IN WHICH I FIND MYSELF PICKING PUMPKINS, WORKING SUPER HARD AND CELEBRATING SEVEN YEARS OF BEING A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
In my last Derbyshire Diary post I told you I wouldn't leave it super late to do the next one, but here we are... knee deep in December and I'm only just finding the time to put this together. I'm sorry, maybe I need to be more realistic - come back in 5 years to find out what I've been doing in November and December! Anyway, I digress, let's find out what September and October looked like...
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
In September 2010 I shot my first ever proper paid wedding, which means I've now been a professional wedding photographer for over seven years. Seven! I am so lucky that after seven years (seven!) I still absolutely love my job, I still feel like I am always learning new things and growing as a photographer. It's so important to keep developing and tracking down new challenges, which brings me on nicely to the next exciting thing that happened...
ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE
So back in October I received an email inviting me to speak at the upcoming Way Up North 2.0 wedding photography conference in February. I am still pinching myself. Way Up North have always been a force for good in education for photographers, so when they reached out to me about speaking about filmmaking for photographers I absolutely leapt at the chance. So, come February I will be hopping on a plane to Stockholm (!!) and bringing my talk, "Face Your Fear of Filmmaking" to the audience in-person and people streaming online from the comfort of their own home/houseboat/cottage/treehouse/blanket fort. You can find out more and book your ticket here.
HANGING OUT WITH MR PUMPKIN
When Tom and Jono got in touch about having their engagement shoot in a field of pumpkins (thanks Mr Pumpkin for the fab location!) I was totally sold... then they told me they wanted to bring their dogs. YES!
WEDDINGS
I had a good mix of photo only and photo and video highlight bookings over September and October. I found myself ping-ponging all over the country, from Hayling Island to Manchester to London to St Leonard's On Sea to Bournemouth to West Horsley and even one wedding at Knockerdown Cottages, right in Derbyshire, a short drive from home. Feast your eyes on some of my favourite bits...
photos
WIZARD PHOTOS (VIDEO)
Turn up the volume and grab some popcorn, here's my September & October wedding films. To find out more about my video work click here.
LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING
September saw my eldest starting secondary school, I know it's a cliche to say that they grow up fast but HOLY FLIP GUYS WHERE DID THE LAST 12 YEARS GO?
Then we had spooktacular (sorry, I can't believe I just wrote that) Halloween. Yes, he made that Edward Scissorhands costume himself. I absolutely love Halloween, putting together costumes, crafting bits with the kids, meeting our neighbours and watching all the spooky things.
THINGS I HAVE BEEN WATCHING
- Stranger Things 2 Bitchin'.
- Crazy Ex Girlfriend Season 3 of my favourite musical comedy/drama.
- The Good Place Watch it, watch it now. Best thing I've seen in ages.
- The Good Place Again. And again. Watch it now.
- The Good Place Don't make me tell you again.
THINGS I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO
If you've got Spotify, click the picture below to listen to my playlist of recent releases.
Featuring: Stars, Frightened Rabbit and an Elbow/John Grant song that might be my favourite thing I've heard all year.
So there we have it... My penultimate diary instalment of the year! Thanks so much for reading if you made it this far! See you in a few weeks for the final instalment and then the mammoth end of year round-up!