Lands End to John O'Groats with our Friends, the Hall McNairs ~ Part I

This summer my family has been fortunate enough to accompany the Hall-McNairs at two points through out their journey. They began their journey from Land's End on Monday July 21st. This put them close to home, well as close as they were ever going to be, by the weekend. So Friday afternoon we joined them in Tewsbury so we'd be ready for Andy, my husband, to run the following morning. As a photographer with a passion for photography in both my business and personal life I could do nothing less than document the occasion to the best of my ability.

We really lucked out with the weather this weekend. If anything it was too hot. But the sun was shinning so spirits were high, at least for us non runners and Andy who was only scheduled to run one or two legs of the journey. Although the extreme heat did have him worried a little.

Shortly after arriving at the campsite we headed out to the main road to greet the team which included Rob Hall-McNair (the runner) along with his support crew on bicycles, Sue (Rob's sister) and Martin (Sue's husband). It was really rather exciting. I even found time to take a few portraits while waiting.

The next morning I drove the runners back out to the main road to see them off and ta

ke a few snaps as they set off. Again, everyone was very focused and I felt I needed to be discrete in order not to put them off as they prepared. Before long they were ready to go and I was back at the campsite packing our things so I could get on the road to meet Andy at their first break. Unfortunately though, not only had I lost track of time talking with Niki (Rob's incredibly understanding wife), but the team had arrived at their break point earlier than expected. I ended up being a half hour late.

After a lovely lunch in a l

ocal pub we headed off for another campsite just outside of Ironbridge. We were all rather looking forward to seeing the new site with its name of Pooleview. Our anticipation turned a little into fear as we saw a power station in the distance but kept our hopes up all the while believing that the lovely winding road leading up to the campsite would take us away from the overbearing monstrosity but our hopes were quickly dashed when we arrived at our final destination only to find that we were directly beside as well as beneath it. The noise was ungoing and annoying and sounded just like rain hitting the tent which seemed really odd considering there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

The only great aspect to the location though was the vast expanse of space available for the children to play. I took advantage of that and decided to experiment with off camera flash. Both the kids and I had a blast seeing what we could come up with. Here are just a couple of what we created that evening.

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Fine Art Portraits of a Beautiful Young Girl

So this is really becoming my thing lately. I am having so much fun working with children individually where I can direct and interact in ways that bring the best out of my subject. This has certainly become a process now of creating rather than taking photographs. And its what I have always wanted to be, a portrait artist rather than a photographer. I cannot put into words fully just how rewarding this is. For each of these shoots (as with nearly all of my shoots) we begin with a consultation where we discuss what we would like to achieve in the shoot. Here we will consider the type of clothing and any possible props. We will look at both the clients clothes and my ever growing collection so we can pick what will work best. In all circumstances we are heavily guided by what the child in the portraits wants to wear as I see this as vitally important. If he or she is uncomfortable its going to show and the portraits won't work. But most are happy to play dressups and wear a com

Never Work With Children or Animals

Or so the saying goes. But I have to say that working with dogs has been so lovely. They have been almost entirely a dream to work with. I say almost entirely because we have had a few moments where a dog has needed to settle. And one moment where the dog had settled but one of my cats decided to have a look through the glass door which, as you can imagine, rather quickly unsettled the dog. Still, that didn't stop us from creating incredible work. In fact it was during that shoot with the cat instance when I created two of my favourite pieces, shown below. (It was while sitting on the couch here when he noticed the cat peering through the curtain) I don't know if I've just been lucky or all dogs are just easy to work with. I photographed a french bull dog puppy and I thought that would be tough as he hadn't had time to be properly trained yet. But he did everything we wanted in no time at all. And this included the props we used here (below), which to me

Family Portraits with Fine Art Flair

I have a love and hate relationship with family portraits. I love the finished piece and creating something that is truly special to the family. I love that in years to come something I made is going to be a cherished and valueable memento for this family. What I struggle with, is getting all members of the group to look their best at exactly the same moment in time. You would be surprised at how difficult this actually is, particularly when it comes to 6 children. But I always get there in the end, whether it is the luck of a moment or with the aid of Photoshop. I ensure that everyone in the portrait is looking their best, even the dog. Seeing as this family is actually made up now of two families we also did portraits in their respective groups which I chose to do in different style to their main group. I love adding a bit of style for the overall main group and what you see above is something that is proving popular with my clients. I love adding props and giving a sort of Vani

Introducing Claude - Another Fantastic French Bulldog

I know this breed is becoming very popular, I believe even set to take over the top spot for most popular breed from the Golden Labrador, but I never expected to get quite so many in my studio. Can't say I'm complaining though. They have such a wonderful character and I love to capture those adorable squished up faces. This client came in not just for personal portraits though. Instead she is developing a line of homemade all natural dog treats called Claude's Little Doggie Bag and these portraits are to be used in her labels. Which is partly the reason why these images differ quite drastically from my usual style. This client had a very specific idea for what she wanted on her labels. But again, this is perfect for me because I just love variety. I don't really want to be creating the same work over and over again. This gave me the opportunity to revisit a style I've not used in some time. This little guy was just 14 weeks old so as you can imag

I am Still Me: A Story about a Transgender Boy

Meet Leo. Leo is 15 and currently going through an epic transformation that has momentarily turned the lives of himself and those around him upside down. A mum who once had the daughter she always longed for is now coping with the realisation that she will be living the rest of her life with a son instead. When your child is born you have certain expectations of the typical life they will lead but most of us know and accept that it won't necessarily end up the way we imagine. Not every person wants to marry, have kids or be involved with the opposite sex. Most of us have come to accept this and can adjust to whatever comes our way relatively easily. But few of us have expected to have to deal with a change in sex. Its not that we've hoped it won't happen, but just that it never occurred to us that it might. This is a new adjustment that we as a society are being presented with today, just like so many others that have come before. When I first heard that Phoebe

Christina Lauder Portraits

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