Tuesday morning reflections

The joy in the morning walk, time spent in nature and new magical discoveries

Gosh what a few sunny autumn days it’s been, back at luscious long morning walks, research visits to Wisley + 3 exhibitions at The Victoria & Albert Museum!!

This summer…….

September has rolled around and autumn is nipping slightly at the days beginnings and ends, whilst the glow of August lingers a little.

I gleefully always seem to be on catch up, on the back foot when it comes to sharing and posting photo work and jobs and berating myself for not posting in a timely manner or at all.

Its not that i dont want to, often i am caught between waiting for clients to post first then i share OR another reality which happened last night. I got home from a fabulous full days shoot, downloaded my images, checked them over, imported them to Lightroom and fell into bed. Knowing I had to drive 3 hours to a glorious destination today for a photo session tomorrow.

I'd love to pretend I have all these people, all these teams doing all the things that ensure smooth sailing of a small business but it's not, it's all me and if I'm knackered and dribbling then it's best I step away from a screen, put myself to bed and gear up for the next day. I'm certain you understand and it really helps saying it out loud.

So a snippet, shared from the gram of a recent epic 2.5 hour session in London with wonderful Lisa Berkovitz. Finding the light, the joy and the moments, laughter, positivity and connection….more on the gram, or here or both. Here's to a happy September x

Friday night Confessionals….For the love of Peonies

Juicy Fridays….

Hi!! How is everyone doing?? February already and I’ve been armpit deep in training since the beginning of the year, which has been amazing and super intense, a part of me wondered why this was such a great idea during a pandemic lol but this quote from it has really resonated

‘Ironed out in the FIRE’

YES! So today, rain outside, a need within to be creative, so many ideas brewing and a pot of delicious gold paint calling….

Ahaaaaaa……Oh I’m super excited I had the chance to explore something that’s been tickling me for about a week but I hadn’t had the chance to act on it until, the tickle got too much today and I busted out my art box, brushes, paints, peony images, lay newspaper down and tapped my imagination.

Different brush sizes and textures later I started adding gold shimmer to a test image from my Peony portfolio : luscious fine art paper!! I’ve lots more exploration but I’m excited by this start :-)

Here’s to creative weekends ahead!! Have a great one!! x

Friday Night Confessionals - first of 2021!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Wishing you all a peaceful, safe and happy year ahead xx

After my morning walk and coffee this morning I made a short video of my NEW 2021 Calendars and I am thrilled to share it here too!!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJgQDErB8lR/

I collated the beautiful Peony images I created in Lockdown 1 last year to produce a gorgeous calendar and I am super thrilled to share fine art prints from the series will be available soon too!

Last night as I pondered the previous 12 months and reflected upon my photo clients and the sessions I had captured, I wistfully remembered a time when marriage proposals would book end each year and just what a high it is to end and begin each year with the pleasure an joy of capturing these incredible moments. JUST as I was reminiscing a Blog post popped up from Flytographer with their Top 30 Proposals of 2020 and I was BEYOND THRILLED to be included with this fun proposal of Christine + Ann Marie back in earl yMarch <3

https://www.flytographer.com/blog/top-30-proposal-love-stories-from-2020-during-the-pandemic/

Happy January everyone, here’s to a peaceful year ahead xx

International Women's Day 2020

Celebrating ‘Friendship’

March 2020

I couldn’t let this year pass without celebrating - every year I capture portraits of women which then become an exhibition with the idea of inspiring younger generations.

This year the arts project in Croydon is taking a break + I thought it would be great to do something a little more casual with the end results being shared online during the day of International Women’s Day. I set about thinking of friends who work in central London so I could be in one spot and it wouldn’t be too tricky for them to come to me with the theme ‘friendship’ + ask them for their own interpretation, feeling, word, colour - whatever it was that resonates with them.

• so Friday 6th these gorgeous ladies below swung by for chatter, tea, pictures + let me take their photo.

I also had in my mind that I’m trying something new….challenging myself + stepping out of my comfort zone to shoot in a different way, to step back slightly, to allow the images to sit together, to continue for the month of March, to include portraits where the sitter isn’t smiling - I CANNOT even BEGIN to tell you HOW HARD that was!!! + produce a lovely project + as it turned out, was a very poignant theme.

Above a screen shot of my final selection of images, Below the final cut (or so I thought!)

