More about me and photography ...

My interest in photography started at a very early age - I was one of a very few students who would live in the darkroom at school - I loved everything about it, from manually focusing to get the shot (no such thing as auto-focus in those days lol), to the sound of the shutter, to watching the image appear in a tray of chemicals - loved it ! Of course, these days the processing is a little different and I get to view the image a lot faster - immediately when I am shooting with my digital cameras - I do occasionally dust off the film camera, but I do it less and less these days.

I shoot anything and everything. I just love the whole process of making photos and I love seeing the results. I learn from the ones I don't like and I make sure the next one works. My husband and my cats are probably my favourite subjects as you will see on this blog, but literally anything goes. A typical example is this shot taken in a friend's house - we were there having a meal and had gone into the conservatory for a drink or two and I did what I always do - got my camera out :)). There were candles all over the room and a little sparkly start, so I captured this which shows some of the mood in the room ...

Why bother, you might ask, because I love all things photography. Also, I love to experiment. This image was taken in low light (candles only) and with no flash so as not to drown the mood - I used a high ISO and handheld with an image-stabilised lens to get the mood just right.

As I have said, one of my main subjects is my family - namely my husband and my 2 cats, Tigger and Tom - Tom is black and can prove to be a difficult subject, but he is lovely I think you will agree ...
This was taken in the back garden on a fairly overcast day - the light is lovely and made for some great shots - too much sunlight gives very contrasty results - not very flattering, even for cats !

Here is another different setting - this time the conservatory, early evening, the conservatory roof is wonderful at diffusing the light ... and everybody say aaaaah :)

Another favourite subject is George. George is 3 and just loves his Aunty Gilly (at one stage this was Aunty Jelly - I am so relieved we got that one sorted !). I don't get to see him often enough as we are all so busy but when I do the camera comes out, of course. Here is George in the conservatory this weekend - he was on top form :)

Isn't he a complete cutey? It was sunny outdoors when this one was taken and so the results would have been completely different had we not taken it in the diffused light - this is much more flattering, even for a little boy's skin. Oh, and he fell off the climbing frame at nursery - the result?

Oops - and ouch ! Here's one with Mum - this is George's BIG smile :)

Gill x