2013 - Year in Review

Lets be honest - I'm never really sure of the best way to do review-type blog posts so as I come to write up my thoughts on 2013 I'm more than a little torn. Part of me just wants to throw some photos up here and leave it at that. Another part of me wants to write down as much as I can remember so that I have something to look back on. However, I am all too aware that most of the moments that I want to remember will be of little or no consequence to anyone out there who might be brave enough to attempt to read this post! That being said, I can't quite bring myself to write just a small summary - it just won't do justice to some of the more important moments of my year.

So here's the deal - I've put together a summary of each month in photos in the hopes that it will entertain and amuse those of you who helped to contribute to "my 2013". I'm also going to try and write a little bit (or perhaps a lot, who knows!) about my year. Read it. Don't read it. It's up to you! But I know that if I don't write anything at all, I will look back on this in a few months time and regret not giving it a go!

So here we go then...

January

The year started rather quietly (it is tax assessment month after all!). Excitingly we were treated to some rather epic snowfalls (for the UK at least!) which meant that we were more or less stranded at home for a few days. Some bits and pieces of work just had to be put on hold so that we could take advantage of a couple of "snow days"! Of course I embraced the snow whole-heartedly and got out with my camera as much as possible.

As luck would have it, we had arranged a Bath Photowalk to the village of Lacock the date for which landed slap bang in the middle of the snow-laden days. Unfortunately this meant that many people weren't able to make it but we still managed quite a sizable group as other photograpgers had decided to come along in order to capture the rare view of Lacock in the snow.

Once the snow had melted it was off to London for one of my first big jobs of the year - in fact, make that one of my biggest jobs of the last few years - photographing Bon Jovi performing for an intimate crowd of just 250 people! I still can't quite believe that I was there! I'll always remember having to squeeze past the band moments before they were due onstage so that I could take some photos of the audience! Not a bad way to start the year!

February

Following on from a very cold and somewhat quiet January, February of 2013 brought with it some very long, hectic but thoroughly enjoyable days!

On the music front, I was asked to photograph a number of artists for BBC 6 Music. This included the Palma Violets, the Cribs, Alice Russell and the very talented Laura Mvula. Taking place at Maida Vale each of the events was special and unique. I particularly enjoyed photographing Laura Mvula who later in the year found herself nominated for the Mercury Music Award.

I also had the pleasure of photographing the wonderful Emeli Sande in the Radio Theatre for BBC Radio 2. She really is as lovely as she seems and the whole event went extremely smoothly due to her professional and down-to-earth nature.

February brought with it the first wedding of the year and it was a particularly lovely one! Lisa and John were married at the beautiful Marylebone Town Hall. I think it was probably the most relaxed wedding I have ever photographed yet it was also the most emotional at the same time! I don't think I have ever photographed a wedding which has contained so many tears (tears of joy that is!). It truly was a pleasure to photograph. 

March

March brought with it a couple more weddings. Lauren and Simon were married locally in Rowde. I'll always remember this wedding for a number of reasons - the  look on the bridesmaids faces when Lauren appeared in her dress, having to capture photos of a cardboard cutout figure representing Lauren's brother who was unable to attend and also clambering up the bell tower in my dress and desperately trying not to drop all of my camera gear so that I could capture some birdseye photos of the ceremony . It was another lovely, relaxed day. The other wedding was actually for competition winners Steph and Chris who had decorated a local village hall in a multitude of hand-made elements for their reception. A truly beautiful day.

I made a few journeys up to London but this time for fun rather than work. A friend had offered me a ticket for the "Goodbye Television Centre" celebrations. This included watching the One Show being recorded followed by a live performance by Madness. It was such a fun night that the downpour didn't even manage to dampen (see what I did there!) our spirits! Deciding that we weren't too bothered about watching Madness up close, we opted instead to take a wander around the "doughnut" courtyard which was displaying such BBC relics as the Tardis and the Trotters Independent Traders three-wheeled yellow van!

Other adventures saw us take the twins on their first ever train journey! It was only across to Bristol where we visited the MShed but they were so excited to be riding on a real train! This month also saw me undertake an engagement photoshoot... on a farm! I was actually really looking forward to doing this shoot and it didn't disappoint!

April

April and things were definitely starting to warm up and we took a trip to Durham Park to take advantage of the weather (not to mention taking advantage of the free entry!).

