{If you're short on time, just read the pink bits - you'll still get the story}

Fun, fabulous and funky! That's my motto! I pride myself on being a dedicated, courteous, creative photographer, doing my very best to capture your wedding day or photographic shoot through as many beautiful, classic, natural images as possible - oh and I LOVE what I do!

So who am I? Not so easy to define when you think about it hard, I'm a photographer yes, maybe yours one day, but I'm also a wife {to my gorgeous husband Peter - you'll see him a lot on these pages}, an aunt - to triplets and the most fabulous little girl, a friend, a daughter and all different things to all different people. I like to think of myself as glamourous, honest, lively, creative, and sparkly ~ definitely sparkly! Interpret that as you will, I'm not sure other people see me that way, but I guess I'd like them to.

I'm obsessed with designer handbags - LOVE them! I have lots, but if my husband asks, they were all bought in the sale! I love my bike, I adore vintage 50's chic (I've always maintained I was born in the wrong era), and classic Hollywood musicals - Fred and Ginger were my idols. I hate bananas, think cotton wool is the work of the devil, and I wish I had smaller feet. Oh and I secretly love to kick-ass (my punch bag is bright pink, and I think I scare the neighbours when I use it, I'm sure they think I'm beating hubby up). I have a ridiculously sweet tooth (I eat the icing off a cake first), and dessert is the best part of any meal for me!

I was born and raised near Rochester in Kent. My mum is Irish, my dad is a Geordie (and I kinda love that fact!) I'm married to the most wonderful man, Peter, who inexplicably is able to put up with me (yes he does deserve a medal). We got married at the gorgeous Cobham Hall on the 30th August 2008 ~ so yes, I've been a bride ~ I know your pain, and your joy!

When I was little I wanted to either grow up to be a princess so I could wear diamonds every day (my love of sparkly things still remains), either that or I was convinced I would one day be a professional Ice Skater (epic fail on both counts!)

One thing that always stuck out to everyone was that I loved photographs - I was obsessed with them, I was always the kid with the disposable cameras and gradually progressed to stealing my dad's Leica. I loved the sound the shutter made. I used to use black & white film obsessively, and I'd badger my parents to spend a fortune getting the films developed, I just couldn't wait to open the pictures and see how they had turned out - they were usually rubbish.

Most of the time I got those annoying stickers stuck to them with 'advice' - I'd promptly rip them off thinking 'they wouldn't know art if it slapped them in the face!' (it wasn't art, they were just blurred or under exposed).

Nevertheless I loved taking the pictures, I always had a camera and I was always the one people expected to have a camera, even when I was at school and uni. I'm so glad I was like that, we have boxes of pictures, that never see the light of day for years, then one day you get out the box and you are transported back to those memories. Priceless.

As I grew up, I was very academic, did well at school and subsequently university, but they stifled my creative side, and I made myself concentrate on the things that would pay the bills.

I've always loved films (even now we have a cinema in our basement) and was lucky enough to get a job whilst at university with a new cinema in Bluewater shopping centre - I say lucky, because it's where I met Peter and made some wonderful friends, my partner in crime, Sarah, is still one of my best friends and she's amazing!

It was an awesome time, I stayed there a long while, eventually becoming a projectionist, projecting the 35mm films on the big screen. My obsession with film continued, but not in the sense I wanted to make films, I just adored watching them and would very often sneak into the screens to watch bits when I could get away with it. Eventually I grew up and needed a proper job, and was lucky enough to continue into a role in an organisation at the core of the British Film Industry. I even used to hand write the 'Black Cards' that you see at the beginning of films - yep - if you saw Lord of the Rings or the first few Harry Potters - my fingerprints were all over those babies!

Over the years, I kept up my photography, and progressed to using digital SLR's, I loved the freedom they gave me to try things out. The more I used my camera, the more positive the feedback got, eventually I had friends asking me would I bring my camera to this event or that party, then it was weddings and before I knew it, I was training with one of Kents biggest wedding photographers using medium format Hasselblad cameras that were worth more than my car!

Everything then spiralled and I decided it was time to get proper training. I'd exhausted the UK's supply of photography books by then! I've have been lucky enough to learn from some of the UK's best photographers and a few years ago, it was time for me to set up on my own - I become CLN Photography. With over 70 weddings under my belt in the last few years, I've been privileged enough to share and be part of people's most important days, weddings and civil partnerships, christenings, taking a baby's first photo's, a family's first proper shoot, and so on, and I'm delighted to say that many of the people I've been lucky enough to shoot have become great friends.

Every shoot I do I'm striving to make it better and improve and every time I meet someone new, I can't wait to get back to the computer to see the pictures. I love what I do with a passion and I hope that helps enhance your experience with me. In particular with weddings, I've been the stressed out bride, (the disasters with our wedding would send you over the edge - your bridal shop shredding your dress days before the wedding is not fun and that was just the start of it). I know the pressure involved and I know how important these memories are. I treat every shoot like it was my own wedding day and hope that reflects in my work.

So there you have it, that's me. I'm definitely not perfect, but I work very hard, and hope one day I'll get the opportunity to meet you, and if I'm really lucky, take your photograph!

Caz

~ Photography~

{My Life}