Today would have been my Dad's 67th birthday.
This is one of my favourite photo's of my Dad and I which unfortunately, over the years, has been trimmed down to fit into several different (very small) frames...now I'm just trying to preserve what's left of it.
It was taken in 1982/83 I think, in a caravan park somewhere on the west coast of Scotland.
It's 20 years since he passed, this month. It's been a long, long time but I still think about him every day.
So... I'm a few weeks behind in posting up my 365/7 project images but it's not without good reason. The past few weeks have been hectic for me both in the day job and on the wedding front.
I had 3 fantastic weddings all within 7 days of each other as well as meetings galore in the day job and to top it all off this week I've been totally floored with the flu which has knocked me for six (...and left me shuffling around the house feeling sorry for myself and unable to think about anything!).
Thankfully I'm on the mend and my head is starting to buzz with loads of ideas and things that I need to do (that's a good sign), so I thought I'd make a start by catching up on my 365/7 project and posting up the images I managed to take over the past few weeks.
WEEK 5 - 'Wedding Box' (above) Photographing weddings often makes me think about my own wedding. Paul and I got married in Vegas. It wasn't a spur of the moment decision we had been talking about getting married for ages, had booked a holiday to drive around the west coast of America so thought well why not get married whilst we were there. I never liked the idea of being the centre of attention on my wedding day so this way was perfect, just the two of us.
From our trip we have loads of keepsakes and small reminders of our big day and our amazing honeymoon... polaroids, tokens from the casino, road maps, cards that were sent by family to our hotel suite and we keep them all in our 'wedding box'. I don't think about our wedding as just a day, the whole experience felt really special and every now and again I get our wedding box out to look through everything and to reminisce about what was undoubtedly the best 3 weeks of my life so far.
WEEK 6 - Paul joins the social media revolution!
My husband has only ever been on one social networking site - Myspace and that was because it served a purpose to help promote his band. So when he left the band there was no need for Myspace - simples! His social networking experience was over. Since then he has taken great pleasure in 'not getting the whole facebook thing' and more recently just didn't 'see the point' in twitter.
However... the week before last he declared (out of the blue!) that 'twitter might be good for his work' (he's a researcher) and that he 'might check it out' himself before setting up an official work account. I think you might know where I am going with this... Paul is now close to being addicted to twitter. All the tell tale signs are there... craving more followers, constantly refreshing his twitter feed, checking if complete randoms from the telly have accounts (?!), he's hooked and I feel a little smug about it.
WEEK 7 - The space you're in.
In my full-time job I work with young people on 'creative learning projects' (my boss probably wouldn't be happy that I have called them that but for the sake of this blog it's the simplest way to put it!). We often work in spaces that allow the young people to create their own environment...large white rooms, soul-less boardrooms but this week a colleague Owen was working on a project at St.Andrew's in the Square, Glasgow.
The only other time I've been to this venue was for my friends wedding, so it was bizzare using such a stunning space for one of our projects. It made me think about when I photograph weddings and how a venue can really help add something to the images. I'm not saying in every case but having such beautiful surroundings can really inspire you. I wonder if it inspired the young people that were on our project...
There was thankfully a break in the howling winds and the pouring rain last Saturday, just in time for the wedding of Majella & Peter in Ardrossan - and I couldn't have been more relieved!
There may not have been any sunshine (I think the bridesmaids and flower girls fur boleros came in handy) but there was enough warmth from Majella's & Peters huge number of family and friends who attended their big day.
I didn't realise that when Majella had asked for a shot of everyone in her family, that the 37 people were only her 'immediate' family, but what can you expect with 8 brothers and sisters!
A lot of weddings I go to now friends play a huge part and make up most of the numbers but there was a real focus on family at Majella and Peter's wedding, a really mixed bunch of young and old but all part of the family. I really liked it and it made for a very busy but fantastic day all round.
I don't think I had photographed a bride so calm and relaxed as Majella, she really appeared to just settle into the day and savour every moment, no stress, no nerves, well not that anyone could see... really impressive stuff, I'd like to know her secret!
