Sunday 2 December 2012

A morning with Dryad

One of the greatest things about being a photographer is the array of people you meet and the exploration of new pastures that come your way. Today was no exception.

The weather wasnt going to cause any major concerns today as the loaction of the day were Caves! I am blessed to live in one of the most beautiful rural and coastal parts of the country, the Gower Penninsular. A place of outstanding natural beauty, Gower is best known for its wind swift beaches, varying in their type but one it's lesser known gems are the network of caves that run throughout the cliffs of the coast. I had the pleasure of exploring two caves on Gower this morning to produce a series of images for local Bushman Andrew Price in promotion of Dryad.

Andrew Price is a Gower local and established Bushcraft and a true outdoors man in every sense of the word. Andrew runs his own Bushcraft Business in the name of Dryad Bushcraft and has been offering a wide range of outdoor experiences over the last 5 years. 

We set out on a sunny morning, thankfully, and made the precarious walk down to the first stop Bacon Hole Cave. To a man who spends most of his days wandering the country this was a mere stroll but sadly I am not gifted with the tread of a mountain goat and the walk certainly got my heart pounding. The first cave was a welcoming sight, the walls decoarted with etchings and markings dating back many thousands of years. There are rumours that there is even an ancient sacrifical altar towards the back end of the cave, very spooky. However this cave was astonishing and provided a wonderful backdrop for photographs, being aided by the seeping natural light, we made some great images.


By torch light the walls come alive and the scrawlings of the past surround you as your eyes adjust to the light. Andrew studies these findings which give an insight to the previous occupants of the cave.


We then made our way to Mitchin Hole another daunting scramble for a soft stepper like myself. This cave was breath taking. The cathedral like space inside almost lost us inside. Some 40 feet in height, maybe even higher, I stood in wonder as Andrew gave me a potted history or archaelogical digs from yesteryear. Not a bad mornings work I would say. 

The biggest thank you goes out to Andrew for reminding me the beauty of my work and teaching me about my local history.

If anyone would like to try out Bushcraft or share in Andrew's passion for all things wild and wonderful, contact him on the Dryad website. I will make you this promise you will not be disappointed.


Wednesday 31 October 2012

A new life

It is important to every woman that she can feel beautiful. In our day to day lives we often look in the mirror and swiftly carry on walking, me more than most. But sometimes things happen in our lives that leave us feeling lost and unable to recognise that person in the mirror.

Just over 12 months ago my dear Mother was diagnosed with Myleoma which is a Cancer that affects plasma cells and bone marrow. It goes through the whole body and there is no cure for this condition. Hearing this was the hardest thing I have ever had to face as my Mother is everything to me. She started her course of treatment which was harder than we had ever dreamed. Chemotherapy and Stem Cell replacement were just two of the list of treatments. 6 months ago she was in critical condition and spent two weeks in high dependancy, the longest two weeks of my life. 

Throughout all of this she has been incredible. As strong as she could be but undeniably she hit some severe lows. Then Mum started to turn a corner. The treatment began to work, the excruciating pain stopped and her appetite returned. She began to become stronger day by day and eventually came home. By this time her hair was practically gone. Shaving my Mother's hair off is something I never wanted to do but if anyone was going to do it I wanted it to be me. Since this point we watched the loss and the regrowth of her once beautiful mane. Day by day it is coming back and Mum embraces her wigs with grace. To be perfectly honest my Mum has not looked this good in a very long time. Her illnesses had taken its toll but she is now fit and glowing. 

As a photographer I wanted to give Mum her sense of beauty back which she had mentally lost due to this illness, so today we set up the cameras in her home and had the most wonderful time making her feel beautiful again. As a child I would wonder at my Mother's ability to put on a some lipstick and look radiant. She never lost it. She adores these images and has been talking about them now for 12 hours. I love them too. Her beauty never went, she just gets more beautiful by the day.





Saturday 1 September 2012

New Advert

This week we took out our first distribution advert. We chose the Bay magazine based in Swansea and will hopefully see an audience of approx 10,000 viewers. The lovely people at Bay were most helpful and did a lovely job with the graphic design element. 

Big thank you to Lesley and Simon.




We are on Pinterest!

http://pinterest.com/pin/183803228513072044/?timeline=1

If you haven't already joined the gang, give Pinterest a go, it is both fun and fascinating, dangerously moreish too.
Come see our board and play along :)

Thursday 2 August 2012

The Flower Girls

Here are a few more images of the pretty little flower girls who I had the most fun with. It's important that children feel relaxed and can be themselves in front of a camera to really show their lovely little personalities. I love working with children as you never fully know what you're going to get.






Saturday 28 July 2012

The Bridesmaid's Day - Introducing Cherry

We have had sun for over a week now and us Photographers have to take the window of opportunity and use the crisp light and dry weather as it can disappear as quick as it came. Caroline (who you previously saw in the engagement shoot) has been planning a special day with her adorable little flower girls in which they can dress up one more time, run around the beautiful Craig-y-nos Country Park in the Brecon Beacons and for us to capture a beautiful set of images.


We were lucky, the weather remained, the children had lots of photo fun.


The oldest flower girl Cherry (a whole 5 years old) was a dream to work with. Here is one of the images we captured on the day with many more to follow. Watch this space.

Thursday 21 June 2012

Smock Vintage now On-line

Our friends at Smock Vintage have just launched their blog. Find our images there and joined the Smock revolution!


The Naked Baker

Cardiff based Laura Minns is a master cake maker. She is currently creating her own blog and website demonstrating her sweet culinary experiments. She probably bakes cakes every day of the week and have had the pleasure in tasting her delights on several occassions. This evening on a rainy night in Swansea, decided to play with a few ideas. Here is a sneaky peak which will soon be reshot for Laura's website. She can bake plus she is beautiful, it's a great mix, lucky girl!


Find Laura on her Facebook page Laura's Cakes


Tuesday 12 June 2012

Vintage Dream

I was recently approached by business partners and vintage fashionista's Sam and Helen from Smock Vintage to shoot their first promo campaign for their new website. It was a great experience to work with a team of models, stylists, hair and make up artists, pool our expertise together and come up with a series of images that would capture the essence of all things vintage. The ladies at Smock Vintage were open to ideas with regrads to the presentation of their wonderful styling and dream outfits and therefore this gave me a perfect excuse to get creative.




We used city locations and contrasted high fashion with the urban landscape. Hot spots around old Swansea provided the perfect vintage setting. Our models Ainsley and Jo were truly beautiful and we had 4 hours of non-stop fun, fast costume changes and luckily good weather.







Smock Vintage will be hosting  pop-up Vintage Fair in Swansea in late August and launching their website in the next two weeks. Watch this space for all the info.

Sunday 10 June 2012

Happy Engagement!


I had the most fun photographing two very happy couples over the last couple of months. I ensured that I spent time with the couples to understand their interests and personalities so their images were true to them. I used a series of locations around Swansea and Gower and we had a lot of fun along the way.


Sam and Tim are getting married in a beautiful Colchester setting and are creating a vintage dream for their special day. We wanted to keep their look vintage too.





Matthew and Caroline were three weeks off getting married so this was a practice run and made our shoot that much more exciting. That our both from the South Wales valleys and love all things rural, the woods were the perfect setting for the shoot.









Monday 4 June 2012

A big hello and thank you for following our blog

Welcome to the blog for Memory Box Photography. We will be posting all of our up and coming events, occasions and photographic projects and will keep you up to date with the exciting people we meet along the way. Please follow us also on www.memoryboxphotography.4ormat.com Hope you enjoy and share our experiences along the way.www.memoryboxphotography.4ormat.com