Sinead’s granny and my mum go way back, so we took a trip to get to know our new mate… in just an afternoon I learned so much. Sinead loves cuddles. She has a perfect little pout and knows just how to pose with one arm placed casually behind her head. She has her mothers bright blue eyes. She loves her butterfly and resists sleep with all her might. She has the whole world at her feet and a mum and gran who adore her 🙂

The post Baby Sinead appeared first on Nikki Cooper Photography.

The post Welsh escape… appeared first on Nikki Cooper Photography.

We were looking at prospective wedding venues for their 2015 wedding, and I gained a little bit of insight into how difficult it can be to plan your wedding. I’ve not even skimmed the surface of the wedding industry yet and already at times I find it vacuous and too full of 90’s word art…  But, there’s a strange parting of ways within the wedding industry. On the one hand I see the traditional, the swirly fonts, the badly processed photos, the all round uninspiring. On the other I see the ‘alternative’. A new world to many but one that has been growing for many years.

Yet this new breed of wedding vendor brings with it a whole set of new pressures.
‘Be different’ is the name of the game. You should have a wedding that stands out, that is bloggable and remarkably different in some way.

I see a wealth of new photographers following the alternative trend. Eagerly taking photographs that mirror another photographers style. Truth be told I’ve been guilty of this too. I’ve spent untold hours comparing myself to other photographers. There’s so much competition, so much pressure – that just like couples, we end up getting lost. We forget to really look and to tell stories authentically.

A wedding day is a celebration of your love. Of everything you are as a couple. You can’t pre-plan the photographs…

and when I got back from that weekend I almost over looked these photographs of Rosie and Laura, discounting them as they’re a bit out of focus and grainy… but then I really looked… and I realised. This is them.

The post Learning to look… appeared first on Nikki Cooper Photography.

As your family grows, keeping in touch and creating new memories gets tricky. For my mum keeping in touch with family is really important. She lost her own mother when she was just seven and so most of her childhood was spent with her Aunty Kitty and her three children – Julia, Catherine and John. Being an only child, my mum was keen to make sure I spent holidays with other children. So from the ages of about 9 – 15, my summer holidays were spent at Julia’s family owned house by the sea in Suffolk. I got to get to know my mum’s side of the family there and had all sorts of adventures with them. We went to bed by candle light, had bonfires on the beach and built dens in the woods… those holidays hold some of my best memories. But as we’ve all grown up and made tracks across the globe we’ve not really seen each other properly in years.

This Christmas was probably the first time my mums side of the family has all got together in about 6 years. It was so lovely to catch up with everyone and to meet the new additions to the family.

The post The family portrait appeared first on Nikki Cooper Photography.

The final celebration week was tainted with deep sorrow that the activities and communities that had formed there would no longer continue in their present form.
Most moving of all was the last Tea Dance. Proudly, the dancers told me that this was the largest and the BEST tea dance in the West Midlands. Why? Well the building of course. The vibrant open space with light sweeping in from the large jelly-bean shaped windows provided the perfect space for people to not only get moving, but also to sit. To talk. To drink tea, and to watch. Over 200 people turned out, dressed in their finest, for the last dance at The Public.

This is all part of my MA research project that has the tentative title ‘Narratives of Value’… specifically looking at how we gain insight into the value and impact of community arts buildings such as The Public.

The post Save the last dance appeared first on Nikki Cooper Photography.