Hello and welcome to the Lighthouse Studios blog.

So far 2010 has been a pretty busy year: Weddings, Portraits, Celebrities, Dogs, Seminars & Courses, Art Galleries, Commercial Photography, and more!

We have again been lucky and have had lots of beautiful brides & handsome grooms in beautiful locations at dozens of weddings across Scotland including Roman Camp, Norton House Hotel Edinburgh, St Mary's Dunblane, Park Lodge Hotel Stirling, Airth Castle, Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh, Ross Priory Loch Lomond, Church Of The Holy Rude Stirling, Stirling Castle, and most recently Cathal & Sarah's beautiful wedding at their family home close to La Rochelle, France - an Irish wedding in the French countryside, fantastic. Although after downing tools just after midnight then staying up drinking with the bride, groom and guests until 5 in the morning it didn't seem such a good idea the following morning having to get up to check out of our guest house (Au 33 rue Thiers if you ever need somewhere nice to stay in La Rochelle) after 4 hours sleep and having to spend the next 12 hours travelling home!

Our studio in Causewayhead has been a noisy place with the fun and laughter of many families, couples and individuals (and the occasional crying baby and barking dog!)

I managed a trip down to the National Portrait Gallery in London with good friend and excellent photographer Ewen Forsyth, to see the Irving Penn exhibition which was fantastic and inspiring. Also while in London I staged a mini wedding fair while staying at the Green Park Hotel and added to our 2010 wedding bookings in the process. With the National Gallery just round the corner from the Portrait gallery it would have been rude not to pop in and spend some time with some of the Masters. It really is awe inspiring being able to admire some of the world's best and most famous works of art from just a few inches away. A great way to end the afternoon; with Rembrandt, Monet, Botticelli, Michaelangelo, Caravaggio and Van Gough - they were pretty tight-lipped about passing on any tips though.

I was asked back to the Stirling and District Camera Club to do a seminar and short course on studio lighting which was a great fun evening and everyone tells me they enjoyed it - so a success!

We have also added training courses to our website to help other photographers or enthusiasts further their knowledge of things photographic.


We are going to be launching a free advice service where we will answer photography-related questions; whether you'd like to know the best compact digital camera or how to get the best out of you new digital SLR, we will endeavour to help.

May and June saw Jennifer and Me photographing over 1000 nursery children at Day Nurseries across Scotland which was great fun and we are both looking forward to doing it all again from September.

Following on from the successful 2009 launch of the event photography side of our business, where we set up our mobile studio and are able to print professional quality prints on site, we have been regularly attending Kidz World in Alloa and Playhouse Fun in Falkirk. Our event photography studio has also been at the Dunblane Fayre at the Dunblane centre, a dog show, a children's Disney themed lunch and disco, a few parties and Lighthouse Studios were proud to be chosen as the official event photographers and one of the prize sponsors at the Tommy's fundraiser event at Devonvale Hall Tillicoultry in June.

Our commercial photography has been good fun too, working with several local businesses including celebrity chef Nick Nairn and Stirling's most contemporary dental practice Tooth Plus who chose us to do the photography for the upcoming awards they will be entering.

Talking of awards, I recently won an award in the category of Complete Wedding at the annual Master Photographers Association Scottish Region awards - which was nice! Oh, and I have been appointed Chairman of the Master Photographers Association Scottish Region which is a real honour and I am really looking forward to. It will mean organising seminars, training and offering professional support to the hundreds of qualified members in the region. I will also be travelling to other regions in England and Wales giving seminars and training days - I had better start thinking about what I am going to say!