Camera Explorer Revisited - Bow Boutique now on Not on the High Street!

So this will be my fist revisiting post (there's another coming really soon too!) in my Camera Explorer series. Think of it like Wife Swap: The Aftermath or The Xtra Factor except prettier, less dramatic and less likely to grace the pages of Heat magazine.

So, you might remember my first Camera Explorer post was a photographic ode to the lovely Bow @ The Printworks. The fabulous Susanna has since been working her socks off and has a new online shop at Not on the High Street. She recently contacted me to see if I would be interested in taking some photos for the new site and, being the snap-happy lover of all things Bow that I am - of course I agreed! You can see her take on it on the Bow blog here. (DISCLAIMER: Susanna lies, I am not too beautiful to sweat.)

And here is my take on the shoot:

When Susanna told me that Sally was kindly letting us shoot in her "amazing" house, I didn't really know what to expect. I have a fair number of friends who are students and so usually when someone says a house is "amazing" it usually means it has two bathrooms and is twenty seconds away from an off-license. Sally is no student. The house is amazing and I probably embarrassed myself by spending about 90% of the shoot just gawping. Every room is spectacular, fresh and immaculate - when we moved the toaster THERE WASN'T A SINGLE CRUMB... and the colours! Oh the colours! It was divine. We shot in just about every room and even the cat was photogenic.



At one point, Sally and I realised that we had actually met before, a couple of years ago when we both took our children to the same playgroup.
 "If you'd told me then" I said, clicking my camera "that we'd one day be in you garden trying to photograph a chicken and a cushion, I'd never have believed you!"

Camera Explorer - Acanthus

One of the highlights of the changing seasons in Wirksworth is the window displays of Acanthus. Always eye-catching and creative it's clear from the outside that this tiny flower shop is special. 


Then you step inside and...

special becomes an understatement.There's not just flowers but gifts and beautiful artwork (which can also be commissioned).

Acanthus offers creative floral designs for weddings, funerals and special occasions and can be found at:

6a Market Place,
Wirksworth,
Derbyshire,
DE4 4ET

The full set of photos can be found here.

Writing about Love

A number of years ago I rented a Belle and Sebastian CD from a library. I liked the cover art and one of my best friends banged on about them all the time so I thought, what the heck - 50p for a week. I'm not a music journalist so I'll spare you a review, sufficed to say that I've loved Belle and Sebastian ever since. I even used one of their lyrics in a previous blog post.

When the 'Write about Love' photo competition came up I was excited to take part. We spent a morning cutting and sticking and the end result was this:


Through the competition I discovered so many talented people. I particularly adore the work of this lady (sorry, this post is link-tastic) who is not only hugely talented but thoroughly lovely and I hope to keep in touch with her despite geographical impediments! Last night she contacted me to point me in the direction of this (yes, another link!).

"Our winners come from Germany and Indonesia, the USA and Brazil. But our first prize goes to an English lady, Hannah Millard.

 She came up with the idea of hanging the letters from her washing line, and is pictured with her son, in the back courtyard of her house in Derbyshire. Fab composition, simple idea, fab colours, and just a nice ‘feel’ to it. My favourite picture! First prize!"

 

I really couldn't be more surprised or delighted!

It's a lovely end to a great summer - my son's last summer before he goes to school. I feel sad to see the summer and that part of his life come to a close but I know we have a lot to look forward to.

With this celebratory post out of the way normal service will now resume! Expect plenty of exciting exploring, weddings, bands and more news soon!