Wedding Photographer Bristol | Michelle Waspe

It’s been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently…. I’ve been sort of hybernating: designing my enquiry brochure and my hints and tips on getting the best out of your wedding photography brochure, which couples will receive when they book me, and also tweaking my website.. I won’t lie, it’s been tough with the cold and the wet and I’ve been longing for summer.. I love being outdoors and in fresh air, even more so since Harry started school and I work from home.  I haven’t shot much lately either, but I know it’s my way of taking a deep breath before the wedding season starts.  I give so much of myself emotionally and physically to my couples’ weddings that I know it’s good to take a step back and ‘drown out the noise’ for a bit, replenish my creative juices and get all fired up again ready for my first wedding at the end of this month…

Here’s a few snapshots into my life lately..

We got two new additions to the Waspe family.  Thor and Hulk Waspe, the guinea pigs.  This is Thor, he’s calmer and wiser than Hulk, who is skittish and a bit wild so unfortunately doesn’t get taken out of the cage as much as Thor, because he tends to run and hide under the sofa or TV cabinet for hours!  They started off incredibly jumpy and scared.. they still are but more so are getting used to us and we are very attached to them..

In the quiet times I like to surf the internet and learn new things and find inspiration from other photographers.  I have fallen in love with Vivian Maier, who was a nanny for many years in Chicago and died in 2009.  On her days off, she would take her camera and spend all day taking photographs of people in the city.  Nobody knew about her talent or her photographs until she died and over 100,000 negatives were bought at auction by a chance bidder.  I am really looking forward to the film about her coming out later this year..

We’ve spent some rainy dark afternoons exploring National Trust properties…

Barney has been growing a beard!  He’s pretty obsessed by it…  and I think he looks hot  🙂

Even when it’s cold, wet and rainy, this boy fills my heart with joy…

The first proper sunny day in the garden last Sunday.  Coffee and breakfast outside in the morning, and then weeding and clearing all the cat poo to make it all nice again for summer.

Harry making friends with the tamer guinea pig, Thor…

I can feel warmer times are coming and I cannot wait to start shooting all my weddings this year x

Harry turned 5 last week and now he’s at school it gave me a bit of time to reflect on the last 5 years, including looking at all the photos of him I’ve taken over this time (hundreds!!).  I can honestly say the whole experience of having Harry just got better and better.   I wasn’t one of those mums cooing over their newborns – well of course I did, but the real blasts of love came later for me, when he started smiling, crawling and especially walking: suddenly he was my little buddy and we would go and walk through Highgate Woods to the playground and to the shops… and suddenly things seemed a little easier… Then the talking, and oh my, so many hilarious moments, phrases and jokes.   I can’t even put into words how much I love this boy, how happy he makes me and how brilliant he is.

Here’s Harry’s journey so far.  In some ways his journey mirrors my own photography journey. We’ve grown together…

As the wedding season died down a little I resolved to pick up my camera a bit more to document some of my personal life…. I remember taking so many pictures for my 366 project last year, it seemed a shame that I wasn’t recording the people that mean so much to me… so here’s a few images from the last couple of months during the glorious autumn sunlight and colour.. I love autumn!