Skip to main content

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 take 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 local 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.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

London in Spring, Whats Not to Love?

Well I know there is still a lot not to love but I'm choosing to see the great things about London at the moment. I am having a ball this year visiting London as often as I can. Which is unusual for me since I usually prefer the comfort of my own home, in rural old Leicestershire. Staying home and avoiding people has always been the easy option. But this year, possibly due to the wonderful weather we keep having, has me longing for venturing out. Again, just like my last trip, I headed out with my good friend Panikos Hajistilly . Living in North London he finds it easy to meet up for our shoots. This time though I had more of an idea of the sights I wanted to use as the backdrops for my portraits. With it being spring I was in search of colour, preferably flowers. Admittedly. I didn't quite get what I was looking for. The white fronted terraced houses with pink magnolia trees we did not find unfortunately. But I did make it to Peggy Porchen's which was a must see on m...

Family Photos with Flair - Vanity Fair Style Family Portraits

This style of portrait continues to be the eye catching success I had always hoped it would be. Once again I created a beautiful family portrait that I am really proud of and I know this family loves too. Over the years I have developed this style through influences such as Vanity Fair and the many photographers I follow, though I hope that there is something in here that is entirely my own. Having my work easily identified as my own was a goal of mine from the start. Getting to the point where people will want not just a portrait but a Christina Lauder portrait is where I've always wanted to be and I'm hoping I'm on way. These portraits were created for the family of two professional photographers who wanted some portraits of their own. Family portraits isn't really something one can do of oneself, at least not easily. So they needed the services of another and I was honoured to be chosen for the job. They chose me not just for my style but also for my ab...

Teen Portraits - Prom Season is Just Around the Corner

If your child is heading to prom in the next couple of months I'd say there is probably no better time than now to have portraits created of your growing teen. With the purchase of a new (and probably expensive) outfit wouldn't it be nice to capture this milestone with a portrait created by a professional. Across the pond this is a hugely popular time to create portraits, and although I am not American (I'm Canadian) I wholeheartedly agree that this is a special moment to record. My prom was a key memory in my teen years and in fact I myself had professional portraits created also. I think I'll go dig them up if I can, though admittedly I think my mother has them back in Canada. I wonder if I can get her to scan one for me. My daughter is currently making plans for college and in the running is one that will move her away from home, as many others are probably experiencing for themselves, particularly those who are 18. This makes it all the more important to ...

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...