Merrie Meet

Today has seen the completion of my latest show on CauldronFM and that is the Yule show 2016. The show includes music from Celia Farran, Tigerbalm, Neads and Prince and more. Click the link to listen.

Yule 2016



Hope you enjoy it.

Blessed Be

Merlin

Good Morning N Devon 28/11new video post

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Exeter Sunday afternoon 27/11new video post

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Sunday Morningnew video post

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Aquanew video post

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A re-run of our Lammas 2013 post

Merrie Meet - as we are now re-running some of our earlier shows on here, for the benefit of people who have not heard them before, this is the show from Lammas 2013  Click on the link below to take a listen..  We really hope that you enjoy it.


Merlin's Lammas Musing 2013

Blessed Be

Merlin

Spellcasting #1

Merrie Meet and the Brightest of Blessings to you on this Thursday afternoon in November

Here is the first part of a new feature that we are starting: -

We are re-running some of our earlier broadcasts from Cauldron FM here.  This is the first in a short series that we called "Spellcasting"

https://audioboom.com/posts/672914-33-spellcasting-1-let-it-go

We hope that you will enjoy it.

Love, Light and Blessed Be

Merlin

Being a White Witch

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30/10/16 Glastonbury

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Whyte Raven - "Hot Cars Aren't Cool"

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Vlog Monday 311016

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Tuesday 11th October 2016

Wow........ what a busy peeps I have been since the last posting.

Several weeks ago I was invited to take part in an online music course (which I may have already spoken about) and part of the content of this course was about identifying your place in the business and also about growing your following.  Anyway, one of the comments that was made was a suggestion to join a community called "Patreon" which I have done - and although it is early days I am finding it great fun

If you follow the link below you will go to the first page I have created and it gives people the opportunity to take a part in CauldronFM (our online radio station catering for the Pagan community)

Here is the link to the page on patreon;-  patreon.com/moonshadowmedia

Why not pop over and take a look and maybe even get involved?

Secondly I have been working on a new short video that is designed to give people a little bit of an insight into Ilfracombe and its C.C.C. (Curious Coastal Charm).

Last Friday we had a visit from Alison's best friend and she has been taking an interest in my music therapy work. It seems that she has been talking to her boss about it and it transpires that he is keen for me to provide a therapy service to the residents in his group of Nursing and Care homes........wow!!!!.  I have also just taken delivery of the first of my new advertising signs for the therapy business so they will get an outing on Thursday if not before.

Later in the week we are making the trip to Cheshire.  There are two reasons for this a) we really must go and see our really good friends who we have not seen for over 2 years (we will also be catching up with other people who we have not seen for even longer) and b) I have to visit Reybridge Records and see if the recording of the new track Smokin' Mudflaps (based on a poem that I wrote recently) is ready for me to listen to.

So all in all it could be a very busy few days......

But before I leave you I am going to give you a sneaky look at the latest poetic contrivance from Your Truly - it is called "Campervan Theatre (Not Quite Shakespeare)"

Now gather round and lend an ear
And let me make it very clear
As old Bill Wagstaff used to say
All the world is but a play

We play our parts upon that stage
In London, Bristol and Fegg Hayes
To sell out houses every night
As we like, it feels so right!

And when we do our Scottish Play
In hamlets all along our way
They sell out and the audience sit
As they like it - just a bit!

The camper makes us very proud
As we trundle round and round
The by-ways with the compass set
For Venice - and our Juliet

c2016 Moonshadow Media

So that my friends brings me to the end of this post and keep an eye open for more in the not too distant future.

You can drop me a line to - moonshadowmedia@mail.com

You can find me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dave.baxter.9889

and on twitter @cauldronfm


Until the next time

Love Light and Blessed Be!

A New Title and some more things...............

Hi and welcome to the first day under a new heading

"A Little Bit Of Magick"  

I really hope that you like it!   So how did it come about?

Well I was looking at a blog post by Zoella and she had done something that inspired me to create a new project and as part of this new thinking I decided I wanted to create a something new, and during that process it blossomed into the idea outlined here......

