Fireworks at Hazlewood Castle, Leeds

Chris and Linsey relax during their wedding

Chris and Linsey during the Hallelujah serenade in Hazlewood Castle Chapel during the service

Fireworks at Hazlewood Castle

From time to time I have seen photographs of fireworks at Hazlewood Castle, and whilst we've photographed fireworks all over North Yorkshire at venues like
Ripley Castle, Swinton Park, and Rudding Park to name a few, we have never come across them at Hazlewood Castle until recently.

Fireworks are notoriously difficult to photograph, get the exposure too long, and all you get is heavy white streaks in the image, whereas what you really need is some colour. If the exposure is too short, you just get the odd blip of colour, but no shape or pattern to the display.

Linsey and Chris had an action packed wedding, culminating in a fireworks display for all their guests.

Linsey's dad built in a few surprises for the couple on the day, which included Elvis singing to guests during the speeches, a chimney sweep for luck, doves were released after the meal, and the main members of the bridal party had planned a choregraphed dance routine which they performed as an extension to the first dance.

During the service, Chris and Linsey were serenaded by a group who sang Hallelujah from the balcony of Hazlewood Castle Chapel, this was one of my favourite parts of the day, together with some quiet time with the bride and groom in the afternoon, and of course, the fireworks. A very full but very enjoyable wedding at Hazlewood Castle.

A collection of photography awards we are very proud of!!

Wow!! What a year!!

The Awards season is now pretty much over, and we have gathered a number of trophies and certificates, and I think we can comfortably say we are the highest achieving wedding photographers in Yorkshire this year. That's not to say we are the most expensive - far from it. With a high level of consistency and quality, our products represent extremely good value for money, which is what I like to aim for.

To summarise, here is what we have won/gained/achieved this year:-

Master Photographers Asssociation

National Licentiate Competition Winner - prize, one week in Las Vegas
Runner up to the UK Weddings Photographer of the Year 2009 (in the last three - so near yet so far) - Award of Excellence received.
Yorkshire Region Classic Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009
Yorkshire Region Best Wedding Album 2009

Mario Acerboni in conjunction with the MPA
Winner, Yorkshire Region 'three from one' competition - see below for details,

British Institute of Professional Photographers

National Bronze Award for Classic Wedding Photography (highest standard achieved this year by any wedding photographer in the UK - given to only one other wedding photographer in this category in 2009, and to only five wedding photographers overall this year.
Yorkshire Region Classic Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009
Yorkshire Region Avante Garde Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009
Yorkshire Region overall Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009


Now that is one heck of a collection of awards and achievements of which we are very proud. These are all serious awards given by the two main professional bodies in the UK. Here's looking forward to a fabulous 2010.

However, they are only a byproduct of what we do anyhow - and that is, producing super wedding albums from super weddings. Our main priority is to photograph our brides in whichever way they want, the rest just happens!!

Best wedding album in Yorkshire 2009!!

We have been awarded the fantastic accolade of 'Best Wedding Album in Yorkshire 2009' by the Master Photographers Association, for a wedding that we photographed
for Rachel and Mark Curtis at Allerton Castle last September (the period covers summer 2008 to summer 2009).

Rachel and Mark's wedding was the first really sunny day of last summer, and Rachel went out to have some fabulous photographs taken, who are we to refuse?

The day was glorious, Rachel wore a stunning Hollywood Dreams Dress. They were married at St Helens Church, Skipwith, and went on to Allerton Castle, Harrogate, for their
reception breakfast.

Afternoon and evening entertainment was provided by Event Music.

Winner - Mario Acerboni 'Three from One' Award, Yorkshire Region MPA

I am thrilled to have won the Mario Acerboni 'Three from One' Award for the best set of three inages taken at any one wedding in the Yorkshire Region
in the last 12 months.

The wedding was that of Stephen and Katie Pickup at Rudding Park in Harrogate (see below for their lovely letter, although I promise that at the time of writing, they or I had no idea about this award!).

