Leo Friel Photography

Simona & Marius

Leo Friel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:00:38 +0000

I’ve been wanting to blog about this wedding for some time but, for reasons I’ll explain later, I held off until now. This was the wedding of Simona and Marius, a young couple from Lithuania who came over to Edinburgh to get Married. Simona originally contacted me from Lithuania, specifically because of my fashion photography influence; she wanted the shots to have a “fashion feel” to them and this is something I bring to my photography from the fashion work I do. Not always appropriate for some weddings but I was relishing the chance to work with this handsome young couple! It’s a very romantic story; The guys originally met in Edinburgh and decided to head back here to become wed in secret. Their way of announcing their news was to present their family with the wedding album – a gorgeous little Queensberry album in midnight blue contemporary leather. We met on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and headed off to a secret little garden which I’ve often used for photography. Then we walked up to the Edinburgh Registrar’s office and Simona was thrilled by all the calls of “Good Luck!” and “Congratulations!” being offered by the public as we passed. After the ceremony the couple and their two witnesses headed off for their wedding breakfast. We met once again later that night as the couple were keen to have a night photograph (which is a sort of signature of mine) by Edinburgh Castle. We met in Castle Street, where there’s a nice backdrop of the North face of the famous landmark. I decided to go mad and use the studio flash heads. So Marius and Simona huddled together in my car while I set up the lights and then we got a few shots of this scene – a lovely way to finish the storybook of the wedding album.

Andy & Caroline

Leo Friel — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:48:58 +0000

Last month I photographed the wedding of Andy and Caroline at Edinburgh’s beautiful Signet Library. Being November there was potential for any sort of weather but it was surprisingly mild and dry – as good as we can hope for in Edinburgh really. As it was the afternoon the daylight was fading just as Caroline was arriving so artificial light was the order of the day. The library is incredibly grand inside but it was nice how Andy and Caroline broke through the grandeur by having an informal ceremony and everyone seemed so involved.We took some group photos by the staircase and popped outside to the Court of Session which has a lovely covered ‘cloister’ which I’ve often used. The images can be found here and the password is Andy’s surname.

Annika

Leo Friel — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:33:34 +0000

Today I did a portrait session with the lovely Annika and her parents. It’s over a year since I last photographed them and it’s lovely to see the little ones growing up into little people with their character coming through. I’d forgotten about the big dog and how friendly he is with little Annika. We took some individual portraits and the family group and the images can be found here. The password is Annika’s surname. When I saw the wooden staircase I thought it would make a lovely composition for a little girl. Let me know what you think.

Christmas portraits

Leo Friel — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:47:05 +0000

Today I did a Christmas portrait shoot in Dalkeith park. We had 3 children to photograph to get some suitable images for Christmas presents. It was a gorgeous crisp November afternoon and the sun was bright and low in the sky. The great thing about this time of year is the autumn colour and the park was covered in a carpet of auburn leaves – a lovely backdrop for portraits of children. The boys were well up for a bit of fun but Amy the toddler was a bit overwhelmed by it all. Not to worry, as is often the case, everyone relaxes as the shoot goes on and we got some gorgeous shots of all the kids. Over to you now Santa! The images can be found here and the password is Belinda’s surname.

Good2GiveFashion Show

Leo Friel — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:04:02 +0000

Last Sunday (6th) I went along to photograph the models at a fashion show in aid of the charity ItsGood2Give – a children’s cancer charity. The event took place at George Heriots school and was compered by the tireless Grant Stott. There were some 50 models from young to old, and a huge range of clothing to be shown. Some of the models seemed to be pretty clued up but there were also quite a few doing it for the first time, however they carried it off superbly and they really looked the part. In particular some of the young kids were incredibly confident. I photographed some of the catwalk and also set up a mini studio to get some close ups of the models. The images can be found here . There are still lots to be added. Proceeds from print sales will be donated to ItsGoodToGive.

Liam & Emma

Leo Friel — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:03:27 +0000

I did a pre-wedding shoot with Liam & Emma the other week. The wedding is next June but the guys were keen to get some images ready for invites and so on. Which is a great idea – if you do your pre-wedding shoot early enough you can make this images work for you. They had some great (mad?) ideas of recreating a 50s picnic shoot and brought along a number of props. Such was their professionalism they even had a huge balloon and a canister of helium (later on I had hours of fun doing squeaky voices!). We headed up to Queen St gardens (which I sometimes use for weddings at the George Hotel) which we had to ourselves – a real oasis in the centre of the city.

We tried a few ideas in spite of the gloomy weather and I’ve gone for quite a vintage feel to the images. Let me know what you think.

The full set of images (are still in progress but) can be found here .