I have designed a poster......

 .....while I was working on this poster idea I decided on the line that is at the bottom of the image which says "Produced by Merlin "with a little bit of Magick" and that led the way into another idea.  I would like to invite readers of this blog and other pages that I work on, to create a "Witches Alphabet"

So I have started the campaign to get people to submit their ideas for as many of the 25 remaining letters of the alphabet and the only stipulation is that the word must be Witch related.

Each letter will be produced in the same format as this one and the person who suggested the word will get their name on the bottom line and we are looking to produce the whole set as A3 prints by Yule.

Please email your entries to me at moonshadowmedia@mail.com

What is my micro niche?

I am currently taking a course that will help me develop the social media marketing of Whyte Raven's music and one of the questions that the tutor (Leah McHenry) asked of the group was "what is your micro niche?"  In other words what genre, if you drill right down into the music you produce, do you sit?

I thought about this question hard and slowly the mist began to clear - I have always considered myself to be a folk singer but this is too broad a category, so the next step was to identify a smaller group that distinguished me from other folk singers - so my next choice was guitar playing folk singer......still too broad so I had to look at another level and I came up with Solo guitar playing folk singer.

Eventually after a long period brain work and after a good deal of prompting from my other half it suddenly dawned on me that my Micro Niche is "an acoustic pagan folk artist". A lot of my songs have themes based around paganism so I was "like whoa!" I have been missing this trick and wondering why my videos etc were not getting many viewers and quite simply the right audience did not know I was there.

So now if anyone asks me I know exactly what my answer is - however that does not preclude me from playing other styles but it does clearly identify where I place my main focus.  

So now with that in mind here is a link to the video of my latest song "Somerset Levels"

vimeo.com/185503175

I really hope that you liked that video and the mistake right at the end just proves that it is real :)

Moving On

Now let us move on to other things that are taking place in the Magickal world of The Merlin.....

The Music Ladder, Music Therapy business is starting to gain momentum and we are hoping to secure our first contract with a residential home for persons living with Dementia very shortly.  I am in the final stages of preparing the "job description" and setting out the terms of reference.

Cauldron FM has been accepted as a sponsor of the 2017 North Devon Firefly Otherworldly Fayre and Ball, to be held at Clovelly Parish Hall on 22.07.17 and all money raised will be donated to the Parish Hall to help fund much needed renovations. There will be stalls indoors and outdoors plus acoustic performances during the afternoon and then in the evening there will several live bands entertaining attendees.

You can visit their page on Facebook by searching North Devon Firefly Otherworldly Fayre and Ball 22.07.17

Sadly time has beaten me on this entry so I will have to leave it there for now, but keep an eye open on my Whyte Raven, Capstone Radio, Cauldron FM and Wytchwynd Photography pages for more updates

and I look forward to your suggestions for the "Witches Alphabet" posters

Until the next time

Love, Light and Blessed Be

Merlin x

Hi and thank you for joining me for the latest post........

Well it has been a busy weekend!

Starting on Saturday - I took a lot of photographs of the motorcycle show on Ilfracombe's Sea Front - the images have now gone off the the North Devon Gazette and I have no idea which if any they will use but just as a wee taster here is one of my favourite machines in the show

On Sunday the wheels began to turn in the direction of Exeter in search of a new travelling home for "The Music Ladder - Music Therapy"  Ideally said home would be either a Toyota Alphard or a VW camper but given the financial situation at present it might end up being a Transit or similar.

Leaving Exeter I pointed the wheels towards Dunkeswell in order to go and visit a music therapy client
and her husband.  The lady has a serious illness and over the past few weeks we have organised a pain management strategy that incorporates music.  Having spent a very pleasant couple of hours in their company I headed back home.

On arrival back home I had to put my photographer head back on and sort out the next set of postcards for my "Postcards of Ilfracombe" series.  The first and second sets are illustrated below.

And now we come to today and I had received information that the sample "The Music Ladder" t-shirt was available and ready for collection - and here it is

So with everything that has been going on this weekend I will be glad to get home and have a rest this evening.

If you want to talk to me about coaching, photography, therapy or any of the other things I am involved with please feel free to email via the address below

moonshadowmedia@mail.com

So until the next time we speak, have a fantastic week

Love and light to you all

Blessed Be!

DAve (aka The Merlin)

Hi and thank you for coming back to this page.  I am now back off my holiday and to be perfectly honest I am ready for another break.  Things have gone totally mad in my world at present!

Anyway if you follow me on Facebook the you will possibly have seen my Vlogs from the holiday and at this point I was going to insert one by way of an example, however the machinery is playing silly things so currently that is not possible so I don't know if this will work but here goes

https://www.facebook.com/dave.baxter.9889/videos/10154007987799541/

Now if that idea works you should be able to go and view the first one of said Vlogs and it means I can do other things as that way too.

So what else is happening, well I have now built a presence on Vimeo and started to populate it with a number of my videos - currently those from The Crystal Spring, Whyte Raven and Ilfracombe TV and as we progress with this whole increased visibility thing there will be a lot more coming on stream.

As someone who has a lot of interest in the media I am seriously looking to develop that side of the business and would be keen to talk to people who share the same interest who could be interested in joining forces and expanding the Moonshadow Media brand still further.  So if that is you then please drop me a line to moonshadowmedia@mail.com.

Just back tracking slightly whilst I was on holiday I spent many many hours, camera in hand, waiting to catch the photograph you will see below.  It was the realisation of a long held ambition and I hope that you appreciate the effort.

Tonight I am heading off to Dementia Awareness workshop as part of my ongoing building of The Music Ladder - the music therapy business that I have begun, since gaining my Diploma in Music Therapy.  I am really looking forward to it.

Cauldron FM is going from good to even better as we are now, for the 3rd year running, one of the official sponsors of The North Devon Firefly Otherworldly Fayre and Ball 2017 that will be held next July in Clovelly Parish Hall.

So I think that is all the news for the moment so until the next time, have a great day, be safe and above all

Don't predict the future - CREATE IT!

DAve x

The "We Support Small Businesses" campaign

Late last night my business partner in "The Crystal Spring" posted on Facebook that she wanted to support small businesses and show them some "love" by hitting the "love" icon on every small business post that she discovered while going about her business on Facebook.

I spotted her post this morning and as soon as I did I got the old familiar wobbles in the tummy that signify "this is something I want to get behind"

My brain went into overdrive and I began to see Facebook pages, window stickers posters etc and an initiative that could grow into a national campaign very quickly.  Below is the very first idea that sprung into my mind.

I think that the reason it struck a chord with me is that for years I have worked with and in small businesses and so I fully know and understand how hard it can be to build a business from scratch.  It is not an easy process and as Kaz said to me this morning "it is full of ups and downs"

Therefore to do my bit for the campaign I have posted the message on Facebook and already shown "love" to 2 small businesses here in North Devon.

However - and this is where it gets serious folks - we don't just need a show of support on Facebook although that is a great platform to get the campaign rolling - we need people to support the businesses by purchasing from, using the services of, visiting the shops of etc etc  This way we are not simply just "talking the talk" but we are also "walking the walk"

So go on be brave and join Kaz and I in supporting small businesses!

All the best

DAve

North Devon Firefly and Faery Fayre 27/07/16

Cauldron FM has sponsored this event for the past 2 years by way of radio coverage and photography.  Again, the day was warm and sunny and the views of the Bristol Channel from the grounds of Clovelly Village Hall are stunning.

Whilst there did not appear to be as many stalls in the hall there definitely seemed to be more outside.  Another change was that the stage in the afternoon was devoted to Karen of Littlebirds Therapy Centre in Ilfracombe for her Gong Bath treatments (and very nice they are too!!!)

Outside during the afternoon a variety of musicians entertained the visitors.

And although I did not attend the ball in the evening I am told that a great time was had by all, excellent company and good music.

