So my trend of months between blog updates is at least consistent.
We're in the last stages of Spring now and nature's rate of multiplication is indeed very evident at the moment. The heifers are out in the fields, I'm up to three bee hives (no thanks to an early swarming) and the cherry on the cake is that Kristin and I are expecting our first baby.
Obviously, we are both very excited and are currently pricing up off road prams. With Kristin's morning sickness limiting us to cooking Alfresco on a nightly basis, the warm weather has come just at the right time.
On the animal front, all creatures are doing well. Those in need of a Nelson update will be glad to hear that the signs are still encouraging (touch cyber wood!) As mentioned earlier, I had an early swarm from one of my two hives. Several clumsy attempts resulted in the offending cluster escaping my efforts at recapture and as it was my first go at catching a swarm I'll have to put it down to experience.
On the work front, the wedding season is well under way and my first wedding of the year was for Samantha and Rick at Farington Lodge in Preston. They were blessed with great weather and the sun doesn't seem to have stopped shining since. The next day, I was at La Belle Epoque in Knutsford and have since worked at Rookery Hall, Peckforton Castle and Thornton Manor. All of these weddings can be seen on my facebook page,
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Mark-Williamson-Photography/145346932441

I'm back at Sandhole Oak Barn this weekend, nestled in the rolling heart of Cheshire, so fingers crossed that the good weather will continue for Cat and Chris.

On the commercial front, I've been back to where it all began and was commissioned to shoot some prospectus work for my old college, Mid Cheshire College in Hartford, but the highlight has been another workwear shoot for JCB on location in Sheffield.
My new assistant, Ted, and I spent a day shooting farmers an assortment of livestock and a couple of diggers on the other side of the Pennines. Beats sitting in an office, any day of the week!

Well, 2010 happened pretty quickly and I suspect that 2011 will end up the same way. January has already flown by and it's been relatively quiet work wise.
In the last few weeks, I've had a couple of jobs from Sale Sharks, shot some interior work for In House design and picked up a new client in the form of Leysin skiwear. I did some more product photography for The Authentic Food Company, and they also asked me to shoot their 25th year anniversary at the Hallmark Hotel, which had the amazing Rebecca Ferguson as the surprise act. I'm not X Factor's biggest fan, but she was incredible.
The weddings are quiet at this time of year, but the bookings have been coming in for this summer and 2012, with this year being almost fully booked now. I have taken on a assisting photographer, Ted, who will be helping me with the processing workload that weddings require and working as a second camera at weddings.
On the personal front, Kristin and I have become volunteers at Lower Moss Wood animal sanctuary. Now we aren't going to become a pair of 'bunny cuddlers', or at least I'm not, but we will be using our professional skills to help the sanctuary where possible. They actually encourage as little human interaction with the animals as possible, thus allowing them a better chance of survival when released into the wild. For more information, have a look at their website,
http://www.lowermosswood.org.uk/
So on this basis, I covered a fashion show that was raising funds for the hospital at Guy Salmon Land Rover in Knutsford. The evening was a great success and, hopefully, raised plenty of funds for Lower Moss Wood.
I'm sure we'll be doing more for them in the very near future and will be posting updates on the blog as the year unfolds.

As the year comes to a close, all has been busy on both fronts, work and home.
The weddings have been thick and fast at venues all over the country, right up until the end of October.
I finished the year off at Sandhole oak Barn, near Congleton, working on Kim and Chris Chadwick's wedding, but have worked at some stunning venues over the period of the year.

On the commercial front, my friends at Truth design kept me busy with some corporate portraits for K2IT and an anniversary book for The Authentic Food Company, who are celebrating their twenty fifth year of trading.
I began a series of work for Intelligent Homes, who fit out state of the art, bespoke entertainment systems at the highest level and will be looking to complete this in the New Year.

Back at home all is well. The bees are tucked up for the winter, Pudding is terrorising the dogs on an hourly basis and Kristin is finishing at Tatton Park, to start working for me and take control of my office duties.
We did have another piece of worrying news, when we discovered that Nelson, one of the dogs, had developed a rare form of skin cancer and had to undergo treatment at Liverpool University small animal teaching hospital. The initial signs are good and hopefully our run of bad luck with pets is at an end for the moment.
As Christmas drew close and the snow started to fall, my ongoing project, of our first year at Toft, continued and I will be looking to produce some evidence of this at the start of Summer 2011.
So this only leaves me to close for 2010 by wishing those who read my blog a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year, albeit slightly belated.

