Friday 31 December 2010

Sarah & Gavin's Wedding 29th December 2010

My cousin got married in Norther Ireland this week. The weather had been grey and overcast all morning and then in a metereological minor miracle it cleared by lunch time, just in time for everyone arriving at the church.

Nena, Bride's mum
This is my Aunt, as she arrived at the church. How incredibly beautiful does she look? Nena swims in the sea. Every. Single. Day. If it is anyway responsible for how fabulous she looks I think it might well be worth considering. She wont mind my saying that she is no longer in her 50's!

Pew end.
The pew ends and boquets were tied with rafia as a nod to my grandad who is no longer with us. He and my grandma Rosie were very close to Sarah, the bride so this was a lovely gesture. Grandad was a nurseryman who always used rafia in his work at the nursery, hence the use here.

The shoes.
I am a big fan of photos of the little details and I had a feeling the official photog being an older man might have missed this one. When I checked with Sarah he had so I decided it had to be done, I needed her to lift her dress with both hands so I took the boquet from her and passed it to the nearest by-stander and asked them to hang on to it. Unfortunately the nearest by-stander was the official photographer and he was not at all impressed with his new role as my assistant. Ooops! I did apologise and get out of the way asap but I think the damage was done!

Bridesmaid and her man
My sister, Ness was bridesmaid and this is her with her hubby Alex, how co-ordinated are they with his tie matching in with her dress?

Bridesmaid's boquet
Bridesmaid's boquet. Like this photo.

Seriously, how cool are this lot?
My nephews, Connor, Dan & Ash (left to right) and Tom (far right). Please, how cool do these guys look? I think this looks like an album cover shot for some trendy boy band and I LOVE it!

Sarah & Gavin
Official photographer wasn't taking in the car photos, which I thought was a really missed opportunity as I loved the ones from our wedding. So I stepped in and am pleased with the result.

The Car
The car was beautiful. This photo just had to be black and white! ps the blog photo size has cropped the edge off - the full photo has all of the car!

Mother of the bride

The bride's mum, my Aunt
Photogenic Aunt strikes a pose.

Friday 24 December 2010

Christmas 2010

My absolutely favourite day of the year, I love the excitment, the anticipation, the pleasure of making and preparing lovely food for lovely people and the way the house smells delicious as a result. And I love that Emily at 18 is as excited now as she was when she was a tiny chubby little girl who could stand and gaze at the Christmas tree for ages and who's first sad face was when she came downstairs the night after the decorations had been taken down, stood in the middle of the room looked all around and said "all gone" and did a specially sad face, it was priceless. We actually had a long and frank conversation whilst prepping food today as to whether Santa's elves get Christmas Eve off, or whether they just up and start work on Christmas 2011, apparently this is a cause for concern for Emily!!
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Em and Digby waiting for Santa.


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I love cooking my ham, this time I have reduced the cooking liquor and am freezing it as stock for making soups in the New Year. Thank you Mr Ramsey for that top tip!


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Slight cock up, made the pastry with butter, 2 egg yolks and self raising flour! Oops, so sort of squidgy but crisp too and utterly delicious.

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Monday 4 October 2010

Misty Morning

Beautiful here this morning, too good to miss so snatched 10 mins with my camera before I started work.

Misty Morning
I really wanted the focus on the shafts of light and it just seemed to work better in black and white.

Red leaves
Playing, but sometimes its fun to mess around with stuff, just because you can!

Cobweb

Friday 1 October 2010

I am taking it as a sign.

Promise

Monday 13 September 2010

Weekend in the Lakes

Had a fantastic weekend with Rachel and Jez and the weather was much better than forecast - managed to be in the car when it rained and it brightened up when we were trying to do stuff which was a result.
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Inside St Olafs Church at Wasdale Head, all the times I have been here and have never even tried the door to see if was unlocked. Lovely little church which still has services.

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Dark as pitch inside though!

These poor sheep where just trying to enjoy a Saturday morning trying to find new and interesting ways to die but farmer and dog were having none of it.
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Until the sheep got their own back, dog made one false move and they chased him off through the gate!
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Instead of walking up toward Scafell we went the other way, behind the Inn and over the stream for a change.
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Just enough low cloud to turn my hair into a mass of frizz!

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This where Steve is planning his next walk.

We then drove to Dungeon's Ghyll where Jez had the best holiday of his life, aged 10. They all walked up to the Ghyll, being a lighweight I stopped much further down and took my favourite photo of the weekend.
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The water was moving so fast I just about got away without the tripod, but really only just!
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These are photos that I am going to print for Jez to show his family - this is the house where they stayed on holiday which is now owned by a climbing club and used as a bunk house.
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Sunday 5 September 2010

Cornwall - Cousins photo

Taken to update the ones that were taken when they were all much younger, we add a new one every couple of years - cant wait to take the one of all of them and their first born, but it might be a while!

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Wednesday 25 August 2010

Cornwall Holiday - St Ives

Blessed with sun on Monday as well as Sunday so we decided to make the most of it and do Park and Ride to St Ives. St Ives is heaven and hell all rolled into one. The whole place is fantastic but way way too busy for anyone sane to attempt to park so Park and Ride is the way to go. Get the train from Lelant Salting, park up, hop onto the train and you're there in a matter of minutes for a couple of quid each. Of course proper locals would never, ever, ever park at Lelant Saltings and join the monster queue to get out of the car park. Oh no.

Artists have been drawn to St Ives since time began because of its fantastic light. I have to be honest and say that I find the light for photos in Cornwall stunning pretty much wherever you are but really wanted to take some photos in St Ives just to see if the light there was more special. Judge for yourselves.

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Actually want to post the original of this as the detail is fascinating. Might give it a whirl and see if it works....

Had to move it to the bottom of the post where there is a little more screen available, doesnt really work as you cant see all of it which is a shame.


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Just look at the colour of that sea.

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Love this place. Some of these photos are begging for a bit of HDR, might have to find an online tute and give it a whirl. One of the compulsory purchases in St Ives is a bag of "tablet", if regular fudge is a class B confectionery tablet is the real deal, class A stuff not for the feint hearted. One square can induce a diabetic coma. Mum and I managed a bag full between us, no problemo. Sugar high anyone?!

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Maybe its a little annoying to have to scroll all over the image, but I love how voyeuristic it is, you can see all that happening and everyone is blissfully unaware they are being watched!

Tuesday 24 August 2010

The bearded one is a star!

GCSE results day. Was trying to be all positive and supportive but actually wanted to throw up! Having lashed up his mocks and promising to make amends and work hard Tom seemed to man up and get on with some work, but there was always the concern that it was too litte, too late.

But it wasn't! 4 B's and 6 C's! He has been hugged so much today that he is starting not to notice!

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Don't be fooled by that face - he is thrilled too!

Sunday 22 August 2010

Cornwall Holiday

Had a fantastic week in Cornwall. The sun didn't shine all the time but I made the most of it when it did! Warning - very photo heavy!

Taking a moment


Ness and her boys.
Ness watching Ash and Connor

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Em

Jackie & Em

Ash, Em and a long board
Ash & Em

Em and a long board

Surfs Up!

Conor

All of these were taken at Godrevy Beach, the light was stunning.

Had a barbecue in the evening and yet more beautiful light.

My nephew

Connor and Em

Jackie & Em

Jackie & Em

Jackie, Ness and Em

My son

My dad.

My sister