Roll On Next Year !!!!  - 22/07/17

Pip n Jim's Garden Party for the Queen's 90th Birthday

The busy June continued onwards and the same day as I took the official Victorian Photograph I was also asked to take another set of photographs by the North Devon Gazette - these were of the Garden Party that was being held in the grounds of Pip n Jim's Church in St James Place, Ilfracombe to celebrate the Queen's 90th Birthday

So after lunch and with camera in hand I made my way across to the church and started taking photographs.  The main attraction of the event was the South Molton Town Band and following a performance of approximately half an hour during which they played traditional brass pieces, some hymns and surprisingly some very modern pop music pieces the crowd feasted on home made cakes and tea, coffee and orange juice.

All photographs by "wytchwynd photography"

to visit the "wytchwynd photography" website go to bit.ly/wytchphotog

The Victorians are coming

Hi it has been a long time since I put (well I was going to say pen to paper but that would be incorrect) fingers to keyboard so I thought best rectify that forthwith so here goes.

Back in June Wytchwynd Photography (in effect me!) was appointed to take the official photograph for the Victorian Week Celebrations in Ilfracombe.  This photograph was to be taken of the assembled group of persons in Victorian Costume at the foot of Capstone Hill (or so I was led to believe).  In reality the photography had to be done looking across at said hill from the roof of J D Wetherspoon's "Admiral Collingwood" public house.

Unfortunately for me this lack of the correct information provided me with a challenge to say the least but eventually I overcame it and produced the following photograph which I have to say the Chairman was most pleased with and he ordered 12 copies.

As the week progressed I took a lot more photographs and there were a number of them printed in the North Devon Gazette.  So all in all the event turned out to be quite a success for Wytchwynd Photography

Visit the wytchwynd photography website at bit.ly/wytchphotog

Changes at Ilfracombe TV

Hi and welcome to this new post from Moonshadow Media

Several quite major changes have happened within Moonshadow Media since the last blog post I wrote. The most significant of these changes is the Ilfracombe TV update.  Thanks to the power of Facebook we are now able to transmit a live update every morning and this has, in effect, replaced the Capstone Bulletin and has taken the audience figures upwards dramatically.  Today alone in just 3 hours the Morning Update had reached almost 1000 people which is on average 5 times more than the Capstone Bulletin did.

To say that I am very excited by this is an understatement!

The weekly What's Going On video still proves to be popular and we are working hard to improve that as each week passes.  This week we have added the opportunity for people to make contact with us and see exactly how much it would cost to place some form of advertising with us.  We can look at programme sponsorship, simple name and contact info (the cheapest option) and more.

The other things that have happened in the past weeks are :-

A new show for Capstone Radio entitled Home Grown hit the airwaves and Home Grown 2 is in production at present

2 new shows hit the air for CauldronFM - the North Devon Firefly and Faery Fayre update and the Litha show

Coaching Radio continues the serialisation of the Tao Te Ching

Wytchwynd Photography has had a very busy week starting last Sunday (11th) with photographing the official Victorian Celebration gathering, then the Pip n Jim's Queen's Birthday Garden Party, and on the 18th Mr Alexander, Steampunk Alice and Celebration Fireworks

So as you can see it has been a busy old time, not that I am complaining, especially when I read some of the positive comments on Facebook and when people stop me in the street to shake my hand and thank me for doing this for the town.

And this leads me to my final point - I am looking for people who care about the community and the issues / celebrations that are raised on a month by month basis, to join the team.  It is all voluntary as yet, but if you care, as I hope I do, about things that go on in Ilfracombe and the surrounding communities,  the money tends to fade into the background

If you would like to have a chat, please email me to arrange a mutually suitable time so that we can discuss the ways you could get involved.

email - moonshadowmedia@mail.com

Tel - 07050 644101

All the very best

DAve

Copy of an interview for fellow blogger "Ghostman"

This is a transcript of the interview I have just completed for a fellow blogger who goes under the name of "Ghostman"

Ghostman - What inspired you to set up the radio station?

