January – 2018

In January my news feed was flooded with the posts of my friends summarising and looking back over 2017 with all they had experienced and achieved. A usual occurrence when one year comes to a close and another begins, and something I’ve partaken in for as long as I can remember. I jotted down on my never ending to-do list – “write your 2017 year in review blogpost”. I kept burying it in jobs – edit this shoot, plan this shoot, Instagram posts for the week, clean the house. I was avoiding it… and soon realised it was because I didn’t want to stop and look back, I just wanted to ride the momentum forward. 2017 was the year of momentum. A whole year that Martin and I survived feeding and housing ourselves by running our own business. Twenty-three weddings (I kept my promise on intentionally booking less so we could put our heart and soul into every one), our first destination wedding overseas, what felt like hundreds of shoots and starting a whole new branch to our business (dreamed up and brought to life whilst waiting a few hours at the Cairns airport). But apart from learning how to build our business – I had other challenges and battles that were too personal to talk openly about online – because it wasn’t entirely my story to tell. A first for me, as I’m usually quite forward with all the good and the bad bits. It was dark and hard and consuming – I saw a therapist for the first time. I had my own health struggles, and realised how for my whole life I’ve taken for granted feeling well – something I will try to always be grateful for going forward.

As the year was coming to a close and we were ramping up in our busiest time, my Father had a major heart attack and the last month of the year is a blurry mess of putting one foot in front of the other. It’s a cliche now for me to think that every year has been my hardest and taught me the most lessons, and I’m finally starting to realise that every year is hard in its own way. From here on out I think each year I’ll be learning about myself and about life. 2017 was the year I realised I’m really freaking strong. I’ve spent my whole life feeling weak – apologising for being nervous, beating myself up for not being the person that someone wanted me to be. Now I’m so immensely proud of myself, I’m my biggest supporter. And while I could dwell on all the shit storm that was thrown at me in 2017, instead I’ll remember the huge achievements and the progress I’ve made with accepting and loving myself.

So instead of pulling images from the past year and writing memories and stories from our journey – I’m looking forward with a clean slate. This is a blogpost dedicated to January of 2018 – a new chapter and a new year full of possibilities.

 

After the intensity of December – from three weddings, seven shoots, family commitments, Christmas, Melbourne to Adelaide to Whyalla to Adelaide to Melbourne – it’s safe to say we were exhausted bringing in the New Year. And I was sooo happy that we had intentionally left January wedding free – we had several fun shoots planned with families and local businesses but mostly January was for catching up on work and resting our bodies + hopefully getting some sunshine! And we stayed true to those promises. Martin’s birthday is the 21st of January, so we jumped at the idea of visiting friends in Hobart, Tasmania and checking out a local festival. For the week before we planned to leave, I was chained to my computer, day in day out editing the images we had photographed over the past four weeks. I wanted to complete all our client work so that I could leave the laptop at home and truely have a holiday. And against the odds I managed to finish our last pressing job the day before we left. The morning of our flight we madly packed up the house, threw clothes and a tent in our backpacks and made our way for a little mini adventure.

We landed in Hobart on a breezy evening and picked up our hire car. Whenever we get to hire a car on a trip I’ll forever feel like we’re living luxury in comparison to thinking back to our year abroad and all the buses, trains, hitching and hiking we did to reach our destination… jumping in a SUV and hitting the road feels like a million bucks. We stopped by Kmart just outside of Hobart to grab some camping supplies, and made our way to a local pub to play pool while waiting for our friend Roman to finish his work. We were heading to Roman’s beautiful block of land which is a 50 minute drive out into the countryside of Tasmania. We reached his place at dusk and found a spot of flat earth to quickly put up our tent. It was almost dark so I couldn’t quite make out my surroundings, and in the morning when we emerged from the tent to the misty sunrise I realised a herd of cows were about two meters from the tent – peering curiously over the neighbours fence. Next I saw the view – breathtaking alongside the lush surroundings. Roman is an architect and has plans to build his own home in the next two years – but for now there is a little caravan, shed, open fire, long drop toilet and an outdoor shower overlooking the valley. I tested the said shower out in the cold Tassie breeze (first time showering naked outdoors – can tick that one off the bucket list) and made a warm up of tea to enjoy with the view.

We made our way into town that day to meet up with Martin’s friend Max (who shares the same birthday!) and we hung out and explored Hobart for a few hours. We made our way back to Roman’s that evening where more friends had arrived – and spent a night eating fire roasted potatoes and drinking under the stars.

For the next three days we were spending them at Mofo Festival at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art. Our home for these three nights was a very retro motel about a 15 minutes stroll from the festival. We had a room next to our friends, and it was full of character. We watched some awesome musicians, explored the museum, met new friends, cooked BBQ’s for lunch on the waterfront BBQ, and basically just had a ridiculous amount of fun. The festival was super cool – sounds and acts from all over the world, art installations, lots of vegan food, beanbags on the grass, no disposable cups or plates = no waste, inclusive and accepting of everyone – an overall amazing space. We celebrated Martin’s (and Max’s) birthday on the Sunday, and on the Monday we headed back out to Roman’s property again for another night of chilling with friends.

For our last two nights in Hobart we decided to book a room at Martin’s favourite hostel – The Pickled Frog. He has so many good memories from his teen years staying with his friends in his hostel – and I could see why. So cosy and full of character, with little wooden booths for hanging out, a reading nook and a $1 pool table.

Our friends were just around the corner, so in the mornings we could meet for breakfast and explore for the day. We’re pretty spoilt that they took us on an awesome tour of Hobart and the surrounds. From driving up Mt Wellington, to ice creams in the botanic gardens, chilling at the beach and a night of kicking the footy in the park followed by the most delicious souvaliuki and a night of cheap $10 cocktails. Honestly we had the time of our lives, and both Martin and I can’t remember the last time we had so much carefree fun. We left Hobart filled to the brim with good vibes and are already planning to return again sometime later this year. It was exactly the break I needed, and especially having so much fun with a group of really good people.

Driving home again for the final week of January and back into the thick of work again. We had a mixture of shoots for families for Cast in Colour and exciting shoots with small businesses for the new branch of our photography – incolour.co

 

I wanted to end this blogpost with a handful of images from our amazing client shoots in January. Having time off from Weddings really meant we could drive into some creative shoots with some of our amazing clients. We’re really digging working with small businesses – as you’ll see we got to shoot with some of Melbourne’s rad cafes, an organic grocer and an Indian restaurant! And two really fun portrait shoots with families. We’re excited for the busyness of the season ahead, and I’m looking forward to sharing a little window into our creations here with you.

If you would like to keep up to date with our work, keep an eye on our instagrams!

@castincolour

@incolour.co