Super excited to share a back of camera shot from a local client shoot this week!!
Friday Night Confessionals….remembering….
What a week, it’s hard to believe we’re approaching the end of March and we passed the 1 year anniversary of lockdown, a sombre remembering of those we’ve lost and how we’ve adjusted/pivoted/adapted to all our ways of life.
Friday Night Confessionals.... a tribute x
Friday Night Confessionals.......2021 International Women's Day
This year……ZOOM ruled
As International Women’s Day approached this year I had been spending this lockdown online studying my other passion, Yoga Teaching. The love and happiness that flowed out of the screens during class was phenomenal.
I pondered ways to celebrate and appreciate this when it occurred to me we were graduating the day before on March 7th so I asked if anyone would love to be involved and created the #choosetochallenge images for the IWD Gallery and some additional images for fun :-)
Totally amazed it worked and beyond thrilled these amazing souls below were up to experiment and see what would happen, we laughed A LOT and created some beautiful images. Thank You everyone xx My heart is FULL xx
Friday Night Confessionals......F.I.L.M
Ok ok so I’m actually a bit more than delighted by these FILM photos, the lushness of the colours and the detail in each image is filling me up! ALSO important to mention I had to send the colour film away to @westendcameras for them to develop and I’ve been wondering how this test roll was going to turn out!!
I’m so happy because the camera #pentaxmesuper hadn’t been used since 1983 + the #Fuji film was 5 years out of date lol
It felt pretty special to be carrying and photographing with my Grandads camera - he loved nature and flowers and has the most epic macro lens I am excited to try next!!! He passed when I was 7 + I was very much banned from going anywhere near his darkroom BUT I was allowed (lol) to be infront of the lens + we have numerous photos of me sitting for his pictures. Fun memories and incredibly special to all these years later be taking his camera for a walk and using it myself.
I have specific ideas for this camera and as a test roll I’m excited to explore this further, especially with such richness in the colours + as natures evolves towards spring ❤️💕❤️ Happy Friday y’all xx #filmisalive #britishphotographer #filmphotographer #fujifilmsuperia200
Friday night Confessionals….For the love of Peonies
Juicy Fridays….
Hi!! How is everyone doing?? February already and I’ve been armpit deep in training since the beginning of the year, which has been amazing and super intense, a part of me wondered why this was such a great idea during a pandemic lol but this quote from it has really resonated
‘Ironed out in the FIRE’
YES! So today, rain outside, a need within to be creative, so many ideas brewing and a pot of delicious gold paint calling….
Ahaaaaaa……Oh I’m super excited I had the chance to explore something that’s been tickling me for about a week but I hadn’t had the chance to act on it until, the tickle got too much today and I busted out my art box, brushes, paints, peony images, lay newspaper down and tapped my imagination.
Different brush sizes and textures later I started adding gold shimmer to a test image from my Peony portfolio : luscious fine art paper!! I’ve lots more exploration but I’m excited by this start :-)
Here’s to creative weekends ahead!! Have a great one!! x
Sunday morning confessionals + early morning pondering…
So lockdown eases on Wednesday, I’ve been awake since 4am , I’ve sipped a couple of cups of green tea and before I potentially return to snoozing I wanted to share a couple of images from the last week.
I’m still walking but unfortunately not as frequently as LD1.0 - this week however I managed to capture a stunning sunset or two and being back in nature really flexed a muscle and fired off all the good vibes, it’s such a tonic. The second half of this lockdown has felt at times like walking thru treacle whilst coated in marshmallow + reminding myself that it’s ok to take a breath and just breathe, whilst sounding so simple, has proved rather more trickier for some reason (I’m not searching for the answers to my resistance- I’m still trying to breathe lol) but positives and silver linings abound.
chatting to friends overseas via FaceTime/ FB video - SUCH a joy
fresh air - ALWAYS
meeting new businesses opening up on the high street in my town - exciting!
photographing Christmas for Alitex - a super cosy, divine photo shoot which included coffee + mince pies - what’s not to love!
Have a lovely week everyone! x
Friday afternoon confessionals....lockdown day 9
(We won’t mention it’s also Friday 13th lol)
so Same, same but different…..
This lockdown is different, it doesn’t feel the same, parts of it seem familiar, but it’s just enough to feel slightly odd too - is that even possible with how this year is running? Actually amongst all this I feel hopeful and elated after the weekend election results, I also feel relieved, but, hopeful, mainly hopeful. So as we ride through our second lockdown, it’s been pretty eventful this week.
