How it began…

Working from home, with three year old twins Cali and Laci and Colin trying to work… there was a lot going on in our house, like many others! Colin and I were working shifts at work around child care, the kids were struggling to understand why they couldn’t play with their cousins over the road, and I was mainly sitting on a never ending sequence of work Teams calls.

We were not one of the Netflix chilling, garden pruning, or house decluttering homes… we were one of the unproductive, making it through the day by an “arm” hair, scraping play dough off the couch every day kinda houses. Sure, we had moments of inspiration early on - a few HIIT training routines (couple of weeks at best), an inappropriate for our age TikTok passion (published one video), there were of course, a few banana loaves. But, apart from that our only other commitments were ensuring the iPad was fully charged at all times, there was gin in the house, and we made it through the full Suits marathon of 9 series. Nailed it.

Out for a walk one day (rare escape from the house), I was thinking about what I could actually do that would be of use to fellow COVID house arrest homes in the area, something where I could be productive… as relaxing is not my forte. Something I just enjoyed doing. So I offered to take [socially distanced] door step photos of anyone who would like one.

There was no opportunity to take a family photo during lockdown, selfies aside. There were no days out, no weddings or birthday parties. Just no occasion for someone else to take a family photo to document this lost time in peoples lives. The kids didn’t stop growing in this time and neither did we.

So, I dusted off my Canon and we drove around with the camera and seen some friendly faces - it was just brilliant. I expected everyone to come to the door in their pyjamas, but look at everyone in the photos making a total effort! Which, was also brilliant to see. An excuse to get dressed up and get a bit of make-up on (dread to think about make-up sales during lockdown!).

That was the beginning of this side hustle that’s now turned into my business. I’ve such good memories of this, the feeling that I could give people something they could keep to remember this dull but anxious time in their lives. And, that’s the feeling I now love when I do shoots. Taking the photos is fun, but giving people these images to keep and remember past times is what I really love.