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Well my friends, the time has come to bid farewell to autumn.

As quickly as it arrived, autumn is sneaking away from us, the descent into Christmas has well and truly come. As far as endings go, it's definitely not a bad one, but as much as I'm looking forward to the festive season, it's a bittersweet goodbye to Autumn.

I want to thank you all for sticking with me on this journey through the season. Embracing the magic of autumn certainly helps my mental health throughout the changing seasons, and I hope that this little inbox dose of magic has helped you too.

Before you bid a full and final farewell to the season though, I encourage you to take a moment to reflect. A whole season has passed and it was likely to have great moments as well as not so great ones, things worth remembering as well as lessons to be learned.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

What moments from this season deserve to be remembered?
What lessons have you learned?
What have you learned about yourself this season?
What challenges have you faced this season? How did you overcome them?
What tools do you need to avoid these challenges again in the future?

I've spent some time in the last month talking with you guys over on Instagram, and also those of you who hit reply to these emails. We've talked a lot about ways to make Autumn/Winter easier, and one of the things that kept coming up was how hard photography can be when it's dark and gloomy out. I couldn't think of anyone better to tackle this subject than my girl Kelly, who's really rocking the dark and moody content right now...

Embracing The Darkness

Like clockwork every single day since daylight savings occurred, around 4pm, I look aghast out the window. I am shocked, floored and appalled that it’s already dark out.

Somehow, I cannot wrap my head around this or fathom the idea that I have lost the daytime.

For life as a full time blogger, planning my content around the sunlight has always been paramount. But does it really need to be that way after all?

In fact, it doesn’t. And I’ll tell you a secret that’s changed my entire attitude… I’m simply embracing the darkness. Much like The Secret, once you’re in on it, you’re in. You’ll no longer peer out the window glaring at the sunset. You’ll find yourself welcoming the longer evenings, cosy fires, and the fairy lights twinkling.

It’s time to embrace the mood.

There’s even a shift happening in the way we consume our content. We don’t all want a cookie cutter consumerism. We’re craving accounts that do things differently. Because the reality is that we live in England… we live with gray skies and raining on the best of days.

Acceptance is the first step. Embracing the cosiness of indoors and dark nights will change your attitude from here on out. Because when it really comes down to it, we all love a moody Pinterest or Instagram feed.

Here’s how to embrace moodiness and darker content this season:

Embrace the flash

Recently I’ve been shooting a lot with my photographer pal Kaye Ford. We’re embracing shooting in the evenings by using flash photography. My recent blog post including holiday party outfits features plenty of flash photography. So much of our time out is spent either relaxing in our homes in the evenings or out and about - we might as well allow ourselves to develop creatively during these hours too.

Using flash is a great way to have your subject stand out against a maybe less than thrilling background too. I absolutely feel that we’ll be seeing much more nighttime photography in the new year.

Get inspiration from those around you - or rather those doing it well online

Moody Instagram feeds are something we actually crave seeing more of. I really enjoy following @inmysundaybest, @withloveyossy and @oneslowsunday to see what they create and come up with. They’ve been wonderfully inspiring throughout the autumn and continue to creative awe inspiring winter content too.

Jaye’s latest Instagram photos have been incorporating this too. We shot some moody photos recently and they look BEAUTIFUL.

Enjoy other types of lighting

Christmas trees and winter scenes look better with fairy lights at nighttime don’t you think? Me too! Yours truly and Jaye, the creator of Hunting for Autumn, have started to shoot evening photos more and utilizing the lights around us. If you check out her Instagram, you’ll see how you can play with lights for some really interesting shots. And Pinterest is amazing for lighting inspiration too!

Fake it til you make it

Of course, sometimes you can’t in fact, embrace the darkness when you’re working on campaigns, so I rely on studio photography lights to enhance the quality of my images. I don’t love relying on artificial lighting, but sometimes, it’ll do. And often, it certainly does the trick and I’m pleasantly surprised!

Let us know your favourite tips for creating content during these darker days too using the hashtag #HuntingforAutumn.

HASHTAGS FOR EMBRACING THE DARKNESS

#aestheticallycosy #gloomandglow #thiswintermoment #thatmagicmood #thequietwinter #thatvelvetfeeling #moodcollectors #mistymilkyfoggymoody #slowandglow

And so folks, it's time for us to say goodbye too! Thank you for embracing the magic of autumn with me, it's so much more fun than stumbling through. A special thank you to those who have contributed, especially my girl Daphne for all the gorgeous illustrations.

I'll still be around in my own corners of the internet, and always up for a chat, so don't forget to hang out there too!

I'm wishing you all a quiet, slow and soulful winter, and the happiest of holidays!

See you next autumn!

Jaye xxx