Venice has always been on my list of places to visit, and this year I’ve made myself a birthday present and booked the three of us to go there for 3 days in April. We found a perfect little AirB&B apartment in a quiet area near the University of Economics (sounds counter-intuitive but it was indeed quiet and peaceful), and spent our time on the island without any plans but just basically walking around, soaking up the history, and enjoying the sights.
Back in September I spent 5 days in New York, part work (photographing my long-term clients after they’d moved back there from London) and part play. It was nice to get away and have time to explore the city by myself, without a little person in tow. It’s been a while since I could just walk the streets and absorb the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar world – something I haven’t really felt since I first came to live in London back in 2005.
If you’d looked into my house last week, on International Women’s Day, you’d find me staring at my screen in disbelief with a big grin on my face. I’d just found out that that I received TWELVE awards in the 2018 Family Photojournalist Association contest, including no less than 6 gold awards, the most gold awards of any UK documentary family photographer listed with them!
A few weeks ago I treated myself and my little man who was about to turn 7 to a short two-night trip to Edinburgh. I love Scotland (and if it wasn’t for the weather would have moved there in a heartbeat), and even though we’d driven over to the Highlands for Christmas (you can see some photos here and here) almost every year for the last five, last time I’d seen Edinburgh was about 10 years ago (or, as Sasha pointed out, after a bit of mental math and asking how old was I when I last been, and how old I am now, 11 years).
I’ve been very lucky to have my photos + words featured on various website and in publications in 2017, but haven’t really done a proper round-up. So here are a few from the last couple of months of 2017. Some I have written, and for some I’ve simply contributed one of my images. Hope you find some of them useful or inspirational :)
A few weeks back my son and I have spent a wonderful couple of days exploring the old town of Tallinn in Estonia. Usually I carry my “big” camera with me whenever I travel, as I love capturing our adventures, but after a busy month the last thing I wanted to do was to be in work mode again (and I can’t help it, if I have my big camera I feel like I have to work really hard to create great photos). So instead this time I decided to go light: no camera, just a brand new Google Pixel – and it’s pretty impressive camera.