Deborah Smyth Photography

Wilderness Walk

2012-01-28T07:44:00.000-08:00

I was looking at some old photos of Elland recently and it dawned on me that at the time they were taken they would not have been all that inspiring, had it not been for the fact that capturing anything on film at the time was a novelty in itself, and it made me realise that even something as seemingly uninspiring as the view of the Calder Valley from Upper Edge would, in 100 years time, potentially be of great interest if only to note how much had changed. So, for posterity:

And because I wanted something that spoke to me as landscapes rarely do, these:

Tom hates that I make him my muse if he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, sorry Tom!

Frosty Morning

2012-01-15T04:52:00.000-08:00

Really pleased that I was desperate to get out and take photos this morning, sometimes I think I should but the motivation isn't there, this morning I was desperate to get out.

Now it's time for a massive breakfast!

Winter Sky

2012-01-13T01:32:00.000-08:00

Just above freezing with the clearest sky, too good to miss.

Simon Pattison Designs

2011-11-23T08:34:00.001-08:00

Had a fantastic day photographing Simon's work. Simon is my cousin's boyfriend and he needed some photographs of some of his vases for a gallery in Paris. The silver bowls he is hoping to sell so needed some photos of them for that, they gave me the most almighty headache. Photographing anything shiny and reflective is a total mare! I spent 3 hrs and used all manner of tricks to try and get something half decent (Simon has been sworn to secrecy about how hopeless I was!). We had a break for lunch and then I photographed the brightly coloured vases, which I love and they were fantastic to photograph. As you can see:

A photographer's dream frankly. And then we took them indoors and things just got better!

And then I was inspired and decided to have another go with the beautiful silver bowls.

Simon left with 28 photos on disk ready for his website and to send to the Gallery in Paris and I was very pleased that I solved the problem with the bowls!

2011-11-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

Steve and I had a weekend off! I know, we were pretty shocked too, it was blissful. Today we decided to head over to Glossop where Steve used to go as a boy, it was the last stop of the bus from Hyde and he used to take his little sister with him. He wanted to walk along the path they used to take and show me the stream he used to dam, apparently he bought cans of Tab that he put into the stream to keep cold to convince his much younger sister to walk back to the bus stop!

On the way over the tops from Holmfirth the views were spectacular as we had been blessed with the perfect day so decided to pull into the parking area to take some photos. In photography light is all, timing is a close second - today I got both on the nail!

His photos will be better than mine, not least because I'm not in them!

Then back in the car and continued on to Glossop for our walk.

Tucked up like this I assume this is someone's pride and joy!

Wonderful day that we both really enjoyed.

Scrabble - High Key

2011-10-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Scrabble was stood on the window sill in the lounge barking like a loon and I suddenly realised that with my flash and a smattering of creative genius I could take some high key photos of him, so here they are!

Classic "who me?" Scrabble

Check those ears.

"Winsome" Scrabble

Playing with the light

2011-09-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

Grandkids Mono

2011-09-16T05:48:00.001-07:00

Exmoor

2011-09-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

Had a fantastic week in Porlock Weir with Steve, took loads of photos but wont post them all just my very favourites.

Having this one printed to be framed.

This one printed on canvas.

And the rest are going in a photo book.

And this is our friends, Allan and Maria, watching the waves.

Celtic crosses & little bit of heaven.

2011-08-24T01:48:00.000-07:00

Last of the Cornwall holiday pics. Which is just as well as am off to Exmoor on Saturday for a few days away with Steve, I have been very lucky this year!

Was driving home from Minack along the coast road when I spotted a grave yard with lots of Celtic crosses, which I love. Dad was very obliging and agreed to stop so mum and I could go and take photos, we have him well trained!

I knew what I wanted to do with this photo, cross lit and church in silhouette but I don't think I quite pulled it off sadly!

Then we headed back to my favourite place in all the world - Mum & Dad's house!

They have decorated the wall that runs along the path with souvenirs of all their holidays and its something my sister and I have joined in with, I love it! In fact the second wall hanging, the terracotta circle with the swirl in the middle (which my sister brought back from Spain for them) is exactly the same as the middle of the cross above, 3rd photo down. I have googled this to try and find out what the symbol is but can't find it. If anyone knows please let me know!

Its really quirky!

And their back garden, there is nothing nicer than sitting here with a gin and tonic listening to the seagulls and the helicopters from Culdrose flying over head. Bliss.

Minack Theatre, Cornwall

2011-08-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Not only did the sun shine on Monday but it shone on the Tuesday too, doubly blessed as Meatloaf once said. (I grew up in Cornwall, think yourself lucky that wasn't a Status Quo lyric).

So the Minack Theatre; one womans dream hewn from the unforgiving granite cliff face below her garden. I kid you not. Rowena Cade moved to Lamorna in the 1920's with her mother. She was clearly a lady of great vision and the idea for the Minack theatre was born after she put on a production of "A Midsummer Nights Dream". Full history, and one of my favourite photographs ever here - the portrait of Rowena sat in her wheelbarrow is wonderful! Needless to say Minack has the most amazing back drop, I was last there when I went to see a production of "Macbeth" which I was studying for GCSE English, so that would have been around 30 years ago, eek! Now there is a fantastic museum which details the history of the theatre, a cafe with quite possibly the most breathtaking view of any in the UK and a gift shop that sells Cornish Tablet, ingredients of which are Sugar, Sweetened Condensed Milk and Butter (9%), its not for the faint hearted, or those with type 2 diabetes as my dad discovered.

So onto the photos.

Not a bad place for a ham sandwich.

This gives you some idea just how steep it is.

Dad was in charge of the lunch.

The sea was the most glorious colour.

Brave or mad? Either way I hope he caught something worth the effort of getting down there.

The seats were all fashioned out of concrete and are hand decorated and inscribed with the names and dates of productions.

Next year am going to try to get to an evening performance in the hope that I will be able to take photos as the sun sets, can you imagine?! Knowing my luck will be lashing down and blowing a gale!

Aren't these beautiful? And isn't in annoying when you know the name and it has gone clean out of your head? Agapanthus, phew!

Bet this lot were having a FANTASTIC day in all that sun shine, blissfully aware that they were being photographed by dozens of strangers on the cliffs above. I love being really nosey and peering in where you aren't expected, like this:

Zoomed in on a small area of the beach from the photo above! Voyeur, me?! Look for the pink surfboard in both pics to get your bearings!

St Michaels Mount, Cornwall

2011-08-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

On the Monday I was in Cornwall we decided to take a trip to St Michaels Mount. In spite of having lived in Cornwall for 19 years I had never been to the Mount before so it was all new to me!

As the tide was in we had to get the boat over rather than walk along the causeway. As the weather wasn't fab the queue for the boat was pretty long!

Luckily with 2 boats each carrying 12 ferrying back and forth it didnt take too long.

Whilst the weather wasn't great for those wanting to go on the beach it was bloody brilliant for those wanting to take photos with huge skies!

Once on board everyone had to pay up.

The castle at the top of the mount is up a pretty steep climb, luckily we were fueled by pastys from Rowes Bakery!! Inside the castle feels much warmer than I had expected given that its on the pinnacle of a mount that is surrounded by sea and battered by strong winds, even on a fairly nice day!

Loads of lovely stained glass everywhere as well as armour hanging on walls.

And some very detailed wood carvings.

I spy some boys through the leaded window!

Given that the gardens around the mount battered by the elements they are incredible.

Stunning view looking back towards Marazion.

Mum and Dad!

In this one you can see the causeway beginning to appear from beneath the waves!

The stained glass in the chapel was incredible too.

Side lit marble bust - for mum to see!

Not the best of photos mum, the low light meant I had to use a high ISO so this is why this pic looks a bit "grainy" rather than pin sharp. (Which is why I keep telling Steve I need a very very expensive camera body that operates brilliant at very high ISO!!)

Model of the mount made out of champagne corks, impressive on so many levels!

And home we went.

Ness, this one's for you!

2011-08-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

First off your photo of Porthleven. Shame we didn't have better weather as the sky isn't very interesting.

Now the photos of your boys.

I really like this one of all three of them

And love this one of the boys and dad

Photoghenic little love isn't he?!

So Ash!

Rofl!!

And this one of Tom

Eek!

and eek mono!

And one of the landscape ones I think I might print for me

Last of the holiday photos

2011-07-05T01:10:00.000-07:00

On the Friday I managed to convince Em that we should get the bus into Chania - she wasn't moved by the suggestion of lunch by the harbour but liked the idea of some "decent" shopping!

Chania itself is not a very pretty city, clearly this is why all the guide books recommend you head for the harbour which is very lovely!

That said some of the narrow lanes are very pretty too.

The whole harbour has a very Venetian feel to it

It was also a hive of activity with tour boots, gift shops, bars, cafes and old men fishing.

It was a great place to order a cool drink and just watch the world go by.

So that's it, my holiday in Crete! Next trip away is Cornwall in August to visit my family so there will be some people in those photos!

Some more holiday pics

2011-07-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

Cant get my act together enough to actually write a beauty blog post so will just post some more holiday pics. Its still blogging after all!

The bit of the hotel we were in was joined to the other bit of the hotel, down by the beach by a foot bridge. There was also a pedestrian crossing. Not everyone using the crossing grasped the Greek driving concept which is pretty much "get out the way, I'm coming through" every day by the pool was regularily punctuated by the screech of brakes as yet another pedestrian "assumed" the on coming car was going to stop just because the lights had gone red, as if!

View from our bit of the hotel to the beach.

