Prangsta - sneak peak

So this weekend I was invited to take some photos of New Cross's most amazing, nay London's most amazing fancy dress shop Prangsta. It's a real treasure trove, and full of beautiful pieces. Mel, the owner has either collected or made everything inside, and the interior is a real labour of love.

Suffice to say that I am planning a housewarming/birthday party with a prohibition theme just so that I can hire one of their amazing original 1920s flapper dresses.

It will shortly be available for hire as a photographic or filming location so get involved!

Officially out of the office

Just a little reminder that I am now officially 'out of the office' ready for the move. Through the magic of 3G I should still be able to answer any emails that come my way but please bear with me and I'll be back to share some photos once we're online again.

Random dispatches

a visual selection of what I have been up to in the last two months: October trips to the beach, birthday celebrations (Joss turned 30), wearing gorgeous new perfume and good times with friends. and yes, I'm not afraid to post a picture of myself with drunks eyes simply because my hair looks unusually fab!

2011 - year one

There are two things I've learnt this year; firstly that I love to shoot weddings, heck, I love to shoot love; secondly, never try to save money on a solicitor - more on this later.

Back to the subject of photographing weddings, back when my little camera and I started out, images of friends and family under my belt with an advert on gumtree I would never have imagined what has become, from photographing artists and musicians through to my first wedding I loved all of it. Trying to turn the every day into some form of art.

I was going to write a more formal structured post, a kind of Ellie Gillard photography awards, but I decided that it would be more sincere to try and capture the little fragments of the year that stand out; laughing in the pub with Lisa and Phil and chatting cats, the beautiful light in the allotment behind Suong & Daniel's house which gave me some of my favourite ever shots, posing with balloons and signs with AMP and Johnny which led to my first wedding being featured on RocknRoll bride, discovering Deptford with Sofie and Jamie, standing in fields of wild flowers on Cara & Brandon's big day, jumping in water fountains with Alex and Ben and finally the love between Deanne and Lee.

I cant say it's always been plain sailing - being technically a "weekend warrior" has meant long evenings editing, weekends shooting and busy days at my day job as a fashion buyer, as well as moving jobs at the tail end of the wedding season but the thing is that once you discover something you want to do, something you love you want to put in everything. If I'd had more time to Facebook, blog and tweet I've no doubt I would have been able to grow the business faster and get where I want to be sooner and I'll be putting all my energy into that over the winter. In terms of giving me a better work life balance, and more time to spend with Joss, my friends and the kitties I'm gong to limit the amount of bookings I take on next year to enable me to give each of my couples undivided attention. Soon I'll post a list of what dates I've got remaining.

The launch of my website was a game changer - I love the look and feel of it but I want to make tweaks, make some of the pages more exciting and interactive, put more of me into it and I promise, promise, promise to blog more often.

Finally, on the second subject - Joss and I are about to complete a major milestone and buy our first place so I speak from experience when I say a great solicitor is worth their weight in gold, get a poor one and you might as well be doing it yourself. I just can't wait to move in, and start making it mine. I've been dutifully updating my Pinterest home board and can't wait to put everything into place. We're currently living in box city, things piled up everywhere, books and CDs in hiding. Whoever said this is one of life's most stressful experiences was right, they said something about weddings too. Funny that.

See you on the other side.