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I loved how everyone’s response was very different.

I wanted to bring people together with this project, to share their individual interpretation of “friendship” + to create portraits where I challenged myself in the image making. I am really good at getting right up close to people and in to their space to capture their essence + to be honest this has turned in to a process of challenging normality for me, for sitting on my own hands when I wanted to move in closer or select the happiest photo in the selection + publish on socials only my finely curated selection of happy.

What transpired was me forcing myself to choose images I loved but were perhaps a little more sullen than my usual work. Not soley to challenge myself but to look at the images with a different perspective, a different vantage point. That in itself challenged me to let go and reconnect to being happy with the images myself, whichever ones I chose + trusting the ‘process’.

It’s also been about a conversation Tanya and I had about the viewers experience and ‘seeing’ as the artist or photographer was at the precise moment in time and layering on top of that what we bring in the form of our own interpretation/feelings/emotions/life events to any art at any given moment.

My normal way of working is interacting, observing, creating ease between me, my camera and my sitter, recording just the right representation that I see in any given moment that I feel is an accurate representation of them - on Friday, I stepped back, I deliberately created space to see if it impacted the images I created, if it brought something else forward. So a project based on friendship and exploring how we see.

It’s interesting that looking through the selected images of each of my friends , the versatility of their emotions and our conversation serves as a great mixture to capture slightly different feelings in each picture + the selections below are to appease my controlling mind and show the fun we had!! :-) They also work really nicely as a set of images.

I’m continuing this project and excited to capture more friends through March - over on instagram you can also hear everyone’s interpretation of ‘friendship’ . Have a fab March + enjoy x

Friday Night Confessionals....When London is your meeting point

Ahhhh ALL the Friday night lovevibes right here!!

AND AWESOME CLIENT LOVE <3 xx

Jackie was amazing from start to finish. Her attitude and energy were matched only by her skill as a photographer. We were a tough assignment with multiple extended family members from 20 months to 75 years old and she managed to keep us engaged, get all of the combinations we wanted in the shots and most importantly to get us to have fun.

I LOVED this session, everyone was super fun and up for snuggling in to keep warm AND Because they had all flown in to London from very hot and very different locations and not seen each other all together since Jason’s wedding 4 years ago, it was extra super special!!

YAY LONDON Happy Friday everyone! Have a super weekend x

Keeping Warm in Winter!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

I am SO thrilled to share this awesome session with you from just before Christmas in South Kensington, London. We had perfect photo weather!!! A little overcast meant that the light was beautifully diffused + there were no harsh shadows going on :-)

In town celebrating their anniversary, Peyton + her husband chose this gorgeous route + we had a lot of funI For #vataionphotography I work with a company called #Flytographer - such a cool concept whether with friends, couples, families, solo travellers you can choose a photographer in their destination city + your holiday destination to capture your time and memories in a favourite part of town. South Kensington is one of my favourites, it’s buzzing and pretty at amy time of year but I really love the peacefulness of Winter and the colour pops of berries or decorations against the white wall buildings.

Enjoy + have a great evening! x

“Jackie was all around amazing. She was unbelievably flexible with the weather and truly went out of her way to bring our vision to life. Our anniversary photos will be something we cherish forever and we are so thankful to have had Jackie capture those memories for us. Her eye for photography and natural light are unparalleled. We couldn’t recommend her enough!”

Friday Night Confessionals

Friday turns in to Saturday

I had every intention to post last night, to sit down and enjoy writing about the week, Andrea + Wes’s beautiful proposal + finish off Friday, sunny side up - but when it came to it, words just weren’t there and I didn’t want to half ass it.

So here I am fresh as a daisy - Saturday morning after two photo sessions in London, sun is shinning + I’m heading home to my first Xmas party of the season! I’m very excited, it’s bowling and mince pies - what’s not to love!!

I worked with Wes to pick the perfect spot for him to propose to Andrea a few weeks ahead of their trip to London. We planned our interaction, me casually offering to take a photo of them and bosh, Wes got down on one knee and Hey Presto!

Following the shock, delight and utter happiness, we continued creating engagement pictures around St.Dunstans before walking along to The Tower of London + Tower Bridge where the light was super pretty (the north side of the river is always dreamy to photograph at in good weather as the sun rises the other side).