Well that is a difficult question - many things have inspired me to do it. So to be able to answer fully I need to go back in history.

I have always been involved with the entertainment industry, from the early age of 5 I was on stage, at 11 I was studying music with the London College of Music.

By the age of 15 I was playing in a band, songwriting and had my first song published by a company called Belsize.

I continued life as a musician through various ups and downs and eventually set up an artist management company called Westworld

My songwriting consisted of what I would call "normal work" but then I went to Glastonbury and that visit changed my songwriting style and my life forever.

During this trip to Glastonbury I met a person who asked me why I had gone to Glastonbury. I could not answer him properly until several days later when I went to the top of the Tor and that revealed to me why I had gone to Glastonbury.

From that visit onwards a love affair began and I could not get enough of the place and that love affair continues to this day.

During one of my visits in 1989 I did a meditation on the top of the Tor at 5.30am and during that meditation my whole future spread out before me like a roadmap on the satnav.

As a result of that meditation I was inspired to write my very first album of instrumental music. In its very rough state I took the basis of that album to a company that was called Pagan Media and they had a record label of the same name.  The owner – Steve – really liked what he heard and on the basis of that he offered to help me record the album.

We continued to produce the album and although I changed recording studios in mid – stream so to say Pagan Media stuck by their promise.  The album was called Somerset Story

During the time we were recording the album I was also working with Halton Borough Council as a freelance consultant to develop a community music project.

One part of this project was to set up a community radio station and I was invited to go into the broadcast studio and be interviewed about the album Somerset Story. (The DJ who interviewed me went on to become a senior lecturer at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts)

As a result of that interview I was offered a presenting post on the next round of broadcasts which were to take place some 6 months later.

I was unsure about accepting the offer but I did and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

So I suppose you could say the die was cast and the seed was sown.

Lots of things happened with the band and the work I was doing we were scouted by London Records, I became the Musical Director for the Spotlight Theatre Company, worked with a duo, recorded with OMD and much much more.

But now the story has to move forwards to my move to Devon and here as part of my work with Westworld I met someone who was to become a long-standing friend of mine.   Between us, this person, Tom Armstrong (who was also a broadcaster) and I worked on books, CDs, advertising, show production and lots more.

We had several projects running one of which was a recording studio based in Georgeham and then Braunton.

As part of the studio we set up a video/audio link between control room and recording area.

We were also involved with our own theatre and performance training school which was the All-Stars Academy and we put together several productions and as part of that work we recorded the artists in our studio.

One of our conversations during these recordings sessions went along the lines of wouldn't it be great if we could broadcast these sessions either on radio or TV?

However at that particular time this sort of idea fell at the first hurdle because of the cost and so we continued to work this way until Tom migrated to Lanzarote and I stayed behind with my family.

Cutting a long piece of the story out the next major thing that happened with regards to my work in radio was that I was working in a show at the Queens Theatre in Barnstaple when I was interviewed by Lantern Radio as it was then.  This interview was with TV presenter, broadcaster and former Bond Girl Jenny Hanley.

From this interview I got a telephone call asking me to attend a meeting I did and the upshot of that meeting was that I had my own radio programme on another radio network.

The terms of my engagement with the station were that I was allowed to feature music that I wanted not necessarily what was on the playlist. I negotiated hard for this and told the manager that if he wanted me on his team then he would agree to my terms.

I stayed with that station for two years and during that time I witnessed and was enthralled by the growth of podcasting.

I saw podcasting as being "the future" and decided that getting into this method of broadcasting would give me an opportunity to reach a global audience for very little money and also give me total control over what I broadcast.

Now that sounds like I'm a control freak but I'm not!  It also sounds like I operate from a place of ego and to a certain extent at that point in my life yes I was!

Now however I take on the philosophy of a very highly respected gentlemen Dr Wayne Dyer and his philosophy was and I quote

"I like approval I enjoy approval but I don't need approval"

So to pick up the story again - from getting the equipment and starting my podcasting I found other people who shared the desire to broadcast their own programs. And so I offered them space on my podcast channel.