Footbridge

View from footbridge looking into Platanias.

The very expensive rooms in the other bit of the hotel had pools that run up to their terraces.

And finally the beach!

Day trip to Chania photos to come.

Holidaaay!

2011-07-01T05:05:00.000-07:00

Went to Platanias in Crete with Emily for a week - if you follow my tweets or my beauty blog you'll already know that though!

We had a fab time, I took a fair few photos so will share a few at a time so as not to bore you rigid!

First off the flight:

The Alps (I think!)

Loved the patchwork effect of the fields and the road and river running through the middle of the valley, would love to know where this is!

more patchwork, like the curve of the sandbar too.

View for most of the week was the pool, from the sun lounger - this is the bar in the middle of the pool.

The bridge to the bar.

The pool and loungers, it really was bliss laying here in the baking heat!

Our room!

Love the retro feel the curtains give this one!

The hotel was lovely - I went for a wander and took some pics one evening.

More to come

Its learn to fly day!

2011-05-27T05:08:00.000-07:00

Absolute bedlam in the back garden now! This chick has flown the nest and is clinging onto the fence for dear life yelling to mum, dad anyone to come and help whilst other chick is still is the nest and resisting all attempts to coax it out!

He looks exactly as if he is thinking "well don't just stand there - DO something!"

Blue tits nesting in our wall

2011-05-27T02:05:00.000-07:00

Steve called me out this morning to have a look at these and whilst my cheapy 75-300mm lens isn't really man enough for the job and because it was overcast quality isn't close to being fab but they tell the tale anyway!

Can now see why some people spend thousands on super fast zoom lenses!

I'll be seeing you

2011-05-17T03:58:00.000-07:00

The 1940's weekend in Howarth co-incided with my 45th Birthday, so we gathered up a group of friends, organised a mini bus and dress hire and hurtled back in time.

I had rather hoped to look like the sort of girl that never went short of chocolate and silk stockings, sadly I looked like her mother. Note to self - you are 45, in the event of an Elland invasion you WILL be her mother!

Lieutenant Chris Smith (American Navy) & his lady wife, Nu Smith who are expecting their war baby in August.

Colonel Malcolm Campbell (United States Army, 1st Airborne) & his fiancee, Kirsty

Nurses straight from Pearl Harbour, Lyndsey & Denise - men died whilst they applied their lipstick.

Brigadier Stephen Smyth, whose cap has been retired with full military honours.

The marching band (unfortunately for all its linky do-dahs the Howarth 1940's weekend website is shockingly short on information so I can't tell you which marching band this is but they were Splendid.)

We were in good company.

There were a fair amount of the over here, over paid and over sexed brigade out on Saturday, and several wives of British men fighting overseas who were clearly no better than they ought to be.

The Brigadier said the Pearl Harbour Nurses were "damn fine fillies" which was nice.

This young nurse however only had eyes for this rather dashing airman.

These gentlemen are clearly appreciating the charms of this lovely land girl.

You wouldn't think there was a war on would you?

A great opportunity for everyone to let their hair down in such austere times.

Well, most people. The hun didn't really go in for giggling and playing up to the camera's!

Rumour has it this mother and daughter have a thriving black market business, but shh! Loose lips sink ships.

Pearl harbour nurses putting their lipstick through its paces.

These ladies were quite clearly throwing caution to the wind.

And Lieutant Smith was keeping a watchful eye on them, under the equally watchful eye of Mrs Smith!

Brigadier Smyth was also concerned for their well being and declared them "damn fine fillies" and the whole day as "top hole, absolutely spiffing".

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

Mum and Dad came up for Easter this year, the sun shone and we had a fab time, almost made up for having to work over the whole Easter weekend - we did breakfast, got all the work finished by lunch and then went out every afternoon, so it actually seemed like a bit of a break.

On Easter Sunday we went for a walk along the canal.

The bluebells smelled fantastic in the sun.

Dad, Steve and Em with Scrabble & Digby.

The clearest blue sky.

On Monday we went to the Sculpture Park, which although very busy is so huge it never feels like you are in the midst of masses of people, unless you really need a coffee or a wee! Or an ice cream for that matter, one poor lad on his own making all the ice creams and taking the money, we gave up waiting in the end!

At the moment there is a vast exhibition of the work of Jaume Plensa, which includes a 50 metre curtain of poetry, alabaster heads, which were massive and the illuminated sculptures.

Illuminated sculptures.

Alabaster heads.

Can you spot Steve & Tom in this one?!

Another lovely day.

Marvellous magnolia

2011-04-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

Every year when the magnolia flowers for the first time I am drawn to it, I love the contrast of the pink vein in the petals against the crisp whiteness and the way the whole thing catches the light.

Beautiful.

Puppy love!

2011-04-06T03:30:00.000-07:00

Best of mates now!

Super Moon

2011-03-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

Had fun with this!

Meet Scrabble!

2011-03-15T04:18:00.000-07:00

We have been considering getting another puppy for a long time and then when all the plans we had made at the end of last year fell apart Steve finally caved and agreed that we should get one. I did my usual ringing round the vets to see if any of them knew of a bitch with a recent litter and I got lucky yesterday. This little puppy was only up the road and I went off to "look" at him with the cash stashed in my bag!
Ta-da:

We love Digby because he's a freak with his wonky ears but this little guy is just too cute!

So far they are inseperable, but I think Digby might have to keep this nipper in check!

It is chaos at the moment and when they do both fall asleep its bliss! Who knew such a little puppy could make so much noise - at 1am Tom gave up trying to sleep and moved his duvet into the lounge and took Scrabble in with him, good lad!

Em & Kris

2011-01-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

Steve gave up on me and got on with dinner himself - Yay! More photos of Em and Kris.

We did some photos outside and then came indoors so that I could have a practice with my "pop up" studio - one flash gun on a stand through a soft box with Em holding a tea tray as a reflector, when she wasn't being cuddled by her boy. Isn't this lovely? He is such a sweet lad.

I really like this, it is such a stereotypical photo and so not how Kris is it just works for me.

These two really do have a lot in common:

I wouldn't be at all surprised had they been texting one another in spite of being stood 2 foot apart!

Then we went inside before we all froze to death.

I am sure that it was his winning personality that first attracted Em to Kris, but am guessing discovering her nice guy was pretty buff didn't hurt either!

And finally two of them together. Kris does look at Em as if she were the most important person in his whole world and it's lovely to see. (EDIT: Was saying this to Em this morning about this pic and she roared with laughter - apparently when I was taking this and he was looking at her with devotion she was crossed eyed trying to make him laugh!)

And this one made me lol, that look on her face "look what I got!" It's too perfect!!

Emily & Kris

2011-01-30T10:22:00.001-08:00

Going to get shot if I don't go and get on with cooking dinner but here's a quick sneak peak. Did photos of Em and Kris today, loads more to follow soon!

Head shots - Darren Garland

2011-01-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

Darren needed some head shots for his company's website. Its a tough job but someone has to do it!! Frankly with his boyish good looks it was a walk in the park; once we had got the background, props, lighting and wardrobe sorted!

These last 2 were just a bit of fun, in the warehouse area was a huge white photo back drop so I decided to have a quick go at a couple of high key shots. Not the best results in the world but something I would love to have a go at properly now!

Gannex Mill, Elland

2011-01-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

Remember this:

Well now it looks like this:

Demolition is almost complete and it will soon by social housing. Which is much more in keeping with what Elland needs than "luxury" apartments.

Keeping up with my just get out there and do it approach to 2011.

It will be weird without it, that's for sure.

Ok, people we are three for three.

2011-01-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

So, time to pull all that prep together and deliver. Being a control freak comes into it's own when you have set yourself a challenge like this. Open the wine, take a deep breath and go for it - you have everything to lose!

First off take two lobster. These were the cooked, frozen ones from Asda, now defrosted and ready to take centre stage, although they look a tad nervous if you ask me.

Luckily they were in safe hands. I dug out our copy of the Savoy cook book which had instructions for dismantling lobster. We took an executive decision that serving the lobster thermidor in the traditional way, in the half-shelf topped with gruyere and grilled was passe. And too sodding difficult! The plan was to serve the lobster, coated in the sauce on a bed of rice. But first they had to be dealt with.

Small alien anyone?

Rip it's head off.

Check.

Do you eat this weird looking bit? Check the book.

£15 off lobster - chew slowly.

Cue arty lobster photo.

Ok, that bit done it's on with finishing the sauce.

Make the bechamel using the milk with that was prepped on Friday eve, the one with the grated veg, you remember.

Then sweat 2 shallots in a little butter with some tarragon.

Then add a glass of white wine.

And reduce til you have about a tea-spoon of liquid. It's basically the start of a beurre blanc, but you probably knew that.

Reducing this really intensifies the flavours, this stuff tastes incredible.
So thats the thermidor prep all finished. You basically now chop your lobster meat, add 50g of grated gruyere to the bechamel and then add the shallot reduction. Stir the lobster meat into the bechamel and either spoon into the lobster half shelf, top with more gruyere and grill or you cheat and spoon onto a plate of rice.

Now time to prep the scallops with pancetta, pea puree and balsamic jus.

Take a plate of shimmering scallops.

These are pan fried until seared, they smell wonderful as they coook.

I pre-cooked the pancetta so that it was really cripsy.

It melts and shrivels in the pan to this:

And that's it, prep all done, it's time to serve.

Mission accomplished! Tom loved his birthday dinner and I have had a ball this weekend.

Cake and cards.

