Let It Snow

Fog Revisited

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One Door Closes

As a six year old, I couldn't imagine ever wanting to move away from my parents' home. Not to go to college. Not even to get married... most especially to get married! So I told my mom exactly that.

Melanie Acevedo

True to her fashion, she assured me I would never have to leave if I still felt the same when I was older. She said I could always attend college while living with them, and her words and promises soothed me.

Paul Viant

Of course, once I was a senior in high school, our conversation was almost long forgotten to me as I began excitedly envisioning life on a college campus; the thought of choosing a school so I could live with my parents never crossed my mind.

Emma Hardy

Then, over the coming months, as I found myself saying goodbye to my childhood home and the city where I'd grown up, I began to feel that old desire to never have to leave. That summer, as the days before I left for school grew fewer, I continually reminded myself, "change is good," as I tried to accept moving forward and letting go.

Nicholas Haggard

I've moved more than a few times since then, and each move, I've been faced with a combination of excitement for what lies ahead and sadness for what I'm leaving behind. Each place I've left has become part of me. Each new place I've come to love.

Matt Albiani

Last month, I found myself once again coming to terms with moving forward and letting go, as E and I finally sold our house in central Texas. While it was a long-anticipated event, it still came laden with conflicting emotions as I said goodbye to a home that played witness to many important moments in our lives.

Asa Tällgård

We opened and closed the doors to multiple chapters in those rooms; there we began dating, became engaged, and then married. In our little brick house we celebrated both our wedding days and became a family of four by welcoming two dogs into our lives.

Chris Craymer

It was where we spent our last hours together before E's two deployments and where we reunited following many long months apart. Then, between those walls, we transitioned from a military life to a civilian one.

David Tsay

The night my parents left me in my freshman dorm room, I was overwhelmed by a mix of sadness, happiness, and hope for the promise of what lie ahead; I strongly felt each of those emotions again in the tear-filled moment when E and I stood in our kitchen and said our final goodbye to a place brimming with more memories than we could count.

Neil Stewart

I've made my peace with letting go of our first home, although I know there will be days when I ache to return to that place and time in our past. And I'm happy to be moving forward as it means we're growing closer to having our "boys" home again.

Chris Craymer

We've begun house-hunting here in Houston and are looking forward to settling into a new set of rooms. Rooms that will provide the backdrop for new memories during this next chapter in our lives. Rooms that will also someday, though hopefully not too soon, be hard to leave behind as I find myself again working on moving forward. And letting go.

Considerations

It's been a month of ups and downs. I can't ever deny being more emotional than I probably should be, and so I get hopelessly excited about things before they happen and hopelessly miserable if nothing comes of them. The following chain of events took place over the last few weeks: out of the blue a particularly excellent opportunity came up, which would have involved travel (which is perhaps what I most want from my job at the moment) and work with a large client. There was a lot of back'n'forth and then when I heard nothing for a couple of days, dropped a line to see what the situation was. I got the answer back - oh sorry, been so busy I couldn't email you sooner, they picked someone who is more of a street photographer. Now, way back in the olden days, when I started this blog, I started it with the aim of discovering more about my own photographic practise with the hope of understanding better what sort of a photographer I'd like to be. This missed chance left me seething a little inside about my lack of specificity with me work - I have plenty of good street photography, such as these two shots from a way back.




I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with them, and I imagine that if I concentrated on it now I'd be able to produce much better shots. The issue is, I've never sold myself as any sort of photographer, and so if someone wants a street photographer, or a portrait photographer, or a fashion photographer, they will (naturally) look to folks who do just those sorts of photography.

I started looking at photographers agents, a depressing process. How can I sell myself as a swiss-army-knife sort of photographer when all anyone wants is a specialist? It doesn't even come down to quality - I'd back my technical know-how against most folks on account of four or five years of working with high-end fashion photographers as various levels of assistant. Also, there's a part of me that thinks that there are really only two sorts of photography - the sort where you take pictures of things that are happening anyway, and the sort where you make things happen and take pictures of it. But I can't change how everyone else approaches it all.

You'll notice all of this revolves around commercial issues; a very wise person suggested to me that a spot of just walking around taking pictures of stuff might be in order. I walked through most of central London for four hours on a Saturday night, and although the pictures aren't completely satisfactory, they're not awful, and gave me a bit of a confidence boost - I DO love taking pictures, and that is the most important thing. Here's some of the shots.







Ultimately what I'd like to develop is a style of photography that is all my own, that can be applied to any situation. I'm seriously thinking about going back to study - whether a Fine Art or a Photography MA remains to be seen, as does whether or not I can get into any academy that I'd want to go to. I don't claim to be the best (even though I probably have before) but overwhelmingly I want to be happy with what I'm doing; that's a tough place to get to. So, how about some celebration? Here's some pictures from my dad's birthday party last weekend.






Afterwards I went to watch the World Cup final with my brother at his mate's house. His mate's cat has the biggest nuts I've ever seen on a cat. Here's some pix.





Good kitty! So outside the real world, work has involved taking pictures of the Christmas PR launch for Tesco:






Indulging the wannabe movie director in me in me, here's some stills from a production I got invited along to shoot:







For Le Cool, Paloma Faith and Dave from The Invisible:



Jasmine Alexander:



and Andy Bell, who runs Festibelly: