Wedding Photographer | Claudia Rose Carter | UK & Worldwide » Document Love. Tell Stories. Showcase Moments.

It’s done. It’s complete. Waahoooooo. My new rebrand is UP and LIVE and WONDERFUL. Thank you so much my handsome man for completing this for me. All of those years working in design for a bank certainly paid off and boy, am I glad you waited a while to become a photographer *wink*.

If you haven’t seen it yet you can visit my new main page HERE. I am having the site migrated tonight over to my old domain claudiarosecarter.co.uk but a redirect will be up on this to get you to the right place.

So, this last week…

On Friday I set off to the amazing Fforest campsite in Cardigan to document Laura & Marco’s wedding. I could just live there, honestly. It’s my soul home. You feel as though you are in a total bubble for the entire weekend!

My Abel & Cole vegetable and meat boxes arrived and I just love them. I’m making salmon, carrots, peas and diced Nicola potatoes for dinner tonight. You know when you just get that intense smell of a potato having been dug out of the ground? Yeah that. Yum. We came downstairs this morning to 4 cardboard boxes packed up with wool and ice packs to keep the meat and fish cold and I have to say I haven’t been more excited about something so basic in a while! You can package the boxes up again and the driver will pick them back up to recycle them afterwards. Each one came with some recipe cards and as an introductory gift, a free cookbook. I’ll definitely be sharing some recipes that I make on here in the next few weeks.

I have a clothes crush on this top. Over leggings. In the summer time. Simplistic. What do you most love to wear?

Spicy Carribbean Stew? I will definitely be making this very soon. We need to get hold of a new BBQ for the rest of the warm(ish) weather so I’m sure we’ll spend most of our dinners outdoors but for those colder nights this looks real tasty.

I love Eric Kim’s blog. Every week there is something fascinating being discussed and his passion for his work is so contagious. This post about being grateful for what we have is a good reminder to kick ourselves into gear.

Samm Blake’s photography. Oh my dear lord. This shoot. The light. Wow.

End of. Thank you for reading this week and see you next Wednesday!

Claudia x

 

 

Good morning all! There’s something magical about sitting in my office downstairs with a coffee and the kitchen door wide open leading through to our little quaint garden. A fresh breeze in the morning.

This last week has been immense. Read on….

 

*WORKING ON….

Oh so much! I’m putting my prices up by £200 this morning, so I’ll mainly be focusing on changing all of the literature I have related to price and updating my google ads. I also need to finish Catriona & Chris’ full images from their wedding at the end of July, but I have a couple weeks left on that. I’m creating a branding Pinterest leading up to some new changes to be announced in the New Year which is super exciting. I also need to structure and plan for Nadia & Carl’s wedding this Saturday. Oh mi gosh, did you see their beautiful pre-wedding shoot here? 

I’m super looking forward to a client meeting with Evelynne today too.

What are you working on this week?

 

*LISTENING TO…

Mos Def. I had the Black on Both Sides album YONKS ago and I’ve just started to get back into it. Smooth beats. I broke my IPhone during the week and they sent out a new one the very next day so I’ve put some of my music on to it for the tube, which I hadn’t done before!

 

*EATING…

I’ve been so good. Two Body Pump classes {I LOVE!} last week and I have a daily limit of 1450 calories a day.

Here are some tips that I’ve picked up from my new PT:

*Eat five smaller meals per day

*Only eat wholewheat/wholegrain pastas, breads, noodles etc

*Only eat full carbs for the first two meals. Fruit and veg natural carbs are fine in dinner later on.

*Breakfast should be the largest meal that you eat.

*You shouldn’t eat the yolk in a boiled egg. The whites are the protein. 

*Go skinny as much as you can. Milk, cream etc.

 

*READING…

Nothing, again. I’m useless! I will go to the library soon though and get out some Swedish crime novels. My mother sent over a list of recommendations.

 

*LOOKING FORWARD TO…

Super looking forward to Nadia & Carl’s wedding this weekend. And my client meeting today. And seeing my lovely friend Tarah for coffee. And many more Body Pump classes to come! And especially visiting a lovely place with MG tomorrow night.

 

*THINKING ABOUT…

My Pinterest boards for branding ready to showcase a new look in the New Year. Mainly! What are you thinking about?

