Mother’s Day is 14th March, and a Mother’s Day portrait is a fun and special way of saying thanks to your Mum.
As the perfect gift, I’m offering a portrait package that’s perfect for all Mums and expectant Mums.
Mother’s Day Package In-home or on-location Photo Session
One 12×8 Lustre Portrait
2 High Quality Images on CD for your own printing
All for £75.00
Email me at michelle@essence-photographic.co.uk or call me on 07500 266845/01234 860535 to schedule a session or request an eVoucher for the Mum in your life.
Posted 5 days, 18 hours ago at 12:30 pm. Add a comment
My Valentine’s competition closed yesterday, and here is the fifth of the 5 finalists. An opportunity to vote on your favourite story will follow shortly.
#5 - Karen & Derren
My husband and I originally first met back when I was 18, introduced to each other by friends. We went out on a couple of dates but being 18 I was not overly bothered about a long term relationship at the time and it fizzled out quite quickly. But this is the interesting bit….two years later when I was 20 I was on a train with friends coming home from London and the train stopped at a station in London. The doors opened and who stepped into my compartment but Derren who was working in London at the time and it was his last day there. He stepped into the compartment and we both stared at each other and there was an instant attraction (for the 2nd time!) and we were chatting all the way back to Bedford. And the rest is history as we are now married after 12 years together.
Next : Voting…
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago at 12:20 pm. 2 comments
My Valentine’s competition closed yesterday, and here is the forth of the 5 finalists. An opportunity to vote on your favourite story will follow shortly.
#4 - Simon & Kizzi
They met while they were both at school. Kizzi had a kidney transplant when she was only about 11 years old and only had one working kidney. She had to go to Guys hospital in London every month for check ups. Simon offered to go with her so she wouldn’t have to make the journey on her own and a friendship gradually grew into a deep love. In 2006, Kizzi accidently became pregnant and despite knowing the risks to her health, they decided to go ahead with the pregnancy. After a few months, Kizzi’s kidney stopped working altogether and the remaining months were very scary and tense with bi-weekly dialysis in London, Oxford and Milton Keynes. Simon juggled his work times to be with Kizzi whenever she needed him and eventually, one month early, little Rio was born weighing less than 5lb… a miracle baby, born out of love, trust and devotion.
Next: Contestants #5 : Karen & Derren…
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago at 12:17 pm. 20 comments
My Valentine’s competition closed yesterday, and here is the third of the 5 finalists. An opportunity to vote on your favourite story will follow shortly.
#3 - Carole & Roger
Let me set the scene - I live in a house that backs on to the river Ouse and I work from home which means I come and go during the day quite a bit. One July morning I came home from Sainsburys (I know sooo glamorous!) to find a pick up truck with it’s tail gate open partially blocking my drive. So even though I could have squeezed past I parked my car behind the truck blocking it in and went in to the house to write a polite note to the owner. I was still writing the note when there was a knock at the door and a very sheepish looking chap was standing there asking me if that was my car and he was really sorry he’d blocked my gate. He went to explain he’d left the tailgate open as he was carrying stuff down to the river of next doors garden to fix his boat. By this point I’d stopped thinking about blocked gates and started thinking about lovely eyes. Then as we were talking he made reference to scattering his late partner’s ashes in the river so I said Oh! She’ll meet my late husband he’s in there too! Then froze - what had I said but luckily he laughed so I added “brings a whole new meaning to meet and mingle” and we laughed some more. Then in what I now know to be typical Roger style he said he’d better get going and see me around sometime and was off. I was excited to meet someone so nice but really disappointed he’d vanished so quickly and wondered when/if I’d bump into him again.
2 days later in the early evening there was a knock at the door and there stood Roger (bottle of wine in hand) saying “any chance I could park my boat in your garden?” I was taken completely by surprise so I just said OK. I asked him in but he was taking my neighbour and her god daughter for a drink so invited me to join them instead - right there and then. So I found myself being driven to the pub in my just finished work state, not even a minute to change from my work shirt (”you look great”) with my neighbours for a drink where it turned out a pub quiz was in full swing. I hadn’t laughed so much for years Rog kept us all in stitches so our first “date” was heavily chaperoned but the rest as they say is history…
Next: Contestants #4 : Simon & Kizzi…
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago at 12:13 pm. Add a comment
My Valentine’s competition closed yesterday, and here is the second of the 5 finalists. An opportunity to vote on your favourite story will follow shortly.
#2 - Tom & Jaz
I met Tom when living in halls at uni with his best mate Mark so Tom was always coming by. My room was nearest the front door so I got to know him from letting him in a few times a week.
Anyway, I was chatting to Mark and some mates one night, tequila was flowing and Mark asked me what I thought of Tom. I hadn’t thought about him, but Mark wanted to set us up and everyone thought it was a great idea to my horror! I was against the idea but they wouldn’t let up and it was getting kind of awkward when Tom came round, so I agreed to a group date.
So loads of us from the house went out to a pub. We had a great time. Tom was quieter than the other lads. Paid lots of attention to me. By the end of the night I really fancied him so got up the nerve to ask him out, just the 2 of us. And he said yes! The grand plans didnt work out and the scene for our first proper date was McDonalds, but we had a great time all the same.
We’ve been together ever since and Mark always reminds us that we owe him!
Next: Contestants #3 : Carole & Roger…
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago at 12:07 pm. Add a comment
As you may know, I’ve been running a Valentines Competition to win a free portrait session, prints and discounts off further sessions with me.
The competition closed yesterday, and here is the first of the 5 finalists. An opportunity to vote on your favourite story will follow shortly.
#1 - Leigh & Martin…
Martin and I met during August Bank Holiday weekend in 1999. My friend from school lived in Camberwell, working for a charity organisation and living in their accommodation, which was a huge townhouse. They were between placements, with lots of spare room so my friend was allowed to invite friends over for a birthday do, which happened to be over that weekend. My friend said she’d, amongst others, invited a university friend called Martin. I’d met her university friend called Martin a couple of years back - he was tall, dark, Geordie and good fun, so I was looking forward to seeing him again. However, a different Martin to the one I was expecting turned up, from Devon - and he was more interesting!
The Saturday consisted of doing the Circle Line pub crawl (or trying to, anyway - we were pretty hopeless and only did a few stops!). On one of the stops, I was walking along chatting to Martin but we then got separated - I was the only one to notice he was missing - we retraced our steps and found a perplexed-looking Martin, lost in an unfamiliar city. He was really grateful and bought me a drink in the next pub.
As I said, we were hopeless at the pub crawl. We ended up at the big townhouse - Martin and I spent most of the evening talking. He went back to Devon the next day; we exchanged email addresses.
Martin was off on a trip to the US in mid-September, on an early morning flight and had planned to get an overnight bus from Devon to Heathrow. I was a bit forward and invited him to stay with me in London for the night before - no strings! He took me up on the offer and we had a friendly meal in Chinatown and a few drinks. I was thinking we were just friends, but we went back to mine and kind of got together…Martin went on his trip the next day; we kept in touch by email. When he returned to the UK three weeks later, he stayed with me in London for another week.
We had a long-distance relationship for a few months, with trips to London and Devon, before Martin moved to London in January 2000.
We’ve been together ever since!
Next : Contestants #2 : Tom & Jaz…
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago at 12:02 pm. Add a comment
Just a quick note to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has volunteered to be one of my 52 Faces!
My business portrait project has been running for 5 months now, and so far I’ve featured 22 business owners from the Beds/Bucks/Herts counties. See them all at www.essence-photographic.co.uk/52faces.
I’m delighted to tell you that this morning I signed up my 52nd volunteer! But, I’m still looking for a few reserves - because things happen, people get busy, business situations change etc - so if you’d still like to be featured, but fear you’ve missed the boat, do get in touch with me as there may still be a chance! Contact me at 52faces@essence-photographic.co.uk.
I can’t sign off without including a few of the faces from the project so far…
Until next time…
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago at 3:04 pm. Add a comment
I’m not a natural romantic – I hate pink, I’m allergic to flowers and chocolate gives me a tickly cough. But I love a good story! A good story can make a good portrait even better.
So, I’m running a Valentines’ competition to find heart-warming, romantic, incredible, ridiculous or downright hilarious stories of how couples have got together.
Send me your stories, and I will choose my 5 favourites for displaying on my photoblog. Final voting will then be left to my fans and subscribers. The winners will be announced on Valentines’ Day;
The Winner Receives; 1 Free Portrait Session
1 High Res Image of your Favourite Portrait on CD
5 6”x4” Lustre Prints
The 3 remaining couples from the top 5 will receive a 30% discount on any lifestyle portrait package (if you choose to book a session with me. No booking is required to enter the competition).
Long time, no speak! I haven’t blogged for ages because hubby and I were in the throes of selling up and moving house. So far, we’re halfway - just moved out of our old house, and hopefully 2 weeks away from moving into our new house. Currently we’re enjoying treats, home comforts and a plumbed dishwasher while staying with my Mum and Dad!
Our new place, once we get there, will also mean a new office for us, and all things being equal, a small but perfectly formed portrait studio soon after! Watch this space…
In the meantime, I’ll share a set of my favourite portraits, from my early days just starting out, with a makeshift studio set-up in a spare bedroom! :-) This is the lovely Claire, a fab friend and fan of my stuff, right before she set off to travel the world…
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago at 11:56 am. 1 comment