2011-01-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

All about capturing the moment and not technical precision, although a combination of the 2 might have been nice!

Excuse the state of Em, she and Chris were out til late last night and she is a bit hungover. You will notice however that Chris managed to shower and get dressed it's just Em who has spent the day in her pj's!

Tom's watch is a combined present from his Aunty Ness, Uncle Alex, Grandma and Grandad and us - he was well pleased with it!

So just the final "dinner" photos to come. The panna cotta have set and I have one spare, if it refuses to budge from the cup the remaining 3 will be served in the cup, on a saucer with a tea spoon - all eventualities covered! Next up .... Steve takes on the lobster!

The big day - Tom's 17th Birthday

2011-01-09T05:58:00.000-08:00

This time 17 years ago I was sat with a nice cup of tea thinking all the hard work was over. Little did I know!

Spent yesterday dashing into Huddersfield to buy birthday presents and wrap, had hoped to get food shop done but ran out of time having got up and made a lasagne for the evening and prepared the balsamic reduction to go with the scallops. Evening out/in with Rachel and Jez, couple of pints at lovely pub in Halifax, Big 6, and then home here for lasagne and Lanson - I did lasagne Rachel brough the Lanson which was rather fab!

Up this morning and straight into Sainsburys on my lobster and scallops mission. It was never going to be straightforward was it? Got the scallops but no lobster so did rest of shop and then had to dash into Asda on way back to pick up 2 frozen cooked lobster which Steve had spotted earlier in the week, thank goodness. Hauled them out of freezer and was reading label which said "Defrost overnight" at which point I was on verge of total melt down and then though "sod it, these buggers are going in the microwave" I don't think I was feeling very rational! Luckily when I read on it also said "or for 4 hrs at room temp" heart rate back to normal and off I went!

First up made the panna cotta, Tom wanted espresso panna cotta, recipe called for a vanilla pod but I couldnt see the point of adding such an expensive ingredient when you were going to drench its subtle flavour in coffee so it got a splash of vanilla extract instead.

Unwrapped the lobster to help them defrost. As yet am not sure how we are going to tackle these as they are whole and will need smashing up to remove the meat, Steve and his tool box I suspect!

Then in a departure from frantic home cooking I unwrapped the birthday cakes, one white chocolate and raspberry layer cake and one coffee cake as I couldn't decide!! Any excuse!

More cake because its so photogenic!

More birthday photos to follow.

Tom's Anniversaire Gastronomique - the prep begins!

2011-01-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

Love cooking, love eating, love taking pics, so have combined all three. Tom's bday dinner is going to take some prep. His menu is:

oooOOOooo

Scallops and pancetta on a minted pea puree with a balsamic jus

Lobster Thermidor

Coffee Panna Cotta

oooOOOooo

They taught us the squiggly bits in college back in the middle ages when I learned to type on a manual type writer. Bash. Bash. Bash. Return - my god its a bit like writing with a quill compared to what we do now!

So yes as you can see Tom seriously has idea's above his station. Clearly being raised on filet mignon and not fish fingers has had an impact and it has been his lifes ambition to try lobster, since he was about 10! He first tried fois gras aged 4 and was an instant convert. Think Mr Creosote but small and cute!!

So this evening I began preparing the bechamel for the lobster thermidor.

First things first. Any cooking that doesn't involve one of these will be seriously crap. If you cook with love people can tell, they can taste it in the food, it is the nicest gift you can give someone; to cook for them. If you cook with love AND a hossing great glass of wine then you can't fail to be awesome. Its the law in my house.

Raw ingredients, all of which were to be added to 2 pints of full fat milk. The carrots, celery and onion were to be grated. You bring the milk to the boil, simmer for a while and then allow to infuse. Then strain the milk and use to make your bechamel sauce. Shimples.

Having grated in the carrot you then grate in the celery. So far so good.

At this stage you are supposed to grate in the onion. People. Never. Grate. An. Onion. Unless your eyes hanging on your cheeks, dangling by their optic nerves is a look you think might suit you. There are not words for this level of pain. Waterboarding - pretty awful, grating onions, I'll tell you anything you want to know. I grated 1/4 and then lobbed the rest in whole. And downed another glass of wine.

So then this lot, with the cloves and bay leaves is boiled, simmered and infused.

Next up was this evenings dinner, just call me that sweary scottish cook bloke - what the hell's his name?? Early on-set dementia and several glasses of wine have knackered me this eve. Gordon Ramsey thats the bloke, thank you. Bloody hate him, hate the way he does that breathless "I'm talking really fast because that way you will think I am running barefoot over coals away from savage lions, not sauteeing a freaking onion" or whatever.

So, dinner. Did make a new years resolution that lasted one whole evening "eat what I am eating or cook for yourself". This evening I was having pumpkin ravioli with a mushroom sauce. Steve wasn't' he was having lamb with fusilli and mushroom sauce and Tom was having steak but thank god he agreed to pasta and mushroom sauce and didn't insist on some other culinary extravaganza to go with.

Brace yourselves. Most difficult photo challenge of the year to date. Make a plate of raw meat look nice. Looks like something Lady Gaga might wear.

How'd I do? Please note the one steak is for Tom, the lamb chops are all for Steve. Many years ago he was restaurant manager of a very fancy Michelin starred restaurant where his nickname amongst the staff was "meat" which sounds sort of homo-erotic but was apparently coined the evening he ate TWO ROAST CHICKENS!! Or so he tells me. Moving on.

To make the mushroom sauce I softenend chopped onion and celery, added sherry and reduced. Then I added rich beef stock and reduced further. Seived to remove onion and celery and put the stock to one side. Sauteed mushrooms in butter, no salt - the stock was salty enough - and then once they were done, with all the water evaporated off, added the stock and some cream and poured over my ravioli.

It was fantastic, if I do say so myself! Pumpkin ravioli (Tesoc finest - I'm not THAT good!) was heavenly too btw.

And finally, I decided that whilst my eyes were chilling on my cheeks I should chop a third onion and get the minted pea puree ready for the scallops. Softened onion, without browning - add salt if you don't want them to colour, dont if you want them all nice and dark and caramelly (thank you for that tip Nigella). Add some veg stock to the soften onions and frozen peas and some chopped fresh mint. Boil to reduce the stock and then blitz the whole lot to make a smooth pea puree.

Friday nights prep and dinner done and dusted. Thank you and good night x

Off to a good start

2011-01-07T03:14:00.000-08:00

Well, we certainly weren't expecting this and, by the looks of it, neither were Calderdale Council! Not seen a gritter all morning and our hill down into Elland is causing some serious issues. Lots of people are getting to the top and freaking out and then trying to turn round making everyone else back up. That said its a seriously steep hill and I have driven it a couple of times in the snow with my heart in my mouth.

So new years resolution to take more pics officially up and running!

New Years Resolution

2011-01-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed taking, processing and sharing the pics of Sarah's wedding so much it has made me determined to make much more effort on the photo front in 2011. I would love to pick up some more paid work but I am also going to make myself get out more with the camera, have lost track of the number of times I thought this year "that would make a stunning photo" and promptly did nothing about it. That wont be happening this year, whenever and wherever I have the chance to take photos I am going to and I am going to work harder on the photos I do take. So New Years Resolution; make more effort, be more inspired, TRY HARDER.

Hello Newcastle!

2011-01-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

Hi folks, hope you like the photos. Please note that the full sized photos are slightly cropped by the max size available on my blog, so if they look like they are missing the right hand edge don't worry they aren't on the actual photo.

Feeling strangely nervous about you all seeing these - have taken lots of photos but none were as personal or as important so I hope that you like some of them!

Hope you are all having a terrific time.
Happy New Year from Yorkshire!
xxx

Wedding - Reception photos

2011-01-01T06:23:00.000-08:00

Mum I love these ones of you all, hope you all do too. "Deep breath in, breath out and relax!" The other thing I should have mentioned (and will say in future when taking photos of reluctant subjects!) is that the thing that I am pointing at you is a camera, NOT a machine gun, so try not to look so terrified!! I am glad you all look nice and relaxed in these, clearly a couple of glasses of mulled wine beforehand is a big help too!

And now looking at this I wish I had taken a photo of the 3 of you in your hats, maybe from the back or something a bit quirky as they look so fantastic, damn wish I had thought of that.

OK here's where things get noisy. Very low light, very high ISO is not the best recipe for nice crisp sharp pics, these aren't terrific and there was a guy with a very fancy camera and a lens that cost probably more than all my kit put together so its likely that he got some fab ones of the cake cutting - fingers crossed!! But in lieu of there being no others these at least are a record.

That said I rather like this one.

That's all folks! And thank goodness for that, can only imagine the hideousness of photos taken any later tights off, sweaty haired and dancing my arse off - so not a great look but I had a ball!!

And finally just because it is so appropriate:

An Irish Wedding Blessing

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon the fields.

May the light of friendship guide your paths together.
May the laughter of children grace the halls of your home.
May the joy of living for one another trip a smile from your lips, a twinkle from your eye.
And when eternity beckons,
at the end of a life heaped high with love,
May the good Lord embrace you
with the arms that have nurtured you
the whole length of your joy-filled days.

More Wedding photos

2011-01-01T06:05:00.000-08:00

Keeping text to a dull roar, photo heavy posts from here on in.

Friends and relatives please note that any of these photos can be ordered as prints, just let me know which you would like and I will sort it for you. As an example a 10" x 8" on matt paper costs 99p so wont break the bank if there are a couple you would like. Equally I can make up photo books, calendars etc using specific photos if thats of interest.

