What I have been up to this year...
Hello,
I do hope you are all keeping well?
I just wanted to give you a little update on all the things I have been doing since March to keep me occupied and keeping my creativity going too!
This year has been nothing short of a rollercoaster - the pandemic has been horrendous (for obvious reasons) and as a backlash, the poor wedding industry has been hit so hard. For me and my little business alone, I have had to move 47 weddings from this year to ‘21 and ‘22 - it wasn’t pleasant but I am so pleased that my couples are going to have the day they envisaged, that is the most important thing. So with a year of pretty much no weddings, I thought it would be nice to share with you some snippets that I have been up to:
In April, I kicked off doing the doorstep portraits around my local town - I ended up doing over 100 family portraits (I never thought it was going to take off quite as well as it did!) and raised over £400 for our local Longfield Hospice so was absolutely chuffed about that!
I then started advertising more of my portrait shoots and focused on “mini shoots” (once the restrictions had lifted of course) so that families could have some fun in the countryside and be infront of the camera for just 20 mins or so, oodles of time for me to get what I need but short and sweet to keep everyone happy and entertained too!
I did some mini shoots at the poppy fields, lavender fields and Kingscote Barn (who I must say have done a fantastic job at offering fine dining and glamping options)
I finally got round to creating a brand new shiney wedding brochure - pop me an email here if you would like a copy :) it covers the whole lot and I am so pleased with it.
I also made everything in the business digital - so now, any booking is made all online and payments can be taken online safely too. It’s something I was meaning to do for so long and just never had the chance to do it. The few quiet months have ensured I can do all this silly little jobs I kept putting off so actually its been a blessing as now I feel super duper organised (and everyones commented on how easy and straight forward it is for them too - yay!)
I have had the pleasure of shooting two “micro-weddings” (I really don’t like the term covid weddings, which is being batted around a lot) and they were so beautiful. Such a privilege to be asked to photograph such an intimate ceremony - they will stay fond in my memory for a very long time! Big love to C & R, K & L!
I have also been shooting some more branding photography work for small business’ who were looking for a re-vamp - I have done various bits in the past, more than I realised actually when I was popping this branding photography site together but it was super fun to do something new. Clients including : Bijoux Floral, Kingscote Barn, Camping Cinema and Forum Interiors.
I was published by Joules, Canon and ITV who all shared my work within a couple of weeks of each other! I couldn’t believe it. (My husband and little girl even made the Joules email newsletter! woo- one for the bucket list to tick off - I do love a bit of Joules, me!)
I almost forgot to mention my little “give back” to the NHS staff who I always admire!
I ran a competition to win your wedding photography - there were over 100 entries in the end and I did an instagram live with the winner being chosen at random on some little spinning wheel website I found - It was amazing. A lovely lady won whose marrying next summer and I cant wait to shoot the big day!
I also offered some complimentary portraits for 30 of the first NHS staff who got intouch - most were nurses and doctors. They absolutely deserved a little break and something for them, so I was honoured to be able to do these at my local fab photo spot, Westonbirt Arboretum- felt so good to give something back!
Last but not least, I have something VERY exciting happening soon which will be on TV! I will pop more about that soon when I have the go ahead to say - watch this space, eek!
Of course, the usual mum to a cheeky toddler duties has taken up a lot of my time too! It’s been a very healthy balance of work hard, play hard.
I would LOVE to hear from you and hear what you have been up to in 2020. Have you had to adapt the way you work too and how did you find it?
I am so ready for 2021 now, its going to be an EPIC year - I can feel it :)
Thanks so much for reading this x