September, October 2010

It would appear that my trend in blogging has continued with some gusto. It is now the start of January and having been flat out with work and the blog has had to wait I'm afraid. Now that work has slowed down slightly, I have time to do a quick update and get some images on the site.
So as you might have gathered, the weddings have been non stop and it's been a seven days a week job just trying to keep up with the processing and editing of them all.
The good news is that next year is almost fully booked and I now have an assistant to help with the workload, so welcome to Ted.
Other events on the work front have been a shoot for Mariee bridalwear, which we shot on location at the start of September, plus a series of jobs for Sale Sharks marketing department for the 2010/2011 season involving several of the players, as well as the Sharks 2011 uncovered calendar, which is on sale at the moment and is also raising money for The Seashell Trust. Details are on the Sale Sharks website, https://shop.salesharks.com/
Other jobs during September/October have been for Greene King beer and the NHS.




On the domestic front, we had some bad news regarding one of the animals. Enzo, our little ginger cat was run over. It just goes to show that even out in the middle of the country, away from main roads, the animals are still susceptible to vehicles. I never realised how much the loss of one little ginger cat would affect me, maybe I'm a bit of a soft touch after all?
Prior to losing Enzo, Kristin had convinced me to take in another little creature in need of a good home. The animal in question was a little black kitten, who we called Pudding.
Pudding and Enzo quickly became good friends, which made Enzo's absence even harder to stomach.
But time moves on and the ankles that were once tap tackled, as I walked up the stairs, by a little ginger cat, were soon under attack from a little black cat. The baton had been passed on.

The good news at home was that the bees had been busy in the short time they'd spent with us and seem to have benefited from the dry early summer, providing both them and us with a good harvest of honey. So I'll leave them with plenty of stores for the winter and hope they work just as hard next year. The chickens have enjoyed just about every plant in the garden, much to my dismay, and there are very definite and swift plans to make them a nice bespoke run before next Spring.

June/July/August blog


Sorry, I'm really bad at blogging. I've almost given up on doing a monthly blog and it seems to have become quarterly.
Work has gone through the roof and the blog was the last thing on my mind.
Also, on 17th July Kristin and I got married. We had a great day after months of hard work (all Kristin's), the weather held out and it all went by far too quickly. I resisted the temptation to pick up a camera and my bride and I were the last two on the dancefloor when the power got turned off at 3am.
No honeymoon as yet, just too busy at the moment.

Interesting jobs this quarter have been for Sunkist soft drinks, who have launched a new UK marketing push. Dewsall Court in Herefordshire which is an exciting new development being launched by some good friends of ours. It is a family home that is being turned into an events venue and luxury accommodation www.dewsall.com
Sale Sharks had me in to shoot their new seasons kit and I'll be doing some more with them in a couple of weeks.

The pictures speak for themselves. Life at Toft is great and we're enjoying being surrounded by all creature great and small. The latest addition was a hedgehog that had been rescued by Lower Moss Wood animal rescue in Ollerton. www.lowermosswood.org.uk
Kristin took a injured swallow and returned with a rehabilitated hedgehog……fair swap I suppose!

The bees are busy and I'll be looking to take my first crop of honey soon.

Summer is now coming to a close and we're looking forward to the treats that Autumn brings.

April/May 2010.....

Well, doesn’t time seem to be flying by?
A lot has happened since the last post.

We said our fairwells to Tommy Blake in April, what a tough month that was.
Kristin starts her new job in June and will be working at Tatton Park with the events team, and we have finally moved to Toft on the edge of Knutsford. My back and knees are still coming to terms with the move.

We’ve been in the new house for about 6 weeks and still can’t believe what a great place it is. Waking up to views over rolling Cheshire dairy meadows with not a commuter in sight is not a bad way to start the day. Gladly, complacency has not set in yet, and long may that continue.

