On Saturday I headed to Belfast to celebrate Paddy’s birthday in The Hudson Bar (happy birthday, Paddy!). It was my first surprise birthday party, so I was pretty excited about yelling SURPRISE. It was a stellar weekend in regards to the weather, so there were plenty of pints outside Duke of York, followed by a relaxing Sunday sunbathing on the grass at City Hall. This was my fourth visit to Belfast, and I finally had a Boojum. Oh. My. God. I’ve also been encouraged to pursue my wrestling career by Hughes, so watch out for that.
Robert and Oonah’s Belfast Wedding
I am always humbled when people give me the opportunity to photograph their wedding. Their wedding. It was more-so humbling when Robert and Oonah, two people I now consider friends, invited me over to Belfast – a city I’m not familiar with – and entrusted me in photographing their special day. Oonah sent me the loveliest words after seeing the photos.
“You’ve captured all the people in my life who mean so much to me, we are so so grateful, it’s like you knew what I was imagining and just made it!”
I lucked out with Robert and Oonah; least of all because they both scrub up well (not that I had any doubts), or because they were laid back enough to carry on taking photos outdoors after the rain started, but because everybody who attended their wedding was genuinely happy for them and the vibe was, therefore, perfect throughout the entire day. That made my job easy.
I’m In Belfast
A quick and painless 30 minute flight and I am now in Belfast for a wedding. When I was aimlessly hunting for food, I came across David Hughes and the City Hall. I don’t know which was more beautiful.
Belfast is the same kind of pretty Glasgow is (in my opinion); there are a few really good buildings that stand out, and lots of nice textures kicking about. I’m looking forward to photographing my first wedding of the year tomorrow (in the City Hall!).
Croatia, My Fave
This year has been insane for travel. Lanzarote, Amsterdam, California, Belgrade plus UK trips to Belfast, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol. But let’s not exclude my favourite trip of the year—Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Like most of the travel I ended up doing this year, it wasn’t planned. I was invited to speak at MicroConf fairly last minute. We were put up in a 5 star hotel, Hotel Dubrovnik Palace, and I was upgraded to a suite!
There wasn’t much time for exploring, but on my first day I headed to the Old Town. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan you’ll be familiar with Dubrovnik because it’s where some of the series is filmed. The weather was fantastic, the food and drink was delightful. Dubrovnik was the highlight of my year.
Build
Last week saw my third jaunt to Belfast, the second of which has been to attend Build. I’ll keep it brief, but Build had quite a profound impact on me this time around. I guess I feel at a transitional period in my career, full of energy towards the projects I’m working on and making positive changes to my business. I’ve also been itching to surround myself with creative people lately, which Build gave me an opportunity to do (especially on Friday when I did a bit of work in the co-working space, Black Box, and was able to show some people what I’ve been working on and garner feedback). I must attend the next, and final, year.…
Travels
I clocked this amazing journal on The Paperie whilst I was casually browsing stationery (does anyone else casually browse stationery?). Last year I got bit by the travel bug after getting on my first flight in 5 years (which followed with a trip to New York, then Florida and onto Belfast, all in the space of 4 weeks!). This year it looks to be a busy one with work, though I plan on getting away at some point, even if it is to a European city for a long weekend. Owning my camera has definitely surged an interest in travel for me; not the relaxed, beach holidays that you typically go on to recharge your batteries, but the rich-in-culture adventures that make me and my 5D explode with excitement. I’m going to fill this journal with notes and postcards and everything else.
Be sure to check out The Paperie if you’re into “casually browsing stationery” and use discount code girlwithacamera to get 10% off.