The competition involves the photographer entering three images from one wedding - one taken before the ceremony, one taken during the ceremony, and one taken after the ceremony.

To have taken the best set of three in Yorkshire gives me great pride and satisfaction, and I am also extremely pleased for Stephen and Kate, whos wedding album now includes those images!!

Steve

Steve wins trip to Las Vegas at the Master Photographer Association National Awards

Steve has won a trip to Las Vegas at the Master Photographer Asssociation Awards with his stunning
image of Faye at Wood Hall. The trip is to visit the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention
next year, which will no doubt give him loads of ideas for next year's brides. The prize was for the winning entry in the Master Photographers Licentiate category,
beating photographers from all over the world to secure a place at the WPPI.

'I am totally excited to be attending this event, which is the largest of its kind in the world.'

Fw: Wedding album - big hit!

We receieved the following email from Kate and Steve who we recently
photographed at Rudding Park.

The following is reproduced with kind permission.

Special mention also goes to Gavin Richmond, who worked with me on the day,
and produced some wonderful images.

Hi Steve

Just wanted to drop you a quick e-mail to say we have just
got back from my parent's place, and the album went down
an absolute storm!! They totally love it, and are really
chuffed with their copy of it too! My Mum said she was
thinking, when she was looking at our copy, "I wish we had
a copy of it to show off to our friends", so she was over
the moon when we presented them with their copy!

Of course, we totally love it too - we have looked at it
about ten times already since yesterday! You have done an
absolutely cracking job creating memories of our most
special day that we will treasure forever. Thank you very
much for all your hard work, and patience with our
constant questions and nagging! You are a brilliant
photographer, and we are really glad we chose you to shoot
our wedding. We came across a number of other cracking
photographers when planning our wedding, but you had 'the
edge' by an absolute mile! We will definitely recommend
you to our friends.

Thanks once again for everything - it was great working
with you. We are sad it is all over!

Steve and Kate Pickup

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The Ramsdens in New York

Hi everyone,

 

As you may know, Craig was 21 on the 26 May this year, and to celebrate he opted for a short break in New York.

 

We flew over on the 6 June and had five nights in The Big Apple.

 

The following slideshow just about covers everything we got up to, enjoy!

 

http://www.steveramsdenstudio.co.uk/slideshow/New_York/

 

 

Steve Ramsden Photography voted best Wedding Photographers in Yorkshire by the British Insitute of Professional Photographers

I am delighted to say that on Wednesday night Steve was voted the outright winner in both wedding categories of the British Institute of Professional Photographers Yorkshire Region
Annual Awards, with photographs from three other Steve Ramsden Studio weddings taking a further three of the available eight runner up (merit) awards. This means that Steve
was awarded 5 of the available 10 awards in the two wedding categories, an achievement we are very proud of.

Each of the 5 awards were taken at different weddings, which demonstrates a consistently high level of work throughout the year, and shows that we work hard for everyone who selects us as their wedding photographers.

The outright wins in both categories also demonstrate the range of Steve's work, that he can photograph the truly classic, as well as the contemporary and modern, the choice is entirely up to our brides at the end of the day.

A huge thanks to all our brides for always looking and being stunning on the day.

Whilst we always work very hard for our clients, it is extremely gratifying and encouraging to receive these accolades from the industry's qualifying body. For more information please visit

www.bipp.com

Please see below for details of the award winning images.

BIPP Yorkshire Classic Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009 merit (ie runner up) award

 

This photograph of Georgina at Shrigley Hall was described by judge George Dawber as a 'classic' classical wedding image, with great expession from the bride, and excellent lighting.

Fw: BIPP Yorkshire Avant Garde Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009 merit (ie runner up) award

When we photographed Matt and Sarah's wedding at Simonstone Hall last year, the couple asked for 'something different'. We suggested a short trip to Yorkshire's famous Buttertubs, and this is one of the fabulous images we took, selected from many.