What a bold and beautiful week. Love was hanging in the air after Valentine's Day and all the colours of love filling our feeds!

This was my week...

And the #capturingcolour gallery was bursting with vibrant, romantic, crimsons, scarlets, rusty, brick and every other shade of red you can imagine. 

Here were a few favourites.

But the one that just captured my heart was this soulful image by Murdering Time. Beautiful composition, stunning light. Perfect props!

Come and join in the new week of SILVER. We want to find all you magpies and embrace the silvery greys, textured metals and shiny shimmers!

#capturingcolour is a weekly theme on Instagram. Tag your silver photos this week. Favourites will be featured next Monday :)

One thing I can't say enough about is learning to edit your photos.

Sometimes I take a photo and it's perfect, I don't want to tweak it or slightly brighten it, or nudge the contrast, but those times are rare!!!!

Editing is not cheating. It doesn't make your photos worth less. It doesn't mean you don't know your camera. Editing is a completely normal part of the photography process.

I love colour but I also love the power a black and white photo can create. 

So I wanted to share my favourite Black and White actions that I use. Actions are amazing! Preset edits that with one click of a button can subtly transform a photo. I use Photoshop to edit my photos and love the ease of actions. I tend to shy away from the very heavy effects but have a set of favourites that are my go to saviours of what I might consider an average photo. (I am my harshest critic and I have a lot to thank these lovely actions for sometimes.)

Let me introduce you to Florabella.

I don't take a huge amount of portraits and although the focus of the examples on this site are with beautiful children, they work so well with any subject. I feel like these actions are dreamy, they cast a magical light over your image and work really well for Spring and Summer photos. They really enhance the highlights in a subject.

Sarah Gardner's actions are just as beautiful and have such contrast.

The black and white action presets create completely different atmospheres and whilst I still favour the more traditional black and white effects I want to challenge myself and experiment with the colour options within the overall pallete. 

The brown tones evoke a more vintage feel without stripping out the detail of the photo.

I have been a long term fan of the sister blogging force A Beautiful Mess and when they added an action set to their shop I was so happy! I love the pops of colour the more natural filters they use on their blog photos. And their black and white options are just as exciting as their full colour options.

What strikes me about Elsie and Emma's actions are the ability to create that matt quality. The Willow and Lola actions strip out the shine and evoke a much more wintry and textured effect, whereas the Audrey and Boston filters pick out detail and depth. 

Actions are a great way to enhance your photos with ease. They don't fix everything, but they can add subtle layers to your image they will add contrast, highlight, shadow and light.

I use Aperture as my photo library and the Black and White options are great too. Built into the program and have that little something extra on top of a straight black and white. 

Are you a Photoshop fan or do you use a different program to edit your photos?

ps. There's another brilliant company Paint the Moon who specialise in stunning action sets. If you take a lot of portraits check them out!

Yesterday I shared my newest selection of inspiring magazines which included Darling Magazine. This magazine champions the art of being a woman and the positive energy we can all give each other. Celebrating the art of being a woman.

So when Atterley Road contacted me to be involved in their #ARWOMAN campaign I jumped at the chance. I am hugely inspired by women. Strong, capable women who are able to balance home and work life, brave and determined women who don't take no for an answer. Bloggers I look up to like Kat, Emily and Gabrielle, women in media who have the power to influence the world like Arianna, Anna and Moira.

Atterley Road is encouraging us all to share the woman that inspires us, someone in your family, a friend, someone in the public eye and tag it on Instagram #ARWOMAN. There are some incredible stories and interviews on their blog The Road so check them out and be inspired. 

I am constantly in awe of the women who push boundaries, challenge stereotypes and feel a sense of duty to empower their fellow women. I have talked about my Granny frequently on this blog. The matriarch of our family, the role model for the marriage we all aspire to. A warm and tender person with fierce determination and independence. And today I want to share my feelings for the another matriarch, whose commitment to duty and to serve her country, our monarch, Queen Elizabeth. 

It is no secret my family are huge fans of the Royals. Every year if my life I had stood and sang the national anthem on Christmas Day and the presents under the tree are left untouched until after the Queen's speech at 3pm. We were like giddy fools on the day of the Royal wedding, with party bunting and a fever pitch level of excitement when Catherine stepped out of the car. Mum, Natalie and I all shed a few tears as she walked down the aisle, as if we were watching a best friend get married!

And the Queen herself just leaves me speechless. A woman who has held her position for a lifetime. Who stands for hours upon hours a day, makes every single person she meets feel special and has lived almost every second of her life in the public eye. Her birthdays require an official portrait, she travels thousands of miles every month and never ever, has there been a story with a complaint. I listen to her speech from her 21st birthday and feel shivers. 

"I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."

I feel so proud of our Royal family, of the Queen's unquestionable dedication to her nation. A role model for women everywhere. She has endured humiliation, heartbreak and yet still serves her country with formidable fortitude. 

I'd love to know what must go through her mind. Can you even imagine what life must be like? The pom and ceremony being part of normal life, the expectation of everyone around you. Out living Prime Minsters, Presidents, adapting and shaping a modern Royal household. Impartial, influential, essential.

Charming, patriotic, devoted, informed and admired. An inspiration.

Which women inspire you? Which celebrity do you adore?! Join in over on Instagram.

In collaboration with Atterley Road. Check out their super stylish and affordable range here. I'd rather like this hat, this bag on sale and these boots. They'd go very nicely with this floral blazer!

Images credit 1 / credit 2 / credit 3