I’m gutted to think that all the shoots for next month will have to be cancelled. It’s traditionally the busiest month of the year, and one that I was counting on. I have contacted a couple of you to try and squeeze you in before lockdown, and I will be I touch with everyone else to make alternative plans.
My printer is staying open - so now is a good time to have a think about prints for Christmas presents!
CHRISTMAS MINI SHOOTS IN ILMINSTER
My planned Christmas mini shoots are now postponed. Fingers crossed I can be up and running again from 3rd December, at the moment I’m thinking about after school sessions to fit in as many as possible. I’ll post more information shortly, but please do get in touch to register your interest, it will be first come first served.
SHOP LOCAL IN ILMINSTER - GIFT CERTIFICATES
I will also be posting more information on the Gift Certificates that I offer, but do contact me if you need something now.
Gift Certificates can be redeemed for any of my family outdoor and studio sessions, they can include money towards prints and digital images and can be personalised.
Spare thoughts lots for all the local traders ... being part of the Ilminster community means the world to me and I am acutely aware how tricky this next lockdown will be. I wish everyone well. To everyone, please, please do all you can to support your our lovely town through this next unwelcome hibernation. Support Local!
Finally, to the NHS workers who we must support and look after, you are all legends. I hope this is not as bad as forecast, yet again you will be baring the brunt of the pandemic in a way that most of us can not begin to imagine, please know that our appreciation for your tireless work has never dwindled Love, D x
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Part of my job as a family photographer is to capture all those beautiful pictures that you treasure. But, taking the photographs is just the start; I also edit and process using state of the art software, deliver proofing galleries for you to view in the comfort of your own home and spend time working with my suppliers to provide first class images as prints, frames, digital images, canvases ... well, you get the idea!
Buying photography is often described as an investment, professional photography is something you want to live on your walls and pass on to younger generations.
In order to create the best value, while reflecting the time and skill involved in producing the images you have asked for, I've created Product Menus. These are lists that have been thoughtfully put together to include special offers and bundles of the most popular products for the range of photo sessions on offer. For instance:
Maternity and Newborn clients are typically interested in Gift Prints, Digitals and Unmounted Prints for albums
School Photography clients are typically interested in Card Strut Mounted Prints that are perfect to send as gifts in the post. Because school photography sessions are short and, dare I say it, snappy! ... Clients are often looking for multiple copies of one image, and maybe an extra special something for their desk or wall.
A Fine Art Portrait session is geared around finding the perfect portrait - large framed portraits and canvases that hold their own on the wall are important - for this, upon request, I can work closely with a talented and well established framer, to create exactly what you need, careful consideration is given to both mount and frame colour that will suit your home decoration and enhance the print.
There is always a cross over, and I am happy to work with clients to provide what you need while reflecting the artistry and work that has been involved in styling each shoot and individual image.
Contact me now if you're interested in booking any of my family sessions and for a look at the product menus for you.
If there is something that you would like that hasn't been included on your Product Menu it never hurts to ask - I'm always happy to help!
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Somethings will never change ... like that amazing glow and visible excitement of expecting a new baby.
There is no need to let your precious moments pass you by!
The world keeps on turning and our families keep on growing. With the right measures, it is still possible (and plenty of fun!) to get the photos you need to remember special times in you, and your families lives.
Please get in touch to talk through how we can safely run a session to suit you. As long as we are sticking to guidelines and everybody is staying safe, it can be as simple or as adventurous as you like.
If we need to re-arrange, so be it … in this weirdly altered world, so many of the good things in life are still very much possible!
Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions for other socially distanced shoots that you'd like to see x
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Covid-19 Safety
We are all learning to live with this new risk, but with the right measures, it is still possible to to get the photographs you need.
So do get in touch to book. If we need to rearrange, so be it, but don’t let the moment pass you by!
The Studio Upstairs in Ilminster has been quieter than usual as families and business clients have followed government rules and kept themselves safe.
I’m lucky in that haven’t been totally fallow. In between home-schooling sessions and re-inventing the vegetable patch there have been a few product photography shoots and some outdoor location shoots to keep me sane.
