Well what a year 2020 has been since my last blog in October 2019 I have not posted much, I did shoot with Nicole Rayner in Warrington towards the end of November 2019 which was a fun shoot at a flat her friend owns. So as we rolled into 2020 with fireworks and lots to look forward to little knowing that a pandemic was about to hit the world big time, I had lots to look forward photography wise with my first shoot of the year with Nicole Rayner.
January
My first photoshoot of 2020 was with Nicole at her photography palace as she called it in York at the end of January. I had organised two 4hr slots one on Saturday evening the other on Sunday morning/afternoon we created lots of wonderful images together as Team NiNe Photography as this was going to be the last photoshoot at Nicole’s flat in York as she would be moving down south (little did the UK know what was about to arrive to change all that) more on that later.
February /March
I started to organise photoshoots for the rest of the year with one at the end of February with Rachelle Summers in Chester which was part of country wide tour Rachelle and her partner Mark aka “Mr Summers” where doing, it was based at an outstanding AirBnB in the middle Chester for 4hr on a Saturday afternoon with Mark on hand to give any assistance and also making tea/coffee. It was my second photoshoot with Rachelle wich I really enjoyed we got some brilliant images. All this was before the country wide lockdown to come in April.
April/May/June
Towards the end of April I was furloughed from work for 3 months I had photoshoots organised with Nicole for 3 days and one with a model who I’ve wanted to work with for sometime Donna Rhian Lloyd but seeing as the country was in lockdown it wasn't going to be. From here on in it was going to be a hard time for photographers, studios & models etc…
But some resourceful models started offering remote shoots which I managed 3 my first was with Donna the second with Kate Laura and the third with Stephanie Dubois,. As shoots they where all different and we all got some good results (hoping that we can do some more remote shoots in 2021 until we can do proper studio shoots again)
To keep every body sane some photographers started doing on line courses so to speak and one of my favourite photographers Hannah Couzens started doing Live From The Garage showing different lighting set ups which was live every Saturday afternoon which was fun and a good learning process.
But one of the best things to come out of this was the start of the Sunday Night Zoom socials hosted by Maverick GB another fab photographer which enabled like minded creatives to meet and chat over a drink or playing games etc.. its been good to meet new photographer friends and models who I wouldn’t have worked with previously but would like to in the future.
And little did we know that we would still be doing Zoom socials into 2021.
July
Things started to go back to a normality (maybe they shouldn’t have) I did two shoots in one weekend one with a model called Freya which was at her place which is not that far from me. It was a shoot that was postponed form May and we got some interesting shots hopefully we can work properly in 2021 again.
I also managed another in person shoot with Nicole over in the North East where she had moved back to for the moment so we went to Marsden Beach and to a Farm that her Dad has a house on.
I think we got some of best work on this day and such a fun time.
August
The first shoot in August was Nicole’s Midsummer Dream event at Guys Cliffe in Warwickshire which was such a brilliant day working with Nicole, Cariad Celis and Ivory Flame again. It was a themed event hosted by Nicole with dresses designed by Cariad. And all done with social distancing.
My next shoot was a remote shoot with Helen Wykes another model who I wanted to work with we got some interesting shots and hope fully we will do another shoot in 2021.
September/October
The Zoom socials where still going as I have said above its been a good place to meet fellow creatives and one model who I have met through these socials was Rachyy Downes I was trying to organise a duo shoot with Nicole and Rachyy at a new studio near to me called 2G Studios (highly recommended by me) but Nicole had to pull out as she could find any where to stop over night safely so Rachyy and I went a head with the shoot and we got some brilliant images. i hope that I can re-organise the duo shoot with them both again in ‘21
November/December
Things have steadily going down hill again so Firework displays where cancelled so couldn’t shoot my usual display in Bolton-Le-Sands.
We had the Zoom social awards in December (who new there was such a thing!!!) and Christmas has been a quiet affair.
But as I look forward to 2021 I hope to do more shoots remote/ and in person when we can and now that there are Vaccines this hope fully might be closer than we thought. I am also going to be doing some more light painting and have also reorganised some parts of the site.
So it only remains for me to say stay safe and have a happy and healthy 2021