2016 - a year through the lens of a Norfolk photographer - Part 1

So that was 2016 and this is a round up of how the year panned out for me & my photography.  While it may have been a pretty dodgy year in many respects (Brexit, Tr*mp & the passing of many talented actors, musicians and local friends) my partner, Leanne, pointed out to me last night that it's actually been an incredible year for us with many adventures around the British Isles and a full and varied year of photography for my business so I will try to distill it down into two blog posts.There is so much I'd like to include that I found it a bit overwhelming as to how I would order it, rather than breaking it down chronologically I will split it into three posts:1) Press coverage and Personal work.2) Commercial work & Events.3) Weddings & Lifestyle portraits.So here goes Part 1...the year started well for me with the news that I had won two prizes in a national competition for aerial photography with two aerial images of North Norfolk which got a full page in the Eastern Daily Press...Following on from that was having my interiors photography work being published in the the first edition of Reclaim Magazine and getting the front cover no less!  The shots were for a story about a stunning local property - Voewood - an arts & crafts house just a few miles from here, and an amazing North Norfolk wedding venue.  For more examples of my work as an Interiors Photographer in Norfolk please visit Chris Taylor Interiors.Sticking with Voewood I was then lucky enough to have another page in the EDP (in the business section) spotlighting my work as a Norfolk aerial photographer - my dedicated website for the drone photography in Norfolk is Aerovisuals.Still in January, I was thrilled to see my photos of The Dialhouse in Reepham used in an article in The Cool Hotel Guide in The Times and really pleased to see that the hotel was awarded 9/10, fully deserved.   I really enjoy my work as a property photographer in Norfolk and was commissioned to photograph some amazing interiors in 2016 but more of that in the Part 2 blog post...As Spring rolled along The Royal Coast Resident magazine contacted me for an interview and some images regarding my involvement with Sheringham Lifeboat and the RNLI.  Being able to combine my love of the sea and photography while serving alongside our dedicated crew means a lot to me.Staying with the lifesaving theme, I was asked if I would photograph the combined North Norfolk Emergency Services in June.  The shot required a fair bit of planning and organisation so luckily Vince Pank the Eastern region RNLI Lifeguards coordinator was on-hand to help plan & corral the various organisations in the photo which included the Norfolk Fire Service, Norfolk Police, East of England Ambulance Service, representatives from the East Anglian Air Ambulance, HM Coastguard, RNLI Sheringham & Cromer lifeboats, RNLI Lifeguards, Cromer Surf Lifesaving Club and many more.   The image and some others I shot that day made the centre pages of the EDP that week which was the icing on the cake!One of Norfolk's shining stars of the wedding & hospitality industry is talented chef Alex Firman aka Alex Chef.  Alex commissioned me to photograph some of his delicious dishes this year and the amazing little café he opened at Hoveton Hall - the Garden Kitchen Café.  A few months later Alex held an official opening with the lovely Kate Quilton, star of Channel 4's Food Unwrapped series, of course we stayed for lunch before a minishoot with Kate & Alex, great fun!Possibly the professional highlight of the year for me was being commissioned to shoot for Oyster Yachts - an international market leader for cruising yachts and what stunning creations they are.  I spent a day at one of their massive workshops where they custom-build these multi-million pound yachts to their customer's specifications.  Having seen the Oyster 675 being built I was really pleased to be asked to accompany their CEO David Tydeman for a morning photographing & filming him sailing this brand new model for the very first time on the Orwell in Suffolk.  It was a grey day on the water and not quite the azure seas & blue skies in which you usually see these majestic beasts being shown off but we did the best we could and it was a real buzz seeing one of the shots used in a full page ad a few weeks later in the legendary Yachting World magazine!It would be amiss of me not to mention a great local magazine which I have shot for from it's conception a few years ago - the Just Sheringham magazine.  Below are a few of the covers I photographed for the magazine this year, great fun to get out & about to the various superb events hosted in Sheringham every year by a very committed & talented group of people.... Personal work & tripsI won't bore you with hundreds of my holiday photos but have included a few of my favourites from some of the amazing places we visited this year.  We stuck mostly to the UK and  ventured to the North East & South West taking in Bamburgh, the Farne Islands, Lindisfarne, Whitby, Seahouses, Seaham, Cornwall, St Ives, the Eden Project and one incredible week on St Martin's in the Isles of Scilly.The first three shots below were taken on a misty day trip around The Farne Islands, with an abundance of wildlife...Living in North Norfolk we really like to make the most of our local area & head out in the Summer whenever we can on my ex-RNLI D-Class rib to Blakeney for a spot of mackerel fishing, seal watching & fooling around on the ski ring, ah I miss those sunny days!One of the highlights of 2016 for myself & Leanne was the purchase of an old cabin cruiser which we named Frances Anne after my late mother.  The boat was pretty much just a fibreglass shell when we bought her but it's been a labour of love restoring her and getting her ready to go out on a mooring in Blakeney Pit next year as our floating escape-from-it-all!Our best trip of the year was definitely the one to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in mid October.  We were really lucky with the weather being able to wear t-shirts every day while we explored these magical islands.  Leanne actually took the brilliant photo below of a seal slurping down a mackerel, I had to include it here! Back in North Norfolk I decided to combine two of my great loves into a short video - aerial videography using the drone and snorkelling on the chalk reef off Sheringham (using a GoPro Hero 4).  This video became the most watched short film on my Vimeo channel, although it's not the most professional looking video I think people were interested to see two differing view points of the beach at Sheringham that they may not have seen before...While the below was actually a commission as opposed to personal work it was so much fun I have included it here.  Cat Scoles, a wedding photographer based just around the coast from me, had contacted me asking if I would film her wedding on Scolt Head using the drone.  The job required us to take my boat out from Burnham Overy Staithe and simply film the wedding party going out to the island on assorted sailing boats.  The sun shone and I got to play with both my boat and the drone at one of the most beautiful places in Norfolk, what is there not to like?!The resulting short video is here....The final trip of the year for me was to tick off something which had been on my bucket list for years - to see the monster waves at Nazaré, Portugal.  Each year five of us, all professional photographers, go away for a few days to walk, talk & shoot.  This year I suggested Portugal and got to visit the hallowed surfing spot of Nazaré.  While I had no intention of getting in the water with these huge waves it was a buzz to see the 24ft monsters crashing against the rocks & a few brave tow surfers riding the beasts.  Nazaré is the home to the world record for the largest wave ever surfed - a 100ft wave surfed by the legendary Garrett McNamara so the 24ft waves we saw were only babies but I intend to go back one day when the monsters are in attendance & see the full force of this incredible break.The final highlight for the year was being asked to film the Cromer Boxing Day dip with the drone for BBC News, I also took along a couple of GoPro cameras & attached them to a couple of friends who were going in.  BBC Look East aired some of the footage that day & put together a short film on their Facebook page which had over 1 million views!I also made a short film of the event using the drone & GoPro footage...Other short videos I made throughout the year are available on my Vimeo channel here.So that's Part 1 of my 2016 round-up - in the next blog post I will choose my favourite images of my Commercial, Property & Event photography including some stunning Norfolk properties and a handful of the amazing events hosted in North Norfolk in 2016.  Happy New Year!• Drone photographers in Norfolk • UK Travel photographers • Norfolk press photographers • Drone operators in Norfolk • Norfolk travel photography • Marine photographers in Norfolk •