Finding The Light

A couple of years ago, I took the photo above and I posted it on Instagram and Facebook. And then an intriguing comment appeared, "Ooh, that looks just like a Vermeer". At this point, please forgive my ignorance. What's a Vermeer, I thought. One quick Google later, I knew. I didn't think I'd heard his name before, but I had back in school days, I just hadn't retained it. What I did remember, in those dusty recesses of my mind, was looking at those beautiful paintings in over-sized books in the school library. 

It was the start of a new year, and I'd been itching to take photos a little differently. This moment was a turning point for me, I knew I loved this image, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. I loved the tones, the simplicity of it. I've always been drawn to the dark, but a dark that's shattered by a pop of light, whether from a window, a gap in the trees, or a sunny spot on a staircase. Especially with shoots in a family home, I naturally look for this type of light. It's the light that really makes me tick. Suzi always knows when I've found it as I'll take a sharp intake of breath! Looking at more Vermeer paintings online, I was so taken with the light, the contrasts and shadows and how he managed to capture the beauty in the everyday in such a striking way.

There are a few theories that Vermeer used a camera obscura that may have helped him to create depth and composition and intensify the contrast between light and shadows. To me he is the ultimate lightseeker. The way he used light went hand hand in hand with his style.

Since then, I've been seeking a more painterly quality in my photos and using light a little differently to how I was before that photo of a mother and her new baby. 

We've been discussing how we use light on our retreats too, we love passing on what we've learnt. It always seems to be the subject that people get most excited about. If you'd like to join us on our next retreats, just let us know, or take a look at the retreats page on our website here.

And keep a look out for those gorgeous pools of light spilling through curtains in the morning, illuminating your favourite walk through the trees, or highlighting the stairs. There's magic in the everyday.

A Year In Pictures

Me and Suzi love this time of year. We've spent time with family and friends over the festivities, we've allowed ourselves time to curl up on the sofa to begin to read the pile of books we've been gathering over the last few months. And now, we go into planning mode for the year ahead, both for the business, and what adventures we'd like to share together over the next twelve months.

Firstly, we'd like to say a great big  T H A N K  Y O U  for all your support, the follows, the bookings, we are so grateful and we've loved spending time with you all. 2017 was the first year of not doing weddings, and we felt like we were heading a little into the unknown, but it was the right time for us to do this to nurture our family photography, and let our training and commercial work grow and develop. So, here's our year in pictures - thank you so much for sharing it with us. Here's to a wonderful 2018!

The start of 2017  was all about logs on the fire, planning the year ahead, and crisp morning walks. We had some cute shoots too.

In FEBRUARY, we headed up to Scotland to see if we could track down a starling murmuration, something we'd both wanted to see for such a long time. The sky didn't disappont.

We made a short film about those beautiful birds too...

The first signs of SPRING started to slowly reveal themselves.

My Scottish trip plans came to fruition in MARCH, and I left the Hebden Bridge cobbles for the wilds of the Highlands. I travelled around the tip of the top of the country on the North Coast 500 route.

And then back into the flow of things for some fun SPRING family sessions.

In JUNE, we headed over to Dublin for 10 days. We were delighted to be commissioned by Tesco Ireland to create the stills for their new 'Family Makes Things Better' campaign. The ferry trip over was pretty blustery as you can see below. This little film looks like we were working with Guinness - who knows, maybe one day! 

In the SUMMER, my Mum and Dad started packing as they were about to move house. I found lots of treasures from my teenage years, and decided to record each room in a series of self portraits. It hit me harder than I thought it would. You can read more about it here in a blog about my childhood home and the memories I have there.

After Mum and Dad had just moved out of my childhood home, I became really drawn to doing more family shoots in the family home. I started to see echoes of my own childhood in these photos too,  and I really think this is what I'd been searching for. 

Through Hanna (below), we both found a new love for wild swimming, and had a few late afternoon strolls to Gaddings Dam for a dip.

OCTOBER came, we ran our first photography retreat and loved it! We'd been running 1-2-1 training courses for a number of years, so the retreats were a natural progression. We have more dates in for this year. To kick off the programme, we're starting with Capturing Childhood in March. You can check out our retreat page here for more info or to book....

The days started to draw in, and with the change in seasons, along came the low light and those beautiful tones.

This is one of my cherished personal moments from a family party when the oldest member of my family, my great aunt Eileen, met the youngest member, baby Daniel.

And as we slowed down for the festivities, we started to think about what we'd like to bring into 2018...

We'd love to spend more time with loved ones, and more time in the trees. We'd love to spend time with you, capturing your big beautiful hearts in our photos. We'd love to capture those precious moments, big and small, and create a little snapshot of all our lives today for our families in the future. We want to keep looking for the light and to soak up the sun. 2017 was the year we felt we could really hear our voices, felt truly comfortable in our style, so thanks to everyone who continues on this journey with us, and for all your support. It really does mean the world to us. We'll leave you with a picture one of our friends' daughters drew for us this year. As usual, in most of our photos, there's Suzi on the left, and me, a little bit smaller on the right. Here's to you, and here's to a marvellous 2018. 

Sarah & Suzi xx

Shooting From The Hip

I've just been having a clean up on my computer. Some people like spring cleans, I find it easier to wait until autumn for this kind of behaviour. In one of the folders, I found this selection of photos I took on our friend Leena's course a couple of years ago. When I was first starting out as a photographer over ten years ago, I was really drawn to street photography, and I enjoyed the freedom that shooting from the hip gave me. I hang the camera on my shoulder and as you might have deduced, keep the camera at hip level, and press the shutter when I see something that catches my eye. Because I'm not looking through the viewfinder, the focus can be a bit hit and miss, but there lies the fun for me. Doing the course recently, reminded me how much I'd enjoyed this in the past. Here are a few from a cold market day around Hebden Bridge.