Music wise I undertook a number of fun shoots. Caro Emerald performed at the BBC Radio Theatre. It was a long day full of performances and interviews but I had a really fun time (in between a fair few stressful moments!). Not only did Caro deliver a belter of a show, I later ended up with a photo from the show being published in Hello! Magazine. Other music related adventures saw me photograph Cole Stacey and Joseph O'Keefe at the Bristol Folk House and also join Centrefolds in the studio where I had great fun capturing lots of behind-the-scenes photos of the recording process.

We took Bath Photowalk on a bit of a vacation across to Bristol in order to photograph the amazing street art - and I'm glad we did! A lot of the buildings have since been demolished!

Another wedding, this time at Marsh Farm in Wootton Bassett, a relatively last-minute booking for which the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, I pushed myself a bit too hard over a couple of days in April and I managed to put my back out which more or less kept me housebound for a while!

May

Bluebell season and we found plenty out in the West Woods near Marlborough. We spent a lovely few hours wandering around with our cousin and his family taking photos!

Another wedding booking earlier in the year meant that I had a frantic rush to try and get rid of some Muse tickets so that I could cover the wedding in Cardiff. It was a long day but yet another beautiful wedding. As it was one of the largest weddings I had done, I was glad to have some backup from Mark who joined me as my second shooter. It definitely took the pressure off somewhat (although I have to say that I wasn't a huge fan of having to do battle with Cardiff city centre traffic whilst rushing from the ceremony to the reception venue!).

Luckily the Muse tickets were eventually snapped up by a friend of a friend which meant that we were able to sit back (or rather jump about) and enjoy our rescheduled concert! For the past couple of years I have been really cynical of going to see artists in huge arenas and stadiums purely because I have been totally spoilt in my access to big stars but the Muse concert made me do a complete U-turn! It was AMAZING! I loved every second and I had to try hard not to get too emotional at the end of the concert. I couldn't help it - I just looked out across this sea of thousands of people singing along with these three musicians, miniscule as they looked from where we were standing, and I thought back to October 2012 when I had been photographing them up close for BBC Radio 2 - three down-to-earth, unassuming, normal guys and the noise in the stadium was immense! Definitely one of the highlights of my year.

Speaking of getting up close, in May I was tasked with photographing Rod Stewart, a job for which I was more than a little nervous! But up close I got! I was also asked to photograph Hugh Laurie where I wasn't able to get quite so close!

May also saw a few of the Bath Photowalkers take part in the Bath PhotoMarathon which ended up being much more difficult and tiring than I had envisaged! Linked to this, we also put on our first every exhibition as part of the Fringe Arts Bath festival. It was a great thing to be a part of even though it seemed to suck up most of my spare time for a good few weeks!

Finally, I must also mention Alex and Emma's wedding - friends of mine who were getting married in Henley-on-Thames. I really was honoured to be asked to be their wedding photographer. It was yet another lovely day which included a surprise boat trip (coinciding neatly with the sun's appearance!) and lots of drink and dancing!

June

June finally saw me take a holiday for the first time in many years! I headed across to France with my sister and brother-in-law to stay with his parents. I can't tell you how nice it was to just relax for a few days. It was just what I needed -  a little bit of time away from the computer without having to worry about answering emails or editing photos! Of course I couldn't quite tear myself away from the camera completely - I spent most of my time chasing bees around the garden or finding interesting things to photograph on the beach! Oh, and eating cake of course! That's what holidays are all about, right?! Ultimately, it was a lovely week off but far, far too short!

Kirsten and Matthew got married in Calne in June and I was there to photograph it along with another photographer (my second ever two-photographer wedding and the second in as many months!). It was another detail-packed day with Kirsten really packing in as many little personal touches as she could.

July

With the Gromit invasion of Bristol, we just had to organise a photowalk to try and hunt a few of them down! We ended up visiting on a swelteringly hot day which also coincided with the Wimbledon mens final! Cue us rushing back home in order to watch the match on catch-up and having to avoid all types of communication until we had managed to watch the whole match! So happy that Murray won (although i have to admit that I couldn't get too emotional about it as I know we were witnessing his victory a good hour or so after it had actually happened!).

This year I managed to make it along to the bike meet in Calne, the largest event of its kind in the South-West. Its a fun day which see's hundreds of bikes squeeze into our tiny town centre! There is always a great buzz about the place and this year proved to be no different!

