Where do you Keep Your Photographs?

When I lived in London, I probably didn’t visit home as much as I should have done, but when I did, there were a few things I could always rely on. The temperature dropping by a few degrees whilst travelling up the M1, my sister moving more stuff into my old room (the slow take over), and a roast dinner on the Sunday before I set off back down south. And then another routine started on one of these visits.  After the plates were cleared, washed and dried, Mum would open the dresser and out came the old family photos. Kept in a 70’s Quality Street tin, I still love the sound of the lid being lifted, and the rustle of the photo packets inside, like a lucky dip, which era were we going to pick out first? Will it be the 80’s Franki Says T-Shirts phase, holidays on windy Scottish beaches, building dens in the woods, or would we go further back to when Mum and Dad were growing up?

Over the years, the photos have been even more mixed up, which adds to the surprise element of this little ritual. All the ‘best’ photos have made it into frames on the walls, or displayed on bookshelves and the mantlepiece. But it’s the snap shots in the tin I love the most. Not technically perfect in anyway, but just shots of us on location in places we visited, and almost always looking straight at the camera. Mum had a terrible habit of cutting Dad’s head off in the frame when she was the designated photographer, and there are a collection of these shots too, like little gems amongst the muddle of photos. Mum always has the tin on her knee and passes us the photos. I can always tell when she’s picked up one of the ‘where’s Dad’s head?!’ shots, as her face scrunches up and she lets out a laugh! It’s not even about the photos maybe, it’s about these predictable, yet cosy moments that bring us together as a family.

I know so many of us say how much we should print our photos, and it sometimes takes a bit of effort to do this. We have just had some photos printed and we’re going to be going to our framers soon to get the first images of me Suze and Olive on our walls. And for all the other shots we’ve taken over the past 7 months, we’re going to create albums and print out a bunch of 6x4s. We’re just going to print them so we have something tangible. The thought of Olive sitting there with an old tin on her knee passing them around to her family is such a strange thought right now, but this is why we want to do it. For us to enjoy them now, but to provide those moments in the future where she can just stop for a while and take a look at them with her loved ones.

On one of our visits a couple of years ago, me and Suzi wondered if we could make our own photos wallet, so our families can take away this tangible product from their shoot. We launched our photo wallet last year, we love it so much. It’s a trip down nostalgic lane, for those of us who grew up on taking our films in to be developed, but also provides that tactile product for a family to hold. Maybe some of them will make it into frames, or maybe they’ll stay in their wallet to be looked at over the years.

Do you have a place where you keep your printed photos? Are there any more Quality Street tins out there stuffed with photos? We’d love to hear where you keep them, and how you display them.

Not wanting to be outdone, Dad showed Suzi a few of his favourite photos he’s taken of trees over the years.

As it’s Sunday, hows about getting those photos out and taking a look together after lunch, or maybe making a promise to yourselves to print a few in the next few weeks?

Here’s a blog post you might like, Don’t Let Your Images Grow Up To Be Jegs, written by Jonas Peterson

We’ve created a Pinterest board with a few ideas on ways to display your photos in your home.

And if you’d like to see more about our portrait packages and our photo wallet, here’s a link to that page.

Projects

Have you ever rolled your eyes when somebody’s said to you, ‘oh you must see this Ted Talk about xxxx?’ Well try and keep those eyes still a minute!

‘We need to first be limited, in order to become limitless’. This has really stuck with me since I saw the Ted Talk from Phil Hansen all about his creative journey. You can see the talk here (it really is good), but an abridged version is that he used to do very fine pointillism art work, until he developed a shake in his hand. He thought his artistic path was closed, and then a doctor told him to embrace the shake. From this, he started experimenting with art work he’d never thought about before, but found it most exciting when he limited himself within these projects. We talk about this on our retreats. It’s good to have those restrictions when you’re doing a series of shots, it makes it stronger. As we know from our own experience, personal projects feed into your work. We’ve realised that actually we should be giving these SO much more time and emphasis. If we ever come to a crossroads, or hit a bit of a slump, it’s good to have a few project ideas to kickstart your creativity and inspiration.