Louise & Colin at South Queensferry

Leo Friel — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:36:08 +0000

Last Sunday I was visiting South Queensferry on a cold, crisp, foggy morning awash with beautiful light. The sun was low in the sky (it is November!) and the fog was rising from the Firth of Forth. It was one of those days that makes you gasp at the beauty of this little country. If you don’t know South Queensferry, it’s famous for being the South end of the Forth Rail Bridge. Now there’s a saying that “painting the Forth Bridge” is an endless task. Once the end is reached it’s time to start again. Well, no more. The rail company are now using a new type of paint that lasts some 20 years. Now why am I telling you this? Well the significance is that now, for the first time since I can remember, there is no scaffolding, aprons, rust or general “stuff” to ruin the look of the bridge. It looks pristine and very dramatic rising out of the fog into the golden light of the winter sun.

I was there to do a pre wedding shoot with a fabulous couple – Louise and Colin – who are getting Married in December. Sometime a pre wedding shoot can be a little unnerving for one or both of the couple but it was a pleasure to photograph these two. They were fun, relaxed, clearly into each other(!) and seemed to enjoy our little walk through the town. They were so easy to photograph it bodes well for the big day – relaxed couples make for great wedding photos!

Another bonus of the weather was the way the sun broke through the trees – one of those days when the shafts of light look like Gods fingers reaching down to earth. We had some fun shooting into the light to create some dramatic backgrounds and atmospheric scenes. The images from the day can be found here.

Byte Night Scotland

Leo Friel — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:07:35 +0000

Tonight I’m going to be photographing (and blogging about) Byte Night Scotland . This is a charity event in aid of Action for Children where several teams of IT professionals will be spending the night sleeping under the stars in Holyrood Park. Think of it as “Geeks in sheets”! All of the teams are sponsored to the tune of £2500 to take part so it’s a fantastic effort for Action for Children. There will be teams from such companies as Amazon Development Centre, Ernst & Young, National Australia group, DC Thomson and BSKYB. Keep checking this blog I’ll be adding images as the night progresses. All of the images can be found here. Proceeds from print sales will go to Action for Children.

Time 7:30 pm and it’s check in. To my inexperienced eye it seems there are two types of sleepers; the experienced hillwalker/camper type in “endurance clothing” and those who’ve turned up for a night out – I’m sure I saw a pair of stilettos!

Time 11:00 pm. The revelry continues, Grant Stott compered the night as the fun part progresses. There was a quiz, food, auction, band – all in all a top night out and everyone is in great spirits. We’ll soon be heading outside where it’s dry but pretty cold here in Edinburgh.

Grant did a fantastic job at the auction and I was hugely impressed at how quickly he got the bids up to the silly money. He was tenacious to say the least – you dont get away from this auctioneer by trying not to make contact – he smells a sale.

On a more serious note there was a talk from 4 youngsters who’d benefitted from the work of Action for Children. They told us their sad stories of the problems they’d encountered which led to them to being homeless. Of how they’d benefitted from the charity and what it has meant to their lives. A sobering thought, but that’s why everyone was here and it’s inspiring to hear their tales.

Midnight and teams are heading off to the park, making their way in the dark with just their glow sticks to identify there’s anyone there. Quite an unusual sight seeing little red vertical lights moving through the dark. When the teams arrive they start to bed down using groundsheets, “bivvy” bags and sleeping bags (not “divvy” bags as I said earlier – they’re used in Liverpool). The team from DC Thomson obviously know their ancient history and decide to form what can only be described as some sort of Roman Centurion camp fashioned from umbrellas!

The Murrays

Leo Friel — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:49:30 +0000

I was hired to do a lifestyle shoot with the Murray family as a birthday present. I had photographed Jen & Iain’s wedding last year so it was wonderful to see their new addition to the family. So for the shoot we had no less than 6 adults, 2 children, 3 dogs and a photographer – this was going to be interesting! We went a walk in the lovely Cammo woods – a first for me – and, in spite of the week we’d just had in Edinburgh, it was a gorgeous day. Sunny overhead but muddy underfoot. Funnily enough this was the first time the three dogs had all met up and they seemed to be having more fun than anyone – chasing each other around madly! We found some lovely spots in the wood for some group shots and took some more as we walked around. There was a lovely field of barley and I managed to get some nice shots of young Max in the field. The images are here and the password is the breed of Jen’s dog.

Stephanie & David

Leo Friel — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:42:08 +0000

I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Stephanie and David in July. The guys are an absolute hoot so it was laugh a minute doing the pre wedding shoot and on the day itself, really great fun (and not like working at all!). Now, July in Edinburgh can can only one thing – rain! But no, the only nice day of an otherwise ‘dreich’ week turned up on the wedding day. The great thing about this was that we were able to take the whole wedding party into Queen Street Gardens for a champagne reception; definitely the best way to celebrate after getting married. I loved the walk along Queen Street with the couple accompanied by a piper mixing with the shoppers and tourists.

The images can be found here and the password is Stephanie’s surname.