The person behind Magnolia Photography UK

Where have you been Magnolia?

2011-03-11T06:38:00.000Z

Well yes! It has been over a year since I updated this blog, but all within good reason....

Becoming a mam!

Life has finally allowed me to become a mother and my husband and I are so pleased as we were previously told it would be impossible so we have been enjoying our miracle child.

Unfortunate news!

Now it all hasn't been that easy, as I had some unfortunate news, which I believe I previously may have mentioned, I have a joint disability in which I have had not knowingly to me since the age of 14, perhaps younger and it is known as Hypermobility Syndrome which during pregnancy I developed Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD also known as Pelvic Girdle Pain, PGP).

Now, I closed my business as this condition has disabled me and I no longer work, but have continued to photograph and if anyone needs any images I am more than happy to assist.

Now this condition means that I need a wheelchair to get out and about but as you will soon see it has no effect on my photography skills, which I am very thankful for as photography has been a way of life for me since I was very young.

What to do with my life?

Now at 23 years old I needed to choose what to do with my life, and I am not the kind of person to sit about and do nothing, so after 2 years of investigating SPD and running a support group on a social networking site it opened my eyes to the need for an SPD charity, so I started one. However it will never be affiliated with my photography site but I have declared that Magnolia Photography Support it.

Starting a charity!

I bet your wanting to know what it is! It is called Support Pelvic Dysfunction and it is www.supportpelvicdysfunction.co.uk. 1 in 4 women *statistics from 2009 NHS booklet, develop SPD during pregnancy and I am told recently that it is now 1 in 3 women! This means that if you know a woman your likely to know someone who has, had or will have SPD at some point in their life, and just because one pregnancy may go OK, unfortunately it doesn't mean that SPD cannot happen in another.

So here I am offering support to all those including the families of the SPD sufferers, who are unfortunate enough to develop the condition. My charity also offers help to those with other pregnancy related conditions!

So I offer an email service ( help@supportpelvicdysfunction.co.uk )and one on one suggestive advice as well as a telephone help system ( 07721656764 ) on Mondays and Fridays. I am enjoying doing it to be honest as it is nice and refreshing to be able to help others when I know how hard it is and how much I struggled with the lack of help available to those who do not recover from SPD. It is common in pregnancy but it is not normal and should be diagnosed and treated! So yes, I am here to help.

Photography at our Boating Lake!

On a nice day, taking our son to the park, when I am not running my charity nor on my support sites, or going to many hospital appointments, I decided to do some outdoor photography of our wonderful boating lake.

I would love now more than anything else to show you the wonderful images I had the pleasure of capturing! And I would love more than anything more people and families to help get professional photo's as well as many on disc to print or many prints in fact if thats an option and all they have to do is cover the costs of the prints etc. So although I am not making any money I am not losing any either, and it's a benefit to me as I enjoy it so much and I get to use some of the images in my portfolio! I also respect the wishes of those who do not wish for their photos to be used or distributed by anyone other than themselves, its their right and they should have that right upheld!

New Photo Album!

We have also added an album to our website called 'OUR COLLECTION" and I thought it would be nice for people to see who we are and take a little peek into our lives a little, so we created this album and put some of our own personal family favourites in it, just for you. :)

Ok, no more ranting so here are my images now: (p.s. thank you for taking the time to read and enjoy our blog)

Note: Although some and not all of these images bear the copyright Magnolia watermark, all images provided are copyright 2001, 2011 © www.magnoliaphotography.co.uk and cannot be re-used or distributed without the prior written consent of Magnolia Photography, Newton Aycliffe.

This beautiful boating lake was where i had the pleasure of capturing images of the trees and ducks and this image is one of 3 i have captured of the lake.


This beautiful landscape image is the second of three beautiful images of newton aycliffe's boating lake. Stephenson Way School can be seen in the background as this is the other side of the boating lake in which we have a nice shop nearby to which we buy bread to feed the birds often with our young child.

This beautiful image is the third of three of Newton Aycliffe's Boating Lake, as in 2 you can see the Stephenson Way School in this image also. This area features beautiful trees and if you walk toward the school there is a nice bridge over the lake to take you to the other side where there are a number of benches in the park and also a play area (play park) with swings etc. for the little ones. If your lucky you can see our Newton Aycliffe mums excercising there on the morning surestart operate it, in which surestart is situated right next to Stephenson Way School. Perfect for the Pre-School youngsters! It offers many fantastic services including the exercising opportunities and mums can bring their little ones with them to that too!

