Rachel and Peter brought me down to Bray in County Wicklow just after Christmas to shoot their wedding at the beautiful Christchurch and Esplanade Hotel.

I received this lovely email when they saw their pictures last week:

“Hi Dylan,
Just wanted to send you a quick email to say thank you so much for the photos, they are fantastic, we had been waiting with baited breath for them and you really didn’t disappoint, really captured the day perfectly.
There are some in particular we just cant stop looking at.
Thanks so much again.”

Here are just a few of my many favourites:

Like everyone my heart breaks everytime I see the situation in Haiti. The US has its problems at the moment, as we do here in the UK, but well done for stumping up £38 million to help Haiti. £6 million from the UK Government is a good start as well.

If anyone who reads this blog is interested in donating you can view details on the bbc website here. Or you can donate directly at the Disasters Emergency Committee website here.

Donna-Marie and Paul came home from London just before the New Year to tie the knot in St Mochuas, Derrynoose, Co Armagh (with reception at Darver Castle, Readypenny, Co Louth). Donna’s Grandmother had married in the same church forty years ago so there was a wonderful atmosphere during the ceremony and through the remainder of the day.

Donna-Marie sent me this lovely message yesterday after she had seen her photographs:

“Hi Dylan, Paul and I have seen the photographs and we are just delighted with them – was so emotional this morning when I seen them. Thank you so so much for capturing such wonderful moments.”

Here are just a few of my many favourites from the wedding:

If I had to choose three photographers that have influenced me over the years I’d name Garry Winogrand, Henri Cartier Bresson and Joel Meyerowitz.

Joel Meyerowitz was part of a movement of street photographers who documented everyday life on the streets of New York City in what many call the golden age of street photography. Even today, Joel’s ‘field photographs’ influence me a great deal.

His images were such that your eye could come into the picture anywhere on the scene, meander through the photograph and pick out detail upon detail. His use of wide angle lenses to include and describe ‘more’ within the frame were put to spectacular effect on the streets of New York in the late 1960s and through the 1970s.

Later, he would pioneer the use of colour in modern art photography. He’s still alive and producing work to this day. You can see the power of his documentary photography in his post 9-11 book ‘Aftermath’ which documented the story behind the clear-up at Ground Zero.

Henri Cartier Bresson was the first photographer to show me and many others, just what was possible within the confines of a photograph. His images are dreamlike moments snapped and preserved forever on film. Cartier Bresson had the eye of a mathematician. He was a photographic genius and is perhaps the most famous photographer of all time. Sadly he died in 2004.

Cornell Capa wrote this about him in the late 1980s:

“Henri Cartier Bresson has long been considered to be among the world’s most important photojournalists. His aesthetic of the ‘decisive moment’ – the revelatory instant – and his aversion to arranged photographs and contrived settings have influenced photographers since the 1930s.”

Last year I travelled to Paris and visited the HCB Foundation in Montparnasse. It’s hard not to stand in admiration of Henri’s little Leica M3 camera sitting displayed in the glass cabinet up on the upper floor. To think of what he achieved with just his eye and that little manual camera is so inspiring. In this day and age of modern cameras that’s a revelation.

Garry Winogrand was another New York ‘street photographer’ known for his portrayal of American life in the early 1960s. He roamed the streets of New York with his 35mm Leica camera rapidly taking photographs using a prefocused wide angle lens. His pictures frequently appeared as if they were driven by the energy of the events he was witnessing. Winogrand once stated that “a photograph has the illusion of being a literal description of how the camera ‘saw’ a piece of time and space.” How about that?

Tod Papageorge said this about Garry’s pictures in 1974:

“If they appear casual it is because they were meant to. Their mastery resides in just such an appearance.”

Fine words.

Here are some wedding images of my own that I know have been directly inspired by these three great photographers.

Can you tell which?

Shane and Aine asked me twice if I would shoot their wedding before I confirmed the booking last year. Being already quite busy last December, I was at first a bit reluctant to take on another wedding over my busy Christmas period. But the warmth of their personalities really convinced me and I’m really glad I got to shoot their wedding.

I had an absolutely brilliant time with them and I left that night with a contented heart. Shane remarked to me at the Culloden that Aine had said that I was practically invisible at the house in the morning – which was music to my ears as I pride myself on going into any situation anywhere and being completely unobtrusive whilst getting my pictures.

The weather was cold and icy with the last of the 2009 big freeze showing no signs of abating. Amongst the highlights for me was getting to help Aine, her bridesmaids and her little flowergirl to their wedding cars waiting at the top of the street (it was too icy for them to come down to the door). I was glad they all made it safely!

St Olcans in Armoy was packed to the rafters and the atmosphere at the Culloden later on was wonderful also. Again, I kept the formals to an absolute minimum and set about most of the day finding great moments.

Here are a few of my personal favourites as I continue the editing:

The week before Christmas saw me shooting at Holy Trinity Church at Glencraig in Holywood and then back up to Clandeboye Estate where I’d photographed Simon and Claire’s wedding for Claire and Ben’s magical wedding.

With the ceremony taking place at 3.30pm there was hardly any natural light for me to work with. The weather was wet and cold so the whole wedding was shot entirely indoors. Inside the church the atmosphere was wonderful – almost in darkness except for some storm lanterns and candlelight. Clandeboye was also beautiful and is a truly fabulous winter wedding venue.

With such difficult lighting conditions I shot most of the day at f1.4 ISO 6400 and shutter speeds of between 1/30th and 1/100th of a second – which for me, really is the top of the mountain technically. I refuse to use flash as its presence would totally destroy the atmosphere – as well as being too intrusive for the way I work.

With it being so ‘photographically’ dark I managed to retain a lot of the atmosphere and capture some really lovely moments and scenes.

Here are a few of my many favourites from the day:

In between shooting my four Christmas weddings, entertaining the in-laws and cooking up plenty of Christmas dinners I spent most of the last month just looking at baby Corrina (and sometimes singing to her). She’s an angel when she sleeps.