My bees have arrived and what an experience that was! I had to pick up two boxes of bees, for both my aunt and myself, that had been ordered from Slovenia. They came in plastic boxes and maintained a menacing buzz for the duration of the car journey on the day of collection. All went well, however, and they are currently enjoying the warm weather and are now going about the business of doing what bees do.

So what have I been doing workwise?
I’ve been back to Butlins, shooting some lifestyle photography over in sunny Skegness. Manchester Rugby Sevens commissioned me to shoot a haka competition at Sale Sharks’s last game of the season. Neil Firth, of the Vocal Group asked me to cover another event for him at Catton Hall. Neil coaches some of the UK’s leading choral groups and applies his training to those in the business sector who present and speak in public. http://thevocalgroup.co.uk/
Of course, there was the annual touch rugby tournament at Edgeley Park with the Sale Sharks 500 club. I scored a brace of tries and managed to restrain from giving away any interceptions. A marked improvement from last year.

The weddings have picked up quite dramatically now and I’m shooting about one a week on average, with bookings coming in quickly for next year. To help with the workload, I am looking for someone to help me on a work experience basis, with the view to making the position more permanent at the end of the summer. I plan to offer some more creative packages for my wedding customers , so will be working on that over the next few months.

Our own wedding plans are coming together now and there is little else to organise. The guestlist has been the hardest part, not that I can take credit for doing much work at all. Kristin’s industry has been relentless and I know it’s all going to be well worthwhile come July.
Think it’s time to start thinking about my speech.

March 2010

Apologies for those of you, if any, who are wondering where my March update has been. It’s been a bit of a hectic month to say the least.

The wedding season has swiftly descended and the weekends are rapidly disappearing in a swirl of confetti.

March has been a month of ups and downs. Spring is in the air and things are changing. We are moving house, which is well overdue as our spare room is currently full of lights, stands, prints and all the other photographic paraphernalia required to keep a self employed photographer ticking over. So needless to say, we haven’t had many guests to stay overnight.

The new place has much more room and potential for a studio, so Kristin’s patience will have been well worthwhile.

The house has other very attractive qualities. There is a dairy farm on one side, a hall on the other and miles of lush Cheshire countryside as far as the eye can see.......perfect! What better place to live and work. So expect more landscape photography.

So what else? Nelson, one of our dogs, has passed his test to become a therapy pet. I have begun my beekeeping course and am expecting to pick up my first swarm towards the end of May. So expect some bee photos.

I am playing possibly my last game of rugby on Thursday the 15^th April. Back at my old club, Wilmslow RUFC, they are organising a charity game in aid of the brother in law of one of my old playing chums who suffers from Motor Neurone Disease. The game is against the Greater Manchester Police and there has been a great deal of support so far, with as much effort being put into raising money for this extremely worthwhile cause. Families are welcome and there will be a raffle and the police panda mascot for the kids at the game, which is an evening kick off, probably around 7.00pm.

On a sadder note, and the reason for my delayed post, I lost a good friend of mine in March. Tommy Blake was tragically killed in a car accident on Sunday 28^th March. To add to his family’s heartache, Tommy was only 20 years old and had unbelievably lost his brother and also very close friend of mine, Scott, in a car accident in 2003. Tommy had completed the Wilmslow half marathon that day and had been running for another worthy cause. He was raising money in aid of Friends of PICU, who helped Ella Jayne Murray through the short and testing few months she had with us before she sadly passed in January 2009.

We are all dealt cruel blows by life and what makes us who we are is how we deal with these events. Every loss is met with stories of perseverance and courage and spurs those surrounding to ensure that the memories live on and that others may not have to endure the same anguish.

In memory of Tommy, Scott and little EJ, a few of us will be running the Wilmslow half marathon next year to raise money for the Southampton Paediatric Care Unit. I’m not built for distance running by any stretch of the imagination, but what better excuse to shake off those unwanted pounds? Agreed, it’s hardly mount Everest, but we can’t think of a better or more fitting way to remember Tommy and his endeavours to raise money for a few poorly young children and their families?

So this month’s post shows a little of what I’ve been up to, plus a couple of pictures of Tommy.