Stories Of The Everyday - Finlay & Emilia

Hooray for Sundays. Lie ins, breakfast in bed and The Archers for some. Family and friend days, the smell of a roast cooking in the oven (bringing back memories of family lunches gone by). Chats about the week past and the week to come. Walks together whatever the weather, red cheeks and toes warming by the fire. A day for gathering thoughts, for reflection.

A couple of weekends ago we spent a super Sunday afternoon with Finlay & Emilia. It was a little wild outside, so we stayed warm and cosy inside, keeping an eye on the weather as there had been talk of snow. 

And if these two ever challenge you to a game of dominoes, politely decline - they will win!

The Leaf Kicking Blackberry Pickers

'And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely place. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.'

There's something so magical about Hardcastle Crags, we're lucky to have it on our doorstep. On this shoot, everything aligned. The light, the trees, the colours, the perfect backdrop for our young adventurers. This is the tale of two sisters...

As some of you know, we've started adding film into our portrait work too.  Details of this new package will be on our website shortly.  Here's a short one we made at the end of this session. We're looking forward to making more of these next year x

A Day In The Life - a rare Saturday at home

Last weekend, we found ourselves with a rare day off.  We had a family shoot planned for the evening to look forward to, but first, we had the blank canvas of a Saturday day at home together.

One of our portrait packages is called 'A Day In The Life', and it does exactly what it says on the tin!  It's a shoot to document your everyday life together.  Sometimes it will be sat round the breakfast table, making your weekend pancakes, maybe reading your favourite books. Snuggled on the sofa together, talking and laughing. Then maybe taking a walk to the market, enjoying a hot chocolate in your favourite café. We like to document locations that give you your sense of place, whilst capturing your interactions as a family. Stories of the everyday, your stories.

We really want to put our heart and soul into our storytelling portrait sessions, we love them so much and we need to make space to enable them to grow and develop. It started out as a little voice - 'give me some attention!'. And then it started tugging, being a little more mischievous in its tactics.  There would be words that popped out as I was reading, or something would happen in a film we were watching. It would sometimes keep me awake. And after each shoot, the voice has been shouting just that little bit louder. We've been feeling so creative on these storytelling shoots, buzzing with ideas and inspired by families we've been working with. We want more time to develop our short film work with families too. So, we're going to be taking on just a few weddings each year to allow the portrait business to grow more. Is it a bit scary not taking on as many weddings? Heck yeah! But we know it's the right thing to do. It was good to talk about it all on our day off.

In the next two weeks we're going to be launching a competition to win 'A Day In The Life' shoot, and we're really excited about it!  There will be more news about it on our Facebook page.

With a day to ourselves on Saturday, we thought we'd document it in photos. So, this is us - as we are.  There is quite a bit of food and tea action -they're very important to us, as we've realised by the amount of beautiful tea and food related gifts we received for our wedding.

We had a little lie in.  It was comforting listening to the rumble of the cars on the cobbles outside, and the sound of our neighbours packing up to go on holiday. It almost felt as if we were 'playing hookie', and there was a strong temptation to go into work and edit some of our latest shoots.   Although we managed to resist this for once. 

This is our much loved cat, Delboy.  He is quite a particular little chap as all our friends know, but we love him dearly. This is his happy (and slightly grubby) face. He often has a little dirty mark on his cheek where he has been rubbing against car bumpers whilst out on his nightly prowls.

Suzi was on a mission to find a place for us to stay when we go on holiday in a few weeks.

The first cup of tea of the day. I have a habit of throwing tea towels over my shoulder for any kitchen operation and I hadn't realised I'd done it to make a cup of tea until we downloaded the photos. We all do things like this right?

Warm croissants, new jam, orange juice and tea.  Perfect.

Suzi still on a mission to find a holiday destination, a little more precariously!

We actually sat down and did a little bit of menu planning for the next week.

We've managed to grow some green things (and keep them alive) in our yard.

Our lovely neighbours had left us flowers on the doorstep before they headed off to sunnier climes on their holidays.

After a bit of food shopping, back for lunch and a little visit from Hannah to borrow studio keys.

Being at the bottom of the valley, we don't get sunlight streaming into the lounge, but I love this ray that appears in the afternoon. Our own little spotlight!

Food preps were underway for dinner.  

And then up the hill for a gorgeous shoot in beautiful golden light.

And then back down the hill again for dinner with friends and a very close game of Articulate!

We enjoy the simple pleasures. A day at home together, spending time with family and friends, a glass of wine, good chocolate, and a little bit of competitive spirit with a good board game! It was the perfect Saturday.

We've been hanging out quite a bit on Instagram lately, and we'd love you to come and join us!  Share your photos of your everyday life, and hashtag your images #storiesoftheeveryday.  Looking forward to seeing your photos, and please do share with anyone you'd think would like to join in. Here's our feed too. Have a lovely weekend everyone.