Love this, taken moments after Gavin and Sarah said their vows - the relief on Uncle George's face is palpable and they both look so proud!

Becky, I think you should have a copy of this one of you - I love it, it's just so you!

Ness, I hope you don't hate this one - I think its lovely of you.

I'll put the reception photos onto another post.

Sarah & Gavin's Wedding 29th December 2010

2010-12-31T12:26:00.000-08:00

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.

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!

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.

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!

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. Like this photo.

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!

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 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!

Photogenic Aunt strikes a pose.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

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!!

Em and Digby waiting for Santa.

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!

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.

Misty Morning

2010-10-04T03:17:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

I am taking it as a sign.

2010-10-01T11:08:00.001-07:00

Weekend in the Lakes

2010-09-13T03:43:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

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.

Until the sheep got their own back, dog made one false move and they chased him off through the gate!

Instead of walking up toward Scafell we went the other way, behind the Inn and over the stream for a change.

Just enough low cloud to turn my hair into a mass of frizz!

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.

The water was moving so fast I just about got away without the tripod, but really only just!

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.

Cornwall - Cousins photo

2010-09-05T05:21:00.000-07:00

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!

Cornwall Holiday - St Ives

2010-08-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

Just look at the colour of that sea.

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?!

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!

The bearded one is a star!

2010-08-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

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!

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

Cornwall Holiday

2010-08-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

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!

Ness watching Ash and Connor

Ash & Em

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

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

Summer - Cricket

2010-08-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

The thwack of leather on willow, a polite ripple of applause and the permanent threat of rain stopping play. Cricket in England just IS Summer.

I see you!

2010-08-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Clattering about in the kitchen cooking dinner, saw something out of the corner of my eye, looked up and this chap was sitting on the fence staring at me! He waited whilst I sorted my camera, gave his tail and bit of a shake out and then posed quite happily! Sadly I was taking his pic through a small gap in the kitchen window whilst standing on tip toes so the focus is a bit lacking!

Pink Picnic Huddersfield

2010-07-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Had a great time at the Huddersfield pink picnic on Sunday although the sight of male legs in american tan tights might never leave me!

The entertainment was very good, especially the lady that was Lady Gaga and of course Kelly Llorenna was just fab! Haven't had the chance to have a go at this sort of photography before but really enjoyed it even if the results aren't pin sharp.

Monique Mitchell as Lady Gaga.

With the ubiquitous Lady G prop - a giant tea cup!

And now some of Kelly Llorenna.

The crowd loved her!

Some of the gents in tights to follow, oh and one of Nu after a spell on the Waltzers - tiny green Thai!

New project - Summer

2010-07-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

A collection of scenes that make up the quintessential English Summer. I needed a new project!

Through the kitchen window on a Summer's day.

Arilas - are you bored yet?!

2010-07-18T07:28:00.001-07:00

Seemed a shame to take all of these and then not post them so here they are!

Left Em laying in the sun one morning and went for a walk to take some photos of Arilas.

In places it reminded me of some of the Caribbean islands I visited when I was on the Sun Princess.

This taverna was beautiful.

Beautiful flowers

Look at that blue.

Local hoodlum!

Walked out of Arilas away from the sea to look for a more Corfiot landscape

But really Arilas is all about the sea

And it will always be where Em celebrated her 18th Birthday too

The perfect place for the perfect holiday

Nights out in Arilas

2010-07-06T05:32:00.000-07:00

Imagine yourself sat sipping cocktails, watching the sun set as the Ionian sea laps the soft white sands of Arilas. Believe me it was bliss!

Our first evening - we walked the full length of the main street of Arilas, which took getting on for 10 mins and then spotted a sign outside Horizon offering their cocktail of the evening - Strawberry Mojito, it would have been rude not to!

Horizon became our first port of call most evenings. It had a great vibe, very relaxed with chill out music, comfy seating and a young Greek waiter that Em took a shine too!

It was also a great place to watch the sun set.

After an cocktail or 2 we nipped across to the Horizon Taverna for dinner.

29th June was Em's 18th so we kicked the night off with a cocktail at Horizon, as usual!

Love this one of Em

Emily may have been feeling a little worse for wear when I took this photo!

When it wasn't Em's birthday things were much more low key.

We just had one cocktail each!

On the last night in Arilas there was live music in Horizon, this guy was really good.

And we had dinner at Portofino. A litre of white wine, calamari and mezze. Greek music in the background and the sound of the waves breaking.

Arilas - more random pics

2010-07-04T05:07:00.000-07:00

As the photo files are massive just uploading as and when.

Not sure this would pass a health and safety inspection!

Wish I was there right now!

Olives growing on the trees that provided some of the shade around the pool.

Arilas. All of it, in its entirety!

Had to work fast to catch this couple in exactly the right place.

Arilas, Corfu

2010-07-04T04:56:00.000-07:00

Was trying to work out the best way of doing this so that the photos make some sense, have decided to start with the photos of our accommodation. We stayed at the Kaloudis Village in Arilas. Considering I picked it based on price, cheap, and location, next to the beach and not up a ruddy great hill we were very lucky. The whole place was nice but what really made it were the people who own it who went out of their way to be friendly and helpful.

The view from our balcony of the apartments opposite. The gardens took a huge amount of looking after.

Our room and balcony - its the one with the yellow walls and the blue towel over the railing.

Walking down the drive to the beach, taken on our first day.

Plus Em!

The pool area was fantastic. Wish I was there now!

Our sun loungers already secured with our blue towels!

View from a sun lounger.

In the shade of the olive trees - nice til the little olives dropped off and you jumped out your skin!

Purple bouganvillia

Back from my hols

2010-07-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

Had a fab time with lots of this:

and absolutely loads of this:

Loads more photos to come!

Scafell Weekend - the big walk!

2010-06-20T10:10:00.001-07:00

Everyone was awake very early on Saturday morning, not least because in the b&b we were in the loft conversion with Velux windows and inadequate curtains - once it got light the whole room was bathed in light and we were awake! Early breakfast and then the rather nerve racking drive over Birker Fell and down to Wastwater and on to the car park at the foot of Scafell.

Everyone was excited and up for the challenge.

Please note that on the Friday when the rest of us had been enjoying a leisurely drive up the M6 James and Ross had climbed Helvellyn. Just because they could, with no thought to saving their legs for the challenge of Scafell. Fit doens't quite cover it.

"Lions and tigers and bears" was my first thought when I spotted this. Scafell safari anyone?

Malcolm and Kirsty with Great Gable as backdrop. They don't look nervous at all.

The obligatory team photo. Well, I have to justify my existence some how!

And they are off! I walked with them til the bottom of Great Gable, or until the path stopped being almost completely level and started to have an incline. You will notice at this point that there is no sign of James, Ross and Chris, all that was left of them were some footprints and a cloud of dust.

I decided to have a bit of a climb up Great Gable, just to get enough height to have a reasonable view back over Wastwater.

Glorious isn't it. It was so peaceful sat there in the sun.

Ta da! My 2nd photo of the 100 strangers project. This chap was walking up Great Gable with a lady and another gentleman and we had a bit of a chat, they are all very keen walkers and had come up from Norfolk and Essex for their annual pilgrimage to walk in the Lakes and were delighted to have been blessed with such fantastic weather. I didn't get his name but I hope they had a great day.

After taking his photo I whacked on the zoom lens and began to scan the hillside and there, just at the bottom of the picture you can make out Steve, Rachel, Nu, Kirsty and Malcolm! and if you look really closely, up above them you can see James, Ross and Chris, at least I think its them.

I had a lovely walk, once I had managed to get back down from Great Gable, nimble I am not and I usually have Steve to hang onto, was very glad to get back onto the level path. There is a small church between the car park and the hills and I decided to have a mooch.

Lovely little place. Found this and decided to google their story when I got home.

Seems they were climbing and fell to their deaths.

Had never seen one of these before and luckily there was no sign of the beast that it was warning of, phew!

I checked, this isn't him either!

Went for a walk along the river and sat by the bridge and watched the birds dashing back and forth underneath this bridge.

Kirsty decided that great as her love for Malcolm was her need not to stomp up Scafell was greater and she nipped back to join me in the pub for a drink. Everyone else got to the top, and back down again and was suitably proud and knackered! Well done everyone.

Scafell Weekend

2010-06-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Since the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge that Steve has organised he has been dying to drag some of our friends up Scafell Pike, most very sensibly had a whole big load of stuff to do and were unable to commit. I swear if he keeps this up we are going to end up with no friends. But the one's we will have are going to be uber fit!

James, Ross, Nu and Chris who did the 3 peaks decided they were man enough for the challenge. Nu, manly. NO. Nu is tiny. And made of steel. Seriously, one scary woman! Chris's sister Rachel was celebrating some seriously hard work in the gym and enjoying the hard earned results and wanted to put her fitness to the test, Malcolm was up for a challenge and Kirsty loves Malcolm. It's only been 2 and a half years, give her another 6 months and she'll be sending him up hills all by himself, for now she thought she should at least try, god love her.

We all met in Seathwaite on Friday evening. A glorious Friday evening I might add. Steve and I had a bit of a preprandial amble. Over the fields, along the stream and over the hills far away. Well not that far, I don't do hills.

Steve as always is in his element, he likes nothing better to be preparing for a long walk or a steep climb, anything as long as it challenges him. Hey, now do you understand why we are still married?

The stream had been damned at one time and the result was this beautiful pool, with a gentle run off, there is nothing quite as soothing as the sound of running water.

