The Summer of '17

Wow, what a summer. It feels like only yesterday that the children broke up! But name labels are sewn in, PE kits packed, shoes shone (why is it when we tried the school shoes on a couple of weeks ago that they fitted fine, yet apparently now on the morning we return to school they’re far too small?! Let’s hope Clarks still has some shoes left in stock at the weekend).

Professionally, this summer has been brilliant fun. I have worked with some wonderful families capturing unique memories and creating bespoke artwork to adorn their homes. We had wonderful adventures at the stunning Mayfield Lavender, counting more bees that we had fingers for, lots of hide and seek with teddy bears and bunny rabbits, and the odd sprint to the other end of the field, just because! Elsewhere we’ve had Pimms in milk bottles and ice creams from a gorgeous retro ice-cream van as part of a wonderful celebration party that I captured, and we’ve bounced higher than ever on a bouncy castle and made Fairy Wands at a Fairy and Pirates birthday party.

I have also managed to find some time to study, learning new techniques and improving existing ones to keep my skills at the top of their game. It’s now getting so much harder to ‘switch off’ as a photographer, as I found when we recently went to Devon for our family holiday. Once you start looking at the world as you would to capture a wonderful image, everything seems more vibrant and inspiring than before, so downtime is quite literally time to close your eyes and sleep!

So before we hurtle headlong into the wonderful craziness that the autumn will bring, here are a few of my favourite photographs captured in the last few weeks.

Rachel x