All of these images and more can be viewed at www.magnoliaphotography.co.uk

So here I am!

So here I am plodding along day by day, capturing beauty whenever I'm able, enjoying the joys of being a mam, our son is 16 months old now and he is wonderful. He loves to run around the living room giggling, can say dog, baby, cat, hiya and things really well, is really clever, knows what you are asking of him, likes to wave hi and bye, calls Foxy from the Foxy bingo ads on JK a 'gog' (Dog) which always makes me and my husband giggle.

A Life saver!

I seem to have forgotton to mention how important it is what my husband has done since the condition. He quit work during my pregnancy to look after me as I needed 24/7 care, and as things have not changed he became my 24/7 registered carer and has been by my side ever since.

Now this might sound really easy but I am proud of us for sticking together when times were hard, at first we were just finding our feet, and then we had no social life for long periods of time and we couldn't be a couple, it might sound strange as we were together 24/7 and still are but we had no couple time or times where we felt like husband and wife as it has felt like a chore at times and for me has been really difficult from being really independent and working two jobs at a time whilst doing other things like my Psychology Degree I was doing as well as photography as I was going to become a Dr. of Clinical Psychology and work as a psychologist and do photography as well, both part-time.

And you feel like your doing well and your life's planned out and your achieving what you need when WHAM! You become disabled, you struggle with day to day tasks and your lifes turned completely upside down, i have poor mobility so cannot do stairs so ended up in a 2 year battle for a stairlift and only recently things are turning and on the up! But we have worked so hard I haven't really had time to update this blog or other things so I am pleased to have the opportunity finally to come on here and talk about what's been happening.

Well its 6:35am and I got up early to do a few online things and the bairns up and giggling haha, so my husbands going to get him up now... he is chatting to himself, don't you love baby babble!

Well I have to be off to go and be a mam, yay, and I was basically saying how proud I am of my husband who has dedicated his life and our marriage to becoming my carer which has been hard but were obviously a strong and very inlove and intune couple as were here and happy and fighting battles and hardships together.

Now that's something lovely to end this blog on!

Wish you all the best, thanks for stopping by, will update again soon!

Sarah

Magnolia Photography

x x x x x x x x x x x x

Won 1st Prize in a local competition...

2010-01-29T13:22:00.002Z

January 2010:

I am gobsmacked, since my business was closed originally due to maternity leave and now i have been diagnosed with a permanent life long disability and I am still in a wheelchair I thought photography would be off the agenda for a while!

But I still took some images and I entered a local competition on a site that I think is a fantastic idea and wish there was something like that for local disabled people too.

There was initially a problem with the sending in form but we managed to sort that out before the competition deadline to which i was so glad to have been able to enter as for a while i thought that it was going to be impossible.

Anyway, my parents mean so much to me, my mam and dad, and they are always an inspiration to me and i am so glad they found each other for more than the reason I am here, they are still together and very much in love and help my husband, our baby and I out so much and have been through a lot with us, especially with this disability and my wheelchair.

The camera I gave to my dad, a fujifilm finepix s7000 Digital Camera had just broken and i have tried everything to be able to support my dad and show him all our gratitude by getting him a new digital camera.

Being disabled has proven to make life difficult as each easy step I could do before becomes many complicated steps to reach one goal and something as simple as getting dressed, can make me immobile for the rest of the day or even week if I hurt myself, and I need help with it anyway.

So buying dad one was out of the question.

I entered this competition to try and win my dad the digital camera but also to be able to share a piece of my mind, life and I would say work but I prefer to call it n opportunity to view things through my eyes.

I am sat here speechless and cannot believe that I of all people have actually won 1st prize and now I am able to give my dad the prize, the digital camera.

I am not speaking of the image or the description or the make of the camera as I am not prepared to announce it before they do but you can find the information yourself which will be updated soon at the following link:

~~Click here on this sentence to go to the competition website :)~~
Please NOTE: Page is no longer on the site, So I have uploaded 2 screenshots of my entries and the site itself showing these to which I won with the PLUG image below:

Well this is the 2nd best day of my life as it would have been the first but nothing ever will ever be able to beat the day we had our son.