This podcast and several others that I was doing started to grow in popularity and I then began to look at ways of being able to broadcast a streaming service online rather than having people needing to click to play

So I spoke to various people one of whom said I can make that happen for you - and he did!

And hence CauldronFM was born alongside Coaching Radio and more lately Capstone Radio

However of the three radio channels that I operate only CauldronFM broadcasts 24/7 at the moment

Ghostman - What are your aims?

Wow another great question.

I suppose that the main aim for the radio side of me is to go onto mainstream broadcasting such as an independent radio station the ethos of that being of course that the programming will still be the same.

However mainstream "proper" broadcasting comes with constraints on content so maybe that is simply a flight of fancy

Ghostman - What plans do you have for the future?

The immediate plan is to obtain a new computer and to link that into my broadcast accounts which will enable me to broadcast Capstone Radio and Coaching Radio on a split daily basis i.e. eight hours devoted to Capstone Radio and four hours to Coaching Radio then 12 hours off air

I also want to get back into live broadcasting rather than pre- recorded programmes. There is something very special about doing a live show - you have to think on your feet and I like the buzz that doing that gives me

Another thing that I want for CauldronFM and Capstone Radio is to bring more presenters on board so if anyone reading this or listening to it feels that they can become a part of the Moonshadow Media family please get in touch with me

Ghostman - What music do you play and do you interview the artists?

Ok let's look first at CauldronFM - since this is a pagan orientated service we mostly feature pagan artists or world artists.  We are currently play listing an Appalachian prog. rock outfit Tuatha Dea; Danish pagan rock band Omnia; American singer/songwriter and personal friend Celia Farran and local to N Devon, reggae band Malachite

Moving over to Capstone Radio the music on there has a more local feel and is currently playing Jess Richards (Bideford); Maggie Davies (Ilfracombe) Dumbos Feather (Exmouth) and Ange Hardy (Williton, Somerset) among others.

I often interview the artists about their work and try to get a feel for who they are away from being a performer and touch into their likes and dislikes etc.

Probably the three most famous people I have interviewed recently are Paul Brett (guitarist with The Strawbs and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown to name but 2) Paul also has a range of signature guitars on sale internationally), The Strawbs were a UK chart topping band of the 70s with Union Man reaching #2;

Tom Newman who produced Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells - the groundbreaking Virgin album of the early 70s. Tom is a multi – platinum producer;

and finally actress and TV presenter Jenny Hanley, Bond Girl, radio presenter and presenter of the children's tv programme Magpie

Personal Information

I am not just a radio station owner although that is something that takes up a fair amount of my time. I have a number of other things that I do :-

• I am a singer / songwriter
• I am a press photographer and run wytchwynd photography 
• I am a personal development coach, a Reiki Practioner, Crystal Therapist and “fingers crossed” soon to become qualified as a music therapist

To contact Moonshadow Media

call - 07050 644101

email - moonshadowmedia@mail.com

A Little Story Telling

The Little Seed

Once upon a time.............. or maybe twice there was a little seed, and that little seed wanted to become a big strong tree.  So the little seed made the incredibly long journey to the bottom of the garden path and stopped by a giant Daisy. " Excuse me Miss Daisy but can you tell me how to become a big strong tree?"

"Hmm let me think" -

"Go to the foot of our stairs and stand there for a week or more"

"Will that make me a big strong tree?" the seed asked

" Maybe" replied the daisy.

So off the seed toddled to the foot of the stairs and waited and waited, then one day a speck of dust flew by

"Excuse me Mister Dust Particle" it asked enquiringly "am I a big strong tree yet?"

"Hmm, not yet, but I'll tell you what,  climb onto that sunray over there and follow it until you reach the Rainbow's End"

"Right Ho!" the seed called cheerily and climbed aboard. It was warm and pleasant and our little traveller felt just like a seed on a sunbeam.

