Well, 2020 was a bit strange, wasn't it?! I remember back in January when I was looking forward to a year full of amazing weddings, doing the job I love. I've spent 11 years building up my business, and after setting it up in the last recession I thought that things could only get easier. Then the proverbial hit the fan in March and we were placed in lockdown. I then saw all the weddings scheduled for that period postponed or cancelled, but there was always the optimism that things would return to normal again soon - both from my side and the couples that had booked me. But the limbo we were in, seemed to be on a constant repeat cycle, with the days becoming weeks, and weeks becoming months, with only the changing of the seasons and family birthdays to differentiate the passing of the year. It was like chasing a mirage with salvation never getting closer or disappearing just when you thought it was within reach.
Some of my couples postponed multiple times throughout the year, each time hoping it would be the last time and that they would have the day they'd planned for. Others cancelled entirely. A few decided to get married regardless of how many guests were allowed and to then celebrate properly at a later date. It's been such a challenging time & I felt incredibly thankful to photograph the weddings that did happen. I appreciated the little moments of each day even more than normal and relished in the hope that witnessing love conquering all brought.
You may not know this, but I've always offered a mix of wedding, portrait, and commercial photography (I keep the commercial photography separate but if you'd like to check out my work here is the link www.kentcommercialphotographer.com). In the first few years the division between these areas of photography was pretty even, but as time went by and couples booked me for their weddings further and further in advance, I found I could no longer take on much portrait or commercial work as I simply didn't have the time. Well, with weddings being pretty much prohibited for the entire year either through lockdowns or such tight restrictions on guest numbers that most chose not to go ahead, I had to try and awaken the interest in people hiring me for these other specialisms again. I upped my social media game setting up an instagram page for the commercial work (https://www.instagram.com/parkershots_commercial_tw/), blogging old commercial photography jobs, attending local networking groups, and basically doing everything I could think of to try and bring some money in to fill the financial void left by the lack of weddings.
The result is the following collection of images. I normally keep my 'best of' blog post to just my favourite wedding images of the year, but this time, because a) there haven't been many weddings, and b) I thought it would be nice to share more of what I have been up, there are also favourite images from some portrait sessions and commercial photography jobs. There's even a couple of self-portraits in there - one with me featuring my lockdown beard and the other being the clean shaven look everyone is accustomed to. My commercial jobs have included working for a company providing incredible bell-tents, a care home, property photography for local estate agents, & studio and location head-shots. I hope you like the images and wholeheartedly thank everyone that I photographed this year. You provided much needed moments of normality to me when I could pick up my camera, do the thing I love, and forget about everything else in the world.
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