Sometimes I have to pinch myself because I can hardy believe 2012 has arrived. I’m so grateful for all the wonderful opportunities & blessings of 2011 but I am most excited for 2012 to evolve. 2011 was a year of growth, a quick pace, new friendships, stresses and joys and a huge learning curve. Thanks to my lovely husband, I survived. Toby and I shot 9 weddings together this past season and I can say I’ll never shoot another wedding without him. We both live such busy lives as I also am a church life administrator at St. Paul’s Church while Toby studies at Reading and works at the head office for Waterstones. 2011 gave me a new flat, 2 trips to Italy, a reunion with a close friend in Spain, a team of close friends at SPH and a trip to America to visit my friends and family. I can’t express how blessed I feel and how I feel God’s hand is on my life. I can’t wait for the adventures a head. Next week I have the privilege of travelling to Bolivia, South America to take pictures for World Vision UK a charity who dedicates their time with child sponsorships and awareness of the issues that are going on in countries of great need. I can’t wait to post those photos! But for now, I must say thank you to everyone who made the last year such a joy! Life is so good!
Working with Matt & Jennie was like being on a film set with the best actor and actress. They were perfectly natural and had such a fun nature. I can’t even begin to describe how happy I was with the light at their wedding!
I get the lovely chance to work with Ruth everyday so when she asked me to do her wedding photos I was absolutely thrilled! Such a classy wedding with every detail planned to perfect. This wedding had the best dancing I’ve ever seen!
What a fun week it’s been! In this new season I’m attemping to blog more frequently and share more of what’s going on behind the ”scenes”. I love writing and really miss it. I can sometimes be a bit random on the grammer but it’s more about the content that I’m worried about then being perfect. Perfectionism is merely a mirage so I’m just going to let it go now 
Today I had the lovely opportunity to do an engagement shoot with a friend and a colleauge from St. Paul’s Church. I love engagement shoots because it gives you a greater opportunity to get to know the couple and see their ”real” personalities come out behind the lens. Usually people are pretty nervous the first 10 minutes but once they realise it’s easy they just let go. The spot we chose today (Richmond) a long side the river is one of my most favourite places in England. Most of my portfolio was built along the river back in the day so I feel like I know it really well-it’s quirks, it’s faults, it’s beauty and the ”hot” spots. Toby and I were looking at old shoots last night and laughing and realising how far I’ve come. I’m super humble, but just sooo blessed by this talent and ability that God has given me. Photography can sometimes be scary because it is an expression of art and interpretation. I love capturing real moments…. just makes me smile thinking about it!
Life is keeping us busy. Just booked a few more weddings for 2012 and trying to think of holidays for the new year. Any suggestions please pass them along. Since Toby has a Greek heritage I’d love to go there someday. Maybe I’ll do a wedding there some day… Would love that!!
On a fun note, I just finished Steven and Sunny’s wedding! I did their wedding when I was home in Seattle a few week’s ago. You’ve never met a couple so in love. What I loved about their wedding was that they were soooo laid back and wanted to make sure everyone was having a great time and enjoying the mood of the day. They also chose to do their photos before the wedding ceremony so that we could spend a good amount of time but also so they could transition into their reception without having to hold everything up with photos.
The next week few weeks are looking pretty busy so I’m enjoying this 3 day weekend of being at home, editing while drinking a glass of wine, sitting next to Toby in our joint office and resting in the calm in the storm. We have a wedding coming up, a family shoot and a few misc. shoots for people’s websites. We also leave for Italy in two weeks for our last summer holiday. EEEKKK sooo excited to be back in Italy as we were there earlier this year shooting a wedding. We are their for pleasure, but will definitely post a few pictures.
I’ll leave you with this last picture taken from my iphone…. Happy Hour today with my hubby I joke that I should change my profession to being a chef because I love cooking and entertaining soo much.
Have a fab weekend!!
It’s embarrassing how long it’s been since I last blogged on my website. If you follow me on Facebook or twitter then you should be pretty up to date.
Where to begin..
First off, this has been one of the most busy, crazy, most fun, fullfilling years of my life. I’ve taken on so many new projects, met so many amazing people and traveled to some of my dream destinations. I never thought I’d make it this far in photography and each day gives me more confidence that I’m heading in the right direction. I know I’ve made a ton of mistakes but people tell me I’m amazing so I keep going in hopes that this dream will grow into bigger and better things.
My biggest addition to my business has been my husband Toby to be my partner, second shooter and my best friend in crime. He’s the one that calms me down before the shoots, makes sure I have everything I need, encourages me when it’s pouring rain and the bridal party is running for cover, runs to a local shop if our batteries go bust, etc. etc. He has transformed how I shoot and has made this dream more of a reality. We are in the process of re-branding my company and really pulling out these concepts as working as a team, destination travels and building genuine relationships with our clients.
Toby shooting at a recent wedding
We have had the AMAZING opportunity to travel to Italy and California to shoot two destination weddings just in the last few months. I can’t begin to describe how much fun we had and how much we learnt about each other and photography. As glamourous as weddings are; from a photographers point of view they can sometimes be very stressful depending upon weather, lighting and flow of the day. Toby has no photography background but he has picked it up almost supernaturally. I am soo blessed to have him.
Photo taken by Toby Kassanis
We have so many things going on and it’s a matter of balance, planning and prioritising. Toby has one more year left at Reading University studying International Relations & Economics full time, while working at the Waterstones Head Office and part-time at Holy Trinity Brompton as an IT person. I also work as a Church Life Administrator for St. Paul’s Church in Hammersmith. My job at St. Paul’s has given so many skills, introduced me to so many fabulous people and has given me the opportunity to shoot beautiful pictures of what happens at church that people may never document.
Our associate Vicar Ash washing the feet of a member of our church on Maudy Thursday
I feel like God has blessed me so much this year with working at a church with people who I love while cultivating and building my wedding photography business. I get wedding bookings mainly from referrals and I feel like the brides I work with are ones people would dream of working with. I can’t wait to see why lies ahead and what new things come our way. One things for sure, I love what I do, I love being married to Toby and figuring out life, our faith, our business and I love that each day brings opportunities and challenges.
Behind the scenes of our shoot in California with Dave & Danielle
Shooting the lovely Katherine & Tom
I look forward to sharing more of my life…
Jennalise
K&T are just cool- can’t explain it but they are sporty, fun and they love their friends and family. Shooting Katherine was a blast- she wasn’t bothered with the minor stresses ( the rain during family photos ) and she was gorgoeus sporting her Chanel foundation and simple eye make-up. Tom’s speech at the wedding brought her running up to hug him and Katherine’s dad speech brought me to tears in a way I had to remind myself I wasn’t a guest and needed to keeping taking pictures! I loved this wedding because it showed how tight knit a family can be while still living oceans apart. Katherine is American and her whole family flew out for the big week!
More pictures coming soon…
Sunny and Steven aren’t shy to express their love for each other. Purity is demonstrated with the way Steven looks at Sunny and by the way they honour and respect everyone they come in contact with. It was such a joy working with them and it meant alot for how much they appreciated me being at their wedding.
More pictures coming soon…
