Jim Poyner Photography

Sally and Anthony get married.

Our first wedding of the year started in Knaresborough in a gorgeous church I haven't visited before and ended at the most excellent Cedar Grand York. A seriously classy do with everyone there looking amazing and then some. I so much enjoyed this wedding and Sally and Anthony were smiling throughout - just as it should be. Amazing speeches, including one song and a poem and to follow - a live band to round off the evening.

To quote the bride when she got her piccies..
"All I can say is awesome!!! The photos are exactly what we were after
and more! Thanks so much for the whole experience, we were saying that
we were blown away by your service on the day (I think its great that
so many people didn't clock they were being photographed!) and the
photo themselves are fantastic. I was supposed to be tidying up today
- thats now been deffered to Sunday as I have been too distracted by
having to go to the website for a sneaky peak.
Once again, thanks so much for the photos - in your words, mint!'

The day the Queen visited, we were busy elsewhere..

...we were still in York but were battling through the crowds to get us and guests to a wedding that crossed the Queens security path twice. The good side of the equation was that it was the only day of blazing sun all week, quite right too for a wonderful wedding it was. Able assistance to be in two places at once provided by Andy Gaines, York.

Volunteer with The Childrens Society.

Hullo!
Ive been asked by The Children's Society to mention one of the friends I've met through them and hopefully spread the word on how thoroughly rewarding volunteering can be.
Locally, The Children's Society are a commercial client of mine and my contact asked if I would consider running a wee photography project with one of their young people who is totally into his photography. Mint. We take work experience people, trainees etc all the time and have a young apprentice so we met David (the young person) and his dad in a cafe for a natter and it turn out David LOVES nature photography, knows a gazillion types of birds etc and had a great portfolio to boot.

Unfortunately I know sod all about nature photography but decided to wing it (did you see what I did there?!).
What followed over the next few sessions was a full-on assault on the wild life of Museum Gardens York, with David armed with our Eos 7D and 70-200L lens and a bag of memory cards. Damn but that fella can shoot frames and he went home with a stack of piccies to edit at home.

After a couple of months, I got a press release though from the Children's Society...
"Another Reaching Out member who recently found a paid job is David. He cleans at a restaurant in York a few mornings each week. He also volunteers at the Eco Café so he’s a very busy guy. But he always finds time for his favourite hobby, photography. David entered three of his photos in the Downs Syndrome Association’s national photographic competition and two of them reached the final 10. At the awards party held in Kew Gardens, David was thrilled to meet former Formula 1 driver Damon Hill. His pictures have recently been exhibited in a gallery in central London."

HOW COOL IS THAT! One was picture of Me! Wild life my arse but it was part of an exercise in framing and as I look coolish I'm all good with that and the squirrel piccy is Mint. The other shot was a video frame from the Childrens Society contact who accompanied us.

David is a friend now that I would take with me should anyone ever pay me to shoot naturey stuff. The support we received during his time with me was excellent and I would urge all our readers to consider offering a supported "Reaching out" placement or perhaps offer support at events, special occasions etc by working directly with the young people for a couple of hours on a regular basis. You have nothing to loose and the young people of York have an awful lot to offer.

If you would like to find out more about the "Fun and Friendship", "Reaching Out" or "Befriending Scheme", please Call York 01904 639056 and ask for the PACT team.

I thank you.

Why I'm a Photographer

..and not a cake maker.

My son and heir had a birthday last week and therefore required a cake. Now that's not usually my bit of the gig, Mrs P does a mean children's cake and the local competition between the mums of Southbank is fierce to say the least. Nevertheless, Mrs P was busy so I offered to knock up a flying saucer cake for my lads 5th. Seriously, how hard could it be.

You'll see from the piccies that I went for a few blocks of fruit cake to make up the main bit, Id planned to stick these together with magic or something but it turns out you need cake glue. Normal glue just wouldn't stick the blocks together so I had a go at making a fondant glue type of thing, used ALL the sugar in the house and then fired it across the room with a high powered hand whisk. Bugger. Undeterred I plastered the blocks together (now not circular, more of a rubbish hat shape) and covered it with not quite enough icing.

By this point Id switched from pink fizz to whiskey and was feeling quite good about the whole thing until Mrs P came through to check my progress.
The words "What the hell is that mess", "It's a bloody disaster", "I'm telling everyone that you made it" were among the things she said as she crafted alien heads, cut the top off, reshaped it, and covered the gaps with sweets etc.

When he came down in the morning to see his cake, he slowly circled it, like a CSI officer looking at a particularly weird crime scene, looked up at me and said "Well, I think you've done very well Daddy".

The moral of this story is, if you want a job doing properly, give it to a full time professional.
Next time I'll tell Mrs P I'm going to do the cake but instead will pay Elaine at www.cakesandsweets.co.uk

3 steps to cool

3 steps to cool
1. get cool logo. Check
2. put cool logo on all stationery. Check
3. meet v. nice lady who makes cards with laserbeams and happiness. Check

Cards from whitepetaldesign.co.uk
I love them, Thank you!

Photo courtesy of Brodie, our apprentice who is very mint but learning frighteningly fast, a bit like a scary robot in a 80s science movie.