I knew this was going to be good, but the day exceeded all our expectations. The Hilton hotel in Manchester looked after us extremely well and the dresses supplied by Michelle were spot on for this event.

A splash of flash from a Speedlight was all that was needed to bring this picture to life. Charlotte's dress looks like a liquid metal under this lighting.
Here is a small selection of the days images shot by Chris and Myself.

Less is more. Composition is king in this simple grab shot.

Peekaboo with style. Chris keeps the composition simple too in this masterful frame.

I gave this picture my jungle treatment with a simple Speedlight set up.

Chris used a Lowell ID light for this image. He shot it from the floor below with the camera looking straight up to the distant light dome in the ceiling.

A tight crop and a high viewpoint add impact to this couple shot. I held the camera above my head to take the picture.

Chris chose to use a reflection to add to this simple composition.

I used a reflection too for this shot of Steve.

A soft pose and simple lighting makes a picture that could be taken in any hotel.

The same location as the picture above. This time I shot Hannah into the light.

High key at its highest. Chris really opened up his Nikon lens for this wow factor shot.

The circular stairs gave us all plenty of scope for creativity.

Chris found Charlotte lurking under the other staircase in a wonderful pool of light. Or was it set up?
I’ve shared just a few of the hundred or so pictures we shot on the Cherish event this week. The rest are being edited and will be available as a full gallery with EXIF data for the delegates.
If you want to secure yourself a place on the next Cherish event. book early! Full details are here
Very inspiring imagery. Will be interested in booking you for my wedding
Hi Tobiah,
Praise indeed. Where and when are you getting married? You can always email me ;) or contact me on Twitter. http://www.twitter.com/damienlovegrove
Hi Simon,
I’m looking forward to it too. Chris and I are going to swap locations so expect to see some exciting variations on the recent workshops.
See you on Monday. :-)
love the images, they look amazing. i’m so looking forward to coming along on Monday.
see you soon
Simon
Hi All
I found Cherish The Dress to be exhaustingly enjoyable while extremely challenging and rewarding.
Many thanks to all concerned, particularly Damien and Chris and I look forward to the next event.
It opened my eyes.
Best wishes
Doug
Hi Serge,
Sorry for the delay in replying, I’ve been away shooting a wedding. I use a lowel video light, here is a link to the UK suppliers prokit in London
http://www.prokit.co.uk/product.php?id=149
Small World – Have just noticed shot of Steve above. He’s the son of my good friends who live on the Yorkshire Moors.
Thanks for all the inspiration Damien – I’ve ordered the 4 DVDs – looking forward to them.
FYI – “Visualising the Image” – the best illustration I’ve seen is on the link at – http://www.better-photographs.com/better-photographs-blog.html#Visualising-the-Image
All the best,
John
Hi Chris!
What light light source was used for Charlotte under the staircase?
Thanks
Hi Rob,
Thank you for booking a place on this event. You should be able to recover your workshop fees in the form of extra print sales in record time :) I look forward to seeing you in July.
Damien.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the idea. I hope you noticed my latest post. Kindest regards, Damien.
I’ve just booked this workshop for July and really looking forward to it even more so on reading/looking at this blog entry. I have a wedding here 4 days after the workshop so will also be the ultimate location scout session :)
Hi Damien,
Great article and fantastic images as always.
It was refreshing to see your reasons behind not being a “tweeter on Twitter”. I have found that such forms of communication with such high frequency sometimes reduces the quality of the information.
It would be interesting to know your thoughts on Blogging as a form of Marketing, maybe as an article???
Best wishes
Paul
Thanks everyone for your praise. Hi John, I’m not a tweeter on twitter because my life is too short for social networking at this hour by hour level. I prefer to spend two or three sessions a week writing meaningful information that will have value for years to come. Most Twitter content I’ve come across is chit chat that needs wading through to find content of value. I’ve also chosen not to set up a forum because 90% of the forum posts I’ve read are of no value and absorb time like a sponge.
I may well be missing something on the twitter front. If I was in politics, I’d follow President Obama’s lead no doubt.
Regards,
Damien.
Hey Damien nice pics. I was wondering are you on twitter? I was trying to find you as most of my rss feeds are coming through twitter and I seldom check my MO 2007. Also any advice on Canon Tilt and Shift lenses? I am buying one to do some interior work however the last time I used anything similar was 20 years ago with a large format camera. Hope to tweet you soon dude. John
Fantastic Images… I think this has more durability and potential marketability (think I just made that word up) than Trash the Dress. Which I believe is going to be a bit of a flash in the pan and go out of fashion quite quickly.
Very good work… Thanks for Sharing
Love the first one, and the one with the couples and the reflection on the table. The other ones where good to, but those are my favorites, atleast =)
Fantastic images.
Thank you for you kind words Steve and Emma. I’m so pleased you took away cards, full of WOW images and the skills necessary to take your pictures to another level. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and thought the buzz of a Lovegrove shoot day got amongst everyone right from the start. You might like to nip over to my blog to see some of my images I posted.
Hope we see you again soon.
Regards
Chris Hanley
What a fantastic day!!! Thank you so much Damien, Chris & the team!
An amazing venue, great models, stunning dresses & expert tutors – it could not have been any better!
Thanks to yourself, Chris, and all the team for a fantastic days shoot. I came away absolutely shattered from the shoot but I am still buzzing with the ideas gained from the day.