I will cherish this in my memories forever, and I am ever so flattered and happy that I actually achieved this. Having had to fight for everything and having had a difficult life as well as finding it difficult to feel self worth being newly disabled this is a fantastic boost of self confidence, self worth as well as the feel good factor and the appreciation I feel for being accepted.

I meant every word I said about the image and as an artist I enjoyed capturing it and edited it wholeheartedly, I put my heart and soul into what I do and that's why my main aim business wise is/was to help others.

I am still shocked, speechless and cannot help but smile which is being shared by my son who is laid on my knee smiling and giggling back at me as if he shares the moment and knows how i feel right now.

I love him so much, and even if i never win anything ever again in my whole life, no one can take this moment away from me and it means the world to me, its as if i have won the lottery and i just cannot explain it.

Some people may think that i am going over the top but those who do can, as i am being honest and it really has meant this much to me, it has :)

much love to everyone reading this and again you never know unless you try!

"Reach for the moon and you are bound to land on a star" and I am always happy with a star as I don't need the moon, the simple things in life are always the best, the moments, the feelings, the experiences, nothing more.

xxxx

p.s. will put the image up on here alongside the description as soon as it has been announced for a while, as I refuse to take that away from the lovely people who gave me this opportunity in the first place, you are fantastic and I am forever grateful. xxxx

Hmmm... when life takes a funny turn...

2010-01-25T12:13:00.008Z

... we have to keep our humour!

O.K. No one can ever say this easily, but.... I have been diagnosed with a life long severe disability, and for those who don't know, it triggered problems during my pregnancy and I am currently in a wheelchair.

I made a promise to myself last night that being disabled for life will not bring me down. Hopefully, eventually pain management will make life easier. Until then I will have to suffer, but it will not change me or who I am. It will not define me or who I am, I am still me, at least I am alive. I will help others with the same problems as I, as no truer word be said than from those who have experienced.

And I meant every word I said. It's times like these that you cannot help but find yourself being philosophical and my husband just smiled at me when I queried my words "...as no truer word be said than from those who have experienced." He wants me to write books as well, well you wont' know will you, a friend of mine by the name of Nev says I speak with my heart and would make a great writer.

I live for my miracle son and my fantastic husband.

BUT: I will try and re-open Magnolia Photography UK as I like to practice the advice I teach, such sayings I advise other Photographers:

"All I advise anyone is to capture from the heart, a photo is meaningless if you don't capture the things you care about."

"A camera is simply a tool to capture the eyes of an artist."

I would very much like to continue capturing people, places and life. If I fail to re-open as a business then I will and am very determined that it will stay as what it was originally, Freelance and a Hobby.

I created a piece of Art recently in an attempt to capture how I felt, but you can never put the whole picture accross to people, but there is no harm in trying.

O.K so it may not be to everyone's taste but like I said before feelings are hard to make into a visual representation and it's a piece of my mind, presented to an audience, visually, with the only tools I have. Photoshop.

This is my happy blog and I feel I am moving in an unwanted direction so I am happy to present some model images I have been working on of a lovely lady I met when my business was open, she is beautiful, kind hearted, understanding, patient and unique.

I dedicate these to her and hope she goes far!

Credits in advance:

Model: Gwendoline Wilson.
Make up Artistry: Magnolia Photography UK:
©2009,2010 http://www.magnoliaphotography.co.uk
Studio: Magnolia Photography UK/Newton Aycliffe.
Editing: Magnolia Photography UK 2009,2010.

Editing Example first:

NOTE: Click on the images to view them BIGGER then click back.

Thank you Gwen for being a fantastic Model and for giving me the opportunity to capture you for my Portfolio.

I wish you all the luck in the world and I am sure you will go far,

keep your chin up and never give up modelling.

Much love.

Sarah. x

Start 2010 with peace, happiness and hope...

2010-01-02T01:41:00.020Z

Before reading this I am having font issues and the font may differ below to this font that has been typed now, and I really don't know why, so sorry but I have tried sorting it out. It is readable anyway and that is the most important purpose, especially for a blog, enjoy.