Monday afternoon I took a friend to A&E, LUCKILY she is ok and we returned home with a Wagas takeout (separate homes/masks worn in the car/ sanitised everything). Tuesday was my birthday - I’ve never solo walked with friends at a distance so much in one day and eaten lunch al fresco in November - it was fabulous! I ALSO threw on (haha as if that was even possible) shoe horned my ass in to my gold hot pants not worn in public since 2013 and if a girl can’t wear a sparkle on her birthday when can she wear it? My future self will thank me for it I am certain :-)
Wednesday I woke up feeling like hell, it wasn’t a hangover, not a drop of fizz has passed my lips for a while! I returned to bed until mid afternoon when I decided to investigate the nearest drive in testing spot - off I went, cotton swab wafted to the back of my throat + up my right nostril, I spent 10 seconds trying not to giggle as it was ridiculously ticklish + when else would you discover there’s a spot right up your nose that tickles? I’m grateful my result was negative. Still feeling exhausted I took a little walk around the block today taking in the sunny air then promptly returned home to soup and lots of water. So Friday here we are. The week has flown yet I’ve been super elated by all the awesome friends I have that sang happy birthday in varying tones through whatsapp/facebook/text - the flowers that arrived yesterday/ the hamper of goodies/ gifts of candles/treats/relaxation. For a lockdown birthday week it’s been pretty wonderful in so many unexpected ways + once my energy levels lift I’ll be back to world domination, for now I’m off to read + nap.
Stay safe everyone, BIG LOVE Jxx
Lockdown birthday 101 - wear sparkle and embrace it with a pout, socially distanced friend + sunshine x
Lockdown 2.0 Day 1, November 5th 2020
My morning walk too pretty not to share.
At the beginning of the March lockdown I fervently read a book on the benefits of being in nature and every morning after what became my ritual coffee, set out on my walk. This morning it began again only it felt more wild than before but I wonder if that’s bcos I’m seeing more this time around and after spending most part of the year walking this route that I’ve tuned in to the changing landscape.
I say good morning to the sheep, not bcos I’ve lost my mind but bcos I want to gently let them know I mean no harm as I walk through their home up the hill towards the woods where the birds sing the day to life and I stand smiling in gratitude filling my lungs with fresh air and centering myself.
There’s a long log I test my balance on like a child when my mind is racing with thoughts and I need to switch it off, concentrating on not flying in to the brambles/nettles/horse poo will do that lol
Here’s a snippet of my morning walk, sharing the peacefulness if you need it xx stay safe everyone + sane! Love J xx #hampshirecountryside #countrygirl #walksinnature
Community Hero’s - A Lockdown photo project
Lockdown Photo Project, Jackie King, Community Spirit, Judith
Read MoreFriday Night Confessionals….it’s 9pm… where did today go?
I’m writing this wondering quite where this week flew to?
Just a short ditty this evening :-) I’ve kept up my twice daily walks taking in the early morning bird song - bliss, rolling fields, peace and fresh air + loved pottering around my garden, dead heading my fucias, tending to the gooseberries, cucumber + tomatoes in between work.
It has felt slightly unnerving seeing so many people around as I rejoin society and in the heat of Thursday my mask became a sauna - very good for the skin I’m sure!! Lol
So as this week draws out and the weekend begins I want to wish you all a wonderful sunny one xx
Weekend confessionals - raw imagery
Lockdown diaries / keeping sane in the time of COVID
OK so believe me when I say THESE ARE NOT the finished article, they are a work in progress and proof of a ‘breakthrough’ (small gains)
I’m not the kind of person to share something until the journey is complete and you can look back and reflect, order the highs and lows and make sense of the process but here I find myself sharing this work in its raw form for the reason that I am relieved to ACTUALLY SEE SOMETHING
It’s been weird and strange not photographing clients and so to keep my sanity I started photographing my daily walk. I dug out my Hasselblad and loaded it with film, I made a photo diary of developing + re acquainting myself with a process I hadn’t touched in years and then I hit a wall. My scanner didn’t scan 120 negs, I couldn’t ‘see’ what I was shooting, I felt blind. Unsure my light meter, camera, self was working. I’m a problem solver but I was stumped. I sat on the problem searching for a solution wanting desperately to see.
Tonight after trying, frustratedly giving up, talking to one of my oldest friends and then trying again I FINALLY SAW SOMETHING!
My film negs taped to my window shot on my phone, twisted in some weird app I see the community I have been capturing, the souls who have tirelessly worked to keep life going.
The teachers at the local primary school preparing for two year groups to return
Wendy from Porters who has worked relentlessly throughout
Judith a student of mine who has made scrubs for the local hospital
Simon who turned a tea room into a general store for his village + many more + One day I’ll see them all
A Couples guide to our session
For each of my proposal couples and couples celebrating their love I create shoot plans and guides similar to the ones above.
