Hope Photography

How cute is this baby boy?!… I photographed his parent’s wedding last August so it’s lovely to witness how this family is growing.

I am holding a workshop on Sunday May 30th 2010 in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire.

The cost is £250 and includes all food and transport during the day.

What will happen?

The day will begin at 9am in The Laden Table for a meet and greet (yummy cakes and coffee served) before heading to a location where I will talk you through a shoot and then allow you the chance to shoot. Packed lunch served on location. Once back at The Laden Table I will talk you through editing and post production before a light supper. Workshop ends 7pm.

I will also cover topics such as:

-Running a business

-Marketing your business

-Building trust with clients

-Composition and direction

-Q&A during meal times

To register for a place please email: nicola@hope-photography.co.uk

I am really struggling to find a chef/cook/baker extraordinaire. I have advertised in every place I can but I thought it was worth mentioning it here. I have a feeling I am not going to find the perfect person through ordinary means.

I want someone who is truly passionate about food. I want someone who thinks pumpkins in the autumn and asparagus in the spring and finds a way to incorporate this into the menu. Experience and passion more important than qualifications. Creative flair a must.

If you think that sounds like you, or someone you know please drop me an email: nicola@hope-photography.co.uk

HELP.

Today’s shoot made me so broody for another puppy dog.

I am blogging… just not here! It won’t be long before I can unveil all things The Laden Table and then you’ll believe me. But I am not altogether neglecting Hope-here are some shots from a family shoot today. Personally I am loving the snow, but I have a wedding next week in the middle of nowhere so getting a little worried about that. I also have a shoot of a puppy next week which I know will make me broody for another dog. Potter will be 1 year old next month-time has flown.

It has been a long-standing dream of mine to open a coffee-house- I think born out of my love of writing and all things creative I have always been drawn to a beautiful space in which to relax and eat/drink. I treasured my time in Alaska when I was able to spend a lot of time in coffee houses writing and have always harbored this desire to one day create my own beautiful space. Over time the dream has grown in to something more, something bigger. Hope Photography is a huge part of my life now, as is Potter, so the dream had to envelope that. So enter The Laden Table…. Part cafe, part bistro, part gallery, part working creative space. I first spotted the building back in May-unknowing really at that point whether I could turn the dream into a reality. I began the process-wrote a business plan, sort advice from my business manager, spent many a sleepless night deliberating if the risks were to great. My mum thought I was crazy-but she has always been the practical one, and I have always been the dreamer. I think at times I have wondered if I were to young for such a project,  but then I wondered what it was I was waiting for-now is all we have.

So I fell in love with No. 8 Foundry Yard, Boroughbridge and then in my madness decided to rent No.7 also and knock through. My mum nearly had a heart attack when I told her. But the beauty of it all was it was no one’s decision but my own, for the first time in my life I am in complete control of my fate and it feels amazing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s terrifying. If I fail I’ll be bankrupt by the age of 26. But at least I’ll know I tried. Today I found out that I got planning permission for A3 use which is cafes/restaurants-the news I have spent months waiting on, and the reason I have held off blogging this news before now.

Of course I will keep you all posted, I am having a website made for The Laden Table complete with a blog so I can document the process. Hope Photography still very much lives on, I have limited the amount of weddings I have taken on for next summer but am taking bookings for 2011. There will be a client area within the building so for the first time clients can come to me for meetings which is very exciting.

Osmotherly really is my favourite place and autumn really is my favourite time of year and Potter really is the most gorgeous dog and Sian and Ella really are my favourite people and days like today really are my favourite type of day. 

I have a lot to share and I have a lot of work to do and blog but I just wanted to share my day. I read this quote the other day and it stuck with me because it articulates better than I could a feeling. 

” Give me but one firm spot on which to stand and I will move the earth”

I interpret this quote as saying that once a person has love, and support ‘a firm spot’ then they can achieve anything they dream of. I am so incredibly lucky at the moment to have found a firm spot.