Let in snow

We've just finished wrapping all the Christmas presents and putting them into two similar sized piles for our daughters. The vegetables are all prepared and at last we're ready and looking forward to Christmas Day. Watching the unexciting Christmas Eve television, all I can hear is the pitter patter of the rain on the conservatory. I'm beginning to wonder - did we really have snow at the weekend or was it was just a vivid dream?

To help remind us that the snow was indeed real, here's a few of my family snow photos and snow scenes.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Night time photos in Canterbury

As part of a photography course I'm doing I need to submit a night time city scene as part of my final assignment.

I was fortunate to be invited out to dinner in Canterbury last week with some work colleagues so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get the photos I needed for my course as well have have some lovely Italian cuisine.

It was freezing as I headed from the carpark to Osteria Posillipo Pizzeria. I had my camera and tripod but was limited for time - by the time I'd got to the restaurant I only had 10 minutes to spare. I realised I'd never make it to the Weavers and Westgate Tower on the High Street as planned. I rounded the corner by the wibbly wobbly house at the end of Palace Street and was met by a lovely scene - it was my lucky night!

I set up my tripod and camera and got stuck in - I love night time photography as it's a real opportunity to experiment and I love the effect of cars and people when shutter speed is slowed right down.

I had a few people ask me what I was taking photos for and even my colleagues walked on by without realising it was me. On mentioning to them in the restaurant that I'd been out taking photos they said they thought it was a professional photographer and were pretty impressed :-0)

I managed to get some interesting photos. Take a look at some below and watch out for the ghosts and Harry Potter night bus arriving. Dinner was good too, good company and great food.

When life gets in the way

It's been a nightmare couple of weeks. Two weekends ago my daughter was sick (literally) and over the last week she had the most awful cough which had me sat in the bedroom with her most evenings. The cough has now turned into a horrible cold which has been shared round us all but at least the evenings are now relatively free again ;-0)

Before all this illness struck I was fortunate to have two studio family portrait sessions with two lovely families.

My morning session was focused on a lovely little boy and all his family. The star of the show was asleep on arrival, allowing me to get some photos of his grandparents and also of his Nan and two of her daughters. My original remit was to take photos of each grandparent and each parent with our little star, unfortunately when he woke up he wasn't having any of it and would only be photographed with himself in the spotlight, occasionally letting Mum and Dad share it with him. Although we had a few tears at times, we did manage to get some cracking shots of everyone, albeit not in the original planned groupings.

My afternoon session was aimed at getting some family shots as well as some shots of the two boys together and individually. This was to be interesting from the outset as the older boy decided he didn't want to have his photo taking ;-0) I started the session with photos of Mum and baby and soon moved on to baby on his own as he was having a great time and settled in really quickly. Mum and Dad then joined in and it wasn't long before big brother started to show some interest and decided he might like to have his photo taken afterall. We got some great shots and the two boys had a great time, even having a bundle and rolling round the floor at times and the youngest showing off his newly acquired walking skills.

I really enjoy my studio sessions, children and families are such fun and a pleasure to photograph and it's a really nice feeling when you show the photos back and see the pleasure they give.