Alphabet Dating - F Date!

For our F date we went to Delamere Forest. We went there 2 years ago for the Gruffalo Trail. This year there was a Stickman Trail which was turned into a short film for Christmas 2015. We thought the film was really cute and we still quote it.
The Stick Man trail was quite short but really interactive with games you can play on the way around so we had a lot of fun. It cost £3 for the pack. We also took a picnic and ate it on a log near a lake. We included Frazzles, Fruit yoghurts and Fizzy drinks in our picnic but to be honest we completely forgot to theme the rest of the food around F! We also watched a Film together when we got back home.
Delamere Forest is one of my favourite places to walk around because it's so secluded. And having fun trails to do makes it extra fun.

Vlogging Is An Art

I absolutely love watching home videos from my childhood. I have a box full of tapes and rewatch the entire box every few years. It's not that I miss my childhood, it's just that I really like watching something so real and so 'spur of the moment'. Unedited/fly on the wall footage intrigues me. People being caught on film acting completely natural is just a beautiful thing to watch. I remember that the camera always came with us on holidays and was set up in the corner every Christmas. There are videos from me 1 day old in hospital, right up to a holiday in Paris when I was 10. Technology advanced significantly around this time. Smart phones and digital cameras came out and it became a lot easier to be spontaneous with capturing events. You don't need to set up a camera in the corner, you just film the main present on your phone. It does make me sad that I can only watch my family up to a certain point and then the videos and photos are few and far between. There are hardly any videos at all from our 2 week family holiday to Florida which is something I will always regret. I have the memories and photos but I wish I could watch more of what we did and how we were. I was 13/14 and would love to see my personality on film.
When I was 13 I bought a magazine with a free film camera in and took photos of a day out with my best friend. We bought a small photo album for the photos after getting it developed and it was a really fun day that we shared and captured together. I bought my own digital camera when I was 17 and used it quite a lot to take photographs of my time at University and the first few years of my relationship with my girlfriend. I also bought a DSLR whilst at University which I love for arty photographs but it's not really something I would take out with me on a normal day. I got a Canon SX700 for Christmas 2014 and I love it. It allows me to take really good photographs in the moment but also change the settings and use different filters to take arty photos if the opportunity arises. I now save my photos in monthly folders so I can look back on what I did that month, but I find most of the photos are posed selfies or nature and they don't really capture the moment.
Early in my relationship with Kirsty she would make little videos of us on days out. I really like that we have those memories. I filmed on our trip to Disneyland Paris for my 21st birthday but I did it with the intention of putting music over it so didn't talk to the camera. It's nice that I have something to watch but it's not natural. Kirsty and I bought a camcorder a few years ago and started doing YouTube videos. We would do question tags, quizzes, and talk about books we had read. But the main reason we got it was to vlog.
Vlogging has really taken off on YouTube over the past few years and I am so glad. Watching vloggers is almost like watching a reality TV show but far less scripted. It's the natural style of video that I love but you can still use clever, arty editing. At the moment I am loving Lucy and Lydia's vlog styles because although they are really natural on camera, they do put a lot of effort into capturing the moment and editing it all together to look really cool. Family vloggers like SacconeJolys are an inspiration to me because they capture some footage of their children every day, it allows them to see how their children have grown. They have footage from when their children started talking and walking and the first day of nursery. I don't think I would ever 'daily vlog' when we have children but I would definitely try to make sure I capture those milestones. I know some people would prefer to be in the moment, instead of picking up a camera. But I am definitely a person who wants to capture things to look back on.
Kirsty and I have a joint channel for our videos. We used to vlog quite a lot. We would film over Christmas, New Years, Easter, Birthdays, Trips to Wales and Holidays. The main reason we stopped filming so much is because we stopped going to so many places and started saving up for our wedding and fertility treatment. Also, I got quite depressed between 2014 and 2016 and didn't really do much of anything. My favourite videos of ours are from Summer In The City 2015. It's a YouTube convention with panels about editing and camera settings. There are also more specific panels for people who talk about books or share their relationships online, and the whole place is full of people who love filming or watching videos. Can you imagine?! A building full of people walking around filming themselves or each other and all of them love capturing the moment and looking back on it just like I do. It was one of my favourite weekends. I was around people who had a similar passion to me with my fiancee by my side. We met Jonathan and Anna Saccone-Joly. We learnt how to make our videos look better with lighting and background. We definitely prefer watching our newer 'sit-down' videos since improving the quality. And my favourite vlogs on our channel are from that entire trip because I can see how confident I am and how happy we are together. I remember it being the first time I was truly happy that year. Like the environment had fought through the depression and lifted me up.
We do still vlog every now and again with updates on what we have been up to but we don't tend to vlog unless we are doing something out of the ordinary, because those are the things we want to be able to remember. I'm quite a simple editor, just put the clips together and cut out the boring bits. Kirsty is more of an arty editor, she zooms in on funny parts and puts music in that makes it more interesting. Our vlogging is a constant improvement, especially now we have a 4K camcorder which we are going to insure so we can take it out with us. For me, talking to a camera is like writing in a diary. It's a way to talk about my emotions (which I generally find hard to do face to face). YouTube in general requires so many skills that are easy to forget. You need to know how to use a camera and change the settings to make the lighting and colour look better. Maybe you need to set up lights. You need to edit it, adjust the volume, add music or other effects, save it in the right format/quality. Kirsty has been going through all of our old videos and watching them so she can make the titles funny but relevant and add in appropriate tags. It's time consuming and may not seem rewarding when you think that less than 10 people know our channel exists! But every single time we finish filming a sit-down video, spend a day vlogging, or upload an old vlog we forgot about, we have completed something. We have finished a video that we can now look back on and that is reward enough.

