Squash Season

A Squash and a Squeeze is a favourite children’s title by Julia Donaldson. The morale of the story is perhaps, be grateful for what you have and feel your cup become fuller rather than emptier no matter your circumstances. At this time of year, I tend to feel that way with the imminent return of the older children from university to look forward to, winter gatherings and family regrouping. Rather than the loss of long warm days and the wilt of garden flowers. There’s plenty to anticipate with joy.

Photographing seasonal squash and the bounty of nearby pumpkin fields is an annual ritual which sees me return to the field full of both smooth & gnarly oranges and greens at Rogate. This year, we captured the spooktastic and ghoulish creations that the Team had constructed to entertain visitors and also managed portraits of Mr & Mrs Pumpkin themselves, Pete and Sophie, who together with their Patch work tirelessly to deliver an outdoor experience with fabulous views over the South Downs as a backdrop. It’s a colourful palette to capture.

One of the commercial branding shoot projects we realised in the autumn was for a salon and included headshots of the entire Team and product + treatment imagery to support the business in their year-round and also seasonal marketing.

Product shots for Christmas sales were popular. Jess from Tabs&nut had an array of handmade signage in striking goldleaf and a soothing colour palette.

Travelling to mainland Europe for another branding commission, I shot for Gostar in Lauzun, France enabling some terrific tasting as well as much feasting for the eye. A restaurant with a strong, small Team who use only the very finest and seasonally available local ingredients to create contemporary Gascony délices.

The pup continues to assist on certain select shoots, usually outdoor, and generally keeps himself out of mischief. It’s mostly working well and encourages his socialisation. We did however, stumble into a situation during a shoot where the client’s lab and my mutt romped around in circles and, not being familiar with the terrain, mine skittered inadvertently across their frozen pond and took his first plunge. The shaking off shot shows him attempting to warm up after his dunking.