Katy's Blog » Sheffield

An Exciting New Chapter

Katy — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:47:07 +0000

I started Serendipity Photography in January 2008 and have had an amazing 3 years running a business which I am so passionate about. I have had the opportunity to meet some wonderful couples and families as well as businesses and up and coming models/singers.
Every shoot I have done over the last three years has been individual and special. I have got to know a lot of families really well as I have photographed their little ones with my Shutterbug shoots. I hope that during this time I have created some very special memories for those familes, I know I will treasure these times.

It is now time for an exciting new chapter in my life. In December I was offered a very exciting job working with the wonderfully talented Julia Boggio and her husband James Derbyshire in their photography studio in Wimbledon. It was too good an opportunity to say no to as they want me to come on board to work with developing their business which focuses on baby and children portraits as well as Vintage Boudoir.

“We are proud to announce that Katy Thomson is joining our expanding team. Katy’s job, aside from taking beautiful photographs, will be to assist us in managing the rapid growth of our studio & to help open more studios in the future. Having looked for someone that would be a perfect fit for over a year, Julia & the team are thrilled to have found Katy, a trained teacher as well as a talented photographer.” Julia Boggio

It will be hard to leave Sheffield which has been such an important part of my life. I studied here at Sheffield University and then then stayed on for a further 3 years. Sheffield is the city where Serendipity Photography & Shutterbugs was born and nurtured. I have a lot of wonderful friends here and have made some fantastic contacts through all the networking groups I have belonged too. It has been a great place for me to start my business and has taken me to where I am now….ready to move back down to London and continue my photography journey.

I am passionate about photography and taking wonderful photos, especially of children. This new chapter is going to enable me to continue to do this whilst also working with one of the best photographers in the business. It is a real priviledge to work with James and Julia and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged me in my business I have loved every single minute. I will keep you all updated on my progress as I move to the home of tennis and wombles. : )

The Strawberry Advent Blog: 18th December – Bumps & Cupcakes…It started with a Tweet.

Katy — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:41:22 +0000

On the 18th day of Christmas the Strawberry Photographer brings to you….”Bumps and Cupcakes…..It started with a tweet.”

I am very excited to share this blog with you as it really celebrates the power of social networking and small businesses coming together to support each other. I am a keen Twitter fan and have been tweeting (@KTSerendipity) for well over a year. During this time I have got to know some amazing people and really developed my network of business contacts both here in Sheffield as well as around the country and in some cases, the world. As a sole trader running your own business can be a lonely place so meeting other like minded people in similar lines of work through social networking has been a real godsend. It has been so good to get to know other suppliers and pass work to each other as well as recommened each other for work that we come across. The best part of it has been getting the opportunities to work together.

In today’s Advent Blog I am sharing with you photos that were taken as a result of a shoot that started with a tweet! Over the summer I got talking with Laura from @Geniicupcakes and Philippa from @Kell_weddings. Laura runs her own cupcake company in Southampton and Philippa is a Wedding Planner based in Doncaster. Our conversation started when Laura mentioned that she was coming up with some new cupcake recipes which would be good for pregnant mums to be. She was trying out her ginger cupcakes with lime frosting and was also looking at other flavours based on food which helps with morning sickness or cravings. I had always been impressed with Laura’s cupcakes and her website so I was really intrigued with this new line of cupcakes that she was making. In a fly away comment I said that we should combine her cupcakes with my Shutterbugs photography as we both cater for maternity and new borns. As our tweets were going back and forth Laura suggested a photoshoot and then Philippa got involved and said that she would more than happily model as she was 7 months pregnant and loved cupcakes! Before we knew it our ideas and tweets were becoming reality as we arranged a time in our diary for Laura to come up to Sheffield with her cupcakes and for a photo shoot to be arranged.

I got my friend Natasha from Natasha Lyons Styling (@natashalyons) to help out with the styling of the shoot and Philippa arranged to have the Leopold Hotel in Sheffield as the location for our shoot. Philippa also arranged for a makeup artist to come on board as well. Before we knew it Laura was driving up from Southhampton and the photo shoot was taking place. It was an amazing day and was so lovely to meet Philippa and Laura. Due to all our conversations on twitter we chatted like we’d known each other for years. Natasha styled Philippa beautifully and Laura’s cupcakes looked divine. I was so impressed with the styling of the cupcakes as well as the thought and detail that Laura puts into her flavours and icing decoration.

