3 is a magic number

Having a newborn in the house means I have an endless supply of cute photographic ideas to try out, sadly it also means I have a million reasons to end up being unable to carry them out!

Having taken almost 2 weeks to get around to shooting our Christmas card with 3 children I was glad to get another couple of shots, no matter whether they are technically good or not!

I'm very lucky in that I have 3 children who's features suit black + white processing as it cover a multitude of newborn blotchy-ness!

Location scouting with point & shoot

Today's midwife appointment gave a fantastic opportunity to scope out some lovely autumn locations near by.

This is valley view park (or at least thats how I know it, google maps can't identify it from that name!).

JD loved running around in the leaves and we will certainly be back there at the weekend with the D300 to capture some more lovely colours to add into em & jd's project 365.

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Outtakes and alternates continue...

Some more outtakes from this evening's combined Christmas portrait and project 365 sessions.



Crinkly throw from ikea, man I love that place for fabrics.

Christmas portrait outtakes

Well, the season is nearly upon us with halloween this week and bonfire night next week its basically a whistle stop tour to Christmas from here.

Having a new baby on the way before Christmas we're eager to minimise shopping effort all round so set about doing some new portraits of our own 2 today to frame and give as gifts.  

These are some of the outtakes, I think I like them better than the ones I've selected for framing! 

Inspire me!

Having made a definite effort over the last week to blow the dust off my poor neglected D300 it seemed pretty much like everything then conspired against me to prevent me taking any photographs. After my Grandad was rushed into hospital I was admitted to hospital myself then when I came home he sadly passed away. Then there's the daily chores of family life combined with preparing for a new baby, which in our case means decorating the entire house.

So it was in a very unlikely place this weekend that I found finger-itching inspiration that made me regret leaving my camera at home when I went out. I was out at the florists with my mother choosing funeral flowers for my grandad we outside next to the door I spotted a basket full of the what I thought was the most bizarre sad looking pumpkins in the world. I was inappropriately consumed with the urge to waddle home and bring back my camera and beg the florist's owners to let me photograph them. I resisted and picked out flowers helped by the fantastic store owners who offer tea and handled the whole thing with a lovely approach.

When I returned home my husband could tell I was twitching to go back, especially when I told him the basket they were sitting in was perfect newborn photo shoot size....

So we went back and bought the basket of gourds, I was totally enthralled by the colours and spent ages arranging them and getting the lighting right to show off their fantastic contrast. Then excitedly processed them in lightroom 2 ready to post.

Inside the store incidentally I discovered a wealth of fantastic seasonal 'props', lovely willow, berrys, crispy autumn-like leaves and peacock feathers so expect lots of up-coming shoots to be using such seasonal items!

Anyone who is local I can't recommend this florist enough, its the second time we've used them for a sensitive occasion when I friend suffered a miscarriage a year ago we sent a plant to offer our condolences and they met our needs perfectly.

There is more from the lovely gourd family on the 'everything else' web gallery through clicking the title link.

Abandon all technique ye who enter here....

Well, having a had a break from my camera for everyone in the family to be ill I was determined to get out & about and refresh my skills this week. Of course mostly it has been on the way to or from nursery pick ups or hospital appointments but at least my poor neglected D300 got a bit of fresh air.

As for my technique, well it got abandoned. Being 33 weeks pregnant I can no longer bend down to get my son's face in the shot and if I kneel down I'd better be sure he will stay in that position because I'm basically going to be there until a crane comes to pick me up! The shots I was most pleased with today came from abandoning all hope of 'proper' photographic technique, these came as a combination from peeping over brightly painted playground toys and allowing the camera to hang at navel level and shooting on continuous.

Wave of light

Last year we took part in the wave of light for babyloss awareness and lit a candle for our angel and friends and those angels who lost their fight on the unit I worked on.

This year I have realised virtually everyone I speak to has been affected by miscarriage, still birth or the loss of a child in some way so that's why I couldn't light just one or two candles this year because I realise now I would need an awful lot for all the angels who have touched my heart in the last year.

Using a mirror in this shot really is just to illustrate that we often feel like we are the only ones who have suffered loss but if we look up and look around we will find there are lots of people around us who have suffered as well and they can help us through, or at least cry with us and share precious memories.