A Foggy November Morning (by phone).

I don't know how many times I've said it over the last couple of weeks, but this autumn is absolutely stunning.  Light, colour, atmosphere, it's got it all. It's like the distinct autumns I remember from childhood. Early morning fog, the smell of damp moss in the air (I love that smell), the sun splinters through the trees, and the fog vanishing to reveal all those colours.

I went out for a walk this morning and headed into the fog.  In fact it never left the valley all day. I took these images on my phone (iPhone 5s), using the vscocam app. I'm writing this listening to Kate Bush, the fire is lit at home, and I'm craving stew for dinner!

A Day In The Life - a rare Saturday at home

Last weekend, we found ourselves with a rare day off.  We had a family shoot planned for the evening to look forward to, but first, we had the blank canvas of a Saturday day at home together.

One of our portrait packages is called 'A Day In The Life', and it does exactly what it says on the tin!  It's a shoot to document your everyday life together.  Sometimes it will be sat round the breakfast table, making your weekend pancakes, maybe reading your favourite books. Snuggled on the sofa together, talking and laughing. Then maybe taking a walk to the market, enjoying a hot chocolate in your favourite café. We like to document locations that give you your sense of place, whilst capturing your interactions as a family. Stories of the everyday, your stories.

We really want to put our heart and soul into our storytelling portrait sessions, we love them so much and we need to make space to enable them to grow and develop. It started out as a little voice - 'give me some attention!'. And then it started tugging, being a little more mischievous in its tactics.  There would be words that popped out as I was reading, or something would happen in a film we were watching. It would sometimes keep me awake. And after each shoot, the voice has been shouting just that little bit louder. We've been feeling so creative on these storytelling shoots, buzzing with ideas and inspired by families we've been working with. We want more time to develop our short film work with families too. So, we're going to be taking on just a few weddings each year to allow the portrait business to grow more. Is it a bit scary not taking on as many weddings? Heck yeah! But we know it's the right thing to do. It was good to talk about it all on our day off.

In the next two weeks we're going to be launching a competition to win 'A Day In The Life' shoot, and we're really excited about it!  There will be more news about it on our Facebook page.

With a day to ourselves on Saturday, we thought we'd document it in photos. So, this is us - as we are.  There is quite a bit of food and tea action -they're very important to us, as we've realised by the amount of beautiful tea and food related gifts we received for our wedding.

We had a little lie in.  It was comforting listening to the rumble of the cars on the cobbles outside, and the sound of our neighbours packing up to go on holiday. It almost felt as if we were 'playing hookie', and there was a strong temptation to go into work and edit some of our latest shoots.   Although we managed to resist this for once. 

This is our much loved cat, Delboy.  He is quite a particular little chap as all our friends know, but we love him dearly. This is his happy (and slightly grubby) face. He often has a little dirty mark on his cheek where he has been rubbing against car bumpers whilst out on his nightly prowls.

Suzi was on a mission to find a place for us to stay when we go on holiday in a few weeks.

The first cup of tea of the day. I have a habit of throwing tea towels over my shoulder for any kitchen operation and I hadn't realised I'd done it to make a cup of tea until we downloaded the photos. We all do things like this right?

Warm croissants, new jam, orange juice and tea.  Perfect.

Suzi still on a mission to find a holiday destination, a little more precariously!

We actually sat down and did a little bit of menu planning for the next week.

We've managed to grow some green things (and keep them alive) in our yard.

Our lovely neighbours had left us flowers on the doorstep before they headed off to sunnier climes on their holidays.

After a bit of food shopping, back for lunch and a little visit from Hannah to borrow studio keys.

Being at the bottom of the valley, we don't get sunlight streaming into the lounge, but I love this ray that appears in the afternoon. Our own little spotlight!

Food preps were underway for dinner.  

And then up the hill for a gorgeous shoot in beautiful golden light.

And then back down the hill again for dinner with friends and a very close game of Articulate!

We enjoy the simple pleasures. A day at home together, spending time with family and friends, a glass of wine, good chocolate, and a little bit of competitive spirit with a good board game! It was the perfect Saturday.

We've been hanging out quite a bit on Instagram lately, and we'd love you to come and join us!  Share your photos of your everyday life, and hashtag your images #storiesoftheeveryday.  Looking forward to seeing your photos, and please do share with anyone you'd think would like to join in. Here's our feed too. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

New Friends, Cuckoos, and the Perfect Lunch.

We've been trying really hard to keep Mondays free.  It hasn't always worked, and a few shoots have been booked, and editing has happened, but I'm so glad we kept to it yesterday.  I woke up feeling a bit groggy, tired from a bad night's sleep and a smorgasbord of strange dreams.  I felt quite anxious about all the editing we have, and the preps for this week's shoots.  The thought crossed my mind that I didn't have time for a walk.  But thankfully another voice kicked in and kicked me out of bed!

Me and Suze went to call for Hannah and her daughter Ffion, and we popped over the road to knock for Abha (proper playing out going to call for people!).  We first met Abha at a street party a couple of weeks ago, and we had talked about having a walk all together.  Abha had made the most amazing dal (more of that later), so we topped up our flasks and started out on our adventure.  We walked up to Jumble Hole Clough.  We've been here a couple of times, and it really is one of the special places.  Apart from the occasional plane overhead, it felt like we were miles from anywhere.

There was a lot of pointing as we spotted beautiful plants and creatures, and there were good conversations as we walked, finding our way through the ferns and overgrown foliage by the side of the path.

We picked the perfect spot for our lunch and we tucked into the scrummiest dal.  Just as we'd finished eating, Hannah & Ffion had a little sing song, accompanied by a cuckoo echoing through the valley.  Such a beautiful sound!

We walked further up the valley.  Waterfalls, mills, lots of caterpillars, curlews, and a couple of walkers with a map who assured us we were on the right path when we decided to take a different route!

Who wants to be in the band?

A few hours later, and we walked back into Hebden Bridge.  I'm so glad I got myself out and about, and now I feel inspired for the week ahead.  Being in the trees and in good company, the best start to the week!