I have done the right thing today and I am feeling happy, proud and hopeful that things will sort out soon. ♥

I am also proud that I have done it in a professional, kind-hearted and helpful way instead of stooping low to others levels. It's 2010 now, and it's nice to start 2010 with peace, happiness and hope ♥

Wish everyone the luck they deserve, have a good 2010!

It is easy for you to lose your temper or cry and be disappointed when someone does a hurtful action towards you, whether you know the person or not, and these emotions are triggered from our self defense mechanism to stressors; basically our bodies natural defensive response to stressful/upsetting/hurtful things.

Having these feelings does not make you a bad person as everyone has them, it is however how you choose to react, respond or reply in some virtual cases, to such actions that define your actions to follow as bad/good.

I choose good and you know what it feels great, as I have attempted to solve any issues, dealt with the action appropriately, honestly and fairly and offered possible solutions for moving on or resolving any issues and I have a right to feel good, as what I have responded to today, involves many people not just myself and also involves the reputation of a fantastic organisation, so I really hope my response will make everything right for 2010.

Here are some images, some from the personal memory bank, that make me happy, smile, feel good, remember and laugh; that I would like very much to share with you.

This is an image from Holland, of a fish eating statue.

This brings back happy memories as it was a dear friend who invited me over with a friend (unfortunately now a long lost friend) to have a break and have some fun; in which for fun, we worked in his recording studio recording a song I wrote and perfecting it.

A song? You may be thinking, yes, I have many hobbies, but I never said I was any good at any of them, and you may find the song and the video slightly weird, but it is just something I wrote and enjoyed and have many memories associated with, mainly exceptionally good ones.

Note: Before watching this I would like to point out a few things about the video.

The guitarist is the dear friend of mine from Holland, Den Haag, we are still very much friends and I enjoy watching the music videos he makes of his solo songs and band. Anyway twas he who changed the progression of the chords I wrote for this song and is the mastermind behind the backwards guitar solo. I also wrote the lyrics and I am also singing the song, there are conflicting opinions on my singing but I could not allow for anyone to sing the song I wrote, as it is personal to me, means a lot to me and by singing the song, I am expressing myself through the song I created, and believe strongly in expressing myself through art; in which as an artist, I also paint, draw, sketch, try to play the guitar *giggles*, write lyrics mainly and attempt putting chords to it, sing, and do what I love the most, my photography.

Many of which I share with my husband as we love to be creative together, he is an excellent guitarist as opposed to me and his pop art canvases are simply fantastic, in which we are both proud to have sold one canvas each in which we painted, so thats 2 out of about 5 we painted. I have also sold a second canvas but that was a portrait canvas painted from a photograph. We love sharing every moment we can together and we enjoy ourselves when being artistic and creative.

As I also stated in a previous blog, I have modelled alternative clothing for local shops and some bands etc, in which I have also appeared in mainstream magazines. This video includes some images of me modelling such clothes, being with my husband Rob, dancing in the sea in holland, our pet hamsters who are no longer with us but will always be in our hearts, Donnie and Claudio and some photography pictures of places me and Rob visited together and their beauty, the tree, view of part of Huddersfield, trees, our guitar desaturated.

There is also a picture of me and my friend Buzz Gringo, from Holland, the guitarist, it is picture number 3 in regards to order, in which I am stood on the right with pigtails.

I am forever grateful for his present of the trip to Holland for 10 days and witness Den Haag and beautiful places surrounding.

Hope you enjoy, and hope it works for you.

(The lyrics at the beginning whispered: I won't shout, hear me out, I have too much to say, take my words, keep them close, don't let them fade away.)

Here is the video:

I like this image of a model I photographed who is also a very friendly lady. I emphasised her eyes, which are blue, and think this would look quite nice on a canvas, I do like the hand positions.

This image is of a friend of mine and it was my idea to add the rainbow to the image as I think the image is beautiful and I wanted her to be at the end of a rainbow to signify reaching your goal as everyone knows the leprechauns goal is to get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, well in this image she is beautiful, and she is the pot of gold. *smiles*

Blue Shoes, I call it, I like the femininity of this image and maybe because every woman has some sort of attraction to shoes, I do too, I just love how the legs look and again would love to have this as a canvas.

