Weddings, locations and being a little weird.

It's a long one, It does have a point though I promise...

I love photography, I think I start most of my sentences with that statement. It's true though when I have a camera in my hand I feel instilled with confidence, even before ‘Velvet Image’ was a thing I always owned some kind of camera.

I’ll admit when I decided to make it more than a hobby I didn’t really have much of an idea what I was doing, I taught myself through trial and error (so much error). My local youth Club were kind enough to let me use one of their rooms to build up my portfolio and in exchange I ran a few creative classes for their members, which I really enjoyed. I did this for around 6 months, and it was an amazing learning experience. I then shared a studio space called the Vaults with some artist friends for around two years, again I really enjoyed this, the Vaults is where I really started to get an understanding of what I wanted to do and how to express myself. It was a great place to learn even if it was extremely cold at times. Giving back the the keys was hard, I genially miss some of the Artist I shared a space with. The biggest learning curve is having my owe studio in town, I love it. I don’t like the paper work and i’ll admit I don’t like being on my own. However creatively it’s been amazing I’ve learnt so much lighting, posing and DIY.

February 2021 will mark 2 years in the space, it’s gone really fast! I haven’t been able to use it that much because of Covid-19 but I’m still grateful for it! I intend to move out of the space at the start of the summer 2021, the main reason is because myself and Tom are moving into our first owned house, meaning I get my home studio set up. My close friends will know this is what I have wanted since day one and has always been my end goal. Even as a child I dreamed of a creative space where I also lived.

This year has been hard, in so many ways, I've really felt it. I’ve tried to use this, poring my frustrations into my work. I finally understand the direction I need to go in, after almost 4 years of doing EVERYTHING offered to me.

There are 3 areas that I want to specialise in, I can’t pick just one. Maybe in another 4 years I’ll be here again, writing a blog on specialising in just one form of photography. It’s doubtful but you never know!

First- Weddings and events, I love weddings that won’t change. I don’t even feel like I really need to go into why. Just read one of my wedding blog entries, I adore them.

Second- Locations family shoots, again LOVE THEM! I wish everyone just wanted photos outside, I find them so much fun. We live in an amazing area, lets use it!

Third- Fine Art Photography, I love creative, weird and twisted work which I find a little odd because I’m really normal…I need to explore this, if I have my studio space left for a few months i’m going to use it to build up my portfolio. By 'my portfolio' I mean the work I want to do, the work that makes me feel like an artist (hummm that sounded pretentious). When we move, yes my home studio will be smaller, I’m not too worried about this as I feel that I’m very good utilising space. However while I have the larger space I’ll be taking full advantage of this, I have so much to learn and explore still.

Now this doesn’t mean I want be doing other areas of photography, if an opportunity arises and I feel like its beneficial creatively then I’m there, however if I don’t I’ll be saying no. Which will be a challenge. I’ll still be doing family sessions inside, even when I move to my home studio, these will just become less frequent.

I also want to concentrate on other creative paths i’m on, if this year has taught me anything it’s to be grateful for what I have, but also it's ok to slow down a bit and to reevaluate whats important to me and my future directions.

I'm so grateful for the ongoing support I receive, bookings and reviews. I realise that i'm extremely lucky that I get to be creative and I enjoy what I do.

Rebranding doesn't happen over night, I have some plans I'll be putting into play over the next few months. I'm excited.