Outdoor Girls

These girls are fab and such fun, as is their mum, of course! I'm sure they just came straight out of Junior Magazine. So sweet!

Best Friends

Here are some more recent photos from a wonderful shoot a couple of weeks ago. I am working hard on my backlog of images as I have lots to share... watch this space.

Spring is in the air

Ok, so it's not quite there but we are getting there, colour is slowly creeping back in to the world. Here are some images from a shoot this week with a really lovely, warm and natural family up in the Lake District. I enjoyed this immensely.

Winter Magic

I can honestly say I am really looking forward to spring right now but this winter has had it's magical moments it has to be said. I thought I would post this photo as it is one of my favourites of last year and turned out to be a Christmas present for my dad. It was taken on that day in early December (You'll know the one I mean if you live in around here) when there was a thick hoar frost covering every available surface. It was really a site to see, stunning. Henry shouted 'Mummy! why is there sugar on all the trees?' I couldn't have put it better myself. There was a light mist hanging in the air, flecks of frost glitter floating and glinting in the sun and the sky was bright blue. Henry and his grandad were collecting wood and larking around in the orchard, having fun. I was snapping away with my macro lens at the jewel-like trees and turned around just in time to capture this moment. Henry's expression says it all. This is what I love about photography, being able to capture moments like this are what it is all about as far as I am concerned.

Inspiring Companies

As I am paying some attention to my little blog I thought I would write something a bit different. I have been thinking lately about branding and strong businesses who have nailed it in terms of creating the overall package that compliments the final product. One of my absolute favourite companies is Belle and Boo. I came across the beautiful work of Mandy Sutcliffe in an edition of Junior Magazine some time ago and have loved everything Belle and Boo ever since. I think it is a mixture of nostalgia, whimsy and originality that draws me to these images, infact it is everything that I want to be seen in my photography. I am slowly collecting little pieces here and there, Ella just adores them as do I, such a shame that the perfect little dresses they now make weren't around when she was a tot. I think she would have been a walking advert for Belle and Boo had they been!

I emailed Ed before Christmas with a link to this print and the email was entitled 'Christmas present hint'. Bless him, he got the message and ordered it. It is sweet just as beautiful as I knew it would be but equally it was the packaging that sent me into a frenzy... just gorgeous little touches that make a big difference.

So here's some photos of my lovely gift and it's practically perfect packaging. (Lucy Woodrow Photography is now undergoing an entire packaging restructure!)




And next on my list of favourite companies is Spoonflower. Alongside my obsession for paper and stationery I also ADORE fabrics. I haven't quite got the hang of sewing, not properly anyway but I love to have fabrics around for craft making and I want to start on some new projects for the house. I came across this company quite by accident, they print your own designs on to various different types and weights of fabric! One yard of this beautiful quality cotton cost approximately £14 including shipping from the US (hopefully there will be a UK one soon)... not bad at all. I have no idea what on earth I am going to make with this although Ella thinks it would make a lovely summer dress, for her of course but I love that this rough sketch:


...with a little playing around in photoshop could under two weeks be printed, packaged beautifully and delivered to little old me at the other side of the Atlantic... how marvellous is the internet!?

A Belated Happy New Year

Well, it's nearly a month late but I thought I would wish everyone a Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2011 brings you everything you ever dreamed of.

:)

Here are a few (certainly not ALL) of my favourite portraits from 2010.

Blue Eyes

Bluer than blue...

Two sweet, charming little children who were a complete pleasure to photograph. :)

Now, I do secretly like quotes and would happily over use them at every turn but I refrain from doing so but I just had to add one here. One of the most striking things I find about photographs, particularly of children is their eyes, the windows to the soul. Anyway I found this quotation and I just love it.

'“Child, as I look in your eyes
You know my life seems like a minute
There I find living proof
Of all the wonder life hold in it
In the past I thought I had to learn
Any good that comes from this life we’re living
Here and now, let us realize
That this life’s gift and it’s already been given.”

Winter Sunlight

What a beautiful day it turned out to be yesterday! I really enjoyed this session. Gorgeous little children, a lovely family and the winter sunlight was just stunning.

Cold fingers and toes!

I did a photo session with this lovely family on Sunday. They were super-cute and really patient with the frrrrrreeeeeezing cold weather. A gorgeous little brother and sister who were completely natural in front of the camera.

2 for 1 Blog posts

Just because everything looks amazing when the weather is like this, even though toes can feel frozen. Brrrrr...




and these ones, well, just messin' around.

New Beginnings...

There is no point in me trying to sum up how I feel about this place. No doubt it would come across as over the top or at the very least sugary. I love it. We love it.

There is a lot to be done here, such a lot, so much that it's daunting but the journey should be fun and so rewarding. There are millions of treasures here, billions of nettles and endless possibilities...

P.S - the outside space is going to be the UK's most beautiful and magical outdoor photographic studio... how's that for thinking big?

Just because...

"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country."

No, I am not running away to another country with a 'new love'! I just really like the quote and I had forgotten about this picture taken in early summer.

Inspiration

I had an hour to spare whilst in London today, so decided that as it was sort of on my way, I would visit the Photographers Gallery as there is a Sally Mann exhibition running there at the moment. I had already read quite a bit about Sally Mann and know that she has been at times a fairly controversial figure in the world of photography.

I was expecting good things as the images I have seen I have liked immensely what I was not expecting was for it to change the way I see my own photography. The exhibition was incredible, to actually see the images there, framed and large (not in a book) was breath-taking and whilst, yes, some are controversial all are intriguing and thought provoking but most of all, honest.

I have come away from there today eager to re-address how I see my images and how I eliminate ones that I feel aren't 'just right'.

I went back though some images taken only recently of my niece and my two childresn playing in a cornfield and near a river. When I was initially processing these images I was looking for some sort of mis-guided perfection and it is only now I realise this from seeing the absolute honest and frank portrayal by Sally Mann of her own children.

I had discounted some of the following for stupid reasons, Tom's sunglasses hiding his eyes, Eliza looking a bit grumpy in one image (but now the contrast of a little, cheeky smile adds something more), a railing partly obscuring Eliza's face. Ella looking grumpy too, Henry crying, strange plants at the bottom of the river that look like cabbage (!) and of course that nerdy little grey-man photographer voice that sits on my shoulder and shouts "no! you have over-exposed it there! The eyes aren't in focus! THE RULE OF THIRDS! YOU FORGOT THE RULE OF THIRDS!

OK, so I have prattled on enough... here are the photos... I feel really inspired.