Baby Blues

As the last part of my portrait course is tonight I needed more subjects and none are more compliant than a 10 week old baby. A bit of a mistake this shot, I was just playing around with the angles of the camera and got this, a bit of a tweak with picnik and I the end result is something I quite like.

In the pink

English Country Garden

As we were in Stratford it seemed only appropriate to do some Shakespere "stuff". A little excursion to Anne Hathaway's cottage and the lovely sculpture garden, heralded the opportunity to take this pic.

Afternoon G+T

Post-Swim and Pre-Massage the perfect starting point to a night away with friends sans children. It was 3.30pm but nothing like starting as you intend to go on.

Playing around

With colour. Yes i did indeed take some photos of spaghetti. Does this make me a little bit mental... probably yes. Does it make me appreciate colour and structure...probably yes. Should I go and do something constructive.... probably yes.

Daffodils

There is always something cheery about passing daffodils on the roadside, even on the greyest of spring days they provide a little sunshine. Though I love flowers I don't like cut daffodils it spoils them some how and they never look as nice as they do - in the ground - as nature intended.

A few motorists passing by must have assumed my mental state as mad, but my friend who was with me understood. She has a camera too.

Sweet Temptation

I thought I was being clever, buying up those chocolate eggs in advance. Not so. It was in fact stupid.

I will firmly guarantee that these eggs will be gone before the Easter Bunny even gets out of bed, and I am not one to share.

Back to people

Unchaining myself from my desk, hanging up the phone and putting the lid back on the pen. I got to speak in person to several people today. Including the delightful Molly Moo who would happily pose in front of the camera all day. Thank you Molly.

My boys take note: you have a lot to learn and I am not putting the camera away anytime soon. Get used to it.

Tools of the trade

This is what I do. Literally. What do publishers actually do? Well if Monday the 23rd of March is any example, we write, we talk and we do some more of both. Through the course of my working day I wrote about 6000 words, shaping that into a presentable 3500 words. I talked on the phone for over 3.5 hours and I answered e-mails about 36 times, and initiated about 25 more. I also played with pretty colours on a diagram.

Not a bad way to pay the bills.

Mother's Day

It would have been nice to say that these were handed to me in person but they were, according to a 4 year old's weights and measures perspective too heavy!

Let the sun shine in!

It is so nice to have sunshine! Let the boys outside, mowing the lawn is this the start of good things to come. I hope so last year the Summer was quite frankly shit!

Calm amongst Chaos

So there I was in the kitchen, making Toby's lunch and thinking about what today's photo could be. I was only out of the playroom for two minutes returning to find child in slumber having decided lunch could wait.

By the way I didn't leave him there!

Raaaagh!!!

I can't remember how many times I have been to the Oxford Museum of Natural History, it must be working its way to 100 visits. I used to go with Grampie when I was little and he always told me that the skeleton on the T-Rex was real. It isn't, but nevermind I won't let that tiny fact dent the memories of childhood.

This was Toby's third visit to the museum - not bad for 18 months, but an easy diversion after a quick psychology session at Oxford Baby Lab (Note: Toby still to be confirmed as a genius). The Victorian Gothic structure and architecture of the museum lends it self perfectly to its skeletal inhabitants.

Forgotten

St Mary's Church, Cogges. Place of my wedding, and christening of both my boys, but also the final resting place of Sarah. Little is legible on the old headstone, but the name stands out on the memorial hidden away at the back of the graveyard, overgrown with brambles, hidden by trees. Forgotten.

More Portraits

And the sunshine is upon us, that seemed like a long dark winter of discontent. Nice to be able to have the children outside, still fighting, but at least outside. So in honour of the sunshine......

Line of Stripes

When it comes to boys clothes there is very little choice. You can have monster/thug themed clothing, character brand advertising or stripes. I opt for the latter. In a big way.

Let there be light

With time running out to capture any more portraits before Monday's "Photo School" session, I persuaded/forced/bribed Michael to sit in front of the camera, pointing the lamp at various angles on his face.

This was a homage to his Alter Boy days...

AD.....

.... After Digital.

I have just realised that there is no way in the world that I would have this interest in photography if it wasn't the digital age. Yes I had an SLR from the age of 17 but didn't really use it to the extent of its capabilities. I don't have a technical brain and whilst I can read the words there is something up top which means knowledge and understanding take a while to fuse together. My mind has a very slow shutter speed!

Just being nosey...

.............get it?

The Great Escape

So there I was in the kitchen constructing a gingerbread man escape scene, using playdoh as supports for the gb escape team, then I realised that this wasn't the normal behaviour of a thirtysomething.

I think I need to get out more.....

Sometimes it just doesn't happen....

........or you can't summon up the energy to try.

As it is a work day I had a bright idea to capture "movement" with my camera at home, with the boy's scaletrix track, but if you have ever tried to play this and take pictures at the same time you will have found, as I have I, that it just doesn't work...

Instead today's shot is just about colour and editing colour to that, maybe I will try it again another day with a small assistant.

Homework

After a really interesting first night of the portrait course our homework for the week is to look at the use of light, and varying styles of light in a range of photographic portrait shots.

