The Autumn somehow creeped in from around the corner while I wasn’t looking. Suddenly the days are getting shorter and the rain wetter. I’ve just realised that’s it’s now pretty much a year since I started my photography business. A year of 13 hour days and working all weekends. I think I’ve had about 5 days ‘off’ in the last year. If someone had come to me with this sort of proposition at the beginning of it all I would have laughed and ran away pretty promptly. But somehow, when you’re in it, and you have to do it, you just get on with it. I’m glad I have a two month break from weddings now, even if my weekends are still filled with other kind of shoots and business-related work. It still feels a little less crushing than the pressure weddings, and editing them etc., puts on you. I do love shooting, no doubt, but unfortunately running a business is probably about 20% shooting and 80% of all the other gubbins.

I am pretty amazed and happy about what I have managed to accomplish in just a year, and how quickly I seem to have established my business. I have a healthy amount of weddings booked for next year, and currently get more inquiries than I am able to accommodate. People keep telling me how ‘lucky’ I’ve been, getting my business established and actually making some sort of profit so quickly (I did make a pretty big loss in the first financial year, mind). I do believe you make your own luck though, by trusting your gut feeling and your abilities, being honest about who you are, and by working bloody hard. Luck alone gets nothing done unless you put the hours in.

At the moment I find myself in a bit of a slump. I think it’s because I’ve just realised that the summer just whizzed by without me even noticing. We’ve also started looking around for somewhere to buy, which is demoralising to say the least. Prices are astronomical, and no amount of working or saving seems to get us anywhere closer to a deposit for anything decent. I’ve just moved from searching for two bedroom sh*tholes onto searching for one bedroom sh*tholes. Cheery. I miss our flat in Finland.

I guess there’s nothing else to do than to keep your head down and plough on, and hold on to the faith that it will all be worth it in the end.

And since it’s become a bit of a routine, here are a few images from last month.

Magali & Jeff got married.

Had a blast shooting Sophie & Henry‘s engagement photos.

I made a bit of a departure by doing a jewellery shoot for Melanie Eddy.

Trinh & Alastair got married.

Had an engagement session with Heather & Mark.

Took baby portraits of Jodie…

…and Alice.

How has another month slipped by again?? Perplexing… I don’t mean to neglect this blog, honest. Somehow time just, disappears.

Right, what has happened in the last month then. Well, S and I celebrated 10 years together (I say celebrated, we got chinese take away :P), which is another perplexing time vacuum conundrum in itself. I think the rest of the month will be explained via the images below. Very sorry to re-hash content from the other blog, but have no time to take other photos at the moment. Hopefully I will get to do some personal projects again in the winter months.

Eleni & David got married on my birthday. (Oh and someone asked me what I do with my t/s lens, so here’s one example.)

Baby Lucinda was born.

The first couple to ever officially book me (back what seems like a lifetime ago), Sarah & Dan, finally got married.

I did an engagement shoot with Ana & Alan for charity.

Carolyn & Marc had a kick-ass wedding at Leadenhall Market.

And finally, I got to return to The Garden Museum for Claire & Ben’s wedding.

Oh completely forgot to add Georgina & Mark‘s engagement session on the last day of August! :D

So that’s August pretty much wrapped up. It’s been hectic to say the least, but has also included some real high points of the summer. Tonight Sooz is dragging me to Westfield for a ‘mini makeover’ of some sort. Let’s see just how small they manage to make me (it was a bad joke the first time round and hasn’t really improved, sorry).