This is a friend of mine who I met in Huddersfield (where I met my husband) who was camera shy but had an incredible dress sense, which I admire him so much for his bravery to show this to the public eye and face them without a care in the world, as I, deep down have unusual dress sense and used to, when I was in my teens, not care, but wish I was the same now, I am so scared of people judging me, not wanting me to do their photography (even though I dress professional at all times for clients and assignments), and the clothes I want to wear are just pretty really. Dresses with bizarre designs, i.e., yellow and strawberries, pink ribboned parasol, pink/black stripy tights, hello kitty shoes and fashion.

Any way think I will wear the clothes I just mentioned and do a blog on my weird and wonderful, personal fashion sense. Maybe it is because I am an artist I wish to express myself via fashion differently to the rest of the world, I don't know, all I know is it makes me very happy.

He allowed me to take his first shot ever, and I was and am to this day, still flattered, and wanted to do something special with his image, this looks like it has a union jack for a sky, with the lines, and I wanted to emphasise the beauty and colours of the sky, and desaturate the bottom as if to insinuate a feeling of 'age', as if it was old in comparison.

I used a spotlight filter to darken some corners including the bottom right one, to emphasise age, again.

I think of this picture as a tribute to Britain and being proud to be british but also to be looking onwards from your past, thinking about your future as you look onward to the sky, all his hopes and dreams floating around in his head and we will never know, all we can do is just watch from this distance as he glares up at the sky.

This is the last image I am going to share with you for this post, and I feel it is a nice picture to end.

It was shot on the same shoot as the image above with the British sky, and it is beautiful to me.

I always admire the shapes of trees, their age and their branches and this one shows the different sizes which I love the most as looking through the branches at the sky, if you have not noticed already, is one of my many favourite things to do, and with this one you have many small and scattered branches infront of the sky.

Why is that beautiful? What does it mean to you?

Well when I look at it, it makes me think of the many paths you can choose in life, your family and how it expands, grows, change as nothing stays the same, life and hope, as the trees and plants reach for the light, as we reach for the happy things in life. Our light.

You may have mixed opinions on what I see, and there are many sayings that can be linked, such as 'light at the end of the tunnel' also an interpretation of reaching goals and happy things in life, but I had to be honest with you, I am not going to make up something to try and impress anyone, this is genuinely what I see when I see this tree, and it makes me incredibly happy, hopeful and it really makes me want to go for a walk again, which I cannot do due to my wheelchair, well, wants to make me go outside and feel the wind on my cheeks and watch the leaves swaying.

Whenever someone upsets you, just think of the person you are, not who they are, and do what you think would make you happy, in which would also solve any issues as opposed to creating more. Even if you choose to turn the other cheek and ignore.

Hope you have a happy 2010 filled with many happy moments, opportunities and good luck.

Family and winter images I love...

2009-12-27T19:38:00.005Z

We recently sent a card to my husbands grandma, who is Brandon's Great. Grandma now. All the Christmas poems were not very good so I wrote the following:

To a very special grandma

who has now become a great,

but in our hearts you already were

the greatest of the great

as you are so loving

and you are so kind

Robert, Sarah and Brandon,

in our hearts you shine.

With love this Christmas.

Some of the following images, when clicked may be huge, as I will have uploaded the full size version(s).

I know this image has a washing line and a lampost in, but it so beautiful to me.

It is all about man vs. Nature.

Our creations and signs of life,

and the plants, trees and beautiful snow,

falling amongst them.

I thought it was applicable as it was taken last year at Christmas and the blogging above is about a Christmas card to a lady very important to us.

Other images that I love, that some others may wish to reject. Just because an image is RAW and unedited, imperfect, does not mean it is worthy of rejection. As an artist and a photographer I accept the beauty that is displayed in areas of images that maybe others would not perceive as beautiful, I love various images, life images, memories, and real.

This blurry, image of a sweeping brush, and plant pots, amongst other things, captured as it is snowing in the orange streetlight is another one of my favourites.

I love the colour and whispy detail that the snow creates, the many lines.

This street shot I snapped last year, always takes my breath away, I just seem to love the warm glow the lampost distributes accross the street. And there is nothing more appealing to me than the look and glistening of untouched snow. No sign of tampering, no footprints... completely untouched. A huge white blanket. like they say. Sparkling and beautiful. This image has additional meaning to me as it is where we lived last, and this was the view from our bedroom window... a view that I used before to capture some lovely images of birds and trees which I will publish now:

I love the birds, and I emphasise them and the sky by adding a shadow, dark, vignette to the edges of this image, and saturating the sky to bring out the colours.

