dissington hall northumberland - alan mason wedding photographer

alan mason . studio . goose hill . morpeth . northumberland . england . telephone (01670) 735563 email icarus2@ukonline.co.uk

Dissington Hall is an excellent venue to host your wedding or reception,

Wedding photography at Dissington : I've never been disappointed by the staff who run the place - Dissington deserve staff deserve special mention - they're responsible for the almost invisible but perfect synchronisation of events. Dissington Hall is situated at Dalton, near to Ponteland, Northumberland.

A sure sign that there's a wedding taking place somewhere in the vicinity - flowers looking suspiciously bouquet like - laid casually around.

Aha . . It seems that I might have found the right place . .

(I'd probably die painfully if I didn't).

Spotted by an alert photographer - so alert that he never misses a thing - in fact more alert than an eagle, or a barn owl - or a hyperactive squirrel, or a . . . . er . .

oh well . . to be honest . . . I didn't actually notice these sweets - Dawn Marie, Dissington wedding organiser, grabbed my arm and shoved my camera in the right direction.

She had inside information on the contents of the 'love hearts' sweetie packets on the tables. All I did was open a packet to pose them for my camera. (But - what do you do with a packet once opened - it can't be left around - can it, that would look bad.)

note : it is not advisable to swallow a crunched up love heart and breathe in at the same time, whilst pretending to focus a camera. The result is something like a muffled explosion and looks like a photographer staggering around a tripod holding his chest and trying to look innocent - as if he hadn't eaten any of the sweets.

So .. technically - this picture isn't actually a work of art - you could pick lots of things 'wrong with it' . but it contains atmosphere, something that it's hard to put words to. and what's even more important - it's what the bride wanted for her album - real people doing real things on her wedding day.

who can argue with that ?

nimble fingers doing things that my stubby fingers couldn't do in a month of Sundays.

If a man had to lace these things up . . . . . well - I couldn't do it . . . .

In a red dress - bridesmaid - owner of the nimble fingers in the picture above was the first person ready to have a picture taken. Posing perfectly - she helps me get my camera set up in preparation for the lady in the white dress . .

You might notice that I do formal pictures as well,

formal is just a word - what I'm trying to say is 'set up, posed, organised'.

(they're awful words, I'm quite laid back really) - posing simply means - 'could you just stand over there please and look this way - CLICK. hah. done it - painless wasn't it !

OR ICLKC if mistyped (only a sad person like me would try to pronounce that whilst taking a picture and expect people to understand what I'm saying)

'I said wait until the camera goes ICLKC'

aha - the person in the white dress appears on the stairs - looking the part.

I'm still thinking of more and more things to do with staircases, this one in particular - I think I'm kinda hooked on them - wierd - a photographer with a staircase fetish . .

The possibilities seem limitless - I think that I'm just pleased to get off the 2 dimensional ground plane and into 3 dimensions.

(send for the men in white coats if I get into the 4th or 5th dimension - oh - and you may as well warn air traffic control too whilst you're about it !)

yup - looks like they're all ready now - phew - there's always acres of time - shedloads of the stuff - gallons of spare time, until the final 15 minutes or so - then there never seems to be enough time to do everything . . .

OK so the lady is about to walk down the stairs - so where would YOU have stood with your camera to get a picture ?

Unfair question - you might not know the place and if you did - you might have picked a better viewpoint than me anyway.

I don't pretend to be perfect - who is ?

The mad viewpoint pays off (I did worry that this was a bit of a gamble).

Dissington Halls' symmetrical 19thc architecture is exploited by Dawn Marie (Dissington Hall wedding organiser) and her sense of style.

symmetrical staircase.

synchronised approach of Bride, Bridesmaids and proud father.

happy photographer - picture worked. yippee..

And after the wedding.

relaxing on the terrace lawn,

sipping bubbly.

perfect weather.

Definitely unplanned dance move

(no one else was dancing !)

who cares - It was that kind of day. . . .

David is then ambushed by ladies. .

(I've noticed that, at weddings, the female of the species hides - cleverly camouflaged under hats and then creeps up on unsuspecting blokes)

you can see the result on the left.

poor feller.

a guest brings refreshments to the troops.

warm day . . I could murder a glass of that stuff -

however - I dare not touch a drop at a wedding - as I tend to do really silly things when I've had a drink.

Rebecca and David chill out atop the staircase of Dissington Hall.

I apologise to Ben and Bev Carr of Kent, as I shamelessly lifted this picture idea from the album that I made for them earlier this year.

But theirs was a little different - come to think of it - their entire album was very different to almost everything else I've done. so it wasn't the same really . . oh well.

Masters of all they survey for the day - Lady Rebecca of Dissington ?

mad distortions courtesy of the nutcase who likes to make his pictures look 'a bit different'.

It seems that at Dissington - the house is yours for the day - some places have several weddings in progress at the same time (what fun !), I've only ever seen one in progress at Dissington. this means that you don't need to worry about sharing bits of garden with other wedding parties for your photos etc.

Oh - and I suppose there has to be a picture of the cake !

well - to be fair . . lots of pictures of the cake were taken . . .

this picture being the one that eventually graced Rebecca and Davids wedding album.

(It takes an awful lot of persuading to get a cake to pose like this for the camera, they're usually quite shy things).