With more enquiries now coming in I’ve put together a Covid-19 Policy to help answer your questions.
For obvious reasons outdoor sessions are less of a risk, and as you can see from my portfolio I really enjoy my outdoor shoots!
However, I am currently taking bookings for all shoot types, and will keep reviewing the options as restrictions allow.
Take a look through the following to see what I’m doing to keep us all safe.
EXTRA PRECAUTIONS TO ENSURE A SAFE AND HEALTHY STUDIO WORKSPACE
Keeping my photography studio safe and clean has always been important, however, with Covid-19 it’s vital that we all take extra care and precautions:
The Studio Upstairs will be cleaned thoroughly before and after each session.
There will be a minimum of 24 hours before each booked session begins.
Clients will be contacted before the session to check that they feel well and have not been in contact with anyone who is sick. If necessary sessions will be re-scheduled.
Only one person, plus one family member, will be allowed in the Studio Upstairs at any one time. Larger groups can be careered for at a different location, please call to discuss the options.
Upon arrival and before entering the studio, clients and visitors will be asked to remove shoes and sanitise their hands.
Clients are asked to retain a distance of two meters and follow good respiratory hygiene by covering their mouth and nose with a bent elbow, or a tissue, for coughs or sneezes. Tissues must be disposed of immediately and hands washed and/or sanitised.
I have packed away all toys and books so please bring your own if you think they will be needed and, until further notice, please also bring your own drinks.
Unless otherwise agreed in advance, sessions will be kept strictly to one hour and the shared bathroom at Number 18 will only be available for emergency use.
Communication is a key part of my job, I use speech, gestures and expressions to encourage and direct clients. While it is not yet compulsory for cloth face masks to be worn, I am more than happy to do so if requested in advance.
It’s so important to ensure everybody is relaxed and comfortable with these extra measures, if you have any further requirements please feel free to start the conversation.
EXTRA PRECAUTIONS FOR SAFE LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHY
Location Photography has always been a fun part of my job. I work with families to update their albums and wall art, and with businesses and entrepreneurs suppling images to promote their work. On location, I am taking the following measures to reduce the risk of catching, or spreading Covid-19.
Clients will be contacted before each session, to check that they feel well and have not been in contact with anyone who is sick. If necessary sessions will be re-scheduled.
I carry, and regularly use, hand sanitiser and disposable gloves.
Communication is a key part of my job, I use speech, gestures and expressions to encourage and direct clients. While it is not yet compulsory for cloth face masks to be worn, I am more than happy to do so if requested in advance.
Clients are asked to retain a distance of two meters and follow good respiratory hygiene by covering mouth and nose with a bent elbow or a tissue for coughs or sneezes. Tissues must be disposed of immediately and hands washed and/or sanitised.
If, during a shoot, anybody involved directly, or indirectly, becomes unwell, or shows symptoms of being unwell, the session will be immediately suspended and rescheduled.
It’s so important to ensure everybody is relaxed and comfortable with these extra measures, if you have any further requirements please feel free to start the conversation.
Other FAQ’s
What happens if I need to rearrange?
If you are ill or need to self isolate you are welcome to postpone your shoot until after the safe period. If this means you miss your ideal window for a time sensitive session such as maternity or newborn sessions, you can transfer your session to a different date or shoot type, for example a family or lifestyle shoot later on. If a suitable alternative can’t be arranged then you are welcome to receive your deposit back.
Can I book a shoot at home?
I can not work with clinically vulnerable or high risk people at this time. An outdoor session is the obvious choice to avoid all contact with surfaces. If you need me to enter your home extra guidance must be followed.
You will be asked to leave all internal doors open to minimise contact with door handles and keep the home well ventilated. Time spent inside must be kept to an absolute minimum. Before entering I will sanitise my hands, put on disposable gloves and if you feel more comfortable I will put on a face mask.
What about public transport?
If you are visiting my studio, I am asking that clients either drive or come on foot. There is ample parking in Ilminster.