After an email or chat over the phone where we discuss the details of your vision, we set up the following
Your Celebration/Occassion: Proposal/Anniversary/Birthday/Just Because
Our Route: Depending upon your goals and favourite spots
Time: Morning/Late Afternoon/Evening
Location: London/Hampshire
Delivery: Digital/Prints
This is always super helpful for both of us to confirm the details and sure everything up.
A Blast of colour to help lift lockdown
Friday Afternoon Confessionals.....
Two weeks ago I landed in Boston, One week ago I landed back in London, when things move rapidly, all we can do is hang on and try our best to navigate the ride!
This afternoon as I write this, looking out at the sunshine, blue sky and peacefulness, I am 100% sure everyone everywhere is still feeling the surreal-ness of the situations we are adjusting to - I’m not going to harness that, instead I’m sharing my trip back to Maine, the walks I took in nature + the portraits at a distance I created + a couple of shots from my phone of the amazing colours I’m seeing on my daily walks x
So Maine, my spiritual haven, hmmm perhaps better to say my photographic haven where the photo magic first happened. A workshop back at my old school with my fabulous professor learning carbon transfer printing.
All the info I had read ahead of class told me just how tricky it was - AND IT IS!! BUT it was also really wonderful to be connecting with the photographic process and craft back in the dark room after quite a long time away. I used one of my images of one of my brides + for a first attempt it has encouraged me to experiment further when the time is right and to take this process and see where it takes me…….
This trip also enabled me to get back in to deep nature and embrace the sea air and sunsets!!! The light has always been magical in Maine and now home on my evening walks I am also seeing slithers of it here too :-)
I also had EVERY INTENTION of continuing my International Women’s Day project photographing friends and I people I knew with the theme ‘friendship’ . With lock down swift in America I respectfully kept my distance from the two ladies I had the opportunity to photograph and above is ‘Pam’ my airbnb host. When I return I’ll photograph the others I didn’t catch on this trip :-) but it was great to even capture these!!
And so to home. Just on my iphone but maybe I’m being more vigilant, a bit more aware of my surroundings but I am loving the colours that are appearing in the evenings, soft tones and hues, pastels and patches of light highlighting the landscape that would in the past not necessarily caught my attention…..maybe I brought a bit of the magic back with me…stay safe + healthy everyone!! xx
International Women's Day 2020
Celebrating ‘Friendship’
March 2020
I couldn’t let this year pass without celebrating - every year I capture portraits of women which then become an exhibition with the idea of inspiring younger generations.
This year the arts project in Croydon is taking a break + I thought it would be great to do something a little more casual with the end results being shared online during the day of International Women’s Day. I set about thinking of friends who work in central London so I could be in one spot and it wouldn’t be too tricky for them to come to me with the theme ‘friendship’ + ask them for their own interpretation, feeling, word, colour - whatever it was that resonates with them.
so Friday 6th these gorgeous ladies below swung by for chatter, tea, pictures + let me take their photo.
I also had in my mind that I’m trying something new….challenging myself + stepping out of my comfort zone to shoot in a different way, to step back slightly, to allow the images to sit together, to continue for the month of March, to include portraits where the sitter isn’t smiling - I CANNOT even BEGIN to tell you HOW HARD that was!!! + produce a lovely project + as it turned out, was a very poignant theme.
Above a screen shot of my final selection of images, Below the final cut (or so I thought!)
I loved how everyone’s response was very different.
I wanted to bring people together with this project, to share their individual interpretation of “friendship” + to create portraits where I challenged myself in the image making. I am really good at getting right up close to people and in to their space to capture their essence + to be honest this has turned in to a process of challenging normality for me, for sitting on my own hands when I wanted to move in closer or select the happiest photo in the selection + publish on socials only my finely curated selection of happy.
What transpired was me forcing myself to choose images I loved but were perhaps a little more sullen than my usual work. Not soley to challenge myself but to look at the images with a different perspective, a different vantage point. That in itself challenged me to let go and reconnect to being happy with the images myself, whichever ones I chose + trusting the ‘process’.
It’s also been about a conversation Tanya and I had about the viewers experience and ‘seeing’ as the artist or photographer was at the precise moment in time and layering on top of that what we bring in the form of our own interpretation/feelings/emotions/life events to any art at any given moment.
My normal way of working is interacting, observing, creating ease between me, my camera and my sitter, recording just the right representation that I see in any given moment that I feel is an accurate representation of them - on Friday, I stepped back, I deliberately created space to see if it impacted the images I created, if it brought something else forward. So a project based on friendship and exploring how we see.
