Recently I was having a conversation with someone and reflecting on 2011. It’s ridiculous how I can look back at the year I’ve just had and begin to recall the difficulties or hard times….  perhaps it’s coz I’m British and we have a pre-disposed tendency to moan about things, I start talking about the tough times: the bills, the up & downs of work, the fighting of our boys, the chores, the everyday grey…what ever negative part of the year pops into my head first…. Luckily I said in my head STOP!, and this is what the past couple of years has shown me, lessons learnt through my 365… that there is always something to be grateful for and there is always goodness if you seek it out.

I nearly ran out of time to do this time capsule of 2011 of our family life, (I still am working on my favourite images of other people I’ve photographed, that will follow at some point) Christmas has crept up on me and we have the dream trip of a life time to prepare for… but I had to look back at 2011 through my camera to remember how I saw it…. plain and simple… and notice that OH BOY! there were good times, happiness, sunshine, love, understanding… there were kittens born, adventures and travels, laughter, music, tenderness, boys growing up, fun, whistling, kisses, and the most magical time a bluebell forest….

I’m grateful to have this footage, I’m grateful I have my camera to seek out the special times and record them forever…. we all know life isn’t like this all the time, the daily squabbles between my boys proves that! and somedays I don’t pick up my camera for various reasons, but putting this together makes glad I did pick up on good days and I will keep doing it for as long as I can.

This really is what I’m meant to do…. to capture the connections and the moments I see.

So this time capsule is a fairly personal piece of work, containing footage and photos I wouldn’t normally share… but as I’m starting on a journey of creating time capsules for other people (please contact me if you are interested) and showing & sharing others how I do it (please join my mailing list for details of my upcoming course)…. I thought I’d better share it here…

It was hard to decide what to include (I’ve shot a lot over the course of this year) and just as important… what to leave out. Every image or scene is a memory I want to hold onto and that really is how/WHY I shoot from my heart…

Thanks for being here. x.