This is where we were staying looking back across the fields. Steve and I, Malcolm and Kirsty were in the b&b which is the stone building that you can see the end of. The white building is the pub and everyone else was in the flat above it.

So cross that this photo was rushed and is out of focus. How fab is that old boot? Would love to know the story of how it ended up wedged under this rock.

Friday night was good, nice food in the pub, few drinks, the trauma that is watching the England team play football, dear god what a disaster and then an early night. I had thought that the strange feeling of nervousness under cutting the evening was down to the football. Actually I think for everyone bar James, Ross and Chris it was nervousness about climbing Scafell on Saturday!

My baby?

2010-06-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

Today is Tom's last day at school, he has a geography exam that as I type he is 5 mins away from finishing and then that's it - he isn't a school boy any more.

Not by the hair on his chiny, chin, chin! So proud of him.

He is hoping to get the grades he needs to go to Greenhead College in September to study Geology, Modern History, English Language and Sociology. Results day is August 24th, it's going to be a heart stopper!

And so is he. One day, when he can be bothered. My baby, all grown up.

Sunshine on a Sunday

2010-05-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

Bliss.

More Emily

2010-05-22T10:45:00.001-07:00

Poor baby, hauled her outside again this evening - fantastic weather here so wanted to make the most of it and she is going out this evening with some friends from work so was happy'ish to sit for me!!

And then I had a play with the last one! Not sure if its has worked though. Not entirely happy with these, none of them are as pin sharp as I'd like, clearly need much more practice!

Emily

2010-05-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

It has been ages - spending too much time on my beauty blog I think! As the sun was shining decided to haul Em out into the garden to take a few photos of her.

Not completely thrilled with them, should have realised she was squinting into the sun.

The magnolia is looking lovely at the moment and it seemed the perfect back drop.

Em like it too!

And this is my fave, although think I should have got some eye contact.

Definitely need to get out and take a few more portrait photos as what with the sun and the squinting they feel to me that they lack that really pin sharp focus that makes a portrait.

Amazing Photos

2010-04-29T02:03:00.000-07:00

If you get a chance click on this link and have a look at the 30 photos that changed the world. Very thought provoking. There are also some incredible photos in the "photo lists" on the right hand side of this page too, all well worth a look.

http://www.photographyschoolsonline.net/blog/2010/30-photos-that-changed-the-world/

Oh I am rubbish, you'll have to cut and paste the link rather than click, sorry!

Greenhead Park

2010-04-24T04:43:00.000-07:00

Once I had finished with my first stranger photo took some of the park. The weather is glorious today and it was a joy to be outside!

100 Strangers

2010-04-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

In the interest of keeping me on my toes and making me work a bit harder at this whole photography thing I have joined a group on Flickr, the photo sharing website, called 100 strangers. The plan is you approach one hundred strangers engage them in conversation and ask if you can take their photo. I had expected to be really nervous and wasn't sure how to go about it but decided that people in a park are generally relaxing and have a few minutes spare so are more approachable than someone dashing around town. I was just standing admiring some fantastic flowers, more of those later, when an elderly lady asked one of the park keepers what they were, he told her they were a type of fritilary that looked beautiful but had a bit of a weird smell. She said she couldn't smell it, I could and joined the conversation - the flowers smell like cannabis! The old lady left and I sensed my opportunity, explained what I wanted and it turns out that Tony knows Flickr well as his partner is a member of the Huddersfield group and he was more than happy to be my first stranger! It's a small world isn't it?

one down 99 to go!

Lightshow courtesy of Iceland

2010-04-16T13:11:00.001-07:00

For everyone who has had their weekend buggered up by this I can only apologise. To everyone else, did you see that sunset? Steve's away walking and this evening is the only one where we have no guests, so the only chance I will get to take photos of the sunset whilst all this icelandic, volcanic ash is in our upper atmosphere. Silly to waste that opportunity.

This, as they say in the trade, is soc - straight out of camera. In other words, I took the photo and have done nothing to it in Lightroom. How amazing is that sky?

Sunsets need silhouettes!

Elland never looked better.

One with the wide angle lens - love how the ring road is just that when its dark and the street lights are lit, a big circle of light.

Sunset, sliver of moon and pole star? You have to look to see it, just below the moon, I have no idea if its the pole star but it is a star and not a satellite!

Post Edit: Have it on good authority that that "star" is in fact Venus! Thanks Mumx

Sunday in London

2010-04-15T00:19:00.001-07:00

After the Tate we spent a long time looking for Borough Market, eventually found it but by the time we had my poor foot was in ribbons - great big huge blister on my little toe, in spite of an emergency sock purchase! Hobbled about a bit and then limped to the tube and back to our room for a rest! Found a lovely pub Saturday evening, just off Kensington High Street, which probably explains why one pint of larger and a regular glass of wine cost £9.60!! Then went for a thai which was fantastic.

Sunday morning decided that a change of footwear would help with the blister which had replaced my little toe and we set off for Covent Garden. Much more confident on the tube today and even managed to rejig our plans to cope with a non running tube! Had scrambled eggs, toast and coffee at Le Pain Quotidien which was lovely although made the mistake of thinking it was warm enough to sit outside, sadly it wasn't and we had to eat and drink quickly before it all went cold!

Loads going on in Covent Garden and it was a great place to while away an hour or two shopping for presents for the kids.

Have to admit that some of these aprons made me chuckle. One in particular seemed rather apt... I'll leave you to work out which!

We decided to walk from Covent Garden, through Soho and China Town to Oxford Street, the Photographers Gallery is just off Oxford Street. At this point my foot is holding up well and although uncomfortable nothing a brave little soldier couldn't handle!

China Town was really bustling and I could happily have swapped to the zoom lens and taken up a position for an hour or so to do some candid street photography. Sadly Steve wasn't big on that plan.

Steve and I used to go to a restaurant in China Town on work nights out that was called "wonkies". The service was very strange, lots of little chinese men shouting orders at one another and you - when you sat down they flung out menus and little pots of jasmine tea and then came back 30 seconds later demanding to know "what you want"!! I ate there several times and only once got food poisoning, which I think is pretty good going! I have never been so ill, you really don't need the details! We were delighted to find it so that I could take a photo so it is immortalised on my blog!

Coming out of China Town was the street with all the theatres - it almost certainly has a name, have no idea what it is!

We called into Starbucks on Oxford Street for a coffee and a cup cake, all that walking meant I was in danger of creating a calorie deficit, I am almost sure!

The Photographers Gallery was interesting and had the Deutsche Borse 2010 photography prize exhibition, so it was great to have the opportunity to see that.

From there we walked to Carnaby Street. It was buzzing! The whole place has a fantastic feel to it.

How fab is that for a shop front?

Even though I was hobbling about I still had to ogle shoes.

And this is the final photo from our weekend in London and probably my favourite of the weekend!

Tate Modern

2010-04-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

The Tate Modern Gallery was the one thing on Steve's list for the weekend that was a must do and whilst the art installations may have left us cold - one was a huge heap of clothing in front of a statue, Steve took one look and said "that's not art. That's Emily's bedroom!" - the building itself was fantastic and a photographers dream. It used to be a power station which will give you some idea of the scale. Loads of light and glass and colour.

We came in onto the first floor, the other entrance was on the ground floor with a massive window over it creating some great light and dark areas.

Looking up towards the main entrance.

I just loved the colour everywhere.

I even got a bit arty, although never sure if this kind of thing has worked!

Calling this "escalator up" on this I really like how the lights and the womans face coming down on the other escalator are out of focus - this was the plan!

There is a story to this one. Mum had a very nice camera and had stood little girl next to the buggy, brushed her hair, made her stand nicely, walked away and just as she turned round her reluctant model legged it! I had wanted to catch her taking the photo and got this instead!

Really like the glass and the light in this.

Lots going on everywhere you looked too which I liked.

The views from the balcony outside the Tate cafe were fantastic.

Very pleased with how this one came out, not least because I took it through a window! think the bridge looks fab.

Saturday in London

2010-04-13T06:09:00.001-07:00

Woke up to fantastic sunshine. Had put together a rough plan of where we wanted to go so first stop the tube to Mansion House - weird as Kensington High street had been heaving, Mansion house tube station is in the City, which basically closes for the weekend - no people and nothing open. Walked to St Pauls and ate breakfast sat outside enjoying the sun shine and the smell of the grape hyacinths.

How clear is that sky! When I took the photo Steve said "I want to be able to see all four engines!" As I was only using my 50mm lens wasnt sure that was even possible but look, there they are!

As lovely as it is from the outside nothing prepares you for inside St Pauls. If only I could have taken photos, although they are quite right to refuse permission, its a church after all and I was surprised to see how many people were prepared to flaunt the rules.

We walked the 270 steps to the whispering gallery, it is worth doing even if you aren't a big fan of heights, Steve was a bit weak knee'ed when we came back down so I took him for coffee via the crypts - saw Nelsons tomb which was very impressive. Fab coffee and cake - and not over priced either, very impressed!

From St Pauls its a short walk to the Millenium Bridge and across there to the Tate Modern.

This photo has been worked a bit and I think it needs re-doing, the crowd in the front were very dark and the sky was very bright so I have tried to give it balance and not done it skillfully. Think there might be a second edit to this one.

The bridge itself is magnificent and gives a great vantage point between St Pauls and the Tate.

A view across the river Thames.

Em phoned for a chat as we were crossing the bridge so I took the opportunity to grab a couple more photos!