If I am traveling to meet you at a location I will arrive by car.
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TIPS FROM A SOMERSET NEWBORN AND FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER FOR CAPTURING YOUR BABY DURING THEIR FIRST WEEKS AND MONTHS AT HOME
This darn virus and the tsunami of worries that washes along with it has caught us unprepared in so many ways. How could any of us have predicted just how quickly, and drastically, our lives would change.
Many of my photoshoots have been put on hold, but babies and newborns wait for no-one! With this in mind, I’ve created a basic tip sheet to help you get the most of your home photos helping you to save those beautiful, spontaneous moments.
Capturing those precious moments of your baby throughout their first weeks and months will create lasting family memories for generations, and it's fun to do to! Use whatever device you feel most comfortable with, you don't need a fancy camera. Keep two things in firmly mind -
- The light
- The moment
Photograph those first stretches and cries, photograph the cuddles, the mess and the exhaustion. These are their very first life experiences, and you absolutely need to capture them, no matter where you are and what you are doing, they are times that you don't want to forget.
Here are some more tips to get you started:
1. Look for the light. Watch as it falls across your baby. Touch the screen on your phone to adjust your exposure.
2. If your baby is happier at the beginning of the day then plan your photo session for the morning.
3. Get down nice and low, see the world at their level.
4. Babies tend to sleep a lot in those first few weeks of life. To capture those sleepy peaceful moments make sure your baby is warm, well fed and feels secure.
5. If baby is awake, capture all those amazing first expressions, yawns, stretches, smiles and winks!
6. Exist in photos with your baby! Take turns with your partner to photograph those special moments when you’re interacting with your baby while they’re awake or when you’re rocking them off to sleep. When they’re older they will love to look back at these amazing memories.
7. Get in nice and close to capture all those perfect little baby features, their hands, tiny feet, and beautiful faces, place a tiny foot or a hand in yours to show proportion.
8. Soft window light is best and turn off your flash, it can be very unflattering to your baby.
9. Don’t forget to look at what’s going on in the background. Busy backgrounds can be distracting, so keep it nice and simple.
10. Don’t forget to backup your photos for safe storage.
11. Have fun creating beautiful video slideshows and photo books, remember to print your photos so you have them forever.
12. Lastly, share your images. Upload them to social media and share with friends and family around the world.
13. Use your time to stay organised and ahead of the game, pick your favourite shots from each day or week and make a point of storing them in a separate favourite folder or print album.
14. Share them with me! I will be choosing one photo a week for a free professional retouch!
Here’s an example edit of me and my two little monkeys when they were 3 months old. Duvet cover as a makeshift backdrop, camera set on timer - okay so I took about twenty shots to get this one - but well worth the effort!
Don't forget to share them with me on the relevant Facebook post - I will choose one a week, while there is interest, to give you a professional edit - I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do - and a weekly challenge to keep me on my toes! ;).
xx
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You might have heard of FOMO - the Fear Of Missing Out. And now, because we're always looking for something else, may I present, JOMO - the Joy Of Missing Out.
FOMO is about being present online and always staying up-to-date with the latest events. JOMO however, is about enjoying the previously boring bits of our everyday lives. It's about 'Slow Living' and a desire to spend more time with your family and friends, just doing what you love without hurrying anywhere. Sounds pretty spot on for these locked down times.
But there is a limit to boring, and I'm quite a fidgety sort of person. Fidgeting my way through boring started to drive me up the wall, and then I read about JOMO and started to wonder - could JOMO be translated through photography?
I've always loved Pinhole Photography, I even teach it at a local school, but how about getting back to my 35mm film camera. Hmmm, it's definitely far away from the instant world, and I love the challenge of thinking in black and white. Then there's processing the films, perhaps a stage too far right now with all the faff needed to black out a room, but there's always Harman's lab (previously Ilford). I could enjoy that sweet, slow anticipation waiting for the film and prints to be returned. Hmmmm, nice and slow, and in it's funny own way, all the more exciting!