So next time you hit overwhelm with the possibilities of all the images you could or should take,  these 5 project ideas might help you, or maybe spark an idea for you.

1. A Year Of Mornings. My friend Hannah bought me this gem of a book for my birthday a few years ago. It’s a beautiful collection of shots taken by friends Maria Alexandra Vettesse and Stephanie Congdon Barnes over the course of a year. 3191 miles separate them, in 2006 they started a visual conversation and took a photo a day to document their mornings, and did this for a year. There’s such a simplicity to the shots, and in this, so much beauty. So many of the images have such striking resemblances, a bond that defies the miles between them. Their blog and subsequent book were so popular, they have completed another 2 books since this one. If you feel you can’t commit to a year, maybe just do it for a week or a month and team up with one of your friends, or maybe some of your Instagram connections. Maybe take a photo at the same time every morning, with the same lens, or even with your phone. We set this at the end of our retreats for 7 days, and I love seeing themes cropping up or similar tones that a group of people are drawn to on the same day.

2. The word game. Team up with somebody else and come up with a series of words. I did this a few years ago with 2 photographer friends (one in Switzerland, the other in Scotland). We called it Three Photographers, Three Countries, Three Weeks. We limited ourselves to just take shots with our phones and gave ourselves a word a day. I loved seeing all our different interpretations, and also some of the similarities that happened too during our individual days. You can see our first week here on my now very old blog (complete with the old branding!). It’s making me want to try something like this again.  Our first week of words were  Light, Wild, Tree, Sky, Lines, Eat & Cosy. If you wanted to do this by yourself, I sometimes pick up a book, randomly pick up a page, and with my eyes closed, point at a word. I then try and take photos based around this word all day, or for the next hour when I go on a walk.

3. Shoot From The Hip. This is more of an exercise than a project, but it could lead to a series of hip shots! I do this if I feel a bit frustrated, and a bit stuck. It’s very freeing! Have your camera resting on your hip, held by the strap over your shoulder. And just press the shutter when you feel there’s something happening in front of you. You don’t look through the viewfinder, and that’s the comfort zone bit stretched. You’re not quite sure of the focus, although you can guess your distance away from the subject you’re taking with the aperture you’ve chosen. You can see a series of shots I did here on market day around Hebden Bridge a couple of years ago. And here’s a collection I took the other day down at The Piece Hall in Halifax. I was really drawn to the shadows and movement.

4. A 365 project, taking a photo a day for a year. This is quite a commitment. I did it a few years ago and some days were really hard! I guess with any project you decide to do, the key is to be gentle with yourself. Or maybe do a 52 project. Commit to take 1 photo a week (maybe at the same time every week) and think about how you might be present this after a year, maybe in a blog or book?

5. Take one object and think of 5 different ways to photograph it. So say it was a cup of tea (I know, I’m obsessed!), maybe take it from different angles. Take it from above, so a different perspective to maybe how you’d normally take it, frame something through the handle, shoot into the light and show the steam, maybe put the camera on self timer and get into the frame holding your cuppa? You could do this once a week over a period of time. You get my drift! Or maybe get in the frame yourself too? A few years ago now, I took a series of self portraits from inside domestic appliances…

At this point, I wanted to mention a few of our Instagram friends who are in the midst of projects at the moment and I’m sure, like us, you’ll find them inspiring too. Zoe Wittering is in the throes of a 365 project that she has hashtagged #before8h48. She’s 7 weeks into the project, taking a photo every day before this time. She’s posting them in her stories if you’d like to follow her journey. I was chatting with Zoe the other day and she told me she ran a course all about personal projects in January, and is hoping to run it again in the future.

Rachel from Little Robin Photography has just started her #adayaweek2019 project. She was craving to take more photos of her own family, so will be turning the camera on documenting her life for one day a week this year. We can’t wait to see the results! You can follow her on Instagram here and read all about her project in her blog post here.

