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 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.

Last night I had a family shoot. The weather was lovely, though working with the bright sunshine lately has been tricky. Mum, Dad and three grown up children known as the Mayhew family. I will try and post more from this later but I need to post last week’s wedding first. 

So Potter has turned in to an absolute monkey. This evening we had our biggest falling out to date; it wasn’t pretty. I’d like to say I won but I think she would say otherwise. I just can’t wait until she can go for walks and then I can tire her out-I am counting down the days. I have had to install a grate for the back of my car as she figured out how to climb over the back-seat this week, I thought she wouldn’t be big enough to do that for a while but sure enough, the other day while driving she scrambled over the top. Lucky for her she is darn cute. Here is a picture of her doing what she does a lot. I often come out of my office to find her sitting like this. 

So with clients that look like this my job is just too easy. Things are really busy here, I have no idea where time is going. I can’t believe I have had Potter a week today-I can’t imagine life without her now. She is perfect… so full of character. She is very affectionate and always wants to be with you and prefers to sleep close to you, always putting her head on my arm or leg. And as I wrote that she came tottering in to my office, jumped up at my leg which roughly translates as please pick me up so I can sleep on your knee. There will be a day in the not so distant future that she will be to big to sleep on my lap so until then I am going to make the most of it. There are several places she could sleep, even the sofa, but still she chooses to balance herself on my lap-like I said she is perfect, I struck gold, I really did. Nx

Here is a picture from yesterday’s shoot. 

I came out of my office this afternoon to find Potter sitting on the couch armchair. She is able to climb on the couch now it seems and was sitting precariously on the arm, I swear she was waiting for me to see her-she had a look on her face as if to say ‘look how clever I am!’ I told her it wasn’t big or clever and she best let me get some work done to pay for the vets bill she is going to cost me when she falls off and breaks her legs. Actually that’s a lie… I smiled at the cuteness and ran for my camera. 

I went to see the film Marley & Me last night and though I read the book nothing quite prepared me for the sadness, I was still weeping as we walked out, thankfully I wasn’t the only one-there was a young boy being cradled by his mother as he sobbed on to her shoulder. You have be warned. 

It did make me even more excited about my new arrival, I feel like an expectant mother. I haven’t been this excited about anything for a really long time. I imagine this is how children feel on Christmas eve. I am posting a picture of a gorgeous dog and also a picture of a card I was sent this week from a couple who’s wedding I photographed last summer. It’s lovely to hear how clients are enjoying married life and also to see the wonderful ways they use the images. Thank you Damian and Josee.