Welcome back & Paris

 

I have certainly neglected this space over the past year, which I'm sad about, but at this stage in life I've not yet learnt how to focus on lots of things all at once. I want to use this space, to have a way of processing and sharing life, rather than photos staying imprisoned in hard drives and stories kept to ourselves.

A few big things have happened this year, we did our first peak season of wedding photography, moved churches, moved houses, joined churches, both started school, new jobs, new community. We've spent a lot of great time with our families and had the chance to travel to sunnier shores. 

At this moment in time I'm not running craft workshops, actually all my craft things are in storage in a friends attic (hopefully not for too long!). So the focus of this blog will change accordingly. It'll be more photos and more personal, illustrating this season.

I thought I'd start by backtracking to last April when we took a trip to Paris, the first time I'd ever been. It was my Christmas present from Matt. The trip happened at the end of one of the busiest seasons of our marriage, we were really tired and spent the first afternoon feeling a bit guilty about being asleep in our hotel room. I had just started reading Hemingway's 'A movable feast' it's all about his time in Paris in the 20's. So everything we saw had a slightly nostalgic shine.

Life Update & California Pictures

Hello readers, hullooooo.

I've had a bit of a break from blogging recently, things have been a'happening and I wanted to fill you in. If your here for craft tutorials this isn't the one for you. 

This academic year started with a lot of uncertainty. In July Matt left his job and I finished Uni, so we started with no jobs and feeling unsure whether or not we should renew our flats contract for the year. The possibility of having over a £12000 deficit was a scary one. 

I did a marketing internship September to November and then in November both of us got temp jobs. Matt as a delivery driver and me as a Bridal stylist. We see these jobs as absolute provision. It's certainly been challenging on the days when we only briefly see each other as our shifts are at different times and then I work all weekend. But we have learnt a lot, I think mostly we have seen all the things we take for granted. Our compassion for the families who do this constantly, and our frustration at how big businesses justify exploiting their workforce has definitely stirred up something within us. We are privileged to know it has an end date.

This brings me to the next stage of this year. We knew our jobs would only be until April so we planned ahead and have been living on 50% of our budget (if you know Matt you know he's a pro at these spreadsheet things). This means by April we will no longer have a rent and bills deficit, in fact, by the end of April we will have saved enough to pay all our bills until September. 

Which brings us to the exciting part, from May to September we will be doing photography full time, self employed and working to our own schedule. We are so so excited, we can see friends and family we haven't seen for ages, travel a bit and be FREEEE. In September Matt will start training for Ordination and I will take over the day to day runnings of the business.

We are both really looking forward to this time, meeting new people in new places, getting to capture life changing moments and then only needing our laptops to finish the job, from say, the south of France or somewhere equally warm and beautiful. 

We are hoping to travel around lots and fill our summer with beautiful weddings. If you know someone getting married who wants their wedding photographed in a beautiful natural way, let us know. It's soon to be officially what we do ;)

Anyway, we recently came back from California. We had an absolutely brilliant time preparing for Matt's sisters wedding and then doing some roadtrippin' on our own. We want to go back ASAP <3 comment-3--="" nbsp="">

A year on: Review of Jo Totes camera bag

I've not blogged for a while, but whilst Christmas trees are still allowed in photos I wanted to share a review of the Siena bag by Jo Totes which I've now owned for a year.

Last christmas I was given the Siena camera bag made by Jo Totes. It was a surprise gift from Matt and an investment into future photography. At first I was worried about also using it as my day to day handbag as every other bag of this style I had owned broke after a few months, but it was too pretty to only use for shooting weddings. I'm really pleased to say it's held up amazingly.

After a year it is certainly the best camera, and everyday, bag I’ve ever owned. When I first heard of Jo Totes bags I couldn’t find a review for Siena anywhere. It’s hard to tell from photos alone how much you can practically fit in a bag. I’ve taken some photos to show how much kit you can fit in the bag and it still close. After nearly a year of everyday use the signs of wear are the most obvious in the corners, but even that is negligible. This bag is brilliant and perfect for carrying around a camera for everyday life, filling it with kit or just taking your books to uni. 