There is beauty everywhere, you just need to be lucky enough to have the opportunity to capture it, good photographers sometimes need to be in the right place at the right time, sometimes, to be lucky enough to capture the most precious images in their portfolio's.

I love the sky and the warmth in this, and how it is opening at the top left. I added an artistic filter to this image to make it appear more bold.

All these images were taken from the same window as I shot the images above.

This is my favourite shot of a tree from that window, in which the sky was beautifully coloured and I enhanced the colour by saturating it again using Photoshop.

I find this image breathtaking, it is not because I took it, it is the scene in which I captured, I am so happy I had the opportunity to capture this.

I would love to have this image printed on Canvas for one of the rooms in my house. It is important to me.

Some images such as this are available to buy at:

*Magnolia Photography Online Proofing and Shop* in which may be down when our business is closed.

You click view pictures/order prints and select the album 'Prints for your home'.
This is an unlocked album and has some unusual and some traditional shots that I like and perhaps some others would enjoy also. Hope you like my work and as always, feel free to comment, I look forward to hearing from you.

Newton Aycliffe. Proud to be a newtonion.

The life we create and the life we choose to lead.

2009-12-27T18:54:00.002Z

I thank our lucky stars everyday that I wake up next to my husband and to our first son, our miracle baby, the one we were told for years I would never be able to conceive, lying in his Moses Basket next to us.

Picture, Left, Above, our son sucking his thumb in the womb.

Mothers everywhere will relate to how it feels when they are pregnant.

Although I have SPD that started at 16 weeks pregnant, I would go through it over and over again just for him. Our little 'squish face' who is absolutely beautiful.

All through my pregnancy I was in agony and in a wheelchair, in which I am still to this day, a month after birth, but whenever I felt down, or was sobbing, or in pain, I would feel this little life inside me, move, kick, wriggle, hiccup and prod; and he would make me feel on top of the world.

He was named and very much wanted way before we even conceived and we needed some little help from a pill called 'Clomid'. This forced my ovaries to release one of my eggs, one that later became our son Brandon. The son we have waited all our lives to have.

There were many problems and complications through the pregnancy and birth and some still occuring now, but lady luck has shone on us, as we got through it to be able to have him here, in our arms.

Picture, Above, I am in a wheelchair holding my bump.
Picture, Left, My third trimester, I am in agony as I attempt to kneel with my husbands help to show off our son, as he is the womb.

Many people take pregnancy and children for granted but you never know how important something is until you have experienced severe and traumatic problems.

He was born 8lbs 11oz on November 20th 2009 at 18:52hrs.
I tried to give birth normally but the SPD was too much and the baby was stuck.

I was offered an intervention or a C-Section and thankfully I chose the emergency section as we later found out, as it was written on our discharge paper, that our son had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and head and if I had opted for intervention, he may have never been here at all.

Life will always throw obstacles at you, but it's overcoming these obstacles that make you the person you are today and you find yourself aware and appreciative of moments, things, situations that to your dismay, others take for granted.

Picture, Right, the picture I dreaded to be captured.
All through my pregnancy I avoided images being taken of me in my wheelchair, but why? I am still in it now, it has been replaced with a self-propelling one, one I can move myself at times.

But the question is why do we not accept things around us at times. There was and is a positive to me having a wheelchair. It prevented me from being stuck indoors, being alone and isolated. I could and can go places. Still do certain things I did when I could walk.

So when you are having a hard time you should stop and look at the situation in a different light, you may be perceiving something positive, negatively, I have many times. As negative as it is, it is life and there is nothing I can do to change things.

So at the end of suffering, there is usually something positive and our positive, our light at the end of the tunnel is our son. Who has transformed our lives.

No other life event we will experience, can ever come close to the birth of Brandon, our Brandon, our Son.

Just holding him brings me to tears, relief, happiness and love. Many other feelings that are so strong and important it is impossible for me to put into words.

I am enjoying being a mam. Something I never thought I would be and the husband and I are very much looking forward to growing old together and sharing our son as we grow together.

Experiencing him and his life and his growing up together.

Things that you cannot put a price on.

Think twice the next time you moan about something and ask yourself, is it worth it? Really worth all the stress? When there are more serious things happening and you are so lucky to be where you are today.