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre from the Millenium Bridge.

One of my favourite photos of the weekend - looking back across the bridge to St Pauls. How pin sharp is that fab 50mm?!

Weekend in London

2010-04-13T01:34:00.000-07:00

Steve and I had a fantastic weekend in London and were so lucky that the sun shone. Not so great was the hideous blister I managed to inflict on my poor toe - stupid, stupid woman who elected for style over comfort, and not that much style either.

We got the train from Leeds to Kings Cross, ate Revels and read - bliss compared to our usual Friday afternoon.

See don't we looked relaxed! He is getting good at this photo lark too isn't he - another one I like enough to show people!

I forgot to add the photo that I took from the train - I love looking at photo blogs and two of my faves are by American Army wives, who specialise in beautiful portrait photos, so only rarely take landscape photos and when they do its lovely to see where they live and the things they maybe see and take for granted (as we all do when its on our doorstep!) I decided that this blog would be a good place to do the same, random photos of the UK that maybe aren't earth shatteringly brilliant but are of here! Gad, thats a heap of waffle, hope you understand.

See not earth shattering is it, but its from a train so it gets some kudos for being in focus surely?!

We got to Kings Cross and 4pm and then had the underground to contend with, didn't take any photos as was more stressed about finding which line we needed to be on. It was really hot and by the time we had walked from Kensington High Street tube to our accommodation we were ready for a rest.

Accommodation, what can I say? All a bit strange really. Basically its a normal house just off Kensington High Street, so there's an oxymoron before you start as clearly there is no such thing, any house off KHS is as far from normal as you can hope to get. Will do a google search to see if I can get an idea of the sort of money this place would have cost. So its a "normal" house, not a b&b or small hotel and basically what they are doing is letting out their en suite bedrooms but doing it on the cheap. Don't get me wrong the room was very comfortable and functional but it lacked the professional finish especially in the bathroom. London has very hard water and as a result everything was marked with limescale. I used to live in Kent, it is annoying - but it can be cleaned off and if you are charging £110 a night for a bedroom (no breakfast!) then you really should be cleaning it off. You also need to think about what your guests need - our room had 2 wall sockets, both hidden behind the bedside tables, neither had an adaptor so at most we could plug in the hair dryer and the kettle or charge the phone and the camera battery but not all at once. Aesthetics are clearly important to the people that own the place and they have taken precedence over functionality - it annoys the hell out of me when there isn't a mirror anywhere near a wall socket so drying your hair is very hit and miss. Of more importance because they aren't flagging up that they offer accommodation there isn't a single fire extinguisher or piece of information on what to do in the event of a fire and I am certain they have not been assessed by the fire brigade - if there was a fire and some one lost their life they would end up in prison, it just isn't worth the risk in my opinion.

Sorry if that sounded like a great big moan but it annoys me that we work so hard to offer our guests what we do! Like I said the room was very nice...

His Grandmother is Chinese and there was a strong influence throughout.

I am going to try and download pictures from my mobile of Friday evening so will do that as another post.

Oliver and Emily - 16 months

2010-03-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

How I wish I had been able to take photos of my own littles at this age, aren't they cute? Have photographed Oliver and Emily since they were just a bump so its lovely to record their growing up into toddlers. Darren and Kate got a twin each; Oliver looks just like his dad and Emily just like her mum and they are great fun. Emily says "uh oh" a lot, generally as she is dropping her teddy off the high chair so that Hornby the dog can pinch it before she bursts into tears wanting it back, and once its retrieved she does the whole thing all over again - oh I remember those years! And Oliver is such a boy - remote controls, mobile phones all much more interesting than toys and he loves to climb so Kate and Darren need eyes in the back of their heads!

Emily putting little paper flowers into the bag she made at nursery.

Oliver wondering if he is quick enough to grab the camera.

Bless her about to whizz off on her little bike - she's a speed freak!

Look at those eye lashes!

Love this one.

And the sun shone too!

Hazel O'Connor in Hebden Bridge!

2010-03-28T03:01:00.000-07:00

Who ever would have thought it? Hazel O'Connor, of Breaking Glass fame, bold, out there sort of a person that just blew me away with Will You back when I had no idea how all that stuff would feel but really wanted to experience it, would one day be singing Will You live, in front of me, in a room not much bigger than our kitchen. There isn't hyperbole enough. I stood with tears streaming down my face and was moved all over again. Wonderful. And she's such a nice lady, I went to rescue her from Steve, or Steve from himself, whichever way you want to look at it when she was signing cd's and she was very genuine and as Anna said really rather cheery! I just wished I could be trusted to look after my camera after a serious amount of vodka and coke and could have taken some proper pics.

If you get the chance go and see her, the Billie Holliday and Nina Simone covers alone are worth the ticket and the whole blues/jazz thing is just fab. Happy days.

Bradley Woods

2010-03-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a grey start the sun came out this morning and Steve and I decided to get out and get some fresh air. Of course by the time we had done all the guest house stuff and the shopping it had gone back to being grey! We decided to go to Bradley Woods, just up the road from home as neither of us fancied driving miles to go for a walk. There is a scout camp in the woods and lots of little scouts were heading home after a weekend in the woods, they looked like they had had a good time! As we were walking the sun came out and we got the chance to take some photos.

I took this one of Steve which is like about 200 others that I insist of taking of him, poor guy!

Then he decided that he needed to take one of me to show of latest haircut! Not a fan of myself in photos but actually rather like this one, had to guess at exposure and then hand him the camera but it seemed to work.

Digby had great fun chasing sticks, but was loathe to hand them back!

Lovely sky

The sun was shining through the trees as we walked back up the hill, it was lovely and much warmer than it has been in ages.

Always good, signs with a sense of humour!

Yay! Spring!

2010-03-02T09:41:00.000-08:00

Over use of exclamation marks is mandatory in any post relating to Spring! see!!

The sun has been shining in through the kitchen window and when Digby got fed up of sunbathing right in the middle of the kitchen floor he took up his position at the kitchen table, just in case I got confused and offered him something for lunch I suspect!

To think that even last week these delicate little things had snow on them. Sooooo glad that has gone away!

Seem to remember these featuring in a similar post last year! Which means they are annuals, I think, lovely aren't they? Does you heart good doesnt it and we needed something to cheer us up today.

There goes the view.....

2010-03-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Because there really aren't enough houses in West Yorkshire someone somewhere has come up with the idea of building a 3 bed detached house IN THE GARDEN of the house across the road. The lady who owned the existing lovely family home with large garden, the sort of thing a family would really like, has sold her garden, I didn't even know you could, maybe we could sell the car park and make some money? Anyway a developer has bought her garden and is shoe horning a teeny house into it. So there goes our view, such as it was!

The have been working on the footings for a while, so nothing showing over the wall, last week they put up the scaffolding.

Lovely. Not.

In a week they have whacked up the downstairs and today appeared to be glueing the wooden top floor into place, oh and the roof trusses arrived on a hossing great lorry this morning. Carpet fitters due tomorrow?

If you look really carefully you can see what our view used to look like through their new lounge window! Mind you look at that sky - literally on the 1st of March the weather changed.... leading me nicely into my next post!

Loving Lightroom!

2010-02-21T03:52:00.001-08:00

It's snowing here again - never, ever thought I'd say those words and not be leaping around like a 6 year old but bah! snow, so over it now. Had hoped to get out and take some more pics but fifty shades of grey not doing it for me today and have some conference photos from Weds that I need to get to work on, but first decided to revisit one of my favourite photos taken in Jan when snow was still a whoop whoop thing! Thats what I love about lightroom. I can just go back to the processed version of the original photo, click on the "import" data button and the original untouched photo comes back, make a virtual copy and you have a whole new photo available to process again.

I really liked the tone mapping thing that I was doing last week and had a feeling that this photo would work really well.

Here is the "original" finished image:

And here is the "new" tone mapped version:

Looking at it I hadn't done a bad job on the first version, the only real difference is that the foreground stuff; road, houses etc has a bit more "pop" than on the original where that bit is a bit flat compared to the great sky.

Of course now want to go back through all my fave's and have another go at them using tone mapping! Conference photos to process first, if there are any goodies I'll pop a couple up.

Calder & Hebble Navigation

2010-02-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

Went for a walk along the canal this afternoon. I think canals are fundamentally depressing and I was having a seriously bad photo day, everything I touched turned to yak so was pleased to come away with 4 out of 60 photos and to be fair only 3 of them are really any good but anyway's here they are.

Quite like this one.

Surprising how nice the barges are.

Another attempt at dodge and burn, again not done well really - tried bracketting some shots when we were out but the canal was like the m62 and getting an unpeopled spot was impossible!

Not reallly very fab although I like the reflection.

Thats all for this weekend.

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

To the best husband in the world, who knows that a big box of maltesers beats a fancy box of chocs anyday! Love you xx

HDR - well not really!

2010-02-14T04:23:00.000-08:00

Fancy having a go at HDR - this is where you take 3 photos, one with the correct exposure, one a stop under another a stop over and then you do some kind of technical wizadry in lightroom and photoshop combined to create a single image with the full range of tones from light to shadow giving you an image with high dynamic range (hdr). There is also a method called tone mapping which takes a single RAW file and uses dodging and burning on shadows and highlights to give a wider range of tones, creating a similar but less intense effect. Two schools of thought on the whole hdr thing some say it should be subtle others think if you are going to do it make it show. Not decided myself have seen examples of both that I love. Anyway here are my first two attempts at tone mapping.

