Fjona Wei-ling Photography

Costas and Gemma in the country

fwphoto — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:07:46 +0000

Had an absolute ball with these guys…dragged them through muddy fields and rubbish tips, champagne in tow, (maybe a spot of light trespassing). Thats how we roll…

Costas and Gemma from fjona hill on Vimeo.

Cromer

fwphoto — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:35:45 +0000

I went to India to photograph a story on human trafficking (check it on the project page www.fjonahill.com) and along for the ride was Richard who is a producer/director/camera man extrodinaire for programmes such as Ray Mears and other ITV favourites. And funny to find he is another person with a camera in one hand and a hotel in his back pocket! So we both agreed to do a ’swap’. I went down a few weeks ago to photograph The Grove in Cromer and he is coming up to do a video of our michelin rated chef Martyn and beautiful hotel at Hampton Manor.

Seaside and countryside, bring your walking boots…

And your tweed, of course!

Like me, Jo, the woman of the house has been tasked with redesigning the place. Love a bit of country quirkiness. This was my fav room.

Lovely antique touches are scattered around the house.

Wholesome home cooked nosh, I had mine in the garden!

Richard’s Dad digging up the veg for the kitchen.

The Grove love their suppliers and organic touches.

And their suppliers love them! Their butcher was getting well into the photo shoot!

Playing to the camera

fwphoto — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:38:45 +0000

I love having a play with quirky portraits and edgy off camera flash but my real passion in photography is around story and documentary.

I do commercial photography part time, the rest of the time I am doing long term personal projects whilst I do my MA in documentary photography. I’m looking for ways to bring the real story back into the commercial market. Something different to the trends and fads of photographs that have been photoshopped away from reality. We like to present the very best of ourselves, a perfect postcard representation or a fantasy. And that definitely has its place, it can be fun and imaginative and it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop enjoying that side of things. But sometimes we miss out on whats underneath all that. Authenticity may not always be as classically ‘pretty’ but it can be more compelling and meaningful if we can face that level of intimacy with the camera. Outside my wedding work, I’m photographing people with stories of suffering and survival, people who let me into the hidden parts of their life. Watching their relationships play out is where I think I capture more of their character than a smiling mask.

I recently shot these images for an assignment on relationships. There was absolutely no posing, no direction given from me at all. Images have barely been touched on photoshop. Commerical children’s photography is about beautiful backlighting and perfect smiles. Yet there is so much more to childhood experience that doesn’t get explored with this classic approach… hope you can see some of that in these shots. The mum certainly loved them!

Megan and Rus

fwphoto — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 15:22:05 +0000

Megan and Rus are getting married in Oxford in the summer and flew over from the US for their shoot and a week of wedding planning!

Jacquie and Steve

fwphoto — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:00:57 +0000

Steve and his ushers were a bunch of cheeky chappies prone to posing with tongue in cheek humour and pinching each others bums! Whilst Jacquie and her girls had a motto of full glamour and none of this natural wedding makeup ‘I just stepped out of a daisy field’ malarkey – cue huge Audrey Hepburn style lashes and little black dresses. This wedding hit the decks from the words ‘I do’ with a Steve erupting into cheering and the worship band getting everyone dancing. Then onto the fabulous Stock with its huge domed ceiling and red lighting for a rather sexy reception. Needless to say, this lot were great fun in the studio booth in the evening!

Thankfully the children didn’t get the jokes….

WPJA awards

fwphoto — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:23:41 +0000

This quarter, I received a 5th and 11th place for engagement portraits. 13,686 entries for this quarterly international competition! Below are the images and the judges comments.

JUDGES COMMENTS: ‘Great idea. Creative and well executed.’

JUDGES COMMENTS: The muted colors and reflection add to the intimate mood in this image.

Vanessa and Jason

fwphoto — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:17:20 +0000

I returned to Thornton Manor to photograph our crazy (crazy is a good thing in my books!) Vanessa getting married to Jason. She was delightfully true to form and was bouncing all over the place for her morning shoot, doing karate kicks and making all her hair fall out, requiring an emergency fix by her hairdresser friends! But it was well worth it and I highly recommend a pre ceremony shoot for winter weddings in order to catch the light. The blue skies, autumn leaves, the vibrant colours of the hindu ceremony and the cosy tones of the manor house made it a great day for colour photography.

Hannah and Rupert

fwphoto — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:16:23 +0000

Hannah and Rupert had my first properly wintery wedding of the year… stormy skies outside made us feel all warm and cosy inside candle lit Hampton Manor.

Nadya and Mike

fwphoto — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 15:13:46 +0000

Nadya and Mike have very serious jobs but don’t take themselves too seriously at all and hurrah for that. The morning involved eating porkpies very fast, climbing trees and chasing cows. And an amazing hat collection….

Award winner

fwphoto — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 17:15:59 +0000

I’ve collected another award from WPJA, Wedding Photojournalist Association, yippee!

SIXTH PLACE: Photo by Fjona Wei-ling / West Midlands – England

CONTEST:

CATEGORY:

JUDGES COMMENTS: Everything about this picture is cool. The cobblestone street to the checker socks – This could either be the groom and groomsmen or a new rock band.