Christmas Tree Wonders...

2009-12-27T17:36:00.002Z

So there is another side to Professional, Business woman Magnolia...

... a one that is somewhat childlike...

...welcome to my inner 'princess' child...

When it came to putting up our tree, it had not been long before we had moved and it looked likely we had possibly thrown out our decorations, so we had a naked tree.

Due to me being very girly in which I like to have dolls, hello kitty, Tenshi Neko, Glittery and more items of girly nature, my husband dug out my box of dolls and accessories. I thought these would be a fantastic idea to de-nakify (yes that is a word now, I said my rules!) our tree.

So we started and I created some paper wings for the doll we used as the fairy on top of the tree, Snow White from the Disney Dolls collection. I gave her a white and gold beaded dress, tiara and wand.

And we had a tree fit for a Princess just like me.

*giggles*

..and an idea that can work every Christmas with those that have young children, who could even change the toy themes to whatever they wished. Something else to look forward to at Christmas...

...and here is our evidence; enjoy.

A piece of Magnolia... (Intro to blog).

2009-12-27T15:33:00.002Z

To start I would like to share a piece of me, not the name I chose. It would be predictable to match this title with photography I could have done of the Magnolia flower itself, but that is already established under the name Magnolia.

When you name a person, what do you name them from, and do you expect them to resemble what you named them from forever?

I don't, I believe it is the personality that defines the name and although Magnolia is not my name, it was not given to me, it was chosen in 2001 as a name to put to my photography, it has blossomed and developed, to mean many things.

And one thing that I associate with the name I have given my work, is me.

So here are some pieces of me, I would like to express and share. Of course your interpretations will be different, meanings will be different and perceptions will be different to mine...

...but that's exactly what makes things interesting.

Image information:
Top: A self portrait 'Jump' using Tripod and Timer. Left: Unedited, straight from camera, full sized image of myself, my husband snapped this. Right: A snapshot I created of a headshot my husband took, to show the world the lady behind Magnolia Photography UK.

I have been behind the lens quite a few times and even found myself published in magazines and modelling for merchandise companies, bands and shops but this is not what I wish to do, although I didn't mind helping a few people out and enjoyed the feeling you get when someone compliments you, I knew deep inside that modelling is really not for me.

I have too big of a heart and care too much about my appearance to be strong enough to model, and I won't kid you, I have stretch marks, more so now, my war wounds I call them from having our miracle baby, and I am not the required size for modelling. I was surprised to find myself in those situations in the first place, but I am proud. Proud of what I have achieved and proud to have been brave enough at the time to allow myself to experience such opportunities.

What I am proud of the most, is the people I inspired, I personally do not see myself as any inspiration at all, but modelling and other women witnessing this, I inspired others to persue their dreams and model themselves, as I proved that you do not have to be the 'required size' to model as there are areas out there that require various women to model.

This is why I help, support, advise and provide contacts to women who approach me for such purposes. Promoting natural and 'normal' beauty, getting various women who could be your next door neighbour, or a girl you went to school with into doing what they have always dreamed. There is an area for everyone, despite how you feel. I myself have photoshopped women for magazines who are top models, and yes they have stretch marks too, I remove them, they have spots and blemishes and I make them into what the magazine wants, the 'required size' and model.

You need to be brave though, and be able to wash remarks and criticism away, and I as an individual find it more appealing and more 'me' to be behind a camera, capturing the world. This is merely what I prefer and I enjoy it.

I enjoy bringing the best out of people, capturing the moments that matter and I have dabbled in Make Up Artistry, Styling and thought up creative settings and positions, which I have advised on posture and have many credentials in these areas. I have a drama background as well, acting and performing in which helps me to create such appealing/artistic/creative concepts for images, in which unlike my dabbling in Make Up Artistry I have qualifications in. I do have backstage styling and make up experience but no qualifications as of yet, not that I have not tried though.

Starting my Art and Photography as a business was very hard, but I did it. I offer Design, Photography and Image editing through my business, but there is nothing I wish to do more than to put the concepts I have in my mind into images.

Now you know some of why I do what I do, and what I have done, I would like to continue this blog focusing more on images of meaning to me.

*Note: Click on an image to view them larger in the same window or to read the articles I have included.*