The school run #countrykids
Getting out and about isnt always doable in my week. As in, going for a walk in the park or woods, especially when the weather has been so lousy in the day. The little non school goer and me have been baking and doing play dough and lots of other indoor type things this week that i did wonder with the ‘outdoor’ theme of country kids what i could actually do for this week.
When it dawned on me that i actually do go outside every day and that is on the school run. We are lucky enough to be able to walk to school. Its not too long a walk but it is enough to catch up a little or just notice the seasons changing. It can be quite noisy sometimes (its along a busy road) and it has taken the kids a while to realise that if they don’t talk to me and look at me at the same time their voice can get taken away on the wind.
Recently we walked the morning of all the windy weather and the kids were super excited and chatty about what the weather was up to. Noticing the trees and branches strewn everywhere and of course the wheelie bins 😉 Not forgetting that joy of being a kid and feeling a little bit ‘taken along’ by the wind. Sometimes the weather can really make or break it. We have been caught in some incredible rain storms that have left us sheltering in a bus stop and giggling about how wet we were. 😉
After the stress that can be actually just getting out the door its nice to have a good few minutes or so to have some reasonable and calm conversation with the older kids!
The way home is often more relaxed and the kids chat about their days to me or sometimes we have to try and sort out an upset or a incident that happened at school that they must tell me about. One incident with one of the kids recently actually made me tell the other kids that they had to give me a few minutes without interrupting so that I could get to the end of the story. Finishing a sentence can be a bit of a challenge! Its loud in our family!
Sometimes i think to snap a couple of pictures. Its not really the time for trecking along the DLSR but the camera phone works well and the best camera is the one you have with you…as always.
🙂
How to make beautiful christmas photographs
If you have been around my blog for any length of time you are going to know how much i love photography. My bedside reading is often a photography magazine. Yes i am that much of a geek.
Christmas presents such an amazing opportunity to capture a bit of magic on film (digitally!). There are family gatherings and meal times. Lots of amazing details to capture, like the awe on the faces of the kids on the big morning and around the Christmas table. What about those family board games when grandma and grandad strut their moves in the front room? Not to be missed right?
There are also all the really fun details of Christmas, the candle light, that special christmas decoration, building the ginger bread man and the depth and richness of the perfect slice of Christmas cake.
As we are not in the southern hemisphere…(if we were we would all be on the beach right?)…the light at this time of year is not the best for photographers. Ask any wedding photographer how much their heart sinks if they get a booking for a 4pm wedding in December!! Not going to be much in the way of outdoor shots because its dark!!
A lot of the fun of Christmas takes place inside for most of us and we have to deal with indoor lighting which can be a challenge. So its worth just putting a bit of thought into how you use your camera this Christmas season and of course as it is Christmas you might be thinking about asking santa for a new bit of kit and to be honest there are so many out there it can be a bit mind blowing. Sony make a huge range of cameras from the humble and useful point and shoot to the full on and full frame DSLR. If you are looking at making a good investment then Sony have a fabulous range of entry level DLSR’s which are really every good. The A58K is a great place to start.
Or if you are wanting a quick shot, in your pocket, on the go with high quality images and movies too then the cybershot cameras are really good. They have a whide range, you can choose a high performance slim look camera for those times when you want to have more than your camera phone with you. Or you can opt for one with some fabulous HD video capabilities. The possibilities are endless!
Courtesy of Sony
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Relfection. #whatsthestory #magicmoments #mammarazzi
On saturday i had my last two photoshoots of the year. I don’t take on any more in december as people generally want the images for christmas and its really not that far away now EEK!…and i have another job which doesn’t stop for christmas so its nice to lighten the load a little. 🙂
I dont mention my photography much on the site, i think i have mentioned it before, because i have a separate blog for my client photographs and this is a blog about my family and so it didn’t seem to make sense to mix the two..but lately i have been wondering about my blog and what sort of niche it fits into (if at all). I guess im not sure at the moment, i think it has been brought on by a couple of things happening that have made me wonder how people view my blog and what i write about. Ive always been one that doesn’t really want to fit into a certain box and im not sure if reflecting that in my blog is such a good thing. Maybe its just confusing. I dont know…
Anyway..digressing a little there… 😉
Back to my photography..My hobbieography 😉
Capturing people’s families has been so important to me and its always interesting as a photographer to see which images people really like. This year has been a year of learning and growing and being inspired. Its been quite an eventful year and i have tried some new things with my photoshoots, some of those things have worked and some of them haven’t. I’ve been stung a couple of times by others and by making lousy decisions myself. But its always good to have those lessons to learn from. They might hurt at the time but once that is past the lesson is in the getting up and moving on. As the great Nelson Mandela said..
So i thought i would spend a few weeks reflecting on some of my favourite shots of the year, maybe a little about how i took them, my settings and a little bit of background to what i was thinking and also just a little happy jaunt down memory lane.
So first up:
This was a studio session for this little ladies newborn sister. So a large part of the session was doing newborn stuff and waiting for her little sister to settle and get comfortable. But when we got to her turn she really came out of her shell and stole the show. What i love about this picture is that sweet intensity that kids have when you tell them to look into the camera. They cannot hide their feelings, even if they can stop whatever they are feeling spreading to their mouth then their eyes show it loud and clear.
I love that she has the whisper of smile on her lips (i am probably asking her if she can see the friendly spider in my camera lens!). She is totally centered in the image, which i think adds to the drama of the and the intensity. I am a big fan of the rule of thirds when it comes to composition and only very occasionally will shoot an image like this, it takes something quite special to hold the entire centre of an image and i think she really really does.
Plus…my goodness..that hair!!
Generally for studio settings with kids my camera settings are fairly static…i use strobe lights so i use manual settings of f9.0/iso125/shutter 1/160
Autumn with a hint of winter #countrykids #fridayflashback
It is getting colder isnt it? That snap of winter is in the air and the gloves and scarfs are starting to litter the porch and the shoe cupboard. It is no use trying to hold it of. I am not a massive fan of winter but im trying to embrace it a little and not grumble too much.
So in a bid to enjoy some of the first frosts of the season, i went and took some autumnal pictures!! 🙂 lol
Catching the colours before they really do change!