We found lots of fun doorways and textures to mid in with the epic iconic backdrops London has to offer and had so much fun!

If you’re planning a trip to London or a proposal over Christmas, do drop me a DM or call to discuss your plans and ideas + I’ll take it from there!

Friday Afternoon Confessionals

On this grey, rainy Friday I thought sharing these guys might lift the mood!

Photographed around Shoreditch + Brick Lane, I love the ever changing graphics, the blasts of colour casually illuminating the area and pops of wow when you see something new.

It had been a while since I photographed a session around this area and I always arrive way before a session is scheduled to reccy the area and with the light beautifully pouring down the high street I was excited with what lay ahead in our session.

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Super colourful London Love

These guys were so fun and open to ideas and beyond cute with each other!!

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Just beyond Spitalfields and on the way to Brick Lane is a outdoor studio delight - if you LOVE texture + rustic colours lol.

No understatement on how IN LOVE I am with this backdrop!!!!!!! Part Penelope Pitstop Part evil rider lol

As I mentioned!!! THAT LIGHT - I mean hello!!!! We also met the owner of the shop these two are in front of + who had arrived to open and kindly and graciously let some smooching happen before he got to work :-) #LOVELONDON

To book your couples session (or surprise proposal, it’s almost getting to that time of year!!!) drop my an email or give me a call and we can coordinate a plan :-)

Have a great Friday!!xx

Dora Maar @TATEModern

Sunday afternoon I headed down to TATE Modern to check out the recently opened ‘Dora Maar’ exhibition.

If you love old skool photography and miss the skill and delight of darkroom photography then this will get the brain firing + nostrils wishing for that chemical hit that only a darkroom can provide.

If you love a bit of ‘Surrealism’

noun

1. a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

then this is also for you! Original Photographs in all sizes from passport to A4 are displayed together enabling the viewer that intimate experience that only super tiny images can provide and ensuring you stay transfixed upon it, roving each small corner for all the details. Magazine layouts showing the final printed versions and the images on display are intriguing and fun to get close up to + figure out what was going on during their creation and perhaps how each part was layered over, printed, scratched.

There are 9 rooms in total and I literally squealed with delight in the first two rooms! Looking curiously at each image, inspired by their form and tone and technique. A few fireworks went off inside me as I referenced a personal project I’m currently working on - this was such a joy to behold.

The hesitation in writing steps in now because I left rather flattened. Here’s why - I LOVED the first rooms, I loved seeing hand crafted, considered pieces of photography and reading about Dora Maars life was fascinating yet I stalled at room 6 + 7 - I’m not sure if that’s the curators intention.

In these rooms the exhibitions and my attention turned to Picasso.

Because of this interjection I’m afraid my concentration on the beautiful work I’d seen in rooms 1 through 5 slithered away + became diluted. MY NOTE TO TATE Modern - Picasso was obviously an important part of Dora’s life BUT it seems a little unjust to dedicate some of the rooms to his work and her inspiration on him - as if a house hold name would ‘pad things out’ when that was the last thing that was needed. **The exhibition up until this point had been full and robust, inspiring in its freshness and the inclusion of the solarised image which inspired ManRay was sublime.

As a female photographer myself I applaud the ever growing inclusion of female photographers being displayed now because I remember a time in the not too distant past, when my photography history programme wouldn’t include even 1. + yes I realise that in fact makes me sound ancient - I’m not!!! However, I felt the reference to their relationship : single/complicated/married wasn’t needed, it didn’t add to the validity of her work and his work then overshadowed hers because it felt so off piste + random to have two rooms dedicated to it..

If you absolutely needed to, just perhaps one image representative of his painting of Dora during their time together would have sufficed, remove the fact she was having an affair with him and the huge image depicting the painting of both of the women in his life and we would have a gorgeous collection of images, inspiring the viewer to learn more about Surrealism/Photography/Dora.

I felt confused as to what you felt these rooms brought to the viewing experience aside from confusion and a peppering of annoyance?

The following 2 rooms of her return to painting was both textural and fluid although in part also looked like she was thoroughly pissed off their relationship had ended + in all honesty was how I felt that so much of his work had been included. I didn’t go to see Picasso, I went to see a little known female photographer and artist in a celebration of her contribution to the Surrealist movement. Step it up TATE, the work speaks for itself.