Back to fidgeting though, and to all my fellow fidgeters who might be looking for different ideas to get creative:
- - Make some black and white wall art
- - Digitise your photos and post them on Instagram
- - Apply film filters to your smartphone images. For instance, the app 8mm is easy to use and is fitting to help give your Instagram photos that old film look
- - Share your photos with me - I'd love to see how you're getting on!
Get creative and have some lockdown, slow, mono JOMO fun.
Okay, hands up, I'm not the greatest Blogger, and I probably put the "Anti' into Social Media, but a girl has to start somewhere…
Maybe I can put this down to being the shy and retiring type, or maybe it's because I usually have plenty enough to manage running my studio and photography business, all the while chasing round after two full-tilt teenagers. But just recently things have definitely changed, slowed down, stopped and then, laid down on the ground and started staring at the sky. Like most other folk, I am taking on a wholly different perspective.
The first couple of weeks involved some manic digging of the vegetable garden as I convinced myself that the fenced off island occupied by me and my family would need to become a source of sustenance through the hard times to come, and after all, there is only limited nutrition to be had from bindweed, ground elder and nettles.
Then, the perhaps the inevitable, low mood, questions and re-evaluations.
I’m not the only one to ask what the heck has all this been about for the past heaven knows how long. Stuck on the running mill of life with the control set permanently in top speed, it shouldn’t really come as a great surprise when Covid-19 rammed a screwdriver of uncertainty into the gears. The abrupt stop throwing humanity headlong into the long and unfamiliar long grass of zero travel, zero work, zero social contact and then wierdly, zero sleep.
Still, on the upside, I’ve learned that I can use Zoom to catch up with much missed friends relatives all over the world, we have plenty of food for now (just as well, it turns out that I’m not cut out for growing my own veg) and we have plenty of time.
Time to think … now that is a novel idea. Time to enjoy time. Time to start making, what at first seems, the small adjustments that will help me and my family cope and manage in the future. Time to think about what the future might be.
So, while turning to The Blog wasn't the answer I was expecting from the cosmos, certainly not something that I contemplated, I set out to explore these adjustments. It might stop again as suddenly as it started, but for now, the blog goes on ….
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A couple of months back I had a call from Grace Productions asking if I’d be interested in doing some stills photography for their BBC documentary Invented in the West Country. Absolutely!
As a freelance photographer the majority of my work is solo, which has it’s upsides, but I love the chance to be part of team - albeit if my job was generally to stay out of the way!
The crew from Grace were easy to work with and it was fascinating to see how everything worked behind the scenes.
Mostly I was working with natural light, or the fixed production light, to stay in keeping with the film footage, and then there were quick bursts when I had the opportunity to break out a strobe for a couple of set up shots.
It was fun to work opportunistically while the film crew was shooting, other shots were more strategically planned following conversation with the director or looking through the call sheet.
What’s the point of production shots? Well, marketing and publicity almost always uses high quality still images. I’ve had my images used across quite a lot of national media, but it's great to see some on the BBC!
It’s a great documentary merging history and tech and I'm proud to have played a small part in it. The presenter Kate Grey is very watchable and, as a local girl myself, it’s fascinating to see what hidden secrets this part of the world has tucked away and sneak a peak at the role our local industries are playing in shaping the future.
If you didn’t see it on Friday there’s still time to catch on iPlayer! -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08w1f4j/invented-in-the-west-country
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Frosty mornings in Somerset can be a quickly passing sight, as the sun appears it melts away the frozen dew clad veil. But the last week has been different, the shimmering icy powder has lingered throughout the day, especially where the long winter shadows have stretched across the frozen earth.
There have been some stunning sights, as I was driving back from Salisbury plain with the low reddening sun in my eyes, every crest brought a new breathtaking view of creeping misty hollows and silhouetted trees of ever paler tones receding into the distance.
But my favourite times are the crispy mornings with the sky full of deep golden and mauve tones all reflected back by the twinkling landscape. The soft light bouncing into ,and out of, even the darkest corners. It’s been totally magical!
So wrap up warm, get outside and enjoy how the drop in temperature can throw a different light on familiar landscapes, next time I think I’ll pack my macro lens!