August

With summer dwindling, I undertook another wedding out at Marsh Farm - a lovely intimate ceremony which was a privilege to be a part of. Heading back to London I covered the Stereophonics performing in front of a tiny audience. Such a fun day with the guys who were obviously having a lot of fun! 

Returning to the West Woods on a much quieter day (we more or less had the woods to ourselves) the girls had a great time playing hide-and-seek with their toys, exploring the Gruffalo's house and taking turns on the rather high rope swing!

I finally managed to put my new toy to good use - my macro lens had been taking up space in my camera bag without getting a huge amount of use but once I started stalking dragonflies around the garden, I was totally smitten and its not really been discarded much since!

September

We celebrated my birthday with a trip to Dyrham Park (yet again taking advantage of free entry!). As it was the same week that the schools had gone back after the summer break we more or less had the place to ourselves!). Later in the month we celebrated the girls birthday with a fairy party. Although the weather wasn't particularly great, we still had a great time by sticking up a gazebo and having a picnic complete with fairy themed nibbles. We had also gone all out creating a woodland fairy cake for them (which involved a good few weeks of trying to hunt down the right icing nozzle to create grass - something we found a few weeks later in a local gift shop!). complete with miniature toadstools, ladybirds, snails and flowers. It was pretty spectacular even if I do say so myself!

September was also the month for Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park - at the time, a rather stressful event but good fun in hindsight! I was tasked with covering the backstage goings-on but also managed to get out front to capture James Blunts performance (and was consequently the ONLY photographer in the pit!). Of course I was ready and waiting for James to do his crowd-surfing and promptly ran up on to the ego-ramp in order to grab a few snaps! Had to be done I think you'll agree!

Mum and Dave came to stay but with their preferred holiday home already booked up, they took a chance and booked to stay at a cabin by a fishing lake near Lyneham. They must have chosen the foggiest week of the year in which to visit! Not that I minded! It meant that every morning their deck was covered in spectacular cobwebs which I must have spent hours photographing over the few days they were staying!

August also saw me head over towards Newbury for a lovely engagement shoot with Laura and Matt. The poor weather actually worked in our favour as the slight drizzle kept most people away on what would have been a busy weekend and also meant that we got to play with umbrellas which made the shoot a lot of fun!

October

I love Autumn and I particularly love photographing the changing of the seasons. October brought the perfect opportunity with the changing colours of the leaves, pumpkins a plenty and lots of mushrooms to stalk! We had arranged a photowalk for this exact purpose but ended up venturing out on one of the wettest days of the year (or so it felt!). The small group of us that did brave the weather were rewarded with lots of great shots!

Another stint up in London saw me cover a session for BBC 6 Music with up and coming band Polica. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Peter Serafinowicz was on the show! Sticking with the music, I managed to organise a photopass to cover The Feeling performing in Bristol. As seems to be the norm when I cover them, I ended up staying in the pit all night although I did have to run off just before the end in order to catch the last train home!

A last minute booking also saw me returning to London for the last wedding of the year. And what a wonderful wedding it was with the ceremony taking place at that little known landmark - St Pauls Cathedral! Although not in the main part of the Cathedral itself, we did manage to take the group photos on the steps outside with one of my main tasks being that to usher all of the tourists out of the back of the photos!

November

Time for another mini-break, this time a few days out to see the tennis at the O2 in London. In 2012 we had attended for just one day by Sarah, knowing that she would be disappointed if she didn't get to see everyone play, had booked to see the first 4 sessions and therefore watch every singe one of the singles and doubles players involved. I have to say, it was great decision and we had a lot of fun taking advantage of the VIP lounge and cheap cocktails between the sessions! Whilst we were staying up in London we squeezed in as much as we could heading over to Greenwich Park, watching the fireworks in Shoreditch, taking a ride on the cable car and eating and drinking lots of lovely things! I had also booked tickets to go and see a play called Mojo - the stage debut of one Rupert Grint (i.e. Ron Weasley). I was more excited, however, to see the likes of Ben Whishaw, Brendan Coyle, Daniel Mays and (most excitingly) Colin Morgan take to the stage!

In other goings on I met back up with Lauren and Simon (whose wedding I covered in March) in order to do a family photoshoot with them at the picturesque Caen Hill Locks. We were almost scuppered by a torrential downpour but eventually managed to get out in order to take some relaxed images.

December

And so to December (and most of this has recently been up on the blog anyway!).