Friday Night Confessionals….it’s 9pm… where did today go?

I’m writing this wondering quite where this week flew to?

Just a short ditty this evening :-) I’ve kept up my twice daily walks taking in the early morning bird song - bliss, rolling fields, peace and fresh air + loved pottering around my garden, dead heading my fucias, tending to the gooseberries, cucumber + tomatoes in between work.

It has felt slightly unnerving seeing so many people around as I rejoin society and in the heat of Thursday my mask became a sauna - very good for the skin I’m sure!! Lol

So as this week draws out and the weekend begins I want to wish you all a wonderful sunny one xx

Weekend confessionals - raw imagery

Lockdown diaries / keeping sane in the time of COVID


OK so believe me when I say THESE ARE NOT the finished article, they are a work in progress and proof of a ‘breakthrough’ (small gains)


I’m not the kind of person to share something until the journey is complete and you can look back and reflect, order the highs and lows and make sense of the process but here I find myself sharing this work in its raw form for the reason that I am relieved to ACTUALLY SEE SOMETHING


It’s been weird and strange not photographing clients and so to keep my sanity I started photographing my daily walk. I dug out my Hasselblad and loaded it with film, I made a photo diary of developing + re acquainting myself with a process I hadn’t touched in years and then I hit a wall. My scanner didn’t scan 120 negs, I couldn’t ‘see’ what I was shooting, I felt blind. Unsure my light meter, camera, self was working. I’m a problem solver but I was stumped. I sat on the problem searching for a solution wanting desperately to see.
Tonight after trying, frustratedly giving up, talking to one of my oldest friends and then trying again I FINALLY SAW SOMETHING!


My film negs taped to my window shot on my phone, twisted in some weird app I see the community I have been capturing, the souls who have tirelessly worked to keep life going.
The teachers at the local primary school preparing for two year groups to return
Wendy from Porters who has worked relentlessly throughout
Judith a student of mine who has made scrubs for the local hospital
Simon who turned a tea room into a general store for his village + many more + One day I’ll see them all

Friday afternoon confessionals......

TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!

www.jackieking.com

www.jackieking.com

NEW WEBSITE

Hi Everyone!!

How you are all doing? Happy Friday xx

Sooo after about 10 days of lock down within lockdown where I pined myself to my office chair and designed, un did, redesigned and adjusted, I am thrilled to share my new look, updated website!!

www.jackieking.com

HEAD SHOTS WEDDINGS FAMILIES PRODUCTS EVENTS

Please let me know what you think!!

ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER 2

JULY 1st 2020 Back at ya photographing!!

So as lockdown eases, mask, hand sanitiser + camera in hand I will be back photographing again - HORAH!

The first couple weeks I will be social distancing with pre booked clients who were moved due to lockdown then from mid July onwards I am taking bookings for outdoor family sessions so please email me or call to book your dates.

I‘m super excited to see you all again and start capturing your summer sessions,

Happy Friday! Hugs Jackie xx

Featured in - a page for reference

You've chosen me to Photograph your wedding - What's Next?

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Sample pages from my guide.

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A Handy PDF guide you can print out, lands in your inbox!

Once I am booked for your wedding date and your deposit has been paid, I send out a handy guide which gives you all the photography information specifically tailored for your wedding day - the lead up including engagement session and venue visit and afterwards with timelines for your wedding album and picture.

Step 1. BOOK ME, your date is in the diary

Step 2. I send out your guide

Step 3. We book a date for your venue visit and / or engagement pictures on the same day. Your engagement pictures do not have to be at your venue, we can chat through ad select a place that has meaning for you or even where you got engaged. From this visit we choose spot for pictures in all weathers + we go through an example image list (also in the guide) of groups/family/friend pictures you’d like captured.

Step 4 From your engagement pictures you choose images either for your guest book or signing frame and I put all this together + bring it along on your wedding day.