Laura from Baby Picture This has just written about her project #weekofmoments (which turned into 2 weeks!) ‘Let's not look for the big moments or the amazing light or the picture perfect stuff, I said to myself, just pick up the damn camera when you can’. You can see Laura’s blog post about her project here.

Instagram has some great communities that offer weekly/monthly themes. Instagram itself has themes every weekend. One of our favourites is It’s My Week with its weekly themes and shares. Look out also for themes from Tales Of The Moment and Candid Childhood. Or if you’ve been following our Stories of the Everyday hashtag, we’re now doing monthly challenges too. March’s theme is GROWTH, to be interpreted how you’d like. #storiesoftheeveryday_growth.

Having a project or theme to work towards can really help take those icky overwhelm feelings out of the equation. Having a theme can often really help make that shift, get your finger on the shutter, and get you feeling creative.

I’m currently working on 2 projects and I’m excited about both of them, and once I start talking about it, it makes me accountable too. So you may have seen my Tea For Two project on Instagram where I sit down with a friend every week, have a brew and a chat, and take photos. The other project that I’ve been working on is called The Kitchen Table, as I’ve become fascinated how these spaces have become so much more than just a place to eat.

We love working with people to find their core, their essence as a photographer. From this, themes and projects can be developed and your style, and tone will shine. Now then, which project are you going to go for? Ours are just suggestions, we’d love to hear any you’ve done or are in the process of doing.

At The Kitchen Table

This week, Olive sat in her shiny new high chair and took her first chomps of avocado, carrot and sweet potato. Although we don’t want to wish time away, this is one thing me and Suzi have been really looking forward to. Sitting down at the table in the kitchen and eating our food together.

I’ve been creating a body of work ‘At the Kitchen Table’. I’m not sure yet if it might be a chapter in our book or an exhibition in the future, i just felt it was the right time to start talking about it, and to ask you for your stories, and if you’d like to take part?

It all started a couple of years ago when I did a shoot with jeweller Toby Cotterill and he told me about the history of his work bench. His Dad is a furniture maker, and he made their childhood kitchen table. It became the centre of their family life, as it is to many families. But this kitchen table evolved, and after some alterations, Toby now uses this table as his work bench.

It felt very poignant as my Mum and Dad were just moving out of our childhood home, and I remembered all those times sitting at the table. We had a set time for tea every night. While Mum cooked, me and my sister laid the table and Dad hovered. After tea, we’d clear the plates, and I’d sit down back at the table to do my homework, and Dad would read the paper.

Since doing our family shoots, I’ve noticed how many photos I take of families there. It is so central to life. We usually start shoots at the table, having a chat and a cup of tea before the camera comes out of my bag. It’s good to see the family interacting around the space. I guess I’ve become a bit fascinated by them, these places where we’re nourished both in food and conversation. Since chatting about it on Instagram, I’ve had people sending me stories of their kitchen tables. A common theme are the rules of the table. No phones, all sitting down at the same time to eat, chatting about our days. Family feasts where spare tables are brought down from the loft. This reminded me of our own family get togethers at Grandma & Grandad’s house. The adults would sit at the big table, and the children would sit at the kiddies table. As the oldest cousin, I was still sitting at the kiddies table until I was around 18!

I’d love to hear from you if you’d like to be involved in my project (Yorkshire area for now but there may be a table tour later this year!). What do you use your table for? Is it a place you sit and watch the world go by? Have your tea, work, read? Plan big adventures? Play table tennis, look at your family photographs? Have arm wrestles, play board games, craft, chat? If you’re in the Yorkshire area, I’d love to add to the collection of images I have. Would you like to be a part of the project?

Here are a collection of shots and ideas so far.

The tables themselves also have a story to tell. The grains and stains, the chips, the marker pen that doesn’t quite rub off. We swapped our kitchen table with our friends, and on there are felt tip marks from drawings and crafting projects, we don’t want to get rid of them.

These tables are where we eat together, talk together, take time to be alone. Laugh, play and plan. Would you like to be a part of it? We’d love to hear about you and your table.