Wassailing wonder

We attended our first ever Wassail on Yesterday (Sunday) at Paddington Farm in Somerset

A registered charity based on an organic farm just under Glastonbury Tor, Paddington Farm helps people connect with nature and learn about organic food, farming and growing. They host farm residentials for young people from disadvantaged urban areas, run a weekly volunteer day and offer a range of seasonal events and activities throughout the year.

The tradition of wassailing (also spelled wasselling I’m told) refers to the custom of visiting orchards and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year.

The purpose of wassailing is to awake the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in autumn. The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements. While wassailing, a hymn is usually recited, such as:

Old apple tree, we wassail thee,

And hoping thou wilt bear:

For the Lord doth know where we shall be

Till apples come another year.

To bloom well, and to bear well,

So merry let us be:

Let every man take off his hat,

And shout to the old apple tree:

Old apple tree, we wassail thee,

And hoping thou wilt bear,

Hatfuls, capfuls and three bushel bagfulls

And a little heap under the stairs.

— Wassail Song

We banged our pots with wooden spoons, sung songs, poured apple juice into the roots of the apple trees and put bread in the branches.

After we’d scared all the evil spirits away and woken the trees (nothing was sleeping after we’d finished I can tell you), we went back to the farm and sat around a open fire drinking mulled apple juice and eating apple cake.

Thank you to all the staff and trustees at the farm for giving us a great experience. We had a brilliant afternoon!

And that's a wrap!

As the curtain goes down on our 10th year of capturing the Celebrate Voice Festival, we look back at our favourites from this year’s event. Over the decade since we started, the festival has gone from strength to strength and this year’s was the best yet.

The festival opened with the world-renowned BBC Singers (conducted by Bob Chilcott), performing in Wilton Italianate Church. The beautiful choral music filled this equally gorgeous venue with an uplifting mix of songs and melodies.

Ronnie Scott’s All Stars returned to the festival from the internationally-renowned London Jazz Club, with songstress Natalie Williams, one of the UK's most popular soul/jazz artists. People travel from around the world to visit the Soho club, but we were lucky enough to be part of this fabulous evening in our own home-town city of Salisbury.

Come and Sing HMS Pinafore, was a chance for members of the public to immerse themselves in the action, and be part of the production with the stars. A morning of rehearsals, led by Musical Director David Gostick was followed by a performance in which the public became the chorus, and put what they had learnt into action.

Comedic opera “Cosi Fan Tutte” was a riot of a show, full of fun and hi-jinx (set in a 1950s holiday camp; with a nod of inspiration from Hi-de-Hi). The trials of life, love, romance and betrayal twisted and turned to keep us enthralled to the end.

Live at the Musicals brought together Zoe Curlett, Katy Hanna, Keiron Crook and Simon Shorten direct from the glittering stages of the West End, to perform a wonderful mix of iconic and universally loved show tunes. This really was an intimate, up close and personal performance, and we LOVED it.

Comedy and Cabaret at its very best with performances by award winning and acclaimed comedians Amy Webber and Andrew Drew. Their solo shows had the audience (and us) in stitches with their individual takes on modern life and employment issues.

Always the biggest highlight of the festival for us. SEND brings local people with learning difficulties together with the professional singers, to produce and star in their own special performance. It’s just the most amazing, incredibly joyous, emotionally uplifting and inclusive celebration of our local community, and it’s the one we look forward to the most each year.

Showcasing up and coming talent, we were treated to performances by local young artists. Recommended by their schools, these truly are the stars of the future and the ones to watch. We are so looking forward to seeing how their careers progress.

One last word - if the Celebrate Voice Festival has somehow escaped your notice, please do watch out for next year’s offering. It’s well worth the visit and maybe we will see you there!

We love it when a plan comes together!

When we acquired our pro series drone we hoped that our clients would love the new angle it offered. We are so pleased that its proving to be an asset in all sorts of ways.

Whether we are capturing a building for archive purposes, investigating difficult to access areas for maintenance purposes, or looking at your event in a different way, it's always interesting seeing things from a new perspective.

In the image above you can see that the church needed a little attention right at the most awkward point. In the past it would have taken significant investment in scaffolding to see exactly what was going on. The drone was able to quickly identify. the work that was needed and the skills and equipment necessary (and saved a small fortune to boot).

The beautiful St Nicholas Hospital has stood on this site for approximately 800 years and must have seen so many changes in its time. Thanks to aerial photography the archives will now record exactly how it looks today for future generations to come.

This client wanted to show the setting for their summer party. What a great event in such a beautiful setting.

Approved by the CAA to fly drones for commercial use, we are fully qualified and insured, and always work within the latest UK regulations. We use professional drones to deliver 4K video and high-resolution images to our clients.

Click here to contact us about elevating your business with professional drone photography.

Wow! Just Wow!

We recently had the pleasure of hearing and photographing the totally amazing Claire Lomas MBE - Wife, Mother of two, Sportswoman, Fundraiser, Campaigner, Speaker, Pilot, Motorcyclist and all round inspiration.

Having spent the last 16 years paralysed from the chest down after a freak horse-riding accident, Claire shared her personal story and the split second that changed her life forever. Listening to her story told candidly, with humour and sensitivity by the lady herself, we laughed with her in some places, and cried in others.

Claire quotes that “whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can’t – you are right”. She teaches you that a positive growth mindset has huge impact on reaching your full potential, that adversity can be overcome, goals can be achieved, and dreams are to be followed.“

Southampton International Boatshow 2023

We are always reminded that another year is coming to a close when we finish shooting at the annual Southampton International Boatshow Lunch with Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, Paris Smith LLP, Leonardo Group, and British Marine.

This event goes from strength to strength and each year there is something new. This year was no exception: Daredevil Stunts, Incredible Yachts, Inspirational Speakers, Great Company – this event has it all!