The adjustable felt sections velcro to anywhere inside the bag, including a big ipad section at the front. 

This is what fits in the bag, when photographing somewhere the camera stays around my neck freeing up space for another lens in my bag.

This post was in no way sponsored by Jo Totes, I just reaaaaallyy love this bag!

If you are looking for a camera bag I would highly recommend this, you can find it here. They offer international shipping :)

Happy New Year!

What did I learn through my internship?

At my leaving breakfast with some of the wonderful people I worked with (apologies for the iPhone picture)

When I started my internship, 3 months ago, it was the first time I had worked in a 'proper' job that relates to my degree and the first time I had worked 9-5 in an office. I was doing marketing for City Gateway, a charity that focuses on bridging the gap between the affluent and deprived which is so common in much of London.  Before I started I had a few worries and whilst it's all still fresh in my mind I thought I would reflect on them. So here goes, the things I learnt in my internship:

Having had pretty bad attendance at school, college and then uni the concept of complete routine scared me. I'm so used to working on my own and having the freedom which that brings, like making the most of sunny days. Thankfully, the world of 9-5 isn't as terrible as I had previously thought, it brings about a different sense of fulfilment daily. It's also really nice working in a team where people can bounce ideas and express different point of view.

I already knew this, but there is a big gap of proactivity and organisation missing in my skill set, this leads to procrastination and things taking longer and being more frustrating than they should. I certainly learnt that if you want something to be a lot less stressful then plan it all thoroughly. I vow to take this lesson wherever I go.

It was certainly a boost in confidence, always working on your own means you start forgetting what your skills are. Working with a varied group of people was great and it meant I could reasses where my giftings are. 

Sometimes it's really great to push your comfort zones because you find out it wasn't as scary as you first thought aka excel (which I used to avoid like the plague) didn't kill me.

I've learnt lots about how people feel valued and how is best to communicate that value in order to have a cohesive and happy team. An add-on to this is that I've realised what a joyous privilege it is working with Matt as a team doing photography, so THANK YOU to all your gorgeous brides and grooms who make this possible.

And finally, as someone who has never really thought about a 'professional career' I now see what a blessing it is to live in London, a blessing I never would have guessed. There are so many opportunities and jobs and open doors. Although I'd love to live on a cliff next to a forest by a mountain with birds that sing, it would never have given me the opportunities London does. I had a really interesting, educating and fun time at City Gateway and it's really made me think about what I may be capable of ;)

I have my dissertation due in a couple of weeks and start a new job at a bridal shop any day now, hopefully I can get back to blogging soon because I have so many crafty things I want to share!

Has 9-5 always felt normal to you?

Live Music

Listener at Underworld, Camden.

Recently Matt and I managed to get tickets to see Damien Rice at The Palladium- we both love and admire his music so it will be a real privilege to see him live. Live music has been a big part of our lives. The book Matt proposed with had tickets to see live music to celebrate our engagement, it was at a random Camden gig we found the perfect band to play our wedding, Josh Flowers and The Wild, and now it's how we enjoy date nights. It's also coming up to a year since we were in NY so I thought this would be a nice post to recap such joyous times.

All the good bloggers say you should have a few list post’s here and there, so here is my first. 

My first gig: OkGo and Motion City Soundtrack at the Pyramids, Southsea. I was 14 and my parents came with me. Cringe/good parenting. 

I cried: This was the first time I saw Ben Howard, at Hoxton Bar & Grill in Dec, 2010. I just remember standing there transfixed.

The one where I met a (now) famous person: This is in no way my story, it's Matt's, for another time. I met Ed Sheeran twice, first at the Bedford in 2010 and then at a Foy Vance gig on Brick Lane. 