The photos from this shoot have been used by Laura to help promote her cupcakes and I really hope that her business continues to grow from strength to strength. Philippa has since given birth to a gorgeous baby girl and continues to work as a wedding planner in Doncaster.

To find out more about their businesses have a look here: Laura from Genii Cupcakes, Philippa from Kellington Weddings, Natasha from Natasha Lyons Styling.

If you’re on twitter then say hi and follow us! @KTSerendipity @GeniiCupcakes @Kell_Weddings @NatashaLyons

The Beautiful Philippa

Bumps

Surrounded by Cupcakes

Delicious Cupcakes

Stylish Cupcakes

Baby Cupcakes

Yummy Mummy

It's a boy!

It's a girl!

Just want to eat it.

Ginger cupcakes with a lime frosting

Now I’ve written this blog I want to go and eat cupcakes!

The Strawberry Advent Blog: 7th December – A Vintage Tea Party

Katy — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:00:32 +0000

On the 7th day of Christmas the Strawberry Photographer brings to you….a Vintage Tea Party. This was such a brilliant photo shoot for me to do….I loved every single minute of it and can’t wait to share some of the photos with you.

Earlier this year a great team of business women came together in Sheffield to come up with a fantastic idea of combining networking with raising money for charity. The team consisted of Victoria Roberts from StarPS Recruitment, Victoria Wood from Fairy Communications (PR) and Kym Hall from Made in Sheffield Magazine. They wanted to create an event for business women in Sheffield where there could be some great networking as well as including entertainment whilst enjoying tea and cupcakes. What more would ladies want? The event took shape and the first Perfect Pink Tea Party was held in March 201o raising money for Weston Park Cancer Charity. Over the course of the afternoon £1000 was raised for the charity and the event was a runaway success.

Victoria and Victoria have carried on the Perfect Pink Tea Party and it has now become a quarterly event in Sheffield. As the event was becoming popular with entrepreneurs around Sheffield the girls wanted to create a website which would show what they were doing, promote the charity as well as inform people of the upcoming events. In order to do this I was approached to help them create some images which they could use on the website. The theme was Vintage Tea Party so we got in touch with Cocoa on Ecclesall Road to see if they would mind if we did the shoot in their wonderful shop full of chocolates and amazing vintage crockery.

We had a brilliant shoot. Victoria (Star) is not only an amazing business woman but also a makeup artist so she brought her make up with her to make sure they looked both looked gorgeous.

Perfect Pink Fairy

Beauty

Girls love Fancie Cupcakes

Perfect Pink Star

Every Girl Loves Cake

Taxi!

The Perfect Pink Tea Party Girls

Time for tea?

Thanks to Anna & Kate at Cocoa for letting us use their wonderful shop & Fancie Cupcakes for the cake. Now that you’ve seen the photos why don’t you check out the Perfect Pink Tea Party website and see the wonderful work that the girls are doing whilst encouraging Sheffield businesses to work together and support each other.

Rock the Dress – Jennie

Katy — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 12:21:49 +0000

I had the pleasure of doing another “Rock the Dress” shoot with Jennie. I actually photographed Jennie and Adam’s wedding nearly 2 years ago so it was lovely to be able to take more photos of Jennie in her gorgeous dress.

We chose a beautiful day for the shoot and started off in Chesterfield. I really wanted to get a venue with a piano for the shoot with Jennie as she is an amazing musician and Head of Music at Aston Comprehensive where I used to teach. Having done a wedding fair at The Pacific Lounge Bar in Chesterfield I saw that they had a white baby grand so thought that the modern, chic bar would work really well with Jennie. We only had about 45 minutes to do the shoot here as they are a very popular bar and on a gorgeously sunny day it was soon getting really busy.

The Musical Bride

Beautiful Bride

Beautiful Jennie

Rocking the dress

Elegance

After taking photos in Chesterfield we didn’t want to waste the gorgeous blue skies and sunshine so we ran back to our cars (Jennie in her wedding dress & me with all the camera equipment) and decided to head out into the Peak District. We drove out to Surprise View near Hathersage as it is one of my favourite places. It was gorgeous out in the countryside and because of the wonderful weather the views were amazing. Jennie looked stunning and was brilliant at clambering up onto rocks for the photos that I wanted to take.

Rocking the dress on the rocks!

Just stunning

Surprise View

A beautiful bride in the beautiful countryside.

I had a brilliant time doing the “Rock The Dress” shoot with Jennie. It was so much fun to get the chance to let Jennie get back into her wedding dress again and have a chance to take some stunning photos.

