I recently helped out on a little music promo and stretched my legs on a bit of video filming and editing. I was very excited to be able to use the video capture on my new camera as I’d never shot video on an SLR before. Back in my uni days when I did do a spot of video editing that would’ve seemed like witchcraft.

The promo was for the musical duo, Bird and Cook and was a joint project between the folks at Loft&Print (Neil Leonard and Jill Adams) – a new, Bournemouth co-working space which we’re excited to be moving into very soon!

We had about an hour and a half window to shoot this promo at the very charismatic Shelley Theatre in Boscombe. We tried our best to get fancy with various takes and camera angles. Afterwards, during pack up Martin and Alex asked me if I’d take a couple of shots of them and the stage set-up.

So, here’s what we came up with:

Off the back of this we’re all very pleased Bird and Cook have got a regular Tuesday slot at Kino Lounge in Bournemouth Square. So, if you’re in town and fancy a cocktail, pizza and a chance to be crooned at by Martin and Alex, head on down there!

Oh, and while we’re at it, you can also listen to a bit more of Martin Bird‘s musical work on Kevin Eldon’s TV Show – ‘It’s Kevin‘, Sunday 22.30pm – BBC2.

Here’s a bit of Popsox to see you on your way. I can’t get this out of my head!:

For a long time we’ve needed some inspiration for things to do on our days off that doesn’t involve us splashing too much cash, going to the same old haunts time and time again and doing the same things (brunch, cake and coffee come up way too often). We recently read this brilliant article from guest blogger, Martha on Florence Finds on the topic of “Alphabet Dating”. In a nutshell, as inspiration for day trips and nights out you and your partner work through from A-Z, using the letters as a guide. Personally, I’m not a fan of the term “Date Night”… I don’t live in an 80s John Hughes’ America (although I wish I did sometimes). We really just needed a helping hand in finding new and exciting things to do that would get us out of the house. So, we’ve simply dubbed our A-Z “Adventure Days”.

We’ve only just started this, so I’m afraid we don’t have a action-packed A-Z blog full of us fooling around on our days out. However, it’s such a blimin’ good idea (and an excellent article to boot) I had to do a premature share.

So far, we’ve only done two so are looking for ideas for our “C-Day”. Any suggestions are welcome!

A is for “Acting”

We had a brilliant time recently taking a trip up to Southampton for the matinee of Graham Linehan’s The Ladykillers at the Mayflower Theatre.

It’s been so long since we went to the theatre, let alone a cosy matinee. We even had ice-cream in the interval.

We are massive fans of Graham Linehan and were so lucky for this to be touring near us. Everything was perfect; great performances from a star-studded cast, brilliant script and such a magical production (the set, lighting and sound were out of this world). It’s coming to the end of its current tour, but if it does another run do go and check it out!

B is for “Biking”

For B we felt like we needed to do something a bit more active. We love “Biking” so much, but we really only have town bikes that are built for road and promenade riding. There is absolutely no way I would ride my beauty of a basket bike around on muddy tracks. For a start, it’s way too heavy. So, instead we took at trip to Moors Valley Country Park to get a bit mucky riding through tracks and woodland on one of their hire bikes.

We did go with the intention of getting a tandem (but they only had one and that had already gone). However, to be honest, after all the rain I think a tandem would have been a nightmare. We were more than happy bombing it around on a mountain bike. Although, Ian got so warm riding up the hills he fell victim to “Fog Glasses”. And he pretty much wrecked his gilet.

Here are some photos we took when we weren’t being muddy mountain bikers.

Hopefully the A-Z Adventure Days will continue soon…

At the start of the year we made a promise to ourselves we’d get out and do fun things on our day off. That was fine, and was working, until wedding season got underway and I started drowning in editing. At the end of last week I realised the only time I’d physically been outside in days was to go and vote, and to put the bin out. Not good…

So, we needed to nip that bad habit in the bud, get out and go somewhere to get some fresh air. And where better to do that than… errr… a dark and damp cave?

When I was little we didn’t go on holidays abroad (unless you count the Isle of Wight). Instead, we’d have a week where we’d do day trips and we’d each have a say where we’d like to go. It was the best type of holiday, because you knew you’d be doing something completely different every day. Top of the hot list for me was always Cheddar. I’m not sure why… I liked looking around gift shops and coveting semi-precious metals, so it ticked two boxes before even paying for a ticket to go inside. It’s a pretty amazing place I think.

So, after our stormy weekend we filled up the Thermos, packed a lunchbag full of Nutella sandwiches, armed our memory stick up with the day before’s Adam and Joe podcast and we made our way to Somerset.

They have a Costa at Cheddar now. Crazy days! This guy had given up waiting for his panini a LONG time ago. Ian says it’s not a real skeleton. I’m not so sure…

We took the audio tour handset phones around the caves with us, which gave us an insight to the process of “Cheddaring”, and also how the Victorians mastered the art of illuminating the caves for maximum visual effect. So all the lighting in these shots is lit by the show lamps only. We did see someone else taking photos with their Nintendo DS. I wonder how those came out?…

We chickened out at the prospect of doing the “Crystal Quest”. Last time we did that someone in costume jumped out at us, so we weren’t going to fall for that again. Not without a small child to push down the path in front of us at least. So, we headed straight for Jacob’s Ladder and limbered up before climbing the 274 steps.

It was windy up there but the view was amazing. We also chased goats.

But I was such an enthusiastic amateur Rambler the sole of my boot fell off

Ian – dangerously close to the edge.

Now both dangerously close the edge and risking having our camera nicked by the onlooking goats with a self-timed shot.

A good few weeks ago, when only the magical world that is Hobbycraft had the slightest hint of Christmas in the air, I made my way back over to Butterfly Bakery to photograph more cupcakes. Now we’re in December and Steph at Butterfly Bakery has announced this month’s cupcake box, I thought I should show you a couple of shots.

Here are two cakes from the ‘Ho Ho Ho Selection Box’ including the most gorgeous sticky ginger sponge with ginger-infused frosting. I was even given the privilege of naming the cutester of a gingerbread man which Steph makes with her own hands. Gary seemed like a good name. And if the traditional green and red colour scheme isn’t your thing it’s worth noting there’s also an icy Snowflake collection for all the contemporary Christmas-lovers out there.

If you’re feeling a bit peckish you can view a  full write-up of all the Christmas flavours and place your orders over on Butterfly Bakery’s website.