photo meme – Page 4

Sarah June 23, 2013

Chirk Castle #CountryKids #Nationaltrust

A few weeks ago we went to Chirk Castle. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had heard really good things about the castle. It is a National Trust property and so we knew that we would be able to spend a lovely time in the gardens with the kids, especially as it was such a hot day.

It is a little over and hour away and we we drove into Wales, the landscape really does become ‘this green and pleasant land’ Which when you mostly spend all your time in a large urban area it is lovely to see the space just opening up before you and galloping off into the distance.

Chirk is a 700 year old castle that is apparently one of the only ones in Wales that is still lived in today. We didn’t see any of the residents..im not sure who they are, but i do wonder how they don’t get lost in that huge building and the 3 mile driveway must make popping out for a pint of milk a bit of a pain in the ar** 😉

You get a real impression of its bustling castle courtyard where there was a very enthusiastic member of the Chirk Castle team getting the kids into teams and having a go at being at attacking the enemy the way they would have done so many centuries ago. He was really very good and had us and the kids laughing and smiling. Even my 4 year old got involved, though i think she preferred to smile at me a lot than do lots of charging and yelling that he was asking them to do. The kids got to try on some armoury, man that is heavy stuff and then ventured inside to the deep dark dungeon. If you have a little one that loves all things medieval then this is the place for a visit.

It has a lovely little cafe and play are where they were toasting marshmallows on an open fire for the kids and then acres and acres and acres of land to explore. We went for a long walk through the woods and found a little spot for some lunch amongst the bluebells.

You can visit the castle but we didnt go in this time, instead choosing to explore the beautifully manicured gardens which also afforded themselves well to some rolling down the hillside activity! The gardens also had some little ponds that the kids spent lots of time playing around and seeing of their various toys would float. Not all of them did *oops*

We finished off our time there by walking through the prettiest wild flower fields that overlooked the cheshire countryside. There just isnt much to not like about this national trust property. It is a perfect balance of space, things to do and a little bit of shopping and playtime.

We will be going back.

🙂

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Sarah June 8, 2013

#silentsunday

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Sarah June 7, 2013

Moving towards the light #mamarazzi #photography101

Light is what photography is all about, you get that by now right? Light pretty much governs everything about your image so its fairly significant!

A lovely way of lighting is by putting your light to the side of the subject, it adds a real depth to an image, a lovely three dimensional quality. You know when you look at an image and there is just something about it that draws you in, often that is because this sort of lighting is being used. Its the sort of image that has a really strong distinction between the highlights and shadow across the face.

A general rule is to put your subject at a 45 degree angle to the source of light, which for most of us in going to be a window if we are inside and trying to get our kids to sit still. Or it can be outside usually when the sun has a directional quality about it, like during the golden hour (hour after sunrise and hour before sunset)

This is harder to control when you are taking a picture of a kid, the reason for this? Same as usual. They move. If they turn their head that little too much you are going to end up with all in shadow. One way of working out if it is slightly too much is if you look in the eyes of your child and can’t see catchlights in both. They chances are they have moved too much, so just try and get them to turn a little, easier said than done right! 😉

It is a beautiful style of lighting and is a favourite of portraiture photographers. It adds so much to the picture, its also pretty good for slimming if you are thinking of wanting to loose a few pounds as well 😉

Okay so here is a little project you can try out… this is a really clever and everso simple thing you can do here…this works in any lighting scenario to be honest…in the little diagram at the top of this image you can see that next to the person icon is a line saying reflector.

This does pretty much what is says and reflects light. It absolutely does not need to be a massive big reflector that you might have seen professionals using. No. It can be anything white pretty much…white is a very good reflector of light. Just even by using a sheet of paper you can see changes.

I did a demonstration with this today with my daughter who was a total trooper after having her pre-school booster imms this morning. She was working for smarties it has to be said. Ive done no editing to these images so you can see it as is. This is really easy to do…no dont think its all fancy photographer stuff. You can do it!! Try it out.

So here it is…sit your subject next to window or a light and aim for about 45 degree to the light…So this first shot is just the window light, you can see where the light drops off her face. yes?

Enter reflector to the left, this is a white bit of card that i got from b and q. You can see how the side of her face has just brightened up a bit. She did turn a little bit away in this one.

another reflector, you can see what it is by scrolling down. The reflector is on her lap so reflecting the light back into her face. The shadows have almost balanced out on her face now.

Yes mum im really very happy about this…

Er..no..not ON your face!

Yes..its all funny till mummy asked me to do it again!

and the finished shot….my little girlie…

So what do you think? ready to give it go? Do let me know how you get on.

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Sarah June 3, 2013

Being beside the seaside #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

The beach.

I love the beach and i hate the beach. This juxtaposition may be a recent thing for me, as in the last ten years really. Having children changes your view of the beach i think. Not the actual beach but just the enormous task that becomes going to the beach. It can almost be a camping trip the amount of stuff you have to take. There should be some kind of lift arrangement to get stuff from your car onto the sand, maybe one of those delivery supermarket things, you could just order your stuff to be delivered to a pre-deteremined spot. Or maybe a new career for those beach-ride donkeys? There must be a better way.

Then there is the small thing of the sand…the sand…e v e r y w h e r e…..for the next couple of weeks. I swear i have put clothes through the wash and still shaken sand out of them when they come out of the washing machine. When we had a sand pit in our garden my OH used to say that at any given time of the day no matter how much you tried there would always be sand in the house. But how the kids love digging in the sand. I get it, there is something therapeutic about it.

When we go ahead and go for a walk, we can aim to stay away from the water and up here the tides can be a long long way out so you would think that it was doable. But it always turns into a partial swim regardless of the weather. There is something about the sea that draws my kids in..even when you shout ‘we have NO dry clothes with us!’ at the top of your voice. The words seem to drift off with the sand in the wind, carried away from unhearing ears and they plough into the water.!!! 🙂

But you absolutely HAVE to love the joy that it brings to the kids faces, the sound of the sea, that salty air, the connection with the awesome force that is a mass of water…

even if it does result in a very wet and soggy walk home.

🙂

Please dont forget to link up to motivational monday this week! This weeks giveaway is a choice! WOOH! of one of four beautiful Mini Boden summer dresses for girls. You can enter via the rafflecopter below! The winner of the Nike Running shirt is Faye Huntington. Congrats please get in touch to claim your prize! Please dont forget that you can still enter to win a Fab LUSH giftbox by going and showing some love to the beonepercent charity. Just follow this link to last weeks post!