So the lovely Erika asked me months ago to join this wonderful photo project 10 on 10… Each month you chose a day to photograph and share 10 images to illustrate that day on the 10th of the following month – this project is right up my street… I’ve been dying to get involved, but each month has passed me by and I didn’t get it together… till now.

The other ladies taking part in 10 on 10 are super fabulous and super talented. They suggest visiting each person taking part in turns… a blogging circle… so after you viewed my month, head on over the Joelynne and see what magic she’s sharing.

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My day was spent on the beach during our recent trip to Wales with friends and all our boys… the sun shone… we all played. There was a lot of digging!

It was so GOOD.

Photos taken were a mixture of iphone & Canon 5md2

Please go visit Joelynne and see what her 10 on 10 looks like…

Today I’m carrying on from yesterday & saying goodbye to summer…

Feeling a little better about it all. Sometimes writing it down, sharing it with friends and releasing it can be so positive… I’m over at Shutter sisters today sharing my thoughts on self doubt…

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Trawling through the footage I’ve shot this summer… there are recurring elements that stand out… this is most definitely the summer of our boys – scooting, playing guitars, doing diabolo and generally jumping around like only they know how.

Have you got Summer footage that you’re not sure what to do with?… perhaps taking part in Creating Time Capsules, will be the spark you need to gather up your memories and make a little film like this?… Last chance to sign up as class starts on Monday!… All the details are here.

As August came to an end, I started to feel the winds of change. It’s been sitting with me the past few days… pretty heavily. Feeling a little out of sorts as I battle with some stuff in my head… stuff about my art, stuff about our family, stuff about our move, stuff that makes me feel too grown up…

Stuff.

But this real life stuff… sits in my heart, with a lump in my throat and a few tears here and there.

This stuff is more than Summer changing into Autumn. Standing here on the edge of change is scary, even though this change is what we want.

I watched hours of TED talks last night… I’m thankfully reminded we are in control of our own happiness & destiny… and our own stuff.

What’s my plan? how do I deal with all this stuff… one step at a time, stop looking for signs, stay in the present by not worrying about the future and just get on with it… cross the bridge to the other side.

It’s time to say goodbye to summer and step into the next chapter. SO that’s what I’m going to do, with a few summer posts over the next few days.

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“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

― Henry James

Here is how we spent some of our summer afternoons.

A mix of shots taken with 5Dm2 & iphone. 

Are you a fan of a little whistling? a little background noise whilst someone is pottering around? or does the sound drill into your core, causing you to cover your ears immediately?

I used to be the latter, never a huge fan of the whistle, until Cosmo learnt to whistle a couple of years ago and try as I might… he can’t stop it and mostly doesn’t even notice he’s doing it… so I had to deal with it. You have to adapt as a parent and decide which battles are worth pursuing. So the whistling is pretty much always there – unless he talking, shouting, humming, screaming, of course… a veritable music box of noise.

So his whistling has become a feature of our time capsules and luckily, most of the time Cosmo allows it to be filmed.

As I was putting together our summer time capsule, the whistling kept popping up in my footage, so I figured it needed a film all of it’s own.

This is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, I know that. It’s pretty much two minutes of continual whistling in various locations!. I love his face full of concentration, but of course, I’m biased.

If you do have the strength to watch… tell me do you recognise the tunes he’s whistling?

Have you got Summer footage that you’re not sure what to do with?… perhaps taking part in Creating Time Capsules will be the spark you need to gather up your memories and make a little film like this… All the details are here.

Still missing our boy… my shining light. (He’s back in 5 days!)

If you like this Time Capsule idea… I’m sharing how I make them in another round of Creating Time Capsules… Registration opens on Tuesday – All the details are here.

Have a happy weekend x.

There has been a whole load of blue skies & sunshine around lately… Summer finally showed up and the past four days have been glorious…. just what we needed here in the UK, I don’t think I could have taken much more of the constant rain.

Thanks so much for all the comments for the giveaway for Elevate The Everyday… We just picked a random number out of the hat and it was the number 3! That’s Lou at little green shed… Yay! I’ll be touch soon and send the book off to you. Enjoy.

Oh I love a BBQ… one of my favourite summer moments.

Let’s just ignore the fact it’s pouring with rain today, (yes, it’s getting rather tedious)… I keep having to remind myself of the little pockets of sunshine we’ve had lately…

One such afternoon, we hung out in the garden and I filmed a time capsule. Just us, doing not very much. Sometimes that works… keeping it simple. It’s a moving portrait session really. I’ve not been filming and photographing our life enough lately. So I grabbed this chance as the afternoon was full of the most stunning light… oh how I’d love to bask in this everyday. Are we ever going to get a summer that actually stays around?

{If you like a spot of whistling from my fabulous little one… do stay tuned till the end}

I’m loving this moving portrait idea so much, along with making time capsules of course. If you’re interested in me capturing you & your loved ones in either of these ways… please get in touch…

Also, Behind The Scenes is filling up with some wonderful creative souls. Kim & I are beavering away getting everything ready… full of nerves and excitement. There is still a chance to join us, hop on over here for all the details.

Lately I’ve been a little busy bee… trying to sell our house, weddings & sessions, finishing up the second round of Creating Time Capsules and gearing up to launch a new e-course with Kim (details coming later this week) and all the day-to-day shenanigans… it was good to take some time over the weekend and enjoy the incredible weather that has finally graced us. I didn’t know how much I’d been craving this light and warmth, till I got my camera out just for the pleasure of shooting for me, and capturing my family soaking up the goodness.

There are more photos and some video (I’ve missed shooting that so much), which I will share once I feel back on top of things… the to-do list is calling… What’s been keeping you busy lately?

This is the post I never finished before leaving for New York. This was meant to be a slide show of my favourite photos I’ve taken this year, but you know what, I made the slide show and I actually prefer the images to stand alone. I know I will be concentrating on moving images and putting photos together to tell a story more and more in this coming year, but 2011 was mostly about photos by themselves, so that’s what I will share here and I’ve updated my welcome video instead.

It’s been hard to select just a few from 2011… these photos mean so much to me as they tell the story I see and then like to tell…. the details, the memories, the connections, all with the colours and light that make me gasp as I press the shutter. Capturing these moments has be wonderful, thank you to all those that let me do what I love, I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings…