Twenty Seventeen – a year in pictures
Twenty Seventeen – a year in pictures
I always love this time of year when I get to take a look back at all the amazing wedding, engagement and styled shoots I have been a part of and relive all those days again looking through the photos.
My roundup is a little later than planned this year as we took a slightly extended Christmas break to celebrate my birthday too and have a little bit of time out, from what was one of my busiest years to date.
January is a good time to reflect on the year that has been and look at what I can improve on to give my couples and those I work for the best experience possible. I have booked onto some workshops this year to spend time with fellow wedding photographers and be inspired. I also would love to shoot more personal work which for me is anything and everything to do with nature, the great outdoors and the coast. 2017 was a particularly special year for me as it was the first year working as a photographer full time and not having to rely on a part time job. I had worked at a London museum for 12 years as a Picture Researcher and although I really enjoyed the job, my heart and passion was very much with my photography which I wanted to give 100% to. It has nearly been a year since I went full time and I know it is a cliché but I literally have not stopped. Before I was commuting up to London three days a week and editing and shooting around that. Now I have so much more time, yet still never seem to get everything I want done! Being a wedding photographer is one of the hardest jobs I have ever done but it is also the most enjoyable and rewarding and I would not change my job for the world.
It really has been an incredible journey so far and in 2017 we photographed 24 wonderful weddings, 16 engagement shoots and I also took part in 3 very fun styled shoots too. As many of you know I also work for Lord’s Cricket Ground in London shooting sports photography and I still cannot believe this will be my 16th year of shooting cricket at the highest level – I really am so lucky to call this my job. In 2017 I had another very busy season capturing over 17 days of cricket ranging from England test matches to girls indoor cricket – there is so much to share from this element of my work too so I will write a separate blog about my sports photography year very soon!
We travelled to some amazing places in 2017 from Oxford to the beautiful cliffs of Wales, the Cotswolds to Wiltshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent and London. We drove hundreds of miles but met so many wonderful people and became a part of each wedding day and were made to feel so welcome at every one. Dogs were an important feature at a lot of weddings in 2017 (always a good thing for me – more please this year!) and I really was blown away by the amount of detail each of my couples put into their special days. I had Gin bars, donut walls, ice cream trikes, garden games galore, magicians, a silhouette artist, caricaturists and lots of homemade cakes including an amazing wedding cake made by Tina my bride! I also had the most amazing wedding bouquet and flowers, made completely of paper – again handmade by my very talented couple Jo and Phil. One of my weddings also had a parachute display which was pretty epic! I got to visit some amazing venues including the wonderful Upwaltham Barns, Lainston House, The Pilgrims Rest, Bartholomew Barn, The Bell in Ticehurst, The Plough in Leigh , Farbridge and Bucklers Hard to name a few, and I even had a wedding at Lord’s Cricket Ground too so got to combine my two photography jobs for the day! My couples have also been very adventurous with engagement shoots in 2017 with woodland and coastal spots being the most popular (always a favourite with me!) A highlight last year was also doing an engagement shoot whilst on a tower tour of Salisbury Cathedral which was such good fun and we were rewarded with the best views once we had reached the top!
I really do want to thank all the amazing couples who chose me to capture their weddings last year and to those that have chosen me to be a part of their day this year too. You have now given me the opportunity to do a job I love so much full time and for that I am so grateful. To the wonderful venues I got to visit this year and the wedding industry friends I have met along the way, it has been great getting to know you all and working alongside such talented people. And to my amazing husband Alex, who supported me at every wedding I captured last year and for being my driver, my bag carrier, group photo organiser and just the best person to have at a wedding – we make an amazing team and am so lucky to be able to share this journey with him too.
I cannot wait for the 26 new couples I will get to know and have the honour of capturing weddings for this year – it is looking like it will be another busy but fun year ahead for us and I cannot wait to get started again.
It has been really hard selecting images to share with you as there really were so many lovely moments last year, so grab a cuppa and settle down and enjoy my look back at 2017!
Best wishes and here is to a fantastic 2018
Sarah x
www.sarahwilliamsphotography.com
SUSSEX WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER l KENT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER l HAMPSHIRE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER l WILTSHIRE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER l NATURAL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER l DOCUMENTARY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER l
All content © Sarah Williams 2017 No reproduction without permission