A short promotional video for MiaBelle Bridesmaids. Shot on location at the Regency Townhouse Brighton -November 2020.

Back in October 2020, I was creating this beautiful scene in the gallery at Somerley House (you may recognise it from The Crown, Bridgerton, The Royals)

Our gorgeous models stand motionless like sculptural installations in a short break between photographing the day. What a beautiful day and such a privellage to work amongst amazing creatives in these beautiful surroundings

Hi all,

To say lockdown has been a very ‘unusual’ time for all us photographers would be a massive understatement. We are having to find new ways to continue our art and to maintain our businesses in times where photography has been placed temporarily on the back burner.

Having seen an advertisement for SaaL Digital photo books, I was lucky enough to be selected to trial their products and having been initially sceptical (we all get worried about phishing and online safety in this day and age) I am absolutely overjoyed to find that this is a fantastic company offering beautiful quality printed books.

I had somewhat unusually received a few requests from previous clients asking me to create their Wedding photo books in time for Christmas (this was in the 2nd week of December!). I am not specifically a wedding photographer and therefore the photography would not be my own. The clients had informed me that their photographers had very sadly gone out of business due to Covid 19 and could no longer honour the contract to create their wedding books for them.

I was happy to rise to the challenge and hopefully save the day. I had made a few books before for customers but had always been very disappointed with the turnaround time, delivery and lack of layout options that some of my previous printing providers had offered. I immediately thought of my SAAL digital trial and downloaded the software onto my Mac.

I was instantly struck by how easy and intuitive the software was to use. The layout options ranged from easy, where the software drops your images in to beautifully spaced and perfectly graphic designed boxes to a complete free reign for those with more advanced layout skills.

With the time constraints involved and having been so disappointed with missed deadlines before, I chose the former. I wanted to allow as much time as possible for the books to be delivered so that I could check them over before offering them to my customers.

After a LOT of to’ing and fro’ing of images and revision after revision (remembering that I had no idea about the Weddings, the family members or the chronology of the photography on the days) I finally had the go ahead to send them to print.

My customers chose two of the 30x30 sized and one 21x 21 sized professional line photo books in linen and dark grey leather. The books are also ‘lay flat’ which means that even if you have a full double page spread, the image is perfectly readable and with no horrible curved crease to the middle.

I placed my orders on the 17th and 18th December respectively and was given an approximate delivery date of the 24th December. I informed my clients that I couldn’t promise them a before Christmas delivery as I had never used Saal before and I also new that the Post Office was struggling to meet it’s Christmas postal commitments.

I was absolutely over the moon to take delivery of my first photo book on the 21st December! I am still completely amazed that they turned my order around in the time that they did, what an incredible service!

I delivered the book to my client and they were completely speechless as to the quality and finish (as was I) The natural linen cover, font and typesetting was beautiful, the printing and chosen semi gloss paper was perfect and the layout was exactly as I had curated.

It was beautiful.

The 2nd and 3rd orders arrived on the 18th December and were also of exceptionally high quality like the first, and so much better than any other service I have ever previously used.

I really cant rate Saal Digital any higher, they are a 10 out of 10 service- for design, quality and delivery. I highly recommend them to anyone who would like a lasting keepsake of a special event, memento or a creative project.

I liked them so much I even created one of my own wedding for my husband for Christmas. It is a lasting, quality book that we will have in our family for a lifetime and beyond, our children love to look through it and we have received so many compliments from family and friends!

Hi again, Locked down friends 😬

I hope all is well with you out there. I know, it’s weird. We are all still re adjusting daily to whatever the ‘News’ brings us and trying to find some routine or normality in our days at home. Tiktok is a phenomenon in our home, maybe you can relate ? (it passes the time😂)

It has been a huge help to me to have a backlog of work to catch up with, editing and being able to spend time on projects for a change has been very therapeutic . At the same time I am missing the buzz of the new projects that would usually be arriving in my inbox at this time of year, all of that new creativity (and income tbh) is sorely missed.

