2023 so far…

We’re officially half way through the year, with the longest year behind us, a long summer ahead of us, I’m looking back at what the first 6 months of 2023 has brought me, and giving a little peek into what’s coming for the rest of the year.

As always, January was a quiet month, spent catching up on all the jobs that get put on the back burner (Like website updates and tax returns), and enjoying moving at a slower pace, because when it comes to the rest of the year, I’m usually working a lot of hours, moving at 100mph and thriving on being busy creating. Enjoying the balance at opposing times of year is a lesson I’ve had to learn over time, to appreciate the quiet times when they come as a time of rest and recuperation.

In February and March I began booking in portfolio shoots to begin phase one of this year’s plan to offer what currently isn’t available to equestrians out there. This saw me booking in a handful of lovely individuals who responded to my model call to have a white background portrait shoot with their horses.
And now in hindsight, something I’ve noticed that is with each backdrop I shoot with, there’s a new learning curve, I need to adapt the way I shoot in order to bring the same standard to each shoot I produce. With white backdrops the challenge was avoiding shadows on the backdrop, learning how best to position my lighting to avoid this, and then during editing finding a method to make the backdrop look how I wanted it.

In March I also had did the first of this year’s trade stands at Bangor on Dee point to point, the beginning of another learning curve, understanding how to put together a trade stand, to lay it out in a way that caught people’s attention, whilst improving my people skills further. Despite the high winds and worrying if my stand was going to blow away, it was a wonderful day where I had the pleasure of chatting to people known and new.

In April I had a quieter month for shoots but was busy with freelancing for Hoofprints, a company who I’ve worked with for a number of years doing odd days as a part of their team shooting at large equestrian events. I really enjoy my days working for these guys, they’re such a lovely team to be part of and I get to enjoy a big day out, listen to a bunch of podcasts, and watch pretty ponies competing all day - the only downside is when the weather decides not to play ball, which is what happened when I was covering the Blue Chip Show Jumping championships.

Let’s just say that howling gales combined with heavy downpours aren’t exactly my idea of a fun way to spend some time in an arena!
Even so, I soldiered on and the relief when the rain finally passed over was something else!

In May things started to seriously rev up, starting the month exhibiting at Eyton Point to Point where I met Alex from AJN Lifestyle who was kind enough to give me some great pointers on laying out my stand and interacting with potential clients - I’m beyond grateful for the help she gave me that day, it’s made a huge difference in the way I run tradestands now.
I then had the pleasure of shooting a pair of older horses that I mentioned in last month’s blog, creating beautiful memories that their owner will cherish forever.
The weekend following that saw me covering the SDRC camp at Somerford park, where we had the first of the proper summer sun. I thoroughly enjoyed camping over the weekend (Camping, even when I’m working, always feels like a little holiday, I love it!). I got to enjoy great weather, got my shorts out for the first time this year, and meet so many lovely horses and their humans - I really enjoy getting to know riders and their horse’s stories on these camp weekend, you hear some unbelievable transformations, stories of hardship and challenges, and also watch combinations transform over the course of a weekend. I think it’s really special to get to be a part of that.

On the Sunday night I arrived home from camp to unpack my things (Something I usually end up doing gradually over the course of a week, because how many of us actually unpack everything when we get home?), because the following day I needed to pack my bags again as I was off on holiday to the Cotswolds - exactly what I needed ahead of a busy few weeks!

In May I also FINALLY managed to order the newest backdrop to add to my collection - the old masters backdrop.
I did the first portfolio shoot with it on the 31st May, and instantly I was in love.

And then, in came June with one hell of a bang.

Remember I mentioned Alex from AJN Lifestyle, who I met at Eyton P2P? Well we decided to try something out, to combine the power of our businesses in one trade stand. In one half, Alex had her business selling all sorts of beautiful leather goods, from headcollars, to dog leads, to belts, and in the other, I had a studio set up. All day I encouraged show goers to have a mini photoshoot for their dogs, and it was a major hit. I had a fab day getting to meet allllll the dogs!

After that I had my very own photoshoot, just for me, with a good friend who runs her own empowerment photography business. We headed up to lake Vyrnwy and had the best time creating some superb wild witchy woman images (I’ll spare you the nude images, because even though I’m exceptionally comfortable with nudity, I understand that this audience might not be, you’re here for the ponies).

And then came the onslaught of portfolio and other portrait shoots I had booked in (These shoots are continuing into July and August as I wanted to include as much variety as possible to showcase this new stunning backdrop.) In June alone, I had 14 shoots, that’s a combined amount for SLP and my other business, Pursuit Images - to say June was full on would be an understatement, but I am thriving off it all.
I started each week with a fire of excitement in my heart, knowing that I get to create so much and meet so many wonderful horses, hearing their stories, getting to know each individual, and new ways of shooting each and every time I get behind the lens.

So now that we’re all caught up on the year so far (And I do hope you’ve enjoyed recapping with me through stories, summaries, and LOTS of pretty photos), what’s the next 6 month’s got in store?

Well to start with, this month my main focus is that I’m competing at the ABPU British Powerlifting Championships on the 19th July, which I’m super excited about - I love getting to compete in the sport that brings me so much joy.

This month is also rammed with portrait shoots, on 1st July I’ll be at Hanbury show with Alex, sharing a stand again, and the finish off the month I’m disappearing up to Scotland for a long awaited road trip - Scotland is one of my favourite places on the planet to visit, I’ve already been 3 times before and this year I’m heading out to the Hebrides for some breathtaking landscapes and immersive ancient history.

I’ve got various offers plans for the rest of the year to give you guys some great deals on your shoots, so if you don’t want to miss any of those then I highly recommend you sign up to the SLP mailing list where you’ll get one email each month with various updates and offers, and occasionally you’ll get an extra email in a month to remind you of any offers that are about to end.

I’m also looking at further portrait days to run at yards around the country (If you’d like to have a portrait day at your yard, please do get in touch, I’d love to come and shoot at your yard!).

And I’ve even got a few more camps booked in, a scattering of freelancing days for Hoofprints Photos, and I’m sure the diary will keep being manically busy with endless portrait shoots.

And as a final little reminder, as of 1st August the Horse & Rider package will be being discontinued - this wasn’t a decision I made lightly as I know how much people love photos with their horses, but I had to stay true to myself on this with the reasoning that I want to focus purely on portraits. If you’ve been wanting to book a photoshoot with your horse, this is your last chance to do it!