The Farm

As you are probably aware I have run  little photography get togethers for the past year or so and love looking for new locations for you all to play. In January last year , when snow was all around, I spent the day with Chris, a very good friend of mine who is also a photographer....although he needs to get his camera out more than he does! He told me about the ruins of Lydiate abbey, which are next to Farm not far from home and we spent the afternoon exploring them - it was like Narnia, cold, snowy and quite beautiful, and so later in the year when I was thinking of a new location for a Walkabout I remembered the farm and popped along to meet the now famous Farmer Brian who agreed to let a crazy bunch of photographers and scantily clad models wander around the Farm!

Brian was amazing, he opened up all the barns for us to use, and let us wander pretty much anywhere we wanted to. I ran a few Walkabouts there and always had my eye on one of the little outbuildings and dreamed of being based there but was still working full time and this remained a dream....until the chance of voluntary redundancy came up and I took the leap. On Christmas Eve that year, Mike and I popped down to the Farm for lunch and a walk and on the gift shop was a sign - 'Closing Down'

Well....to cut a very long story short - I pretty much nagged Brian for the next month to let me lease the gift shop - he was reluctant at first as he did have plans of his own for it and was not going to consider renting it again but I promised to bring more gorgeous models and he finally agreed to leasing it to me for the summer so we could both see how it went and this was perfect - it gave me the chance to see whether I wanted a permanent base or not. So after some frantic painting and spider removing I opened on my birthday - (March the 12th - cards and presents always welcome) and had a fantastic time with lots of friends and family popping in to say hi

So over the last few months I had had an iterating time at the Farm, I have organised Walkabouts, hosted a course by John Denton and Andrew Schofield, and done numerous photoshoots, from frosty ones, to the bluebells and daffodils in the spring, through to the summer with the wheat and corn in the fields....but don't tell Brian it was me that flattened the wheat, I am bring to convince him its the work of visiting aliens!

Towards the end of the summer I had to make a decision - I knew that it was going to be quiet at the Farm and very cold over the Winter and so I made the decision to close up over the Winter months with an option to re opening again in the Spring - and so this is where I am at the moment - my lovely new home office has arrived and photoshoots are taking me out and about all over the Northwest. I am probably going to wait and see what Spring bring and then decide whether to go back to having a base at the Farm - Brian has made it very clear that he is very happy for me to continue using the Farm for photoshoots and Walkabouts and so I will not be leaving completely

I really want to say a huge thank you to everyone at Lydiate Hall Farm for just being the most supportive bunch of people I could have wished for - and I will be back for the scones!

I also want to say thank you to all of you who have come to love the Farm - and Farmer Brian, and the peacocks as much as I do. I feel  have grown as a photographer this year and a lot of that is due to being around all of you and being inspired by what you do.

My absolute highlights of the year are

• the opening of the studio - and having Laurel and Hardy come along!
• being welcomed by the amazing peacocks very day
• watching the seasons change, the crops grow and shouting at Brian when he has plowed a field I planned to use!
• hosting John Dentons art nude course and noticing that the farmers were plowing some very wonky lines as they were trying to see what we were doing
• throwing buckets of water at the lovely Jamie - all in the name of photography!
• trying to jump onto a haystack with Casey....... and having Claire Penn photographing me falling off the other side - I am just so graceful its untrue
• meeting an awesome bunch of very talented photographers, make up artists and models who worked their socks off this year - all in the aid of fun and learning

So - the end of the year is nearly here and I feel that there are new places to explore, new challenges to accept, and lots of new people to meet......keep in touch, pop round for a brew if you are in the area and keep an eye out for some events being planned for next year and if you have some great memories from this year feel free to leave a message on here......I will leave you will the video from Johns workshop - see you all soon xxxxx

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