When the seed reached the Rainbow's End he hopped off and stood there bathed in sunlight - suddenly he was aware of a tiny voice,

" excuse me Mr Tree, but can you tell me how I can become a big strong tree just like you?"

Looking down the little seed was amazed to notice that he had grown tall, strong and erect, he had become the tree he had always wanted to be but without him realising what was happening.

So remember that in this life we can often achieve our desires and not realise that we have done so...

When you have a goal, make it huge, make it your destiny and take the little steps towards it that are necessary and then sooner than you think you will achieve what you want.



To contact Moonshadow Media

Call: 07050 644101
email: moonshadowmedia@mail.com

ANATOMY OF A PHOTO SHOOT

An in-depth look at a recent wedding photo assignment that I undertook

The object of this post is to give you an insight into a recent photography job I was engaged for in North Devon.  From beginning to end this booking took the biggest part of 5 days and a lot of local travelling.

Wednesday evening

The bride to be had invited me over to her house for a coffee and a last minute chat about the “big day” and what was the basis of the plan.  Fortunately I had been given the information that the florist was going to be there and that she would be working with the bride and chief bridesmaid on the floral designs.,

I arrived at approximately 7.30pm and almost immediately began taking photographs, the bride looking stunning in her pink dressing gown, pyjamas, pink rubber gloves and with her sunglasses perched on top of her head.

The room was a blaze of colour with all the beautiful flowers and the air was heavy with the aroma of the flowers and greenery.

I took several photographs with my phone to get a feel for the atmosphere and colours then began with the camera – a mix of shots with both the standard and telephoto lenses gave an interesting combination of images.

Some two hours later I left the venue and headed home.

Thursday

Today was spent checking and editing the 120+ photos from the Wednesday shoot.  They were then compiled into a file ready to be put into their own online album and sent to the bride after the wedding itself. 

Once this had been achieved it was sort the camera time…………. Lenses cleaned, external body cleaned, internal mirror cleaned.  Both batteries fully charged, phone fully charged (my back up camera in case of camera problems) and lens cleaned.  Tripod sorted (just in case I needed it!)

Friday Morning and Afternoon

The bride and chief bridesmaid were being picked up from the hotel at approximately 11.45 to make their way to the wedding venue so I arranged to get to the hotel at 11am and take some preparation photos. 

As it transpired things were running a little close to the wind time wise so we ended up simply taking photographs of the bride and bridesmaids in the hall of the hotel, a couple in the lounge and 1 in the garden.

It was in the garden that panic set in – my camera screen went black, the shutter would not operate, the preview image function was not working, and I did not know if there was a power failure.  So I took the battery out, left it for a few minutes and replaced it, the lens motor ran and then stopped.

Now I was really panicking………………

I removed the battery a second time and waited.

I replaced the battery and the camera burst back into life!  I still have no idea what caused this situation but we were back in business.

Time had been marching on and as I drove out of the village the wedding car passed me going to pick up the bridal party.

I now had about 25 miles to drive to the wedding venue, a town to navigate around and only an hour to do it in.

Isn’t it strange how whenever you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry all the traffic appears to be on a go slow and drivers decide to stop in the middle of the roads for no apparent reasons, traffic lights always appear to be against you and so on?

Anyway, I made it to the venue just prior to the coach that was bringing the groom, best man and the first of the wedding guests.

I met and spoke with the Registrar who apparently remembered me from the last couple of weddings I had done that she had officiated at.  She took me to the room and ran through the procedural issues although she said “I am sure you have done enough weddings to know this anyway”

There was then just enough time to grab some photos of the groom and the best man before the bridal party arrived and I had to divert my attention to taking their photographs.

Time to head up into the ceremony room for a few quick shots of the gathered throng, the groom and chief bridesmaid before the bride and her step father arrived at the door.

I took photographs throughout the ceremony and finally I made a quick dash downstairs to take the outside shots including those of the happy couple getting into the car.  I then began the dash back the 25 miles to the village and get ready to do the bandstand shots before everyone arrived.