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Once the session is booked I email clients my ‘What to expect’ guide, including tips on how to get the most of your session and, crucially, what to wear.
Families often ask advice on what to wear. I know it's not always easy, I have twins, they try very hard not to be the lookey-likey types, getting them dressed for school in the mornings can be tricky enough, but throw choice into the mix and we can spend half a morning getting dressed! But what you choose to wear for your shoot can make or break the pictures.
Five year old Sally’s neon pink tutu might be the loveliest thing she has ever owned, but stood next to Dad in his Khaki shorts and brother Fred in his marvel t-shirt, together they may not be creating the timeless picture of family unity that you were hoping for above your mantle piece. Time for a rethink!
Deciding what everyone should wear need not be stressful. There’s the ‘American Classic’ route where everyone jeans up with white t-shirts. There’s the ‘Subtle Classic’ look where you pick a couple of gentle matching tones and rummage your wardrobes based upon a similar colour palette.
Or instead of trying to think what everyone has at once, try picking one patterned outfit for one family member and then build around the colours and tones that match for other family members. This approach can work best with a pretty floral dress worn by a daughter or a striking check shirt worn by a son.
With that said, hats off to the wonderful Knight family who worked hard at selecting colours that worked really well with their skin tones and brought out the fantastic earthy colours of our autumn location.
I love a pink tutu, but for this shot, it just wouldn’t have worked!
Have you got any stories about portrait fashion success or disaster, feel free to comment below! x
]]>I'm a photographer, the majority of my work is portraiture, working with people or products that they make, sometimes event photography, sometimes landscape and sometimes sport photography. I've managed to get through the last 15 years of my career without taking photographs of fireworks, what made me offer to do it this time?
Well, I knew it was going to be a fantastic display in a beautiful setting, and heck, I like a new challenge!
I was fairly certain that the internet could point me in the direction of some useful settings to start with. A little bit of research threw up the following titbits that would help to photograph fireworks -
Film speed - ISO 100, Aperture F8 to F11 exposure time around 8 seconds. I would need a tripod, wide angle lens and shutter release cable. Once I had the gear rounded up and set to my magic numbers the rest was remarkable straight forward, and the results extremely rewarding.
Thank you Perrott Hill for the fab firework display, can't wait for the next one!
I applied similar settings to the bonfire photography -
Now it's your turn, have you discovered any useful settings or tips to help with firework photography?
]]>It was spookylicious treat time in the kitchen as two little monsters decided to make some ghastly treats for the halloween party.
Halloween baking 3It's halloween and just another excuse to get mucky in the kitchen!
Halloween bakingNow's whose a little pumpkin?
Halloween baking 4Looking spooky. Nice job boys!
The kids fancied a bit of baking, so they were let loose in the kitchen to rustle up a delicious tea time treat!
Blackberry and apple pieBack from scrumping and admiring the bounty.
Blackberry and apple pie 2Now for the pastry ...
Blackberry and apple pie 2Yep, we love cooking!
Blackberry and apple pie 4Rolling out the pastry is precision stuff.
Blackberry and apple pie 5... Hang on! ... it's a pie not pizza!
Blackberry and apple pie 6Come on Mum, it's ready!
Autumn pumpkin photo shootAutumn pumpkin photo shoot
I say it every year … I love autumn, the colours, the smells, the misty mornings and musty walks and kicking through the crackly leaves.
Then there are our colourful customs and traditions; harvest festivals and halloween. This year I thought I’d bring the pumpkin patch indoors to share with some toddlers. The kids loved it, some of them just wanted to count pumpkins others just soaked up the atmosphere and smiled deliciously at mum … adorable!
Autumn pumpkin photo shootAutumn pumpkin photo shoot
Autumn pumpkin photo shootAutumn pumpkin photo shoot
Autumn pumpkin photo shootAutumn pumpkin photo shoot
Autumn pumpkin photo shootAutumn pumpkin photo shoot
Autumn pumpkin photo shootAutumn pumpkin photo shoot