Our family has been back in the UK for five months and we are almost *finally* in our own home. Now we can feel settled. Now we can get used to our new normal.
One new normal that will definitely become a habit is this playground. We absolutely love visiting Farnham Park in Surrey. There is so much to capture the kids imagination, and so much space to run and explore, we’re lucky that it is only ten minutes from home (our new home, yee-haw)!
He is such a goofball. I love his crazy faces!
Thank you for joining me again this month. Up next in the blog circle is the fabulous Stacey Markel Photography. Please click here to visit Stacey’s page. Want some more amazing inspiration? Keep following the circle to see what other photographers from around the world have shared this month – and don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages!
Four months back living in the UK and four months feeling disconnected from my camera.
You could say I’ve been in a photographic rut. Life took over and I couldn’t make it stop. It’s hardly surprising, I suppose, that when life feels unsettled your focus shifts to finding stability, and the ups and downs of being creative certainly don’t go hand-in-hand that!
But just like the change in seasons, life is turning a corner and soon we’re going to start the next chapter. I am forcing myself to pick up my camera, forcing myself to edit and forcing myself to share. I want to document our lives when the tide changes and I need to be back up to speed when it does.
And so, this weekend I forced the family to take a trip to the beach. My excuse was a new gadget – a neutral density filter – to test, but my reason was to stretch my creative wings. It was such a relief to feel connected again.
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Thank you for joining me again this month. Up next in the blog circle is the fabulous Sharleen Stuart Photography. Please click here to visit Sharleen’s page. Want some more amazing inspiration? Keep following the circle to see what other photographers from around the world have shared this month – and don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages!
“Thirty Minutes in the Life” features ladies from around the world as we capture 30 minutes in our lives as mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and friends {and photographers}. This is a blog circle so please be sure to visit the next photographer in the circle.
This may not be a traditional 30 Minutes in the Life documentary; this is 30 minutes inside my process.
I often get asked about my thought process when I’m creating abstract images: do you set out with the intention to capture an abstract image? Do you have something particular in mind or a particular technique that you want to try? What is your motivation? The answer is: it varies. If I plan a trip to the beach or to see the sunset somewhere pretty, I have every intention of capturing it in a creative way, but other times, the compulsion comes completely out of the blue and at a time when I least expect it.
Last weekend we went London for the day. We went to the Natural History Museum, showed the boys where I use to work nearby, and then went over the road to the Albert Memorial and had ice cream by the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park. I documented the day through photographs, as you would expect, and I planned to use one element of that adventure to share with you, and I probably will soon enough. However, on our way home, driving down the M3 with weary feet and through bleary eyes, I found the cloudy tones of grey and the whooshing of the traffic capturing my imagination and compelling me to pick up my camera. It was either that or a power nap! I hadn’t set out that morning with that intention; it was in that moment, feeling compelled to capture that feeling: how the motion of the motorway made me feel after a long and tiring day.
f/22 0.4s ISO 100f/22 1.0s ISO 100f/22 1.0s ISO 100f/22 0.4s ISO 100f/22 1/5s ISO 100
Of course, my thought process and motivation will be different on any given day. I photographed the same section of road just a few weeks ago – maybe it’s something about the boredom of the M3 – but on that day it was the speeding lights that made me pick up my camera (and it hadn’t even dawned on me that it was the same road until now).
f/22 0.6s ISO 100
Thank you for joining me again this month. Up next in the blog circle is the fabulous Sonia Epple Fotografie. Please click here to visit Sonia’s page. Want some more amazing inspiration? Keep following the circle to see what other photographers from around the world have shared this month – and don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages!
“Thirty Minutes in the Life” features ladies from around the world as we capture 30 minutes in our lives as mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and friends {and photographers}. This is a blog circle so please be sure to visit the next photographer in the circle.
With days seemingly colder and darker than all of 2018 and constantly feeling the chill, we haven’t felt much like getting out and about these past few weeks. We did, however, manage a quick half an hour at the boys’s favourite playground just before school was back in session. I say “favourite” but I think in reality it is the only one they know in this corner of the world. We clearly need to explore more! I hope they don’t grow out of these playground trips too soon. I will just have to treasure each and every one until they do. My favourite Lensbaby, the Edge 80, made the perfect accompaniment for our play time and my own feeling of nostalgia.
Thank you for joining me again this month. Up next in the blog circle is the fabulous Stacey of Stacey Markel Photography. Please click here to visit her page. Want some more amazing inspiration? Keep following the circle to see what other photographers from around the world have shared this month – and don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages!
“Thirty Minutes in the Life” features ladies from around the world as we capture 30 minutes in our lives as mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and friends {and photographers}. This is a blog circle so please be sure to visit the next photographer in the circle.
Christmas 2018 has been and gone. I wish it hadn’t gone so soon: I need more time!
I *love* Christmas, but with so much other life going on, it was a struggle for me to feel my usual festive-self this holiday season. I haven’t felt compelled to pick up my camera either *gasp* but I’m hopeful that my creative drive will return over the coming months as we continue to settle back into life in the UK. For now I’m not going to force it, so I’m not sharing images from one 30 minute slot and I’m keeping this month simple: Christmas Jumper Day and some festive-flavoured still life.
Thank you for joining me again this month. Wishing all my followers and one-time visitors the happiest of holiday seasons and a light- and love-filled 2019.
Please be sure to follow along the blog circle, and see Caroline Liabot of Elles&Eux Photographie’s Festive Five by clicking here! Want some amazing inspiration? Keep following the circle to see what other photographers from around the world have shared this month – and don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages!