Not very happy with this the big dark patch in the middle of the path stands out too much and the hills in the distance look a bit rubbish.

Like how the urn turned out on this, think the tree looks a bit odd. But its worth recording first attempts if only to see how things improve! Here are the two urn photos next to one another so you can see the difference the tone mapping makes.

And the two park views:

This one shows the contrast far more - the colours just look much punchier.

Walking along the canal to Brighouse this afternoon and going to take some photos to have a go at proper hdr with oh and maybe a valentines themed photo too!

Greenhead Park, Huddersfield

2010-02-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

Had an hour to kill whilst Tom was in his maths lesson so decided to have a look around Greenhead Park, to be honest wasn't expecting much. Have only been there a couple of times and today was cold and grey and pretty uninspiring but I have decided that I need to take more photos of where we live - it's easy to be inspired when you are away on holiday and I often overlook the things that are right under my nose!

I had never noticed just how beautiful the War Memorial in the park is. Beautiful golden stone, sandstone?, that has weathered and worn.

I loved the combination of columns, curves and squares.

The memorial itself is moving, as they always are. Although not a fan of the techinique whereby you de-saturate all the colours and just leave one but as soon as I saw it in Lightroom could see this photo was crying out for it. Am so cross I just clipped the first "m" though.

Having stuck my lens through the fence to take the photo above I suddenly realised that there was a fence, with a gate and a padlock. How awful that the gate has to be padlocked, presumably whilst the poppies are on the memorial, to prevent them being damaged or abused. What a sorry state of affairs.

The cross on the top of the memorial sits on the most magnificent stone plinth.

The whole thing is just beautiful.

The park is being completely overhauled at the moment, loads of muddy footpaths and piles of rock and masses and masses of fencing. Have a feeling its all going to be worth it though.

A lake no less! Restoring one of five original lakes.

The view from the memorial down to the main entrance, all looking a bit tired and unloved right now.

Cant wait to see this finished - there's nothing nicer than a bandstand in the middle of park.

More fencing - this time around the Victorian conservatory - it is a massive structure and again is going to be quite stunning when its finished.

The gentleman was on a plinth behind fencing too so I don't know who he is unfortunately, he is patiently awaiting a bit of a wash and brush up too I imagine!

Will definitely go back and take some more photos as the work on the park progresses, noticed on one sign there is a "Friends of Greenhead Park" group and they are asking for photos taken during the works so will send them a link to this post.

Cragg Vale Walk

2010-01-25T02:30:00.000-08:00

Inspite of a late night and possibly one more drink than was wise! Steve and I headed up to Cragg Vale for a walk on Sunday morning. I had high hopes of photographing the abandoned house and was having all sorts of creative thoughts of using the tripod and a slow shutter speed with the wind blowing the long grasses and scudding clouds. Hmm, not sure what season I thought it was when all that was going on. Leaden skies, soaked, flattened grass and nothing much to inspire as far as the eye could see! In the end we walked up to Withens Gate and then out towards Stoodley Pike although didn't go as far as the Pike itself. I did set the tripod up on a bit of gritstone but only one of the pics was useable - must remember that in sleet its a good idea to wipe the camera lens every now and again!

It was lovely to drop down off the top and out of the wind, found a short route back to Withens gate, my kind of walking!

cross at Withens Gate

There was still a fair amount of snow up by the gate, drifts that were at least 3 feet deep on the path or boggy ground were the walking options, tough call! The walls seemed to be the best source of something to photograph so I made the most of them!

The reservior still had a good bit of ice on it and where it didn't it was doing a good job of reflecting the steely sky.

Steve and Digby were not feeling creatively challenged, they were in their element.

Roll on Spring!

Tom's 16th Birthday...

2010-01-10T05:14:00.000-08:00

will go down in history as the date that I first triggered Tom's diabetes!! Instead of a cake I decided to make him chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. In that great American tradition that if one thing is good and another is also good if you combine them then what you end up with is great - so take a pan of brownies and top them with cookie dough and chocolate chips and listen to the sound of your arteries furring up and feel the exquisite pleasure of your heart struggling to beat!

First melt a whole 250g grammes of butter over some water with 200g of dark chocolate.

Add some chopped nuts - they have healthy fats you know!

Pour this over 65g of flour, 320g of sugar and a shed load of cocoa powder

Mix well. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The plan now is that you bake this for 5-10 mins less than your brownie mix would normally need. Whilst it is baking you mix another 250g of butter with another plantations worth of sugar and some flour to make a cookie dough. You are supposed to dollop or spread the cookie down onto of the brownie mix. Have you ever made brownies - they are NOT set when they come out of the oven so its a bit like the first time as a married lady you make shepherds pie - the mash splurges all the mince out of the dish and onto the work top! I resorted to plopping little flattened lumps of cookie dough onto the brownie mix. Then Tom helped add the chocolate chips and white chocolate chunks. Gilding the lily being the order of the day!

All ready for the oven.

As there was a considerable amount of cookie dough left over I decided that we needed a batch of choc chip cookies too! Inside of me there is a thin girl trying to get out - I can usually shut the skinny bitch up with a cookie!

The plan with the brownie is that you just bake it long enough to cook the edges of the dough and melt the chocolate. Any attempt to eat this before it has cooled sufficiently for the butter to harden will result in instant feelings of nausea!

As a result it was decided that the cookies had to go first.

I think they liked them!!

Now that we were all feeling really really ill it was time for Tom to open his cards and presents.

Emily's card was suitably offensive!

And he liked the one from his Granny and Grandad, been a while since we have had anything with the very hungry catepillar in our house!

Em refused to let me leave the shop until I had bought this card for Tom.

We also got him a metal model that will sit nicely with his collection of quirky things.

And finally the finished brownie...

For Tom's special birthday dinner at his request we had roast venison, parmentier potatoes, green beans and a redwine and redcurrant sauce - how sophisticated is this boy?!
Happy birthday Tom, love you.

Snow

2010-01-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I take photos and I'm really blah about them. Usually I use my 50mm for portraits and my wide for landscapes. Today I whacked the zoom onto the camera and braved the permafrost that Upper Edge has become and you know what, not so blah. Not very blah at all in fact. If photography is about light and contrast winter snow and a setting sun provide the both in abundance and you'd have to be beyond useless not to get something fab from them. I am an honest kind of a gal, purty much!, so will confess where I have tweaked and cropped on the photos below and on some of them you'd have to be wearing a balaclava backwards not to spot it but where nature provided and my skills measured up Lightroom was redundant.

See what I mean? Glowing sky meets cool, cool snow. Without boring you to death light is different colour temperatures - that sky? well hot. The snow? brr chilly. Red against blue. So to expose for the snow to be the right colour the sky would become white hot (over exposed), expose for the sky and the snow disappears. Lightroom knows that I am no way good enough to deal with that so provides a nifty bit of kit which means I can filter certain areas of my photo - in this one I filtered the sky and reduced the exposure, as I had exposed for the snow when I took the pic. That puts all the detail back into the sky, then I increase the colour saturation and you get to see what was actually there, and visible to the naked eye, but beyond something as basic as a camera. Does that make sense?

I'll belt up now ok.

You didn't really think I would did you? Just tweaked the sky on this.

f-f-f-freezing!

Backward balaclave moment! Clearly the sky has been "dealt with" and I have added some fill light to the foreground too.

This time not shooting into the sun just catching its glow on the clouds no tweaking required.

Worked to death, frankly. Photography as art. I love it, I guess its fake as in not "true" but the glow from the sun setting behind her was really there, it just wasn't sepia!

bit of a bump in contrast and a slight blip on sky colour but not much else - wasn't it a stunning sunset. Bloody freezing too!

Other people had to work - spraying poo. No breeze and very cold air doesn't half make that stench linger. (if you are farmer'ish excuse my total lack of agri knowledge, well it's not like I work on a machinery magazine or anything is it!!)

Note lovely pink sky. Note also nasty brown sheeeiit on field in background!

Back to pretty.

And straight into dumb. If I was to say that this photo was taken moments after my beloved daughter had said to me "I love the idea of elves. Just imagine if behind that wall there were loads of elves all hiding." you might well anticipate what came next. (at this point its worth mentioning that she is nearly 18 and at the time was sober as a judge.) She then decided to leap over the wall and "walk like an elf". Completely forgetting that she is a) crap at leaping over walls and b) likely to fall over her own feet asleep.

Dozy mare.

This is pretty much untweaked, just a slight bump in contrast. I love the sky and the hole in the snow around the stem of the grass.

Pylons can look good in photos.

Speaks for itself.

Again nothing done apart from some subtle enhancement of what was already there.

And finally a barrage of fixings. Cropped, fill light, sky filtered to reduce exposure, increase clarity and saturation yadda yadda. Nice though?

New Years Eve 2009

2010-01-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

Inspite of threatened snow Mum and Dad arrived safely for New Year. Went straight to Bombay Stores in Bradford to get them kitted out for our "Bollywood" themed New Years Eve party! Sadly was struggling with the whole lighting concept when it came to taking these photos so only managed one of everybody and none of them are particularly brilliant.

Mum and Dad - note nail varnish matches Mum's kurta suit! Don't they look fab?

Horrible shadow behind him but a nice photo of him!

Yikes!

Not very relevant but I do like it!
Happy New Year.

Christmas 2009 - Christmas Day

2009-12-26T04:17:00.001-08:00

Was up at 5am again - indigestion this time! Think I might have been more excited about this whole Christmas thing than I like to let on!!