 

 xox

 

PS – What do you reckon I had for dinner last night?

 

 

Hello, Hello! Wow you know what? I totally forgot to post last week. I had a client meeting for a potential wedding in October so the whole day I was focused on that! They booked so obviously it’s a good job that I did! Anyway, it’s been a great couple of weeks as per usual. It’s been a bit quiet on my blog though actually as I’ve only one wedding outstanding to be shown on here and my bride and groom are still on their honeymoon so I’m holding off until they get back and see their slideshow first. With all of my packages I include a mini website with a pre wedding slideshow and details of the wedding to send out to family and friends before the wedding. That’s the first place that your wedding photography highlights are shown after the big day; password protected and with music.

Anyway, I’m rambling now. Every day I’m working towards being grateful and I do love this time of the week to reflect back. Let’s get into it….

 

*WORKING ON….

The main focus this week is a new website that I’m creating for my father which has nothing to do with photography but requires a lot of work to be put into it. I’m excited to share with you the results in a few weeks, although it may go straight over your heads! My trusty website guy/hoster Christian King {highly recommended!} has been a star as usual helping me out with WordPress and 123reg bugs.

Yesterday I went out early in the morning to South Kensington, the home of the Natural History Museum, the V&A and the Science Museum. Oh, and a gorgeous PAUL coffee shop with the most delightful almond croissants. However, it was to the Science Museum that I was headed to as I was to shoot the set up of a new children’s party event hosted by Les Enfants. I was greeted by the most lovely bunch of women, gorgeous cakes and a magician dressed as a pilot…. to fit in with the theme of Space. The Science Museum and Les Enfants themselves will be showcasing the photography on their websites and Twitter feeds, so stay tuned.

I’ve also been getting to grips with ordering client albums from the wonderful FOLIO who make it super easy to manage. If you’re a photographer and looking for an album supplier, you should definitely give them a call. If you’re a client and love albums – they are worth saving up a little for! I promise.

This week I was featured on Love My Dress alongside Berinmade with some beautiful shots and DIY instructions to create a paper anemone pin. You can view that here. Thank you Annabel & Erin for making my day brighter xo

 

*LISTENING TO…

You know what, I’ve been terrible with music this week. I just forget. This question has reminded me so I’ve logged on to my Spotify account and found a friends playlist which includes some Ed Sheeran, Billy Bragg, Elbow, Bon Iver. Sounds great so far.

 

*EATING…

I’ve developed an obsession with pie and mash. Which is NOT the most healthiest idea! However, I have signed up for my first ever body pump class at the gym on Thursday morning and I’m meeting a new exercise advisor person tomorrow lunchtime to set up a plan for the next year{ish}. I also have a stir fry with green beans, chicken and yellow,green,red peppers tonight. AND an agreement for no alcohol, chocolate, fizzy drinks etc for the next month. I think I’ll start keeping a food diary.

 

*READING…

I finished all three Fifty Shades in about two days. MG bought me the book Perfume which I’ll move on to next although after that I’ll be heading back to the library for some crime novels. My mother is a library geek {lovingly} so I’ve emailed her for recommendations. Do you have any?

 

*LOOKING FORWARD TO…

I am looking forward to Nadia & Carl’s pre wedding shoot on Saturday very much. And a client meeting in Herts on Friday. And my body pump class on Thursday! And meeting an old friend for coffee either tomorrow or Friday. I’ve been a bit useless at confirming a time and place. Also looking forward to potentially meeting up with a new photography friend Chloe whos work I’ve been admiring for months.

 

*THINKING ABOUT…

I’m thinking about how to fill my blog when I don’t necessarily have any weddings. I don’t want brides coming to my blog to have to SEARCH for photography so I don’t want too many ‘misc’ wordy posts so I think my plan will be to start shooting much more and blog days out etc. What do you think? What do you want to see more of?

 

 xox

 

PS – A teaser from the Les Enfants shoot!

 

I have set a new PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT in my Facebook group, but this time it’s about blogs. Every member of the group has to pick a date in the next 34 dates and on that date, post a blog relating to photography.