When the bride and groom arrived at the bandstand there had been a change of plan and it was just a few photographs of them and then to the reception to take the group photographs in the beer garden.

I had an hour to complete those photographs before my parking time expired.  Fortunately the group shots went well and with a little bit of artistic direction provided by the chief bridesmaid the shots were “in the can”.

Now it was back home and a quick download of the photographs I had already taken, a quick selection of 20 images to go onto the iPad to show the happy couple at the evening reception.  A quick wash and brush up followed and then it was time to head off again back to the reception.

Friday Evening

I arrived at the reception venue at approximately 7.30pm and spent the next 3 hours photographing guests, the buffet table, the presents and another 100 plus photographs later we made our way home and collapsed in a heap.

Saturday / Sunday and Monday

All photographs reviewed and the wedding images placed into an online album first.  This was sent over to the bride by Saturday evening.  The album of the evening reception followed mid afternoon on Sunday and then the flowers album followed early Sunday evening.

On Monday I had to take one image to the photo printers to have an enlargement made and framed and tomorrow (Saturday 28^th May) I will be collecting that framed print and delivering it to the newly weds after they arrive home on Saturday 4^th June.

To contact Moonshadow Media 

call - 07050 644101
email - moonshadowmedia@mail.com

Long Time Gone.............. but now I am back!

Well I have to say that it is good to be back and chatting to you again.  So much has happened over the last year or so that I really don't know where to begin.  So I think the best thing to do is to just go with the flow and put it out there in any order that it happens to come - which is the way it should be anyway.

So starting with

The Crystal Spring

Kaz and I have now qualified as Reiki Practitioners and we were planning on doing our Master's this year, which may still happen but when we do not know.  The reason for the delay is that our teacher has given up her business in N Devon and so is only looking after certain of her students........ we have been included in that list but other matters have also far been instrumental in prolonging the wait.

For the first part, Kaz and family moved home to her in laws house following the passing of her father in law.  So that meant that 2015 was a year of major upheaval, added to that the building we were going to be occupying is still leaking water despite thousands of pounds being paid to the "builder" to rectify the problem and no completion date is on the horizon.  So as a result we turned our sights on different horizons............and began working alongside The Heart Centre in Combe Martin.  I started a meditation group and nobody turned up, Kaz started a Reiki clinic on a Friday and nobody turned up.  I ran Part 1 of a course about Personal Development and that had 5 attendees but thus far have been unable to set a date for Part 2.

So I think out of frustration we both looked for other things to be doing while the Crystal Spring marks time.  Kaz is now running a nice little business as a Scentsy distributor and I am concentrating on my photography (wytchwynd photography) and training to be a music therapist.

Once we get the Crystal Spring trading properly I am sure that we will build a nice client base.

Capstone Radio / Cauldron FM

Both the radio channels tick over quite nicely, it will be much better once I get a computer that I can dedicate to Capstone Radio and then that channel can stream 12 hours a day instead of just the daily Bulletin interspersed with the odd show here and there as time allows

Ilfracombe TV

Our TV channel is enjoying some long awaited popularity again and I am looking to develop this with proper programming and funding this through advertising.

Wytchwynd Photography

This is probably the most self indulgent aspect of Moonshadow Media and yet it is proving to be the most lucrative.  I have recently been commissioned to take the team photographs for the Ilfracombe Colts Under 14s Football team.  I have been the official photographer at 3 weddings recently and I have been appointed the official photographer for the 2016 Victorian Celebrations in Ilfracombe.  There has been a fair bit of exposure in the press (particularly the N Devon Gazette).  My coverage of several local events having been considered worthy of publication.

At the time of writing there are examples of my work in The Coconut Bus Juice Bar and The Portland Art gallery in Ilfracombe

if you would like to check out the photography website it can be reached via the following link but here are a couple of examples to be going on with.

http://bit.ly/wytchphotog

So as a final little piece if you would like to get in touch then doing so is very easy

Call the Moonshadow Media Hotline on 07050 644101

or email moonshadowmedia@mail.com

Love, Light and Blessed Be.