Step 4.5 I check in the week before your wedding, last checks on times and running order of the day (sometimes also offering breathing techniques to help with nerves) :-) x

Step 5 Your Wedding Day!! We have done the leg work on where your pictures will be taken, gotten the lay of the land with the venue so you ease into your magical day and I will go about capturing it.

Step 6. Within 36 hours a sneak peek gallery from your gorgeous day will be live to view and share with your guests, your whole gallery will be ready within 14 days + from there you can decide upon your selection for your album(s). Prints can also be ordered for yourself or your guests.

Step 7. We work together to create and design your wedding album. This process can take a few weeks to a couple of months, I order your album and triple check everything when it comes back before sending it out to you YAY!!

If you have ANY questions along the way I am just at the end of a phone call or an email + have a list of amazing suppliers I can recommend too!

Friday afternoon confessionals..............

So I’m standing in the queue at Sainsbury’s writing this trying to utilise the time - I could wile away the (insert minutes/hours) but I’d rather not. When the productivity or inspiration hits I have found I have to act!

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Fortunately I haven’t had to line up like this before - snaking around the car park, pausing at upturned box markers. I actually haven’t seen this many people in one place for over 44 days. It feels a bit weird.

Soooo this week, just like last seems to have whipped by in a flash- it’s been intersected by rain, the odd look at the news + punctuated with power surges of productivity that I’ve been shocked by and had to rest from afterwards, funny ol business lockdown.

I’ve swung from missing hugging people (I’m a hugger) to considering I might not even want to leave the house when this is over let alone squeeze my friends in delight. Perhaps my hugging personality trait will be defunked post lockdown. I’m going to ponder on that……

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This Friday I just wanted to check in, see how everyone is doing, connect, smile + say ‘Hi’ :-) I’m sharing a couple images here from my week, the top one - a snippet of a hidden corner of London <3 swoon the neon sign and moodyness!! The second a project from my garden and the debris I collected whilst tidying it up a couple weeks ago, it’s amazing what you ‘see’ when you actually look!

So I hope whatever you’re up to this evening you’re enjoying yourselves, stay safe, stay home, BIG (virtual) HUGS xx

Amy + Tony's non wedding, wedding day

Easter Friday, April 10th, 2020

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I hope everyone is doing ok + keeping safe + well xx

On what should have been Amy & Tony’s wedding day last Friday I wanted to share such a neat way to commemorate the lockdown. Amy messaged to ask if we could all send over a photo of ourselves at 5pm soooo we all took photos of ourselves in lockdown cheers-ing them at 5pm, the time their speeches were scheduled for and Amy + Tony shared their photo with us too.

Amy is going to showcase all the images for their actually wedding date which has been rescheduled for October 2nd….such a lovely idea + great way to commemorate them + their original wedding date. #stayhome so I wanted to share highlights from their engagement session back in November along Albert Embankment in Chelsea, South London.

BIG LOVE to Amy + Tony and all the couples rescheduling their wedding days xx

Friday Afternoon Confessionals.....

Two weeks ago I landed in Boston, One week ago I landed back in London, when things move rapidly, all we can do is hang on and try our best to navigate the ride!

This afternoon as I write this, looking out at the sunshine, blue sky and peacefulness, I am 100% sure everyone everywhere is still feeling the surreal-ness of the situations we are adjusting to - I’m not going to harness that, instead I’m sharing my trip back to Maine, the walks I took in nature + the portraits at a distance I created + a couple of shots from my phone of the amazing colours I’m seeing on my daily walks x

So Maine, my spiritual haven, hmmm perhaps better to say my photographic haven where the photo magic first happened. A workshop back at my old school with my fabulous professor learning carbon transfer printing.

All the info I had read ahead of class told me just how tricky it was - AND IT IS!! BUT it was also really wonderful to be connecting with the photographic process and craft back in the dark room after quite a long time away. I used one of my images of one of my brides + for a first attempt it has encouraged me to experiment further when the time is right and to take this process and see where it takes me…….

