
Here's the only entry I put forward I felt it was a strong contender for many reasons - Art Deco slant/ Model was naturally elegant/ good lighting and careful photoshop skills. I do love them all but the mirror one which reflects the 'During' the ceremony quiet differently to the usual one's that have won in the past. 
I was getting the impression from last years winners they (judges) were starting to look for unusual ideas.
 
So I have labelled Before, During and After on the image and this is a lovely letter from Colin from the MPA. I would imagine there will be a certificate presented at The Hilton in Birmingham next month.
(Click on image for full res)

 
 
Some good photographer like Perrot Photo, Liam Crawley have won this previously also so its nice to be up there. Hopefully I can go 1 better and win the Overall UK Wedding Photographer Title in Oct!
 
Big thank you's to Danielle & Ben whose wedding took place at The Merewood Hotel, Lake District last year, also helped me to win BIPP Creative Wedding 2010 for me also this year. So October 17th watch this space... Update finished 2nd place overall UK Finals or Runner-Up.

2010 BIPP NW Awards Night @ Park Royal, Warrington

Well just a quick comment on last nights BIPP North West do. WINNER !!
I took Sharon & after winning in 2008, 2009 within the Creative Wedding Category I was looking to do the treble....well it happened.
 
So say I was nervous I really didnt think I was going to do it this year with strong contenders getting Bronze(David Stanbury) and Silver (Zoe Richards) & Liam Crawley. Well not sure if I will enter it next year i feel I need to set new goals and FBIPP is the one 1 want to concentrate on now. http://www.bippnw.co.uk/awards2010/finalists/Finalists/index.html

BIPP NW CREATIVE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER  2008, 2009, 2010

 
The BIPP stands for British Institute of Professional Photographers and this is their website
http://www.bipp.com/
 
All 3 images printed & mounted by David Farnell labs in Lancaster