Gosh, I haven’t written one of these for ages. I used to try to do a little update every couple of months but I kind of let it fall by the wayside.
My new year’s resolution for this blog is to try to be a bit more personal. A bit more real, if you like. I always assume that my personality is stamped all over this site and while it kind of is in the form of my brand, that doesn’t really tell you anything about me as a person. So here I am and this is what I’ve been up to in the last quarter of the year!
A thing I did:
I started a personal Instagram account. I wasn’t enjoying having to think about whether the personal pictures I was taking for fun were a good fit for my ‘brand’ so I decided to separate work from life. My personal Instagram only features pictures I take on my phone and I’m not playing the Instagram game by using hashtags except for one.
#onehonestthing is my challenge to myself to present a less sanitised version of life on my personal social media. As I said in this post: “Do you ever get tired of the perfect version of life everyone presents online? I know I curate my life because I am afraid to let people see me when I feel vulnerable. I have decided to post One Honest Thing each day and I would love you to join me. Use the hashtag and share your own honest thing”
If you’d like to get involve and share #onehonestthing I’d love to see it. I’m checking the hashtag regularly on Instagram.
A thing I watched:
Have you been watching The Miniaturist? It’s just so beautifully shot, it’s like being inside a Dutch Master’s painting. If you’re looking for some visual inspiration, give it a watch. It’s an excellent study in light use. I’m really enjoying the story too, having never quite got around to reading the book.
A thing I bought:
A while ago I wandered into a fancy tea shop and they sold me all the things and I’ve been a bit obsessed with tea ever since. Even when making a bog standard cup of tea, the noise of the steaming hot water hitting the cup is one of my favourite simple pleasures. I treated myself to this haul from Bluebird Tea Co in the January sales and so far I really like the Christmas Cake one (which is kind of unfortunate, as Christmas is done and dusted and I expect they don’t stock it all year round). I’m giving up booze for January so I’m hoping having something else that’s ritualistic to focus on will help.
Some places I visited:
In October I headed out to Norfolk to visit the SNAP venue. SNAP is an event that I run for photographers and it’s always taken place in Wales. This is the first year we’ve moved to a different location and I’m really happy that we’re taking it to Norfolk as it’s one of my favourite places in the UK. I love the countryside and the beaches, specially those around the North coast. It all feels so peaceful. We usually stay with family in Daisy Cottage. On arrival the fire’s lit, the wine is opened and relaxation happens almost instantly. This was taken on a walk through the grounds of Blickling, when the Autumn sunset really put on a show.
I actually spent the end of October and the start of November in the US, on a trip representing QT Albums who I’m an ambassador for. It was brilliant and I took quite a few pictures on my phone, which you can see on my personal Instagram. I thought I’d share a few pictures from around the UK, over the Christmas period instead though. In December I went to Wales, London, Ireland Devon, Essex (I am SO glad to have some time without travel in January and February….) and I spent some time around beautiful Bath too. Here are a few shots from my phone.
Some things I ate:
This is not even a picture of food because the food came and I just wanted to eat it. At the start of December I was in Dublin for a workshop and I went to Klaw. It’s crab shack in the middle of Dublin city centre, which isn’t the most obvious of places to find a crab shack granted. The food was amazing – so much so that I ate there twice. The first time I had oysters and then some grilled prawns. The second trip I ate mussels. If I could live on nothing but seafood for ever and ever I would in a heartbeat.
All hail the gods of breakfast. This vegetarian breakfast from Hunter and Sons in Bath is possibly the finest breakfast I have ever eaten. Seriously. I visited a good six weeks ago and I keep thinking about it. If you’re in Bath and you get a chance to visit then you absolutely should. Yum.
Some random thoughts:
I ended the year feeling quite exhausted and I’ve spent the last week or so catching up on my sleep. 2017 and all of the travel I did really took it out of me and I’m looking forward to a slower pace in 2018. Lots of my weddings this year are a little closer to home, which means waking up in my own bed more often and less time on the M4 (hooray!). I’ll be publishing my best of 2017 post very soon and I am really looking forward to going back over my images from this year (and also catching up on blogging all of the lovely weddings I’ve photographed) but for now I’m off for a walk.
Keep in touch:
My business Instagram is here, you can find me on Twitter here and here’s a link to my blog home page. You can also check out the SNAP blog here, if you want to.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with another update.
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