First things first, in the lounge at 10am for present opening. For years I have tried to insist that we could maybe open one present at 10am, then a few more in the afternoon and some in the evening. They just laugh at me.

Steve got an Ipod Nano and docking station - cue hours on the pc downloading new versions of itunes!

I got a Pandora bracelet - just visible!

Then Steve and I took Digby for a walk - beautiful day, freezing cold with clear blue skies, perfect.

Messing around with sun flare!

The snowman!!

Elland looked lovely covered in snow.

How lucky were we to get such a lovely day?

After our walk it was time to get things organised for dinner - we usually have ours at around 4.30pm. But first some sausages in honey in sage and devils on horseback with

First needed to glaze the cranberries for the table centre piece.

more edible glitter!

Then the table needed laying.

Candles to be lit.

And maybe a photo for Christmas cards next year?

Then dinner is served.

Hours of planning, shopping, preparation, cooking and decorating come together for a meal that lasts nearly 30 mins. No wonder I was worn out!

Happy Christmas!!

Christmas 2009 - Christmas Eve

2009-12-25T15:26:00.000-08:00

My favourite day of the year, I love the excitment and the expectation, as near to being Christmas as possible without actually being there, wonderful! Had a brilliant day that began at 5am checking the amount of snow that had fallen over night with Em, another 3 inches so no way she could leave for work at 7am. Went back to bed for a couple of hours - what incredible bliss!

Snow from the kitchen window.

Steve had a load of ironing to do.

We have so many traditions in our house that revolve around food; champagne and canapes after mass on Christmas Eve, brioche and pain au chocolat whilst we open the presents, devils on horse back and sausages in honey and sage with a bottle of bubbly mid morning and the obligatory home made chestnut stuffing! I had already made the stuffing so started with the ham, filled a saucepan with water and Christmassy things to boil the ham, then made a glaze from brandy, mustard, orange and honey to drizzle over it before baking, very pleased with the result!

This year we had a turkey, in the past have stuck with a free range chicken. Ness always brines her turkey a la Nigella so thought I would give that a whirl. Stuck 3 kilo turkey into a black bin bag, in a laundry basket, added 6 litres of water, cinammon sticks, oranges, peppercorns, bay leaves, onions, honey etc and left it to bathe over night. Looks like its drowning. This photo was taken 30 seconds before Em said "are you aware that thing is leaking raw turkey soup all over the kitchen?" Steve flew into action, hauled the recycling bin out of the cupboard, emptied it, gave it a hasty rinse and hurled the turkey in its bin bag into it as Em and I looked on, mouths agape in horror. Turned to Em and she mouthed "did I mention - I'm vegan?" Luckily the soaking in the recycling bin did it no discernable harm but I might just double bag it if I do it again!!

Prepped the hot canapes for Christmas morning and did the pigs in blankets for with christmas dinner and then decided that we had to make the most of the snow so went to the Wilderness with the sledge - not a great day for photos as it was very foggy but they are at least atmospheric! Steve, and Digby, built a snow man but didnt get photos as the battery ran out in the camera.

Em seemed intent on laying in the snow!

See?!

Digby loved it too!

Never ask your teenaged kids to "move closer together" to take a photo!

Steve decided to make his first ever snow man

Then Em and Tom went on the sledge

Em, Tom and Digby relaxing on the sofa.

Had a moment on the sofa when we got home and then up and made a lasagne for dinner and gave Em instructions on how to prepare the canapes for after Mass whilst making a batch of mince pies - complete with edible glitter! It crops up on everything this year!!

Mass was wonderful and is the perfect way to kick off the whole christmas thing. Em and Tom had done a fab job and we opened a bottle of bubbly and tucked into smoked salmon with cream cheese on soda bread and bagel slices topped with mustard and pastrami - new for this year, delish!

Steve's Beard

2009-12-20T09:47:00.000-08:00

This post is mainly for Pete and Carol and Janine and John - Happy Christmas to you all from West Yorkshire! As I put in my email Steve now has a beard and I thought you'd like to see some photos of him, according to Nora he looks like your Uncle Frank?! I think he looks very handsome. Scuse the one's of me, never have been photogenic but my Mum loves me!

Snow!!

2009-12-20T09:34:00.001-08:00

Have had a fantastic day! Steve and I decided to go to Leeds to the last day of the German Christmas market, still plenty of snow left over from earlier in the week and it was freezing but cold and crisp not grey and frigid so lovely. Parked at the railway station in Huddersfield and got the train to Leeds. The market was fantastic, next year am going to go earlier and buy myself a wooden manager they are so lovely. Got some hot chestnuts, which tasted of wee a bit, not sure why so only ate one but made a great handwarmer! Also got a birthday pressie for Tom for January, how organised are we?, some massive marshmallows for the kids and a bar of marzipan for Mum - sweets she wont have to share because marzipan is disgusting! Steve hadn't seen much of Leeds so we went for a slice of pizza and a coffee and then walked down to the Victorian Quarter, it was wonderful and the fact that it was snowing on and off added to the whole festive feel. Got the train home and were amazed, clearly Kirklees gritters had been caught napping - about 2 inches of snow had fallen and the roads were in chaos and frankly flipping dangerous, slid towards the traffic lights coming out of the railway station which luckily turned green as I got to them. It was clear we weren't going to be able to get home our usual route so had to find an alternative, bumper to bumper with it snowing heavily and the last half hour of daylight and it was no joke, didnt see a gritter the whole time either. Anyway made it home safely - Em and Tom were outside having a snow ball fight! I nipped out and grabbed a couple of photos in the last of the light.

Oh Tannenbaum! Christmas Tree Sunday - Hurrah!

2009-12-13T08:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas tree day is a long held tradition in our house and one I love, but probably not as much as Em, who would make it her life's work to decorate Christmas tree's if that were possible! We used to have Christmas Tree Friday, but with the advent of Emily working full time and life just being manic this year it moved to Christmas Tree Sunday and was well worth the wait. This year we have a rather sorry specimen of a tree, considering Steve Scrooge always, always spends way more than he intends to on the biggest, tallest, bushiest of trees this year there were slim pickings so we got the tallest but certainly not the perkiest, bless its a bit scrappy looking. Have you ever had to put up to 4 baubles (or "ball balls" as Em text me recently!) on a single branch - we had to or we would have had boxes of spare decorations sat doing nothing, which is too sad to contemplate. Anyway I love it and it was an excuse to get the camera out as haven't taken a photo for weeks now - self portrait 52 has gone down in a blaze of apathy, I am hopeless. But have taken one today. Enjoy.

Self portrait and bokeh, does it get any better?!

Candles and bokeh (bokeh - blurry out of focus dots of colour fyi)

inadvertent self portrait

shame about the big splodgy out of focus red bow, draws your eye away from where I want it but I like the feel of this one so it stays.

Self Portrait week 9 - Easy like Sunday morning

2009-11-15T04:16:00.000-08:00

A very rare Sunday morning where we didn't start work at 7.30am. Bliss to have no alarm clock, no guests and just to have the place to ourselves for a change!

More model photos

2009-11-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

Antonia asked for a couple more pics from our recent photo shoot - although they were darker than I had hoped some of them were workable, so had a bit of a tidy up and sent her these

I love those shoes!

Self Portrait - week 8

2009-10-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

Managed not to do one in Week 7, just ran out of inspiration, doesn't bode well does it! Anyway this isn't exactly fab stuff but it is what it needs to be; me taken by me in week 8!

Leeds Strobist

2009-10-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

No its not some form of martial art, or a weird religious sect - although to be honest in some cases it's not far off! Strobism is basically using cheap (relatively, this is photography we are talking about!) portable lighting rather than huge studio set up's to light photographs. One of the best things to come out of Photocamp Bradford for me was the chance to have a go at this and I loved it - Steve of course was thrilled that I came home with yet another long list of "must have" kit!! I now have a soft box, light stand and triggers so can light you up!

Leeds strobist met last night by the river just down from the station, surprisingly salubrious to be honest lots of very smart and more importantly visually interesting buildings. I only took a few photos as the rest of the time I was in training for West Yorkshire's next top model - thank god I am getting over my utter loathing of having my photo taken and can even accept that looking really awful in a photo isn't necessarily a bad thing, not sure that it's good but its not the end of the world is it? Was working with Neal, Dafydd and Joel - strobists tend to be rather techy blokes!

This is Dafydd and I have to say I am really pleased with this photo. At this point I am supposed to tell you that the camera settings were 1/60, F1.8, ISO200 with a 430ex with orange gel set at 1/8 shot through soft box camera right and rim lighting is coming from a 580 with blue gel shot through a snoot. But would you care? No thought not! For me the nicest thing about this photo is the "bokeh" thats the bubbles in the background caused by out of focus lights, its much sought after in photography and I take every opportunity to get some in my pics!

We moved then to the front of the building out of the wind - its heart stopping watching a light stand and soft box crash to the ground when you took your £300 flash gun off only seconds before! There were several large shiny metal columns and I decided I wanted to throw some light onto them, behind Dafydd to create a sort of back light to see what would happen with the reflection.

As I was lining up the shot above I realised that if I could get the building in frame as well it would be even more interesting - I didn't have the lens for the job so Neal lent me one of his (note to self, add to shopping list!).

This was the result of switching to a slightly wider lens - much more interesting. The lights on the building phased through green, blue, pink, purple and I really wanted to get this shot with the lights on pink but like most models Dafydd was a bit tempermental and I didn't want to upset him by making him stand around for ages!

And this is Neal, lighting expert, lens lender and snoot maker!