**Perhaps the exhibition’s natural ending was in room 5 with a last room (6) full of her sojourns in to painting, her development + experimentation in to this area along with her return to the darkroom + lifting Picasso from his bereft dessert because the exhibition up until this point had been full and robust, inspiring in its freshness and the inclusion of the solarised image which inspired ManRay was sublime.

Friday Night Confessionals.....

OOhhhhh Back at it!!

Right after Joe + Joanna’s wedding I took some time off to recharge and celebrate my birthday - a complete treat + such fun :-) I ate cake, saw photography exhibitions and got super inspired, hung out with friends, disconnected from work + hit the gym in an invigorating, right back at it kinda way - it felt amazing + refreshing. I swam in warm outdoor pools, pondered life in sizzling hot sauna’s and slowed down enough to regain that sense of presence, It was such bliss and set me up perfectly for getting back in to work for the last few weeks of the year and Winter.

Mum makes an epic cake + this beauty was totally #Vegan! She even made vegan lemon curd for the filing!!

Duffy at Mottisfont Abbey! An amazing and inspiring exhibition to catch on the last day :-)

Yes there’s no escape lol there’s frost on my car right now + for once I’m hybernating on a Friday night tonight cooking yummy food and delighted to be in out of the cold!

This week I have been chatting over on instagram about getting the most out of your session in WInter and Top Tips on ‘What to Wear’. Not only does this time of year make bright colours pop a little bit more it also can create long shadows + soft golden hours at each end of the day - just like D’s session above as we rambled around London to celebrate her 10 year wedding anniversary!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5QzRwlh5I_/

More on both of these to follow this week!

Have a super weekend everyone x

About yesterday.....

I learnt (as an observer) a new game “Gin?” or “No Gin?”

The wedding party seemed to love it!!

(If it had been tequila I would have been right in there lol)

Moments of great fun and moments of calm……I’m so excited to edit yesterday’s wedding!!!

oh the chuckles.......

FUN!!! Oh….My….Goodness……

Powering up during our session is essential - either with laughter, that’s always amazing!! OR a healthy snack!! :-)

SO Max arrived + well any intention to capture quiet newborn pictures went right out the window - we LAUGHED so hard and so much through this session, the calm was there but the laughter took over + isn’t that such a great feeling + what it’s all about!! Going with the flow, adjusting and being responsive to the moment. The joy + inquisitiveness of your new older sister, the happiness of parents, the wide eyed “just arrived” feeling.

LAST Night I had a fun couples photo session in Notting Hill......

The Light was dreamy and as I waited I found these awesome gems!!!

The Churchill Arms - apparently the local of Winston Churchill’s grandparents

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June love vibes......grab a cup of tea + feast your eyes.....

ONE WEEK to go!!!

Just ONE WEEK until Bindi & Maarten tie the knot + get married and I am sooo super excited, I can’t wait to capture this next step in their journey together.

A few weeks ago we caught up in Hampstead Heath for their ‘pre wedding’ pictures and had such a gorgeous time, beautiful setting and perfect weather :-)

A super sweet love story.....

Joanna + Joe

Ahhh oh my goodness, this is SUCH a super sweet + SUPER cute LOVE STORY!!!!

I met Joanna in late December 2018, she had just moved to London to follow her dreams and during our session mentioned a great guy she had been chatting to + was meeting later that evening, joking “ha! imagine I meet the love of my life here”

No less than three months later she messages me to share the most exciting news that she’s engaged!!! I was soooo super excited and we caught up in Greenwich in late April to create amazing engagement pictures <3 So fun + so exciting!!!!!!

Little People.......an afternoon of giggles....

So now….this little cheeky chap…..he TOTALLY rocked our session and TOTALLY knew how to work the camera lol Blowing kisses, flashing a cheeky grin as he dashed across the grass to a snack, making mummy laugh + effortlessly bringing his ‘A’ game :-) So much fun in Crystal Palace Park last week, his mummy + I needed a tea to soothe our aches ribs from laughing so much!!

Friday Night Confessionals...EASTER FRIYAY xx

The EASTER weekend is upon us!!

Have an AMAZING one whatever you get up, rest a little, laugh a lot, smile, chuckle, breathe, drink coffee, drink wine, eat chocolate or carrots lol + enjoy the company of whoever you’re with <3 xx