Happy New Year
I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I want to start off by saying a huge thank you to every single one of you who have supported Something From The Hart in the last year. Wether it be through purchasing event photos, booking a photo shoot, wedding or buying a fine art print, every single one of you have helped massively towards making my dream photography business a reality. I truly couldn't pursue this ambition without you all, so thank you.
2019
2019 has been a year of new ventures, with photo shoot days in new, stunning locations, new products and exiting projects. In January, the first photo shoot day of the year was the "let it snow shoot" in Nesscliffe. With guaranteed snow, through photography magic, lots of wintery images were created. Unfortunately 2019 was not the year for real snow, which meant only 3 snow photo shoots were possible (fingers crossed for some more snow in 2020)
In February, I took a trip to North wales to photograph the beautiful Dolbadarn Film Horses in action. We got creative with an Edwardian theme and quarry backdrop, Indian style wedding, Victorian attire by an eerie lake, with twisted trees and to finish this fantastic shoot, a unique performance creation, with a ballerina and Beauty (a Friesian liberty horse) outside a Church. Unfortunately, shortly after this visit, lots of events and photo shoots had to be canceled, due to the Equine Influenza outbreak. It was at this time that I began to develop "Seren Hart", a sister page to Something From The Hart, which contains lots of unique fine art images (one of which has since won the Equine Photography Competition 2019) If this Fine Art collection is of interest to you, you can find the images at serenhart.com
At the beginning of May, the no1 event in many equestrian diaries is Badminton. I spent the Wednesday photographing the lovely Megan Elphick (@elphick.event.ponies on Instagram) in an event photo shoot, as she competed in the Grassroots phase, with her lovely horse Bear. Following this, I was privileged to photograph Izzy Taylor (@izzytayloreventing) and Emily Philp (@emilyphilpeventing) in the CCI5* as well as photographing several riders for Timothy Foxx (@timothyfoxx) who's beautiful tweed clothing was used during the trot up.
Also in May, Fun Ride season began and with lots of fun rides lined up, commencing with Eaton Mascott Fun Ride, it was set to be a great year. Unfortunately, due to the weather, several Fun Rides had to be postponed, as June and July was so wet. Thankfully most of them were able to be rescheduled and so the fun was saved for warmer days.
In July, another brand new photo shoot location was revealed, the Confetti fields. Two photo shoot days were organised in this gorgeous location, one at the end of July and the other in Mid August. with colours reaching as far as the eye can see, it is a location unlike any other and is particularly perfect for the fairytale style shoot. If you like the look of the photos taken in this gorgeous location, then keep your eyes pealed, as we will definitely be organising a photo shoot there again in 2020!
Another new location in August was the lavender fields. Bringing a sense of Provence to the British countryside, this beautiful location not only looked incredible, but also smelt divine. The weather was also on our side and was absolutely perfect to capture the slice of French countryside.
At the end of August, I was very lucky to be asked to be the official photographer for the Nations Cup, which this year was held in the UK, organised by @gbstudentriders. The talent of the riders competing was absolutely outstanding, with the ability to ride a Grand Prix dressage test or jump a 1m25 course on a horse they have never met, let alone ridden is remarkable.
At the beginning of September, my mum and I took a trip to Burghley Horse Trials, where I was honoured to be photographing Emily Philp and Izzy Taylor again. It was my first time at Burghley since I was about 10 and very different to how I remember it. The XC in particular was extremely technical and optimum time was very quick, making the competition extremely tight. I absolutely loved photographing these two amazing riders and with it being Emily's debut Burghley experience, was so happy to be part of the journey.
In October, the Autumn photo shoots began. The first shoot took place at the beautiful Isle estate, which was a gorgeous location for the autumnal style images as well as the Dark Room ones produced in the indoor arena. The following day was the first of the autumn shoots in Nesscliffe, one of my favourite locations, which I use frequently throughout the year. Following these shoots, several more took place from people's yards, homes and another mini shoot day at Manor Lodge. As I said in my earlier Autumn blog post, it was amazing, from shoot to shoot, seeing the changes in colours as the light catches the ever changing leaves, making the images from every single photo session completely different and unique.
December was filled with festive preparations. I photographed several Christmas events, which were given a special festive twist when edited, by adding snow, similarly to how the "let it snow" photo shoot had been created at the start of the year. As well as this, I loved creating the festive packaging for the Christmas gift orders going out and above all, receiving messages from people who opened and loved them.
To top off this fantastic year, I was awarded equine photographer if the year 2019, which truly made my year and was the most amazing way to complete the year and decade!
Although I have tried to keep this blog reasonably brief, I seem to have not succeeded and there are still areas I haven't written about, including several lovely weddings throughout the year, the rhododendron and beach shoots, my Falabella foal (who will probably have a blog post of his own, as he seems to have become the face of Something From The Hart, particularly on instagram)
I have also had the privilege of working with some amazing brands this year, including Timothy Foxx, Kentucky Horseware, Rachael Kelly Equestrian, Just Equine LTD, Torq, Voltora and Liveryman.
2020
2020 is set to be an exiting year, with new creations, new ventures and more photo shoot options being introduced! A new year and a New decade for Something From The Hart. Let's see what it brings!