I have been spending my new found time by carefully curating my website and re assessing the work displayed on it. Also, backing up my work from my massively overloaded Hard Drive (try it, it’s therapeutic !)

I am also, for my own promotional purposes (with permission from the commissioners of the photo shoots/editorials of course) making an effort to show my work to the world by getting some of my favourites published.

The work you can see below is a personal project, created along with some of my amazing creative friends @caramcdanielcreative @lydiedaltonfloraldesign & @laylaharrismodel . Our collective brief was to create an ‘Editorial style’ photoshoot to highlight the on going, continuous problem of plastic in the Oceans….whatever Covid19 is doing to the World right now.

It was photographed in early January 2020 before anyone had heard of a virus that might change everything. The location was in a freezing Sea off the South Coast of England and our beautiful Layla l was completely chilled to her bones, like a true professional, she totally gave her absolute best. These works have been published in Elements Magazine shame about the deranged girl on the cover image though 😬

So it’s official…I’m totally rubbish at keeping up with my blog posts.

Soz.

To get you up to date, last year was manic and now , its not. I’m sure that all Creatives and the Self Employed Creatives especially, are feeling this right now. What do you photograph when all your work is cancelled and you are only allowed out of your home to shop or exercise ?😬

Times are tuff for ALL of us so stay strong and stay home.

Credit cards, Mortgages and Rent payments will just have to wait, and they will, because we are all in the SAME BOAT. Please don’t forget that. Who knows how long it will take for this to end, but we will all come through it (all be it, probably still pulling our scarves over our mouths, when we go into a shop even after we get the all clear ..don’t say its just me feeling this?)

I’ve been struggling with my mental heath during this lockdown time, in all honesty…I’m pretty sure we all have, and I’ve got it easy. My heart goes out to all those families with no outside space and children locked down in your house! You must be feeling pushed to your limits , the media could be kinder to your plight I think.

I live in Brighton, its got a very large local community and most live in flats. So, if you see Brighton on the News and your are being told its flooded with people, (yes, some are obviously ‘Day Trippers’) , bust most of us actually live in this beautiful town and we all use the Promenade area to exercise. Please don’t judge us too harshly for loving where we live. Just everyone keep their distance and we’ll be fine.

I would like to end this monologue on a positive note, my work taken pre lock down (October’ish last year) is being published now and this has been a small delight to my day. I would like to share some images from Your Sussex Wedding @cwm_wedding taken at the end of last year and out now in their digital magazine available for FREE. This work was taken at the Hobbit House @oastbrook vineyard and featuring the gorgeous @nameherkatie .

They were taken on a slightly chilly and drizzly day but I don’t think you can tell...the pool was heated anyway 😉 xx

Take care and keep smiling everybody xx

Our beautiful styled photo shoot took place at the Hydro Hotel in Eastbourne, East Sussex on a gloriously hot early British Summer day in May. Our photo shoot venue has been a Hotel since 1895 and is more recently a Wedding venue. We took our inspiration and colour palette from its seafront setting and the wonderful coastal views down to the white chalk cliffs at Beachy Head. The light reflects up from from the sea and to the coastal Terrace creating a wonderfully atmospheric location for a couple to say their vows. Its elevated yet private gardens have direct sea views, and its Coastal Terrace where couples can say their vows, features a stunning custom-made dome with open sides in front of a stone tiled terrace and decorative plants, giving a wonderful, Mediterranean Wedding feel. (Available for weddings from April to October with a capacity for 80 guests).

Our shoot has captured the charismatic elegance of a mid Summer Wedding with the lucent feel of a Mediterranean style setting. Our floral designer Lydie dalton matched the location, venue and our stunning Bride beautifully. Creating her gorgeous and unique bouquet with seasonal cream peonies, perfect blush roses and harvested Hawthorn bush flowers in full blossom. Lydie uses petite Pewter topped French mini vases with individual sprigs of Hawthorn to create a really effective yet low cost table decoration for our Bride and Grooms Wedding cake table. Our magnificent ‘Lily may’ cake was created by Liz Chatfield from Sylvias Kitchen and has delicately sculpted white icing flowers to its top and as decoration on the sides. We used the soft blues of the Wedgewood Suite as a backdrop for our cake cutting and couple portraits- stylishly decorated by the amazing Sam from Mulberry Events. Sam used large blue sating ribbons tied around the chairs and pewter lanterns to decorate the room as a perfect wedding venue for us. The soft blues of our room’s walls and satin bows continuing our theme through to our interior set of images.

