Tess and Me

John had a play with the new mark II today ... I wanted a little portrait of me and Tess ... this is what he came up with :)

He's getting quite the hang of this malarky ... should I be worried? LOL

TJ & Kian | Portraits | Trentham Gardens

I had a lot of fun last week with Nina and her boys ... Kian is 8 months old and TJ is a 2 and a half year old spitfire ! Man, so much energy packed into such a little body LOL

The idea was to let them have some fun in the leaves and park at Trentham Gardens and to capture an autumnal feel ... the weather was kind to us and we weren't short of leaves and autumn colour.

A few faves ...

Tess

You know, I haven't blogged about my baby girl for a long time. While we were in Nice last weekend our friends asked how easy (or otherwise) she has been to train. The short answer is "not really". Beagles are notoriously difficult, they often get labelled as stupid, but are far from it. They are super intelligent and have minds of their own, their own wee way of doing things. However, patience has been the key (that, and bribes) and we feel she is actually a fairly well-behaved dog. We have a way to go, but she is a beauty.

I found myself with a fantastic excuse for shooting her today. I took delivery of a new toy, the Canon 5D Mark II. So far, it is scoring points with me and is, as with all my Canons over the years, very intuitive to use and the ergonomics are marvellous. I popped the 85 1.2 II on it and shot this through the conservatory doors, where Tess had been sleeping (until she heard me coming haha).

Enjoy ...

Loren & Family | Studio Portraits

Loren's mum contacted me a few weeks ago to book a studio session for her. Apparently, Loren has been feeling quite self-conscious recently and so mum thought a studio session with a professional photographer would do the trick. Loren is very tall and slim and so towers over her friends ... I had exactly the same issue when I was in my teens and so I could relate very easily to the issue.

We had a great time and even managed to get a couple of shots of mum and dad.

If you'd like to enjoy a similar experience, please get in touch !

DJ Morais | Web Coolness

If you've been following the blog recently you will have seen some portfolio and portrait shoots with the very cool DJ Morais. The main reason for these sessions is for Richard to use the images on his new promotional website ... it is currently under construction, but there is a home page and one of the images from a recent shoot in Birmingham ... I LOVE seeing my work in use and I just wanted to share this with you.

There are 2 more sessions to go ... 1 secret one and 1 gig ... I can't wait for that one !

Check out the site so far ...

You can check the progress here :)

Baby James | Portraits

You may remember Caroline & Simon from their wedding at Sandon last year ... I recently bumped into Caroline's sister while I was out shooting a session on the canal in Stone and she told me they were expecting a baby! All my past brides get a complimentary baby shoot, once they get around to having babies, of course LOL ... I happened to shoot the portraits on their wedding anniversary, so the timing was great !

James is totally adorable, 5 weeks old and cute as a button ...

BIG yawn !

What a cutie ...

The happy family ...

Awwwwww ...

DJ Morais | Portfolio Shoot | Stafford

You guys know that I love, love, LOVE blogging ... however, this time of year is a tad manic, as you would expect ... I am here, just busy and having a great time with all my clients !

Today I got to spend some more time with my clients (and friends) Richard and Louise, at their home not far from me in Stafford. Richard is a sought-after club DJ in and around the midlands and, in fact, all over the UK, Europe and even Miami ! I have such a great time when shooting with him, he is such a natural (Louise reckons he's just a poser LOL) ... we had a shoot in his home studio today and this is Louise's fave ...

2 more sessions to go ... not giving anything away, just watch this space (and of course more weddings to come as well :))

DJ Morais | Portfolio Shoot | Birmingham

I first met Louise (Richard's beautiful other half) at a bridal fayre 2 years ago ... she contacted me soon after and booked me to shoot their wedding ... I soon realised that this relationship was one that was going to last longer than the wedding day and I was right about that !

Earlier today, I travelled to Birmingham to meet with them to shoot some DJ portfolio shots for Richard ... he is a manager by day and a VERY cool club DJ by night ...

Here are some faves from the shoot ... part 2 next week, so stay tuned :)

At the very cool Oxygen Rooms in Birmingham ...

Richard looking very cool !

Checking each other out ...

The lovely couple, fresh from a holiday, tanned and relaxed ...

Cassandra & Paul | Portraits

Being a photographer is generally like being the plumber with the leaky tap at home ... very rarely do we get the chance to have photos of ourselves taken, or those with our loved ones.