Most disappointing: There is a band called Listener that we really love and they finally came to the UK. Matt surprised me with tickets as they were playing on my birthday. It was the end of their tour and they were clearly tired and not so excited to be there, the audience heckled them and their sound was bad. It was bad and sad. Thankfully they redeemed themselves and a more recent London  show.

Biggest: I saw Liberty X and Blue and Blazing Squad at Wembly stadium as part of a girl guide event (ha,yeah)- but I was really young. Maybe this should be the real answer to question 1.

Most beautiful venue: I think there are lots that I've never been to, we'd particularly love to go to Traena in Norway. The other week our church (Christchurch Spitalfields) knocked through their massive crypt to make one big space. It's part way through completion and they decided to host a little show by Wilderthorn, it was very dusty, had great acoustics and was lit by hundreds of candles.

Warm fuzzy feelings: Ed Harcourt played at a lovely Islington venue around Christmas 2 years ago. It was all seated with hardwood floors, Christmas wreaths, grand pianos and mulled wine. We loved it fondly, he's playing at East Wintergarden in Canary Wharf soon and I'm sure it will be beautiful (you should go, yes you). 

All time favourite: There is no question about this, for both Matt and I. Last year in a moment of spontinaity we booked flights to New York. We then found out one of our favourite musicians, David Ramirez, was playing a couple of hours after our flight was supposed  to return to London, we were gutted. Hours before we were supposed to leave for NY our flight got cancelled, I actually cried. However, through many slightly miraculous phone calls to insurance we managed to extend our stay to make up for the lost day (and get upgraded to business class). This meant we could see David Ramirez. But when we went to buy tickets it was sold out, we couldn't believe it. Matt has a family friend who he'd not spoken to in years but we knew he had done some photography for David Ramirez so we messaged him to see if there was any chance of getting hold of David and seeing if we could get tickets. It somehow pulled together and we ended up on the Merch table in a beautiful venue called the City Winery in NY watching David Ramirez play (and because we were working our bar tab was wiped!). We then partied the night away with the band before heading our separate ways at 5am, just in time to pack up and get our flight back. This experience really cemented our love of both New York and David Ramirez. It has reminded us that we have a very loving and generous God!

So there you go :) a random blog post that made me happy to write amongst the busyness and seeming lack of adventure these past few weeks.

What's the best gig you've ever been to?

xx

Matt & Esther are Pinteresting

This week Matt and I have been working a little on marketing our wedding photography business via the wonderful medium that is Pinterest. We would love it if you would be willing to share the love by following, repining, sharing and liking our photos!

You can find our Pinterest here our Facebook here and our website here.

It is such an amazing opportunity to photograph a wedding, to watch couples commit to a life of loving one another. My favourite part of wedding photography is catching those loving glances and excited looks between friends and family.

It has been our absolute privilege and joy to photograph these weddings and engagements  over the summer- we can't wait to see what next year brings! Thanks for your help lovely friends :)

Wedding crafts for Romania

This past week we were away in Hunedoara, Romania to photograph a friends wedding. It was a brilliant week- a beautiful combination of  Romanian and Australian culture and full of displays of astounding generosity. I'm really looking forward to editing the photos, and soon you will be able to find them on our website and facebook page.

But today I wanted to show you a couple of things I made for the wedding, things that were very simple but felt quite genius (if I do say so myself). The flower crown above was made with wire, strips of an old silk scarf, pearl beads, a cheap hairband with flowers, gold thread and a cream ribbon. It suited the bride perfectly and cost £1.50.

Below is a wedding cake topper that Rosie (the bride) and I made together. She knew exactly what she wanted and it was my job to figure out a cheap way of making it. This is made from two 50p wooden spatulas from wilkinsons, two kebab sticks, some twine and material. The groom handily had a jigsaw so he cut the spatulas into the bird shapes, we then did some pyrography of 'We Do' and used a glue gun to attach the sticks and twine. So simple yet successful and only cost about £2.

I feel like I'm a little out of touch with the world recently. I'd love your comments/human connections- tell me your extravagant dream wedding cake flavour?

xx