Wedding Photography – Engagement Shoot in Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens

Katy — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:08:33 +0000

Strawberries & Squirrels

The wedding season is well and truly underway and I am getting excited about the different weddings I have booked in this year. On Friday I met up with Kate and Simon who are getting married in a few weeks time. We had met out at their wedding venue a while ago but due to horrendous weather we postponed their pre-wedding shoot. They wanted to have photos taken in Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens which is one of my favourite places so I jumped at the chance.

We had a wonderful time after work on Friday. We had a lovely walk around the gardens and got photos in the bear pit, by the Japanese gardens and even made friends with one of the squirrels. I took along some strawberries for them to have during the shoot. Simon isn’t a fan of the wonderful red berry but for the sake of the photos he humoured me by eating one and then trying to feed another to the squirrel! It was great to spend more time with them and learn more about their engagement story. Kate actually proposed to Simon on the 29th February 2008. Simon made Kate wait for 20 long minutes before he got down on one knee, took her grandmother’s engagement ring and asked, “I’ll marry you, will you marry me?” They are such a lovely couple, loads of fun and have some great ideas for photos on their special day. I am now really excited about capturing all their wonderful memories on Saturday 8th May.

Here are some of the photos from our shoot.

Strawberries & Squirrels

Kate & Simon

The Bear Pit

Happiness

Playtime

Love

The Japanese Gardens

Strawberries

The Squirrel wasn't sure about the strawberry!

Getting excited about their special day.

Lifestyle Portraits – Valentine Competition Romance is alive and well.

Katy — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:25:58 +0000

Back in February I launched a Valentine Photoshoot competition where I encouraged couples in the Sheffield & surrounding areas to tell me about their most romantic local location. I had some wonderful entries and it was very difficult to decide on a winning couple so I put it to a panel who picked the story of Andy and Fiona.

Before I tell you about Fiona and Andy here are a few of the other entries which were short listed.

Rachel & Nick chose Chelsea Park as their most romantic location and this is why: “You can have a beautiful picnic in a quiet location and after a lazy afternoon you can watch the sun cast long shadows across the grass. A guilty pleasure made greater by the knowledge that you’re in the middle of an urban area, a few miles from a City Centre.”

Catherine & Robert chose Burbidge Rocks in Derbyshire: “The most romantic place has to be sitting on the edge of Burbidge Rocks in Derbyshire, moments of peace to sit, talk, relax and simply watch the world go by, with odd moments of distraction to keep us entertained.”

Jennie & Adam chose Whirlowbrook Hall. They were married there in July 2008 and I had the privilege of taking their wedding photos but I didn’t realise how special the place was to them. Jennie says, “Adam took me there when we’d only be going out for a matter of weeks. I was off work ill and needed to get out of the house. He drove me there and we just sat on a bench hugging each other whilst I coughed and spluttered! It was a sunny, bitter autumn day and he kept me warm and cosy. I think it was then that I knew he was the one. We have so many happy memories of Whirlowbrook Hall, including our wedding day, as this was the happiest of our lives. It’s set in a beautiful location, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and I would be honoured to have you photograph us again, in our favourite romantic location.”

Possibly the most amusing story was the one sent in by Maxine & Neil!

“I think that one of our romantic locations is a telephone box on the A619 Chatsworth Road (through Chesterfield) at the junction of Westbrook Drive! Why? It’s where Neil rang from, when we worked at Cole Brothers, to tell me that the offer on our home had been accepted. : ) We still live there, over 12 years later. Aaah! “

Some wonderful, romantic stories but the winning story and location was from Andy and Fiona. Here’s their entry:

“The location is a bit off the beaten track LOL! I don’t know even if it’s legal – I’m guessing it is I think it’s a ‘public footpath’ and we sort of veer off it into the woods.

When Andy and I first started dating (centuries ago I know!) we used to take a walk in Tankersley Manor woods and we found a little clearing in amongst the woods where we started going regularly for picnics – it’s a lovely spot, totally natural with trees and bushes I keep meaning to take the metal detector cos I feel we may find old coins or some other piece of history there. We even carved our initials on a tree with our keys (and keep topping it up now and again). The last time we went was Andy’s birthday just over a year ago when he didn’t know, I prepared a picnic and warm clothes as his birthday is in October – and luckily it was a dry day so we had a lovely lunch completely away from the beaten track.