Paul and his wife, Cassandra, came up to stay with us this weekend ... not only for a very nice visit, but so Paul could sort out some IT issues and networking for me and to collect the MX5 hard top we are selling them (we don't have the car any more !) ... the parts for their car hadn't arrived on time, but they decided to make the trip up from Berkshire to see us in any case.

While here, I talked them into having some portraits taken together, something they just don't have as Paul is generally on the other side of the camera !

We had some fun with lighting and Paul had fun playing with some of my lenses (did I say playing or lusting after LOL) ... these are some of my faves from the shoot ... enjoy !

John

After a very manic week in London (which was super enjoyable but went way too fast!), a wedding on Saturday (beautiful, can't wait to blog that) and a pre-wedding shoot on Sunday, John and I headed to our friends, Anthony and Kim's, for a beautiful 3-course Sunday lunch, with copious amounts of wine ... I so needed to just not cook and be looked after ... and I fell asleep in the car on the way home, too !!

While there I grabbed Kim's camera and took this lovely little portrait of John ... I love it and just wanted to share it with you all ...

Hope you have a great week !

Harry | Impromptu Portraits

Michelle & Ben, my wedding couple who are getting married in a couple of weeks at Rowton Castle, came to see me for their final pre-meet, along with Harry, their little boy. They are actually getting married on his first birthday, so it will be a double celebration !!

I wanted to make sure he was cool with me before the big day, as big cameras can be a very daunting for little people ... so I whipped out the daddy (the 1D IIN) with the 85 1.2 lens on, so I could get a couple of shots from farther back, he could get used to the shutter sound and all would be well with the world :) It worked ! He was fearless LOL ... I captured this little shot of him as he sat with mummy (you can see her hand and engagement ring right beside him) and I just love the eye contact in it. Isn't he a total cutie? What you can't see (because I wanted this to be in BW) is his cracking shock of red hair ... I'll make sure and post some from the wedding in colour.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon guys :)

Lisa & Jody | Portraits | Take 2 !

For our second session, we decided to bring Jody to my house ... she is a sucker for animals and with my 2 cats and puppy, we felt she would perhaps settle in to the shoot a little easier. Jody was looking beautiful in her summer top and funky jeans, but alas, the camera was still the enemy. We played games and even managed to have some fun with our piano, but there were some tears and so we decided that we'd have to call it a day before the stress levels got too high ... such a shame as Jody and mum, Lisa, are both beautiful subject.

However, we managed to get some lovely shots from the session and here are a few favourites ...

Playing and learning ...

Is that a smile I see?

After a few tears ...

Why not book your little one in for a session ... call me or contact me via email soon :)

Lisa & Jody | Portraits

I spent a lovely lunchtime with Lisa and her 3-year-old daughter Jody today. Lisa wanted some portraits of Jody to hang in her new home, but we knew it was going to be hit and miss as to whether we would get any as Jody is a little bit shy in front of the camera. We started off playing with some jumbo lego (I found this much more fun than I should at my age LOL) before getting the camera out ... alas, to no avail ! We did manage to get some shots, but we're going to give it a try another day ... for now, some from the shoot :)

I was allowed to shoot teddy, but not Jody ...

A peekaboo opportunity ...

Colouring-in with Mummy ...

Isn't she beautiful?

And finally, anyone who knows me, knows I am a sucker for tattoos ...

Thanks for having me, guys, look forward to seeing you this week for more fun !

Canon 5D, 50 1.2 @ f2

Sunny Sunday ...

Hi guys ... just a very quick blog post to say that I hope you are all enjoying this WONDERFUL sunshine over our May Bank Holiday ! I know we are ... here's a quick shot of my friend Kim, sat in the sun today.

Have fun !

Tyler & Colleen | Portraits

I recently shot a gorgeous boudoir for Kelly (check the archives!) and she was so delighted with the results that she asked me to do some portraits of her gorgeous kids, Tyler and Colleen ... we met up this morning in Stafford, along with Kelly and dad, Chris. Colleen is a total natural in front of the camera, but Tyler took a little while to warm up to the idea ... once he was in the zone, wow !

I think you will agree that they are both absolutely gorgeous ! Colleen is a very grown up little lady (aged 9) and Tyler is "nearly 6" LOL

Here are a couple of favourites from the session ... enjoy, and comments welcome as always :)

Colleen looking very sweet in the glorious sunshine ...

Tyler looking very cool indeed in front of some graffiti ...