Sarah and Immy are both really easy to shoot,and the cheeky expression on Immy's face in sharp contrast to the tears that were there a few minutes before. I like the fact that the light from the window shadow's Sarah, with the fuller focus on Immy and the catchlight in her eyes.

Little Miss

In homage to my portrait photography class starting this evening I took advantage of a quick visit by friends and little Miss Eve and a gerbera that was in already in the house, to throw together some shots. A swish of black fabric over the sofa, light behind me, a few happy noises in Eve's direction and the end result.......

Thomas

I finally relented and we took the boys to Didcot Railway Centre to see Thomas and his friends do their locomotive thing. Cold but sunny it wasn't too much of a chore as both boys came face to face with the real Thomas, Fat Controller and strange men who love trains. Our trip managed to coincide with blue skies and thankfully we left before an arctic storm swept in.

As we sat on the trackside watching the Troublesome Trucks display today's pic is from the angle which Toby must see things. It also begs the question for how long can Noah go on sitting on shoulders......the boy is getting big.

Feel the love....

Not that I am feeling it much today myself, but anyway, a bit of a girly, crafty type shot. Very basic props a standard sheet of A4 printer paper, buttons and a window sill. Up the contrast on the edit, and hey presto........done.

Forcing myself to take a photo a day really concentrates the mind on colours, shapes and shadows, taking in the vibrancy of the little things in life, the little things we hide away in boxes.

Something out of nothing

I do get out of the house, honestly, but today's journeys are somewhat limited in photographic appeal so while on the way out to get the washing from the tumble dryer this caught my eye.

Any neighbour looking into my garden would have thought I was crazy, standing on a step ladder seemingly taking a photo of concrete (I almost was when the sun went in) Anyway just a short reflection on well reflection.

Butterfly House at Blenheim

Having converted a day ticket to Blenheim into an annual pass for zero pounds and pence, I decided to take Toby on a little trip out to the gardens and Butterfly House. Perfect subjects for playing around with the macro function. Not being the best with things fluttering and flying around me I managed to hold my nerve and get some nice shots, quite a few shots actually.........

I was particularly impressed with how the butterflys landed on plants that they coordinated with.

Life's biggest challenge.....

It is a fact of life that I hate having my own photograph taken, I am much more at home behind the lens. Genetics did not bless me with any sense of bone structure aside from the basic skeletol structure. Having to endure the humiliation of getting passport photos done twice in the past week, prompted today's challenge of is there any way I can look half decent in a photo... ever....? As always the old adage is true, if you want something doing.....

Well with boys in childcare and a lull in work I set up Toby's room as a mini studio, got out the tripod and set to work. The end result... generally I think not too bad. I am actually smiling.

However, theat smile will soon be wiped off my face as a dentist appointment beckons.

Not the most inspirational of days.

After a house full of children this morning, I have two tired boys sleeping. A grey afternoon lurks outside so in order to progress my project I turn to perhaps the world's greediest and possibly most neglected cat.

Max ventures on to the scene as portrait example. A very lazy addition to project.... but it's too cold outside and the light inside is not great. So that will have to do.

Four for the price of 1!

Now Monday is a work day for me, so ordinarily I would just be sitting at the PC answering e-mails and going through the usual daily grind. However, the thought of playing with the camera searching for inspiration amongst publisher queries and author complaints drove me out of the house. I had a meeting to go to anyway so en route stopped at the Bladon Gate of Blenheim.

Really I wanted to try out perspective, moving me around not the just the camera, look at composition and generally play around. My most significant lesson, and a hard one learnt at that, was not to put the lens cap in my back pocket when I am kneeling down as it will pop out when I stand up and I will lose it.

So what did I achieve.... four okay-ish pictures, the first looking up trying to encapsulate the colours and structures of the trees, the second one I aimed for more of a mood shot with some help from Picnik back home, I like the way the path just tilts at the end - again my positioning as it isn't steep in anyway. The third I just wanted a general landscape shot, the colours in the foreground richer than the sky (have purchased a polarizer to work on the sky in future!) Finally a cloud, a bog standard nimbus, but the contrast between cloud and sky was quite pronouced and with a bit of a Picnik added an ecclesiastical finish!

Okay so first photo. Nothing special - pink flower etc etc. On the basis of my personal project it encapsulates two things, depth of field (the primary objective of attaining a DSLR) and light. Technicalities aside it also means more. Firstly the flower makes me smile. Bought by my cousin as a gift she only realised that it was of the fake variety when she handed it over. There is also very little pink in my life, two boys means my life is very much blue - not in the downcast, hide under a duvet blue, but the trains, planes and automobiles focus of living with three males. Finally the picture of myself and Michael in the background - taken in October 2007. Rare in the fact that it is a photo of the two of us together.

New resolution....

Slightly late in the day for New Year , but in order to fuel some creativity in my life I have vowed to take one photo per day (could be anything..) for a least the month of March. The idea behind this is in fact twofold. Firstly I have to look more closely and appreciate what is around me, day in day out and secondly I really need to figure out how my DSLR works. So challenge set.