Preparations for the Studio build

Preparations for the studio build have begun in earnest. Following months of planning and negotiations, approval has been given and the site has been cleared to allow the marking out of the new build. The sequence of photos below shows the transformation of my tidy(ish) garden into a mess! Having removed the shed last weekend, the last 3 photos show the clearance of the ground and the back wall, moving all the soil, bricks and block to the front of my house by hand, some 14 tons of waste!

From this-
To this-
Resulting in this-

Oscar's 1 Year Old

Wow, where has the year gone? I completed one of my personal projects on Friday where I have followed Oscar through his first year of life with a sequence of photos, starting at 8 days, continuing on with 3, 6, 9 months and 1 year. As always he was very happy to have his pictures taken, we started outside in the park where a couple of the shots were inspired by Kenny Martin and his Woodland Dream series, finishing with a Birthday cake that he demolished quite happily! The proud parents loved every minute despite not getting a great deal of cake.

Green Light for Garden Studio

After months and months of planning, re-planning, jumping through hoops for different council, water authorities and building control activities, as well as dealing with potential disputes, finally I have the green light to go ahead and build my Garden Studio, it won't be much but it will be mine!! Building starts in a months time, watch this space for the updates!

Baby Bump 3

I can't believe how quick these shoots keep coming around, well yes once a month, but time seems to fly by rather quickly. Here she is back for Bump shoot No3 and things are starting to show quite well!

Prom Dress Arrival

This week saw the arrival of my Daughters Prom Dress which immediately led to a photo shoot. Here is a sample of the images showing off the great dress and how my little girl has grown to be a beautiful young woman. I can't wait to see her on the evening ready for the event.

Baby Bump Second visit

Charlotte has been back for the next in the series of Bump images, the plan is to capture the same profile each month to see the progression of the bump through to arrival in August.

Focus On Imaging 2011

Last weekend I attended this event up at the NEC near Birmingham. It is a great event to catch up with all things Photographic and video to some extent, to see what new equipment, software and presentation media is available within the UK market. Loxley Colour have a beautiful new wall display product, the Alumini Print, which is very attractive. I had a look on the Phase One stand at their camera/back range and that's all I will do is look, clearly not in my price bracket at this moment in time, but the IQ180 digital back at 80 Megapixels is outstanding. There is clearly something for most people at the show with free demonstrations on a number of stands including Phototraining4U, The Flash Centre, The Societies, On One software, Lightblue to name but a few. It is also another opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones, a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days and I managed to keep my credit card in the pocket, well almost!

New Forest at Sunrise

I have over the last few weeks made a point of having my Canon G9 camera in my car most of the time, just in case I come across an image to capture. This week on my way to work travelling through the New Forest, I had to stop and capture the pre sunrise sky which was adorned with a wealth of beautiful colours, it was a truly amazing scene. Fortunately on the way home, on the same day, the the sun was on it's way down and made some wonderful arrays of light through the clouds. All are captured with the camera in manual mode, metering through the camera and the colours boosted in post production and then added a bit of creative cropping.

Oscar's 9 months have flown by!

I Can't believe how quick the 9 months have flown by since Oscar's arrival. He is now armed with a few teeth, but still has a wonderful personality, we had great fun today capturing him at this age, although I don't know who has more fun with his toys, him or his parents? I wanted to make the most of the natural light to give a difference to the year long portfolio, unfortunately when we went outside it was drizzling, although it didn't seem to bother him, such a happy little man! What is frightening is that the next time I go back will be for his first Birthday, where has the year gone?

Baby Bump

Something new today, here is the first in a sequence of Baby Bump shoots for Charlotte, here she is just over 12 weeks, keep an eye out for the follow up shoots as we proceed towards the arrival of her baby in August.