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.