On the move again

By the end of the month, we will be moving out of our little, urban flat into an also little house in Bridgnorth, a little market town in Shropshire, where Chris was born. I'm hoping that once we're there, I'll have more incentive to go out with my camera and take photographs for myself again. I'm excited to explore the new surroundings and get to know landscapes that aren't cluttered with buildings and covered in cement. I think I'm most excited about the fact that I can see the stars there, I always forget just how many there really are.

Oscar's Cake Smash

 In February, I got to shoot my very first Cake smash for Oscar's first birthday. 

It turns out that some kids just want to keep their clothes clean and eat healthy snacks and it took quite a bit of effort to get him smothered in sponge cake and frosting without him being highly offended. Luckily he wasn't shy of the camera though. What an incredibly sweet little guy.

Books and cameras

Other than my love of photography, I'm a total nerd for books. For the longest time I've been trying to find a way of combining these two great loves of mine and so thought I'd have a go at creating images inspired by some of the novels I've read. I recently finished the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and while usually I'm not one for romance, or even historical fiction, I couldn't put it down (luckily there are 8 of them, so I didn't have to for ages). So here's my homage to it. Lets just hope for the sake of my sanity I don't have to wait to long until the net one comes out!

Analogue

When I first started taking pictures, I spent much of my time in the darkroom since anything digital was vastly beyond my affordability. I can't say I was ever very good at processing film or printing -because I wasn't- but I loved my time I spend alone in the dark, and that feeling that came with seeing the picture I'd hoped I'd taken, for the first time as the image bloomed over the paper.

But then I got my DSLR.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the thing. I love the instantaneous of it and the fact I don't have to spend a small fortune in chemicals, paper and film just to take a snapshot. It's allowed me to grow much faster as a photographer, because I didn't have to be so cautious or thoughtful about each picture I took. But I do feel I've lost some of my connection to the process, for the same reason.

Over time I've accumulated SO many film cameras, the kind that would have got me so excited had I had them when I was seventeen, and as much as I make grand plans to dust them off and go out experimenting, these cameras seem to have become more like ornamental relics to me now, up on a shelf to be admired almost as art in themselves rather than as the tools to create it. 

It's an awful shame.

New year, new self(ie)

Happy 2015!

Last year was a tough one for us, pretty much from start to finish, but already 2015 is looking brighter for my little family. Lets hope this little bit of good luck continues!

from little acorns

Rory's Christmas Portrait

Merry Christmas!