October has seen an action-packed agenda of work & pleasure. I completely disagree with not mixing the two: if you spend a third of your ‘active working years’ in a vocation you had better try and enjoy it!

Here are some of the highlights:

I found myself at the Madejski Stadium, home to Reading FC and London Irish Rugby club. My job had nothing to do with sport however, as I was photographing the MC conference for Atkins: one of the world’s leading Design, engineering and project management consultancies.

**Loom bands/team-building. Go figure!**

On a spectacular October day I took my son along to help with the harvest at Chigwell’s only Vineyard: I have to admit with the sunshine, green vines and blue skies I got carried away taking pictures, but the boy did a grand job!

I am writing an editorial piece about the Vineyard, on the back of another project, so watch this space!

I had five days work with the lady decorators in North London: part of my portfolio career!

I also managed to fit in three photo shoots for my Downtime project dotted around London which I am very excited about: see the images in the Projects section.

London Independent Photographer’s had their annual exhibition at the Embassy Tea Gallery in Southwark. There was a good turnout at the private view and I had two prints on projection:

I had four amazing days in Iceland, celebrating a very good friend’s birthday. With stunning scenery and exhilarating conditions, I would recommend this country to everyone!

**The stunning Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall), is fed by Iceland´s second biggest glacier, the Langjökull.**

I made it to the last day of the Virginia Woolf exhibition at the National Portrait gallery and discovered that Julia Margaret Cameron was her aunt. Julia Margaret Cameron was one of the first female photographers I heard about when studying my A levels many moons ago. An interesting exhibition and another reminder of being born into the right circles does wonders for your career.

Until next time

Amanda