My Yorkshire Photo: Strawberry Fields

Inntravel recently asked me if I'd like to take part in a photography project called  #My Yorkshire Photo, in which Yorkshire residents share and celebrate their favourite parts of our county. Inntravel are a Yorkshire company who offer a slower, more pared down approach to travel, a bit off the beaten track. I like their ethos very much, and I wanted to take part as I do love to take photos, and also since they very generously sent me a Polaroid camera and some film so that I could have fun documenting our adventures. Now, I know what a Polaroid camera is and what it does, but I'd never used one before. Call me childish, but I was not expecting the absolute thrill and delight when that little photo emerges from the camera. It's so cool. (And I'd forgotten how powerful and meaningful it can be to hold an actual photo in your hand, rather than look at one on the screen, and it reminded me that I must get some of my Instragram photos printed out.)

So I had a think about what and where I'd like to photograph and, my goodness, there is a lot of choice in this glorious county; the moors, the coast, the Dales, the sheep, the pretty villages full of stone houses and dry stone walls...but the thing is, I do not live in those places. The part of Yorkshire I wanted to celebrate is my Yorkshire, Leeds, this huge sprawling city in which I've lived for almost 14 years. I'm gradually finding the bits that mean the most to me, those pockets of calm and beauty that lie between ring roads and junctions, where the traffic noise disappears and you feel you are almost in the countryside.

I decided to share our afternoon spent picking strawberries yesterday. Since the children were very small it's become a little tradition of mine to go at this time of year; we always go to the same place, every July, and it's always just the children and I as we go at the weekend when John is at work. We spend an hour hunting and gathering (Bella and I enjoy it much more than Angus, who is soon bored) then we take them home and I make jam and do lots of strawberry related baking and eating. It truly is one of my great summer pleasures.

The children's reaction to the Polaroid was priceless. They actually fought over who's turn it was - that thrill of the click and whir, as the little picture emerges, was as fascinating to them as it was to me. I had to keep saying "Don't just snap away, tell me when you're taking a photo!" as it costs about £1 a photo. Not cheap, no, but hugely enjoyable.

Today I made jam with the 2.5 kilos of fruit we picked, and had fun playing around with the images here.

But I wanted to find a better way to display our fun and so I blue-tacked the photos to the wall, creating a little summer display, a visual memory of our family time. I've got one film left and I'm saving it for when we go on holiday to Cornwall in the school holidays.

It doesn't take the best photo in the world, they are all a little overexposed, but as far as photographic fun goes, I don't think you can beat it.



Thank you Inntravel for this fabulous camera, I have enjoyed using it enormously.