I appreciate it’s not a proper tourist spot, but we think it’s romantic (for us anyway ahhhhh)”

I think it was the story about carving their intials into a tree that won the panel over! I went with Andy and Fiona to their favourite location to do the shoot and they came prepared with a wonderful picnic of champagne, love hearts, sandwiches & chocolate! We also found the tree where they first carved their initials into and they were able to redo it all over again! A lovely couple with a lovely story.

Here are some of their photos:

The happy couple & their tree

Carving their initials into the tree.

Champagne

Fiona & Andy

Romantic Picnic

Love Hearts...pamper me.

Happy smiles

Romance is alive and well.

Family Portrait at Graves Park Animal Farm

Katy — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:24:26 +0000

When I do my family & Shutterbug shoots I like to go to people’s homes or a chosen location. With this family I am doing a “birth to 1st year” package. We have done two shoots at their home but we wanted to do something a little different with our 3rd sitting so decided to go to Graves Park Animal Farm. We chose a wintery day for the shoot and had a morning of wintry showers but that didn’t stop us getting out there and having fun on the farm. I’m just hoping that our final shoot will be a little warmer!

Fun on the farm in the snow.

Wrapped up warm

Not sure if I want to smile..it's too cold!

Cheese!

Loving the tractor at the farm!

What can you see?

Rosie Cheeks

I want to go higher!

The game we all love as a child...."1..2...3...weeeee"

“My godmother is a photographer” – Photos of my newest goddaughter

Katy — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:45:10 +0000

At the start of December one of my best friends had her second child, a very beautiful little girl. I then had the very great honour of being asked to be her godmother. I already have 3 gorgeous godchildren but I couldn’t say no to playing a special part in this little one’s life! Unfortunately for little Becca (fortunately for me!) she will be featuring in a lot of my photos. I am doing my “Bump to 1st Year” Shutterbug package with Becca so I can’t wait to watch her grow and document it in photos. When it gets to her 18th I’ll have more than enough photos to embarrass her with!

These photos were taken last week when she was just over 2 months old.

Peek-a-boo

Cuddle with Daddy

Blue eyed girl

Cradle

Sleeping Beauty

Baby Feet

Mother & Daughter

Business Portraits – Sophie Mei

Katy — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:21:22 +0000

I was introduced to Sophie nearly a year ago and in that time we’ve got to know each other really well and become good friends. We’ve developed a good network of like minded business women which has been a great support to me on both the social and business level. Sophie is a great entrepreneur and always has new ideas on how to expand her business. Her main passion is media and PR so with her contacts from Britain’s Got Talent and Belly Dancing I am excited about all the new things she has planned. In order to go with these business ideas she needed some different photos to use for her publicity. I’ve done a lot of photos of Sophie when she has been belly dancing so it’s great to do something different and show Sophie the business woman.

Glamorous

The designer dress.

Thinking of the future.

Business Woman

Business Headshot

Informal headshot

Getting down to business.

A Family Engagement

Katy — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:55:02 +0000

I see a lot of engagements, excited couples planning their weddings and then I get to share it with them when I take their photos. Every couple is different and so my job is always fresh and exciting. I love hearing news of couples who have decided to get married but I have to say it is that extra special when it’s your sister! My sister, Fiona, and her boyfriend Bill got engaged just before Christmas and we are now really looking forward to a family wedding at the end of this year.

Bill proposed to Fiona on their 3rd anniversary. We were all hoping it would happen so it was great when I got a text saying:

“He did it! Got down on one knee in a cell at the courthouse hotel. I have a ring on my left hand. You’re the first to know (as promised in Notting Hill). Yay x x”

They got engaged at the place where they went on their first date which I think is so romantic! Bill had planned it properly and had even bought the ring ready to propose. Now this is something which I thought could be very risky! My sister and I had always said we’d like an antique ring if we got engaged and it’s the kind of thing where we would need to be there to choose. However Bill chose the ring for Fiona, with the help of a friend who’s mum is in the antique jewellry business, and Fiona absolutely LOVES it! Lots of brownie points for him from her as well as the rest of us!

Bill is already part of the family but it’s great that we’ll be celebrating their wedding later this year. I took a couple of photos of them when we spent time together at Christmas so thought I would share this with you. I am looking forward to swapping my camera for a bridesmaid dress for this wedding, although I think I may have to take a few shots…..it’s what I love to do at a wedding after all!

The ring..

Fiona & Bill

Happy

Proud Dad.

Engaged & Happy