Be My Valentine

Love

Ok, so we all know that Valentines day is just commercialism gone mad, another way for us to spend our hard earned cash on cards and gifts, although I don’t disagree, I think that this year is different (for me anyway).  It should be a time to celebrate the one that your with and a time to reflect, it doesn’t have to be about gifts and spending money, it just sets aside a day that you can show someone how much you care.

But you shouldn’t have to only show you care once a year!!!!!!  I totally agree, but we are so busy with life and work that we don’t always set time aside, quality time.  This is what Valentines means to me, it hasn’t meant this in previous years but this year is different, it’s special and it means a lot.

I hope you all had a great day and spent time with friends, family and loved ones

 

Take 5

Portraits

As you may have seen on my flickr stream I have recently done another portrait shoot (I have mainly done child photography up until now) and it went really well.  A very different shoot than I am normally used to, by that I mean I was shooting with lighting as appose to available light and I was also shooting between f6 and f7, very unusual for me as I love shallow DOF (who doesn’t, lol), anyhoo, this is what the client wanted and this is exactly what she got.

When I had finally processed the shots and presented them too her she was really pleased, but surprisingly, she loved the more intimate, close up shots, rather than the one above.  I say surprisingly not because they were better or worse but just because she was so critical of herself in the shots that she preferred the close up ones where ‘less of her’ was on show.  I learned a valuable lesson here, to shoot at varies F-Stops (thank you Megha Duta) and also it would have been a good idea to show her some of my work beforehand rather than her just see 1 or 2 shots from a previous client, lesson learned.  Having said all that she wants a further shoot doing now (which I am thrilled about ) with more intimate head shots, which I can not wait to do as this is where I am most comfortable, but I loved working on this small project and it has taught me some valuable lessons that I will use in my other projects.

The shot above was taken partly posed but also partly off guard, I think it conveys a lot of emotion and apprehension and also a little vulnerability, after all, this was her first time in front of the lens, but I am really glad to say that it won’t be her last.

 

Awakening

100% Arabica

My first post since 2011, so much has gone on and I have been so so very busy, but, I am back, and hopefully for good.  I have neglected this blog for too long now and I really need to keep it up to date, not just for me but for my sanity, I really want 2012 to be all about my photography (for me at least), I want to make something more than just images on a screen.  That is what inspired this image, I woke up on New Years day and thought, I need a fresh start, I need to focus more, and that focus appeared as my two passions, photography and coffee lol.

The reason why this was so significant for me was because it was my first upload since November 2011 and also my first upload in 2012, but more importantly it symbolised my awakening back into photography and my ‘freshness’ (is that even a word, spellcheck says it is lmao) with my photography.  I want to tackle subjects that I never thought about before and also challenge myself to be a better photographer.  Some of my recent uploads on Flickr have shown this and I hope that you have all looked at them at least.  My journey continues and I believe it is endless, every time I take a shot that I am really pleased with it just pushes me to improve on that.  I suppose you can say the same about a lot of things but as this is my passion I am loving the journey, and long may it continue for me and all of us with a passion in our lives

 

Cistercian Monk

Learned

I have not updated this blog for over 2 months now and I am so embarrassed by that, I promise I will try to keep on top of it as much as I can.

I took a trip recently to the scottish borders, a truly magical place, especially in Autumn, every town and village I visited was bursting with vibrant browns, yellows and oranges. I could not wait to explore and find out more about this historic landscape and what mysteries it had held in it’s heart. We visited a place called Melrose Abbey, a beautiful 11th century ruin and as I walked around this ancient monument I sensed calmness and tranquility. It was again, for me, quite spiritual even though I am in no way spiritual myself. Scotland’s landscape is steeped in history and I count myself very lucky to have experienced that.

I have been going to Scotland for over 20 years as my Dad and halve of my family are from that part of the UK, it is the only place (apart from my own home) that I feel at peace and rested. If you ever visit please pay a visit to Melrose, it is sublime

Flickr

 

Shhhhhh

Shhhhhh

I have been so busy recently I have let my blog down slightly, however, I am back now and ready to update. This is one of my recent flora shots but it was taken several months ago. Whenever I feel low I find a walk out with my camera manages to pick me up, I love being alone with my thoughts and my lens and simply see things that I wouldn’t normally see, I spend a lot of time with my eyes towards the ground and that is where I found this shot.
I am very fortunate to live near a country park and I never get tired of the scenery and beauty of it.

Flickr

 

Christ The Redeemer

Religious Enlightenment

Whats going on with me?  Religion! well, no, more of a spiritual visit to a resting place in Bretagne, France.

This shot was lovingly taken in a graveyard over there, I had seen this several times as we passed in the car but felt like it was out of bounds in some way, maybe because of what it represents, a resting place.  Once I entered however I felt at peace, the silence and the sunlight were all I needed, and all of the graves were ‘Families’, you heard me correctly, several generations of family all in one resting place.

At this point I knew this was more about an ideal of togetherness than any religious belief I held, so with camera in hand and some gorgeous light I captured this image to remind me of what I saw and how I felt.

This symbol means so many things to many different people, I hope it holds something for you, maybe not religious, maybe just an ideal.

Flickr

 

Paddington

Light & Shadow

It always amazes me how much light your eyes pick up, even in the dimmest of rooms, you spend 2-3 minutes in there and you can see every detail.

Our camera’s work in much the same way, however we have shutter speed, aperture and ISO to help us with that.  This ‘Paddington’ shot was taken on a recent trip to Bretagne, France, it was taken inside a doll museum (not my usual bag but I do love light), it was dimly lit apart from the display case but I still managed to pull light from it, again down to a combination of high ISO (800 in this case) and a large aperture of f2.2, resulting in a small area of focus, the Paddington tag.  Obviously processing played it’s part but the core image is straight from the camera itself and of-course my hand.  Have a look at my ’Puppet’ set on Flickr:

Flickr