Now, this doesn’t sound like much of a challenge because we do that as part of our job as a wedding photographer right? BUT not all of the members had a blog to begin with. And, what better way to promote your work than to show it in all it’s glory online in a story format.

My turn is today and I’m going to write about the arrival of my brand new baby – my IPad.

Now, I love new gadgets and toys as much as the next person. In fact, probably more than the next person! But this technological god has to be my most favourite of all. And. Yes. It’s kind of just a big IPhone and you can’t even call from it. {cough Facetime cough}.

But it’s so much more than that. 

 

 

So, what can I use this for with regards to photography?

Here are my main objectives

• Firstly, to be able to work it with IPhoto {which if you have a Mac you should definitely be using, it’s a great way to easy access and catalogue your work} to be able to show clients entire weddings and slideshow during coffee meetings.
• Secondly, to be able to send all of my emails and save down pdf files etc using Pages.
• Thirdly, to manage my client database, Bento, quickly and on the go.

 

I’ve only had it for a day, so that’s as far as I’ve got. I think they are pretty good reasons thus far to own one though! I was getting tired of taking my laptop {perfectly wonderful} along to meetings and then not being able to load my blogs because their internet was rubbish. Now I have them all in one place and ready to go! And yes.. I could have done that with my laptop but it’s bulky and… etc.

I have asked around for inspiring or useful Apps as a pointer for when you purchase yours. Here they are:

• Bento – my client database software. You can add your own fields and tickboxes. Useful but I haven’t worked out yet how to sync events/dates etc so you have to be pretty good at admin as well.
• AwesomeNote – a great to-do list and other notes folder.
• Pages – Like word. But Mac.
• Easy Release – a great model release software for shoots on the go.
• FolioBook – Another fab way to show off your photography!

 

I’d love to hear what your recommendations are! Safe to say I’ll be spending a lot of time with this in the future. 

 

Dear World. London is sticky and hot and I’ve resorted to getting all of my work done first thing in the morning and then lying around reading for the rest of the day. It’s a truly wonderful life.

 

*WORKING ON….

Just to recap over the last week, I’ve blogged both Sophie & Tom’s Winchester/West Wittering/Portsmouth pre wedding shoot and Faustine & Patrice’s Marylebone/Chelsea wedding. A bit playful with the new 24mm tilt shift on the pre-wedding shoot which I’m learning slowly. I’ve been helping out with a lot of the admin on the MG side so the week has been fairly quiet. On Sunday I took over Clapham Common and the quaint side streets with Chris and Alex aka Louie and Shep for their pre wedding shoot which I will be blogging in the next couple of days so stay tuned! Alex has seen them already and this was her quote – “Hey! Just saw the photos they are beautiful and perfectly captured the mood of the day! They are so pretty! Getting us both to look good was no easy task! Thanks do much and can’t wait to see what you do at the wedding! Xxx”

Absolutely adds the cherry on the top to the already oozingly delicious cake that is my job.

I’ve also been doing a lot in the house this week which I’m looking forward to completing very much. A plus to the sunshine is the washing dries much faster!

 

*LISTENING TO…

More chillout stuff this week, throwing in a bit of Leftfield which is an old favourite. What are your recommendations?

 

*EATING…

Smaller portions! And definitely no marshmallows. Okay, perhaps one or two. Trying to introduce a lot more fish back into the diet so last night was salmon with mash and green beans. Tonight is thai curry with a small section of rice and some vegetables. I’m planning on cooking up a Jamie Oliver chilli brisket on Thursday which I’m salivating over already.

 

*READING…{a change of question!}

Guess. I’ll give you one go. Yes, that’s correct. Fifty Shades. It’s a bit of an intense fairytale.

 

*LOOKING FORWARD TO…

Catriona & Chris’ wedding on Saturday! Bring on the Suffolk countryside and a red velvet photobooth. And then a client lunch with MG and Tim & Emma on Sunday. OH and getting my hair re-blonded soon. Le swoon. AND the second series of The Killing arriving. Love it.

 

*THINKING ABOUT…

All of the weddings taking off again as of this weekend, every week until October now. I just love it.

How to plan out my project for my photography Facebook group which I need to complete before Friday.

 

 xox

 

PS. Here is a teaser from Louie & Shep’s pre wedding.