The idea behind a shootswap is that as photographers, we are often the ones always behind the lens – and therefore have loads of lovely family photos, but none with us actually in the photo! I thought it made sense to team up with some of my photographer friends and photograph each other’s families while having a lovely day out. This was the first time I’ve done it and I’m pretty sure everyone really enjoyed themselves! I am certainly really pleased with the results and will treasure them forever!

Maz has a holiday home down in Devon, so we scheduled an afternoon to photograph each other’s families when they were down in the South West. The weather had been very unpredictable, so we weren’t quite sure how things would work out in terms of locations, but fortunately the sun shone bright all afternoon and we had a ball!

We had a wander around the village and did some shots outside her lovely farm conversion, then Maz and her family supplied us with a fabulous Devonshire cream tea in the garden which was just the icing on the cake for such a wonderful day!

Not only do I love the photos Maz took of us (check out her blog) but we had such a lovely time hanging out with her and her family. Let’s hope she is up for doing it again sometime!!!

No coloured borders today I’m afraid coloured-border fans (and I know there are a few of you!!). I won’t be watermarking my images on my new blog and as everything will be changing soon, I’m going to make a start now!

I do love the current design, and I loved it for when I was mainly doing weddings in urban venues around Bristol, but now that I’m living in Devon I wanted my site to reflect that and we’ll be going for something a bit more fresh, vintage and with a bit of a coastal vibe but still keeping close to my current look logo.

To begin with, I’ll just be having an all in one blog and website, so in a couple of weeks if you go to www.rosieparsons.com or www.rosieparsons.com/blog you’ll be sent to the same place.

I hope you’ll all like it when it goes live, you’ll have to let me know what you think!

We had a great time walking along the beach and they both were fortunate enough to find some very rare dinosaur eggs…. or they could have been large pebbles, who knows?

After such an incredible find, we thought it only right to celebrate with some rather delicious ice cream sundaes from the fab Rinky Tinks which is a little cafe set right on the beach. Mouthwatering!!

I’ve always thought there wasn’t that much community and support for fledgling professional photographers, and when you’re starting out it’s so important to get advice and connected. That’s why I started The Photography Parlour – a new blog aimed at aspiring pros!

It’s packed with interviews with professional photographers from all sectors – we’ve even got an amazing interview coming up with the legendary Gered Mankowitz who took probably the most iconic photograph ever of Jimi Hendrix and was the Rolling Stones official photographer!

On the site we’ll be regularly featuring work from up and coming photographers who have just shot their first paid assignment and they’ll share the experience and the highs (and lows!) with us. We also have our “Industry Insider” posts from VIPs in the photographic community like Terry Hope, the Editor of Photo Pro Magazine and Owen Beiny who runs controversial paparazzi photo agency World Entertainment News Network.

Finally, we will also have weekly Marketing Monday posts which will give us all an insight into the different ways we can promote our businesses! Already on the site we have Kat from Rock n Roll Bride who talks about getting work featured on blogs, and coming up there will be posts on optimising your website for search engines and an amazing branding two parter from American wedding photographer Ken Luallen!

I really hope this will develop into the hub for the up and coming photographic community – so come and make yourself at home, and don’t forget to leave a comment or two!

www.thephotographyparlour.com

I joined her at Caffe Clifton in Bristol this Monday to shoot some images at one of her workshops for her new site, and what’s more I even got a chance to try my own hand at making a fascinator (a lovely little teal green number!). We also had an amazing slap up afternoon tea with gorgeous cakes supplied by Clifton Cake Cafe

I’ll be heading up to London with her for the next date which is a Mad Hatters Tea Party afternoon workshop on Sunday March 7th at uber cute Hampstead tearooms Bake-a-boo www.bake-a-boo.com/. We also plan to take in afternoon tea at the brilliant Sketch as a birthday treat (I’ll be 28 in two weeks time – eeek!).

For all the details of Vicky’s London workshop check out www.bake-a-boo.com/workshops – it would be great to see you there!

My good friend Vicky from Vintage Teasets paid me a visit today, and we decided it would be rather marvelous to also head off the beaten track and down the rural Devon country lanes to visit the lovely Rosie who runs Green Union.

We were especially impressed with her amazing lemon polenta cake that was warm out of the oven – yummm! And enjoyed meeting all her fluffy chickens! Of course I had to do some photography while I was there!

First bit of news is that I’ve just launched my new commercial photography site! You can access it at http://corporate.rosieparsons.com and just like my wedding photography, it aims to provide something a little bit different to the average corporate photography sites!

I’ve had a lot of fun putting it together with Lee and getting all the images for it. We had a fantastic few days in Dartmouth shooting at Browns Hotel and then at celebrity chef John Burton-Race’s gorgeous place The New Angel.

I’ve also been working with solicitor’s firm Hartnell Chanot & Partners in Exeter on their new staff profiles for their website. My father is a partner there and it’s been great to work with family!

The other bit of news is that we are moving home!

If you’ve been following me for some time, you might remember that we only moved to Bristol about 6 months ago – so it’s been quite a stressful year, but Lee has got a new job in Exeter doing web design and we are really excited to be moving to this wonderful part of the country!

I’ve already been along to a couple of networking meetings for Devon folk and am looking forward to meeting many more. There certainly seems to be a thriving social networking scene down here on Twitter and I’ll be heading along to the Exeter TAGS tweetup on Thursday.

I grew up in Exeter, so it’ll be fantastic to be back and to meet up with old friends. The city has changed a lot since I left for University aged 18 (almost ten years ago now!) – the new Princesshay shopping centre looks fantastic and I know Lee and I will probably be found in the Apple Store most weekends!

We’re already setting up home down here, but are still receiving post at our Bristol address for the next few weeks.

Look forward to seeing you all for cream teas down here soon!

I don’t think there will be much chance to check emails etc while I’m away, but I’ll be back on Friday so if you drop me a line I will reply to you then!

I look forward to updating you with some fabulous pics upon my return (as well as photos from the beautiful Shan + David’s wedding in Wales and Anna + Roberts at Notley Abbey from yesterday)!

See you then!

On Sunday night we had a lovely BBQ with the neighbours and of course, I had to get my camera out and get a few shots of all the fun! I did manage to put it away the rest of the weekend though!

Until her suicide in 1971 she photographed a variety of portraits, most of which – judging from the exhibition – were focused on the strangeness of life.

She seemed to seek out the weird and eerie, especially in the normal and everyday. But the sad thing is that the photos seemed to speak louder about the woman who took them than the subjects she photographed.

Arbus focused on the marginalised in society – disabled people, transvestites and the poor, among others. But instead of photographing these people with dignity and compassion, her work seemed to have a mean undercurrent. She chose images which were obviously from a series and she’d picked the photo where her subject looked the worst or was in the middle of speaking. She suffered from depression, and I wonder if this contributed to what she chose to photograph, or the frames she chose to keep from each session. It can’t be easy when you are depressed yourself to see the positive and good in others, and the exhibition of 69 images itself certainly conveyed to us the feeling of hopelessness that she perhaps felt herself.

It’s not really fair for me to write too much more as Arbus is no longer around to speak for herself about why she chose her subjects or particular images above others. But I came away from the exhibition thinking that I should like to do an exhibition myself – but this time one of joy, showing the best of human nature. I’m brainstorming ideas already!

To view more of her work visit her wikipedia page here (I can’t post her images as they are under copyright) or visit the Museum of Wales website.