morning scenes

Mornings are sort of my favourite.

I say sort of, because I’m really quite terrible at getting up: pulling myself out of bed every morning is like leaving the womb again on a daily basis.

But once I’m finally free from the duvet’s embrace, I honestly do love the morning: the clean light, the smell of the coffee, the steam on the windows, the birds on the roof. Mornings are when a house is at it’s most homey, and they are also when Orla is usually at her sunniest. It’s proper family time.

Like her Mama, Orla can take her a little while to come around first thing – especially when, like last Tuesday, there’s a man with a camera by her bed when she opens her eyes.

The man in question was James from James Melia Photography. I have something of a photographic crush on James & his wife Jo: their gift for capturing the beauty and softness in everyday moments fills me with equal measures of raging jealousy and total joy. Their work is everything I love.

So much so, that while we don’t have a venue or a dress or even a date, I’m making them swear on all that is good that they will photograph our wedding next year. Even if that means we have to do it at 9am on a Tuesday. Even though they’ll probably be rich & famous by then.

All of which sort of loosely explains how it came to be that at 7:15 on a Tuesday morning, James was standing over our bed with his camera gear, photographing the details of our morning.

The idea was to capturing a special time that is rarely seen or recorded. Breakfast on non-work days for us is a sprawling, joyfully messy event, all spillages, kittens and hair tangles, and these images make the perfect time capsule of those hazy, early hours. Though it seems pretty impossible now, I know there’ll come a time when I look back at these early starts with longing.

What I love most James’s work is his ability to make the everyday seem a little bit enchanted. Our scruffy, unfinished renovations look rustic and charming in these shots; our morning mayhem is leant a sort of dreamy bliss. It’s just as well really, as there was no time to prep for this shoot – no time, even, to wash my hair or vacuum.
In a panic the night before, I text James to tell him this, and warn him we did not have any fancy breakfast things.
Don’t worry, he said. I’ll make it look good.

& he did, didn’t he? x

James & Jo travel all over the UK shooting lifestyle, portrait and wedding photography.
You should definitely follow them on Instagram here, and check out their beautiful blog and full portfolio.

(This is not a sponsored post, unless you found the lunch I owe them both from last time we met. I’m just a massive fan girl, in love with this pair! 🙂 )