Yoga retreat in Morocco
I am a full time photographer, but I am also a part time teacher. Which means I have one and a half jobs?! Anyway I organised a yoga retreat in Morocco with my partner to escape the fast arrival of Autumn in the UK and for my first retreat abroad I couldn't have hoped for a better time …
Yoga retreat to welcome autumn
I do love Autumn … Mica Francis Angel and I met on Instagram and she is one of those people with whom I regularly check in online and we say “we should get coffee together!” and then life happens. It is the London curse of working with lovely people and not having enough time! Mica commissioned me to take pictures for her Autumnal day retreat, where I left my cosy SE London home to go all the way to North London (a rare occurrence).
What I would do if I had to teach yoga full time again
As well as being a photographer I am also teaching and I have had a lot of conversations around the subject. My partner is a full time teacher and my best friend just completed her first teacher training. I have given a lot of what I believe is fairly sound advice to both of them, even though they are at different stages of their career. I love teaching but have become disenchanted by yoga studios and like many I have been treated poorly by some - two instances being fairly recent. I have the privilege to have another skillset I am using to make money but there are many things I would do if I had to pursue teaching full time.
Yoga retreat at the Quaives
One of the perks of being a yoga teacher as well as a photographer is that I get commissioned to work on yoga retreats and immerse myself in pockets of communities I would never get to know otherwise. This yoga retreat in Kent was a double whammy as I was hired to teach AND take pictures which was actually less stressful than it sounds.
Branding photoshoot for Nuna Kamhawi
Nuna is a registered nutritionist who is passionate about intuitive eating and whose mission is to help her clients find freedom in their body and heal their relationship with food. Which is right up my street! I couldn’t wait to get started. We explore a lot of different stories to reflect different parts of Nuna’s business. We wanted some professional looking portraits showing the practical aspects of what she’s doing, as well as some more creative ones to embody the freedom that she herself feels and want to transmit to her clients.
Branding photoshoot for Mim
Mim transitioned from yoga teacher to digital marketing coach, with a focus on helping female entrepreneurs & brands get seen online.
She wanted pictures of her being engaging and working, but she also needed pictures for her Instagram feed to be able to create reels covers and photo carousels. She already had a lot of pictures of her working on a laptop from a previous photoshoot, but realised she was lacking images of her looking at the camera and seeming approachable and friendly.
Branding photoshoot for Lee
I met Lee when I took pictures for Indaba’s campaign back in 2020. She is a yoga teacher but is studying to be a medical herbalist with a focus on people with uterus’s health and needed pictures to get her career started. We had an intimate photoshoot at my home studio and I love the softness of the results.
How to show up on camera with body dysmorphia
Are you recovering from eating disorders? Or perhaps you have a very negative body image? Or maybe like me you suffer from body dysmorphia? I have put on a lot of weight the past fews years as I started recovering from EDs. I am getting used to a new body, and I don’t really know what it looks like. I avoid looking at it most days, and I am not very keen on being photographed when I don’t expect it. I have cried more than once at the sight of an unexpected image of me and sadly that’s a reaction I know to be quite common. That being said, it is something that I’m working on, and being a photographer I sometimes put myself in a model’s shoes to understand what you are going through. So if you are scheduled to be on a photoshoot, here’s some advice I give to my clients.
Branding shoot for Adriane Roman
Adriane is a multifaceted business owner who explores different aspects of holistic healing through her business, and she wanted photographs to start her social presence from scratch. I had a lot of fun working on different concepts and can’t wait to do more like this!
2 sides of Amsterdam
Last month I gifted myself and my boyfriend a short trip to Amsterdam. Whilst he is an Amsterdam connoisseur, last time I travelled in this wonderful city was 9 years ago(!). I hesitated at first bringing my camera as it is sometimes nice to live in the moment, but it is equally important for me to take photos to feed my creativity, removed from my professional life.
3 things to do now to break free of yoga studios as a teacher
I am a wellness and personal branding photographer and before that I was a full time yoga teacher.
I went through the grind of teaching for studios, running across London, chasing private students in order to make ends meet. I am fortunate enough that my photography business took off and I was able to take a step back. Here is my advice for yoga teachers.
What to do when you get into your own head for posing for asana
If you’ve ever asked someone to take pictures of you whilst practicing asanas, you might have noticed that sometimes the mind freezes and you run out of asanas to think of!
It is a perfectly normal phenomenon that I have noticed throughout my photoshoots.
Here is some advice I have gathered to help you get out of your own head when that happens.
Croatia
I seem to have forgotten the primary usage of blogs and was wondering where to share my travel pictures … Well here goes.
I went to Croatia back in April and those are my favourite images.
Branding photoshoot for Emerald Peseah
Emerald is the first of my clients (and so far only) who got in touch through Tiktok.
We met on a steamy hot day in London to take branding pictures in an even steamier studio. The heat made us change our setting and move things around and I am so glad we did because the pictures turned out dreamier than what I had originally planned.
Branding photoshoot for Sally Connor
Sally and I have been insta friends for a few years. I write and share a lot about my eating disorder recovery on my yoga instagram and I think this is how Sally found me. We have had many conversations about body dysmorphia, fatphobia within the yoga industry, and all things ED recovery.
She reached out to me for a photoshoot months before the actual date - to get mentally ready. To hold herself accountable. And on the day of the photoshoot … She smashed it.
Branding photoshoot for Axelle Calixte
Axelle is a tattoo artist living in Brussels who needed pictures to represent all sides of her as well as her business. We decided to create different concepts for her branding photoshoots. We worked together to find what atmosphere she wanted to convey and I’m so happy with the results.
3 places to go in Ischia, Italy
For someone who has taken up Spanish as a third language, I travel an awful lot to Italy. I picked the beautiful island of Ischia upon researching where to go with my mum.
Branding shoot for Angie Brand
Angie used to run a yoga studio at the heart of Deptford in London. I was lucky enough to teach there for a few month, before Angie made the decision to close it. She decided to pivot and develop her personal brand instead. She now specialises in pain management and injury prevention, because of how her practice transformed the last few years. She wanted to showcase the personal care she puts into her 1:1 consultations, and cover all sides of her business including what is going on behind the scenes. Here is the result!
3 standing poses that look good in pictures
Continuing my series of poses that look good on pictures - to help my lovely teacher friends getting stage fright when put in front of a camera!
When in doubt, bind
My second favourite thing to photograph after backbends are binds of all sorts: Marichyasanas, bird of paradise, baddha parsva konasana ... The possibilities are endless. Here is a mix of my favourite. Plus find my free asana posing guide.