IN WHICH I TRY AND BALANCE THE NEED FOR REST WITH THE INEVITABLE BOREDOM OF THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY OFF-SEASON

Suddenly, before you know it, it's the year 2017. There's a disappointing lack of jet-packs, frankly but who cares because TV is crazy good right now (I'll get into that later) so who would even have time to do all that flying about? It's currently off-season and my wedding season kicks off in April ; Every year I book out some time to do my admin and give myself a rest from the rollercoaster of weddings... and then I end up craving the excitement and coming down with a bad case of cabin-fever.

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

This off-season I've been focussing on getting my ducks in a row business-wise! One of the first things I did this year was visit Owl House Day Spa armed with pen and paper and in-between relaxing treatments (and feeling like a bit of a lemon, going to a spa by myself!) I wrote down basically everything that happened last year: every wedding and shoot, every workshop I gave, the challenges and the achievements and then I wrote down my goals for this year. I've had a rebrand by the marvellous Emy Lou Holmes illustration which has given my website an injection of life. I second-shot a fabulous wedding at West Mill, my favourite Derby venue. I've taken some awesome bookings and the year ahead is almost fully planned now with wonderful wedding adventures, with next year starting to take shape too. I've done some training, including going to Manchester last week to fill my head with lots of lighting techniques. I added my wedding photography planning guide to my website, to give my couples an idea of what to expect after they've booked. I had my work featured in Your East Midlands Wedding and Rock and Roll Bride magazines.

I also did a couple of shoots to keep my creativity ticking over! I absolutely loved shooting 60's inspired portraits with Katy (shout out to Emma Kendall for the amazing make up). So it's been very productive behind the scenes, and pretty quiet on the picture-taking front... but after my busiest year ever, I needed some down-time!

LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING

So that's the work-side of things! Meanwhile, I've been trying to make the most of my free weekends seeing friends and going on a few little adventures.

THINGS I'VE BEEN DOING:

Climbed Thorpe Cloud, Dovedale in treacherously slippy conditions and was convinced I was going to die.
Started having acupuncture and loved it.
Visited Scotland and Wales (sorry, Ireland).
Visited Bad Wolf Bay (fellow Dr Who fans will understand).
Lost several garden fence panels to Storm Doris.
Ate at Tantrum Doughnuts.
Ate deep fried pickles (top guilty pleasure).
Fed all the birds in my garden ("it gives me an enormous sense of well being").

THINGS I'VE BEEN WATCHING:

Dirk Gently - Daft, exciting, sci-fi TV goodness based on a Douglas Adams creation.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople - Comedy adventure with heart starring Sam "Even the word 'Raptor' means bird of prey" Neill.
Game of Thrones - From start to finish (so far) for the second time.
Stranger Things - From start to finish (so far) for the third time.
Peep Show - For the millionth time.
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle - I forgot how good this is!
Black Mirror - Can we talk about San Junipero?!
A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Yes, it's for kids. No, I don't care.

THINGS I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO:

If you've got Spotify, click the picture below to head to my pick of the latest releases, featuring Jens Lekman, Los Campesinos! and The New Pornographers.