Our beautiful Bride Georgina wears a stunning beaded Ashley and Justin dress Kindly supplied by Fross Wedding collections of Uckfield and has delicately patterned beading covering its entirely down to its elegant mid length train. Josh our perfect husband for the day wears a Blue linen suit courtesy of Dickies Suit Hire of Eastbourne.

Our photoshoot was bought together and styled by the amazing Helen at Empirical events. Helen and her team create beautiful Wedding showcases and Wedding fairs all over the South of England.

Suppliers and Venue Details

Photography - Jacqulyn Hamilton www.jacqulynhamilton.co.uk @Jacqulynhamilton jacqulyn@jacqulynhamilton.com

Floral designer Lydie Dalton @daltonlydie www.lydiedaltonfloraldesign.co.uk

Venue: Hydro Hotel Eastbourne https://www.hydrohotel.com sales@hydrohotel.com

Venue Decoration - Mulberry Events info@mulberryevents.co.uk https://mulberry-events.co.uk

Event Planning- Empirical Events http://www.empiricalevents.co.uk @empiricalevents_ sales@empiricalevents.co.uk

Cake – Sylvia’s Kitchen ‘Lily May’ Cake http://sylviaskitchen.co.uk @sylviaskitchen liz@sylviaskitchen.co.uk

Car – Finest Wedding Cars http://finestweddingcars.co.uk enquiries@finestweddingcars.co.uk @finestweddingcars

Dress by Ashley and Justin , Kindly supplied by Fross Wedding Collections https://www.frossweddingcollections.co.uk @frossweddingcollections

Josh wears Dickies Suit Hire- Eastbourne http://www.dickieseastbourne.co.uk

MUA and hair - Emma Oliff

https://www.facebook.com/emmaolliffmakeup

@emmaoliffbeauty

Georgina Mills – Empirical Events Models

@g_mills

Josh Apps - Empirical events Models

@_joshaa._

On a gorgeously warm, if not a bit overcast day, our creative team ventured into the inner London Wall and the amazing Brutalist Architecture that is The Barbican Centre to photograph the bespoke collection from HEMYCA London.

We utilised the amazing, clinical, concrete lines of the Architecture all around us and added the softest of touches that was our stunning model Zelal skilfully matched for us from BMA models

It was a beautifully quiet day, this allowed us to roam freely around the incredible Architecture. I utilised the space to its absolute fullest by, at first, taking in a full recce of the site a few weeks previously (having an absolutely brilliant time at the Museum of London along the way, I highly reccomend a visit btw!

Its always best to know EXACTLY where you are photographing (in a very detailed level) especially if it is a styled editorial shoot, before you arrive. Taking a detailed recce of your desired location is the very best way to know the ‘ins and outs’ of the area you are photographing. Marking in key locations in your notes before hand is professional and makes your models feel at ease with their environment.

(I can’t imagine not knowing a location before a photo shoot or potentially missing out on gorgeous backdrops!)

Putting a potentially new model at ease in his/her environment is 90% of the photographer’s job after all I feel, we are the designers and creators of the photo shoot and it is up to us to personally make our subjects feel at ease in a location.

It doesn’t matter how extreme or unusual it is, if we get this right, our models will trust us and feel free to perform.

In this particular shoot, Zelal was put at ease. Our amazing team were on hand at all times with reassurance and guidance. We focused our attentions on the location and the obviously stunning architecture of the Barbican Centre, but also, on the dramatic lines the stunning architectural creations of the HEMYCA London brand. Bringing the two together in a harmony of clean lines, simple shapes and a cool elegance of structure.