5 family photo shoot tips We all want lovely photographs of our family don’t we? And as our children grow older, we can foresee the day when they will have left home to pursue lives of their own. This was the case with this lovely family, where the oldest daughter will be heading off to […]
Well the inaugural Love Your Lens guided photography walk took place on Saturday and I hope it will be the first of many. I met up with six members of the Love Your Lens Facebook group at the famous Chester Cross next to a lively puppet show. Everyone was looking forward to seeing what the […]
Had a new camera for Christmas?If you are one of the lucky people who have been given your first D-SLR or mirrorless camera as a gift this Christmas, you are probably part excited and part apprehensive about getting to grips with it. Whilst it’s fine to use it on AUTO for a while and enjoy the feeling of […]
How to photograph crafts Do you have beautiful products that you lovingly hand craft and sell? That you are proud of and passionate about? That people love when they see them in your shop or craft stall?Now for a harder question. Do the photographs of your gorgeous products do them justice? Do they stand out from the competition and shout […]
This is quite a tricky composition rule to explain and it’s one that we probably apply unconsciously, as our minds seek balance in images and art. A balanced image feels right, pleasing and stable. In a balanced image there is perhaps some symmetry and the main subjects have equal weight or importance in the shot. An image […]
I often find myself recommending “superzoom” lenses to students on Love Your Lens courses and one to one lessons and thought it might be useful to take a closer look at them. First off, what does “superzoom” mean? The term is commonly used to describe a lens that goes from a wide view to a […]
I have never stopped learning and developing my skills as a photographer and I don’t think I ever will. Technology won’t stand still (!) and there will always be new subjects to explore: wildlife, landscape, low light or night time photography, macro photography, architectural, travel – just some of the areas where I’ve only dabbled […]
My kids are older now – 12 and 14 – and although I still love photographing them, they are not as keen as they used to be (wild understatement – Abii acts like a vampire being shown a crucifix when I point the camera at her). So I concentrate more on what’s around me when […]
I absolutely love it when one of my clients sends me pictures they’ve taken that show what they’ve learned and how confident they now are with their camera. I had a great email from new mum Louise today. She attended a Let’s Shoot The Kids course in January and has recently given birth to baby […]
Markets are great places to practise your photography. There are so many interesting and colourful subjects and people generally don’t mind photographers snapping away. At the Easter Sunday Makers Market Knutsford people were in such high spirits in the long awaited Spring sunshine, that there were broad smiles all round! A few market photography tips […]
Do I need a tripod? I get asked this a lot and I think it’s because people see professionals with tripods and assume that they, therefore, need one too if they want to take better photographs. I fell into this trap when I started out and between my other half and me we have either three or […]
Pancake Day has fallen in the school holidays – yes! We’ve got time to do it properly, which means Abii indulging in a spot of baking, me in a bit of pancake photography and the boys (Nic, Sam, Ferb and Buster) in stuffing their faces! Mixing the perfect batter was down to Nic, with no […]
6 months ago we decided to convert our garage into a natural light photography studio and office. Here’s the story in pictures. I still can’t quite believe we did it! I had a clear idea from the outset how I wanted it to look and used Pinterest to collect all the ideas. Click here to […]
We recently made a much anticipated visit to the Dr Who Experience in Cardiff, where fans get to take part in an adventure with the latest Doctor and then look at real props, costumes and prosthetics used in the show. Our kids are Dr Who crazy and were beyond excited and fascinated. All of the exhibits […]
The wet and mild conditions of Autumn provide the perfect growing conditions for fungi and this exceptionally mild Autumn means that there’s lots around at the moment, without having to look too hard. They have their own kingdom completely separate to plants and animals and there are tens of thousands of different kinds. They are fascinating to […]
Like it or not Hallowe’en is growing in popularity every year and if your children are anything like mine, the opportunity to dress up and be allowed to accept sweets from complete strangers is the ultimate in fun. Their costumes get more elaborate each year, as do the decorations in our house, even spreading out […]
In the first of this series we looked at How to Photograph Trees (click on the link if you missed it). This time we’re going to concentrate on how to photograph Autumn leaves and capture their many glorious colours, shapes and textures. It’s all about the Light. Well of course it is as without light we wouldn’t have […]
I LOVE Autumn (or Fall, for our friends across the pond!). Summer is fab while it lasts but around the start of September I yearn to wear fleecy jumpers and knitted hats, to walk through woodland, seeing my breath as white clouds, kicking through fiery coloured leaves with my wellies, spotting weird fungi on tree stumps and […]
I am often asked how you get from snapshots to great shots. Some people assume that I can take good pictures because I have expensive cameras and lenses. I tell them that I have a great oven but my cooking is awful… So it’s not about kit. You can take great photos with a camera […]
Our little cornish break came to an end all to soon, but I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Glendurgan, a National Trust garden, on the last morning. Miraculously I was able to drag Abii out of bed and persuaded her to come with me (anything was preferable to packing). This is a garden more about […]
Most of the images in my “how to” blogs are taken using a professional level D-SLR and some pretty fancy lenses and I imagine I can hear people saying, “well, she’s got expensive kit, no wonder her pictures are good!” I can’t deny that good equipment does improve photo quality, although you have to know […]
According to my site analytics blog posts with pictures of cute babies and children on get far more views than those with (toy) meerkats, so I won’t be using my little Sylvanian family again! They enjoyed their little trip to the Riviera (side of our pond) but are glad to be reunited with their dad on the […]
In Part 1 we looked at how Aperture plays a big role in how to get blurred backgrounds in photos. Low f/numbers (large apertures) give us a narrow depth of field and high f/numbers result in a wider depth of field. This sounds pretty straight forward, but like lots of techie things it’s not quite […]
How to get blurred backgrounds in photos is high on the list for people who want to take better images and it’s one of the things that distinguishes good pictures from snapshots. It can be easy to achieve but if you really want to understand what you are doing and how to control the amount of blur, you should read […]
Photographs of your baby beautifully dressed in your favourite outfit, with a shiny clean face and huge smile are fantastic and they are the pictures that end up in frames around the house. However, some of our favourite moments may not be “frame-worthy” but are still very special and the ones that make us laugh every time […]
I love babies and (most) kids and for some crazy reason I like to earn a living by chasing them around with a camera, capturing natural photos of them and selling them to their parents. Newborn babies are my favourite subjects as they don’t get about so much and because they are without exception extremely […]