Alphabet Dating - B Date!

 

For our B date we booked a Badminton court for an hour. We already had the rackets and shuttlecocks because we used to play Badminton a lot but we stopped going well over a year ago. It was nice to be able to do something that was so energetic and different to a normal date but still a lot of fun.

We also had Butties, Biscuits, Chocolate Bars, Bacon Crisps and Blue Powerade. 

Why Autumn Is My Favourite Season

Summer used to be my favourite season when I was at school, purely for the Summer holidays. Summer in the UK is over the months of June, July and August and the school Summer holidays are 6 weeks of July and August. This obviously meant 6 weeks of free time, sleeping in, going on mini breaks and sleepovers on weeknights. However, I have always hated the sun. I hate feeling too hot and not being able to do anything about it. I would never wear a dress, I didn't even own dresses between the ages of 12 and 18. I did own a lot of jackets and jumpers though so I was always warm in Winter.
I think the reason Autumn wasn't my favourite when I was younger was because it was the time when school started again and you have to get back into a routine. After a 6 week break there is homework every night and 7am starts 5 days a week. I wouldn't look forward to it and I wouldn't enjoy it.

I'm 24 now, I haven't been in education for a while and Autumn has been my favourite for the past few years. It's a welcome break from the heat of Summer but it's not too cold outside. I find Winter can leave you with a cold nose and chapped lips and you start to want to stay indoors, but Autumn is nicer.
I love going for walks in the afternoon while it's still light but also being outside in the early evening as the sun is setting.

I love the different colours the leaves change and that it completely changes the way parks look. I find oranges, reds and browns scattered on the ground a lot nicer to look at than just green grass.

I love being able to wear lots of layers, I find it hard to choose which clothes to wear because I have so many, so in Autumn I can wear a few at once! I also love being able to wear scarves and gloves.

There are three main events that I love in Autumn. The first is Halloween of course. Dressing up and watching a horror film with a takeaway is one of my favourite things to do.

The second is Bonfire Night, possibly my favourite night of the whole year. I get to wear all of my layers and watch fireworks and light sparklers.

The third is Christmas shopping. All of the shops start stocking festive products and I start writing my Christmas list and buying things for other people. The Manchester Christmas markets are one of my favourite Christmas traditions.

There is also, of course, my fiancees birthday in November! I love being able to spend the day with her and watch her open presents.

Spring is a close second favourite, because it includes Easter and my birthday and the weather is similar to Autumn, but there is a lot more green!

What's your favourite season? What do you most look forward to in Autumn?

#YouTubeSITC 2015

I went to Summer in the City with Kirsty last weekend.
We stayed in a hotel Thursday to Monday and SITC was Friday to Sunday. And it was so good. We took notes in every panel and we learnt so much and have so many new ideas for our joint YouTube account. Including buying a lava lamp for our new setup (and also because who doesn't need a lava lamp in their life).
We took a lot of photos after I was taught how to put my camera on manual setting with the correct ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc. And a lot of videos with better settings too which Kirsty is currently editing into a vlog.

If you have a YouTube channel and want to learn more about it, or if you're thinking about setting one up then I definitely recommend watching the Summer in the City panels which should be going on their YouTube. I think they filmed most, if not all of them. They really helped us out.

These are some of our photos from the day, including when we met the SacconeJolys who I am a huge fan of and were so nice in person.

Leave your youtube links in the comments and I will check them out!

Our day in Gloucester

Last Summer, I went with Kirsty and my mum to visit my brother's family in Exeter. On the way back we stayed in a hotel in Gloucester, which is about halfway between Manchester and Exeter. The next day we explored Gloucester cathedral and some of the shops and we fell in love with the town. Since then we have pretty much decided we would like to live there one day, but would obviously have to explore it more for that to be likely. And, more importantly, we have found our dream wedding venue is nearby!
This Summer we went back to Exeter and of course stayed over in Gloucester again. We didn't go in the cathedral this time or explore shops because we had a Treasure Trail to do! That was a lot of fun and allowed us to explore the town a bit more, but we did miss out a whole page of clues at one point and got extremely confused.
I didn't take many photos because we were mainly walking around a lot, but the photos I did get I love. So here they are!

Do you have a dream city to live in? Or even a favourite place you love to take photographs of?
Let me know in the comments!

Knowsley Safari Park

I went to Knowsley Safari Park in June with mum, dad and Kirsty. I have been a few times before but it was Kirsty's first time so I was extra excited. I was in charge of photography and Kirsty was in charge of videoing.
It was a hot day so we drove round with the aircon on, and passed a few cars that had broke down and were waiting to be rescued.

You're allowed to drive around as many times as you want and then get out at the end of the safari to see the giraffes, elephants, capybara and other smaller animals. There's also a sealion show which I remembered from when I was younger and is always my favourite part of the day!
For dinner I had chips and cheese and Kirsty had a hotdog. It was so nice.
We got a compass keyring each from the giftshop and a cup to share.

 

What's your favourite animal? Have you ever been to a safari?

I'd love to read about any trips you have been on recently!