This trip also enabled me to get back in to deep nature and embrace the sea air and sunsets!!! The light has always been magical in Maine and now home on my evening walks I am also seeing slithers of it here too :-)

I also had EVERY INTENTION of continuing my International Women’s Day project photographing friends and I people I knew with the theme ‘friendship’ . With lock down swift in America I respectfully kept my distance from the two ladies I had the opportunity to photograph and above is ‘Pam’ my airbnb host. When I return I’ll photograph the others I didn’t catch on this trip :-) but it was great to even capture these!!

And so to home. Just on my iphone but maybe I’m being more vigilant, a bit more aware of my surroundings but I am loving the colours that are appearing in the evenings, soft tones and hues, pastels and patches of light highlighting the landscape that would in the past not necessarily caught my attention…..maybe I brought a bit of the magic back with me…stay safe + healthy everyone!! xx

Touching base x

Sending lots of love - as soon as I get back I’ll be sharing creative photo ideas and yoga classes on line xx

Keep safe everyone - As soon as I get back I'll update you all on both photography + yoga x in the meantime sending love + peace xx

International Women's Day 2020

Celebrating ‘Friendship’

March 2020

I couldn’t let this year pass without celebrating - every year I capture portraits of women which then become an exhibition with the idea of inspiring younger generations.

This year the arts project in Croydon is taking a break + I thought it would be great to do something a little more casual with the end results being shared online during the day of International Women’s Day. I set about thinking of friends who work in central London so I could be in one spot and it wouldn’t be too tricky for them to come to me with the theme ‘friendship’ + ask them for their own interpretation, feeling, word, colour - whatever it was that resonates with them.

  • so Friday 6th these gorgeous ladies below swung by for chatter, tea, pictures + let me take their photo.

I also had in my mind that I’m trying something new….challenging myself + stepping out of my comfort zone to shoot in a different way, to step back slightly, to allow the images to sit together, to continue for the month of March, to include portraits where the sitter isn’t smiling - I CANNOT even BEGIN to tell you HOW HARD that was!!! + produce a lovely project + as it turned out, was a very poignant theme.

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Above a screen shot of my final selection of images, Below the final cut (or so I thought!)

I loved how everyone’s response was very different.

I wanted to bring people together with this project, to share their individual interpretation of “friendship” + to create portraits where I challenged myself in the image making. I am really good at getting right up close to people and in to their space to capture their essence + to be honest this has turned in to a process of challenging normality for me, for sitting on my own hands when I wanted to move in closer or select the happiest photo in the selection + publish on socials only my finely curated selection of happy.

What transpired was me forcing myself to choose images I loved but were perhaps a little more sullen than my usual work. Not soley to challenge myself but to look at the images with a different perspective, a different vantage point. That in itself challenged me to let go and reconnect to being happy with the images myself, whichever ones I chose + trusting the ‘process’.

It’s also been about a conversation Tanya and I had about the viewers experience and ‘seeing’ as the artist or photographer was at the precise moment in time and layering on top of that what we bring in the form of our own interpretation/feelings/emotions/life events to any art at any given moment.

My normal way of working is interacting, observing, creating ease between me, my camera and my sitter, recording just the right representation that I see in any given moment that I feel is an accurate representation of them - on Friday, I stepped back, I deliberately created space to see if it impacted the images I created, if it brought something else forward. So a project based on friendship and exploring how we see.

It’s interesting that looking through the selected images of each of my friends , the versatility of their emotions and our conversation serves as a great mixture to capture slightly different feelings in each picture + the selections below are to appease my controlling mind and show the fun we had!! :-) They also work really nicely as a set of images.

I’m continuing this project and excited to capture more friends through March - over on instagram you can also hear everyone’s interpretation of ‘friendship’ . Have a fab March + enjoy x

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