It’s interesting that looking through the selected images of each of my friends , the versatility of their emotions and our conversation serves as a great mixture to capture slightly different feelings in each picture + the selections below are to appease my controlling mind and show the fun we had!! :-) They also work really nicely as a set of images.
I’m continuing this project and excited to capture more friends through March - over on instagram you can also hear everyone’s interpretation of ‘friendship’ . Have a fab March + enjoy x
Friday Night Confessionals....When London is your meeting point
Ahhhh ALL the Friday night lovevibes right here!!
AND AWESOME CLIENT LOVE <3 xx
Jackie was amazing from start to finish. Her attitude and energy were matched only by her skill as a photographer. We were a tough assignment with multiple extended family members from 20 months to 75 years old and she managed to keep us engaged, get all of the combinations we wanted in the shots and most importantly to get us to have fun.
I LOVED this session, everyone was super fun and up for snuggling in to keep warm AND Because they had all flown in to London from very hot and very different locations and not seen each other all together since Jason’s wedding 4 years ago, it was extra super special!!
YAY LONDON Happy Friday everyone! Have a super weekend x
Keeping Warm in Winter!!
Happy Tuesday everyone!!
I am SO thrilled to share this awesome session with you from just before Christmas in South Kensington, London. We had perfect photo weather!!! A little overcast meant that the light was beautifully diffused + there were no harsh shadows going on :-)
In town celebrating their anniversary, Peyton + her husband chose this gorgeous route + we had a lot of funI For #vataionphotography I work with a company called #Flytographer - such a cool concept whether with friends, couples, families, solo travellers you can choose a photographer in their destination city + your holiday destination to capture your time and memories in a favourite part of town. South Kensington is one of my favourites, it’s buzzing and pretty at amy time of year but I really love the peacefulness of Winter and the colour pops of berries or decorations against the white wall buildings.
Enjoy + have a great evening! x
“Jackie was all around amazing. She was unbelievably flexible with the weather and truly went out of her way to bring our vision to life. Our anniversary photos will be something we cherish forever and we are so thankful to have had Jackie capture those memories for us. Her eye for photography and natural light are unparalleled. We couldn’t recommend her enough!”
Friday Night Confessionals
Friday turns in to Saturday
I had every intention to post last night, to sit down and enjoy writing about the week, Andrea + Wes’s beautiful proposal + finish off Friday, sunny side up - but when it came to it, words just weren’t there and I didn’t want to half ass it.
So here I am fresh as a daisy - Saturday morning after two photo sessions in London, sun is shinning + I’m heading home to my first Xmas party of the season! I’m very excited, it’s bowling and mince pies - what’s not to love!!
I worked with Wes to pick the perfect spot for him to propose to Andrea a few weeks ahead of their trip to London. We planned our interaction, me casually offering to take a photo of them and bosh, Wes got down on one knee and Hey Presto!
Following the shock, delight and utter happiness, we continued creating engagement pictures around St.Dunstans before walking along to The Tower of London + Tower Bridge where the light was super pretty (the north side of the river is always dreamy to photograph at in good weather as the sun rises the other side).
We found lots of fun doorways and textures to mid in with the epic iconic backdrops London has to offer and had so much fun!
If you’re planning a trip to London or a proposal over Christmas, do drop me a DM or call to discuss your plans and ideas + I’ll take it from there!
Friday Afternoon Confessionals
On this grey, rainy Friday I thought sharing these guys might lift the mood!
Photographed around Shoreditch + Brick Lane, I love the ever changing graphics, the blasts of colour casually illuminating the area and pops of wow when you see something new.
It had been a while since I photographed a session around this area and I always arrive way before a session is scheduled to reccy the area and with the light beautifully pouring down the high street I was excited with what lay ahead in our session.
Super colourful London Love
These guys were so fun and open to ideas and beyond cute with each other!!
Just beyond Spitalfields and on the way to Brick Lane is a outdoor studio delight - if you LOVE texture + rustic colours lol.
No understatement on how IN LOVE I am with this backdrop!!!!!!! Part Penelope Pitstop Part evil rider lol
As I mentioned!!! THAT LIGHT - I mean hello!!!! We also met the owner of the shop these two are in front of + who had arrived to open and kindly and graciously let some smooching happen before he got to work :-) #LOVELONDON
To book your couples session (or surprise proposal, it’s almost getting to that time of year!!!) drop my an email or give me a call and we can coordinate a plan :-)
Have a great Friday!!xx
