News & Useful Stuff
(also procrastination fuel – you’re welcome!)
Branding Photography: Bra Blinging with Miss Foxy Glove
As craft workshops go, Bling Your Bra has to be one of the most sparkly around! Burlesque dancer Miss Foxy Glove runs workshops for fellow dancers to sparkle up their costumes, starting with, unsurprisingly, a bra... and accompanied by cake, drinks and giggles. Here's...
New Thing Thursday: little luxuries
Welcome to New Thing Thursday! An excuse to learn/experiment with new things and blog about them. Some will be photography and some won’t, and I’ll probably use it across all my sites, so keep an eye out! This week: Look at the exciting prettiness! Any excuse to use...
Colchester Open Studios 2018
Last weekend was my first Open Studios, with the whole building's doors open to the public. It only happens once a year, and it's a wonderful chance to come and see artists at work, nose around our spaces and talk to us about our practice. My studio, Studio 19, is...
Some honesty & a reminder…
Happy Tuesday, loves! It's been the weirdest journey since leaving the day job and leaping into full time self employment. Today I wanted to remind you to remember to listen to your soul. Even when you're doing what you always wanted to do, there will be obstacles,...
Branding Photography: Maddy at The Wright Fit
Meet Maddy. She owns The Wright Fit, which is an umbrella company for lots of wonderful different things she does (perfect multipod client, right there!). She wanted some photos of her with Oswald, her logo octopus, Oswald on his own, and some shots of her both in her...
Open Studios 2018 – you’re invited!
Although the majority of my lifestyle brand photography work is done out & about, wherever my lovely clients are based, I also work out of my studio in Ardleigh. A converted maltings, it houses 34 artists working in all kinds of media - it's a treasure trove of...
One day to go…
Well, technically three, because my next day at the day job (which is also my last) is in fact on Tuesday. But OMFG I can't believe how fast it's come round! After years of extolling the virtues of a month's notice rather than three, I ended up giving ten weeks'...
Studio inspiration & a bridal boutique: Louise Rose Couture | Personal Branding Photography
Louise Rose Couture, if you've not met her before, is a gloriously talented designer of dresses which make your heart sing. I'm not even getting married, but have one of her latest collection on order - it's a confection of embroidered tulle delight and it calls to me...
Performance Photography: Burlesque Solos
Burlesque dancers are definitely among my favourite subjects - they have all the joy of dance, all the best parts of entrepreneurship and all the unique eccentricity of, well, burlesque! Bookings for stage performances are always fun - and it's fab to be...
AN79 Tattoo Balm launch, Colchester | event photography and tattoo photography in Essex
As someone who has no tattoos but is completely fascinated with them, I was delighted to get an invitation to Alice Nicholls' launch party for her new tattoo balm. She owns the beautiful, female-run AN79 tattoo studio on Eld Lane in Colchester, and has designed an...
Multipod Issues: You’re not broken, just wired differently
Oh, lovely one. Another day where you leave your soul at the door in order to make a living, a day where you feel permanently misunderstood, a day where you just can't seem to communicate what you mean properly to anyone? Another moment when you try SO hard to just...
Dream, Plan, Do
Towards the end of last year, I bought the Dream Plan Do planner on Kickstarter. I'd heard good things about it, and had been in a Q&A session with Patricia van den Akker who created it, and thought it might be a good thing to have some structured planning in...
Branding Photography: Alex O’Neill – coach & creative
The gorgeous Alex O'Neill wanted to update her images for her various ventures recently - she's a coach over at A Life More Extraordinary, and a creative joy to be around, and I was very happy to oblige! Full disclosure - Ally is my coach, and a bloody good one. She...
Multipod Issues: describing yourself and what you do
What do you do? Ah, that killer question. I have no idea why it's so important to modern society, but it seems to be a standard conversational gambit, especially when meeting someone for the first time. All too often, we respond as we have been conditioned to do -...
Branding Photography: Love You Burlesque
2017 was an exciting year. Having danced burlesque with the Burlesque Jems for nearly six years, when new owners Lizzie Lovelace and Bitsy Sunshine announced a rebrand, I was delighted to work with them to capture a year's worth of their classes, residentials,...
Juggling like an entrepreneur
Are you finding that life gets busier and busier, seemingly by the day? Since leaving the London job for my beloved businesses & a day job nearer home, I try really hard not to glorify busy - to only say I'm busy if I actually am, and to try and make time to live...
Urban Decay vintage lipsticks | product photography Essex
The lovely folks at Urban Decay sent me these some time ago - I've only just now had a chance to share them! In shimmering and unusual shades, they are a little bit rebel and very mermaid...! If you're looking for product photography for your own...
Tough love, frustration and action
I'm away with my family in Greece at the moment, and while talking, swimming, resting and generally putting the world to rights, inevitably the subject of my businesses and my working life came up. Last month I was granted part time hours for a year, working three...
Building a business: the darker side of mermaiding…
Short but not so sweet today... not one, but two known merverts either friended me, messaged me, asked to join my group for pro merfolk, or a combination of the above in the last 48 hours. WTF is a mervert, I hear you ask?! Sadly, as in every industry and pastime,...
Mindset shift – she’s not my ideal client
Just wanted to record something that happened yesterday, which I felt was a really good marker of how far I've come in business mindset since I started out with Ducking Fabulous in 2009. Popping up to a colleague's office after a meeting, we got talking to a new...
Building a business – the early days
You know by now that I'm a multipod - someone who thrives on doing lots of different things, having lots of varying interests, and pursuing more than one thing at once. My latest venture is a mermaid business, which combines some of my greatest passions with one of my...