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.

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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.

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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.

The Meadow Runners

I'm writing this on a grey Tuesday morning.  Rain drops suspended momentarily on the window before slowly trickling down.  I'm even considering  bringing down the blinds and putting all the cosy lamps on.  I know there are more sunny times to come, but it's hard to imagine them on mornings like this.  Looking at these photos of these three sisters has already put a spring back in my step.  I'm hoping this blog post will remind us of those halcyon days we've already shared this year.

We met up with sisters Amelie, Isla & Molly before their shoot (with Mum), and we talked through what they like to do as a trio and individually.  There was excited chatter about tree climbing, trampolining and pool playing!  The day of the shoot came, big blue sky and big sun.  When we got to their house, we were greeted by the most vibrant meadow, buttercups, tall grass, clovers and cow parsley a plenty.  'Let's start here!' I exclaimed, with a rather excited tone.  I went with the intention of making every shot matter.  I've been slowing down on shoots, not clicking as quickly, being more thoughtful and connected.  It's sometimes hard to stay in that moment when there's so much going on around.

We had a viewing with them yesterday, and the three girls are very excited about being on the blog.  I was asking them what they liked about the shoot and the photos they'd just seen.  There were a few thoughtful moments.  'I wasn't nervous at all' Amelie told me, 'or me!' Molly & Isla said in unison.  'I was really excited' said Isla, 'the photos really remind me of paintings, and I really like that the photos show who we are, show us as sisters'.  I'm not sure if they noticed my half trembling lip, half beaming smile as we all reached for another custard cream.  

Lucy, Neil & Noah

Tomorrow is all about these three.  Lucy & Neil are getting married, and their son Noah will be sharing the limelight. Before taking photographs of your big day we like getting to know you a little bit beforehand. We love sharing in your excitement in the build up and all those beautiful moments on the day.  What better way to get to know each other than having a stroll along the canal and eating ice cream??  Congratulations Lucy & Neil!