Boxing Day 2008

We stayed over at my sister's house on Christmas Day and also spent Boxing Day with her. We had a really lazy day chilling out and it was just lovely. In the evening my cousin, Jax, came to visit and we played some games including a quiz. True to form I was a bad a loser - at least I'm honest and I'm sure it will be no different next year! I managed to persuade Jan and Jax to have a little mini-portraits session which was quite an achievement seeing as neither of them like to have photos taken. They were both pleased with the results afterwards and Jax is convinced that she is only photogenic when I take her picutre! Jan also has a dog called Fitz. I am not really a "dog" person as I am actually quite scared of them. However, I think Fitz is starting to win me over. He looks really fierce but is actually quite a softie. Here are some of the pictures from the day. I couldn't resist adding a few of the decorations. Hope you like them...

Christmas in Scotland

We went up to Scotland this year to visit Mum and to spend Christmas day with my sister, Jan, and her family. I love going up to Scotland at any time of the year, but Christmas is even more special and Jan always puts so much effort into the preparations. She is also an amazing cook so the meal is always delicious - and this year was no exception. It is great to spend time with my nephews as we don't really get to see them very often. We had a fantastic time and, as usual, there was lots and lots of laughter. Here are just a few images from the day. I will be putting a larger selection on Facebook. All comments are welcome.

Happy Christmas

We wish all our friends, family, clients & colleagues a

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

and

a prosperous 2009

image by Iain, taken during the snow in April

Family Photo Shoot

On Wednesday evening we went round to do a family photo shoot for Nadine at her parents home. They have a photograph of the children on the wall that was taken when they were all very small and she thought it was probably about time it was updated. Everyone was quite nervous to begin with but after a little while they really got into it and it was great fun - for us at least! I love doing photo shoots at someone's house, rather than a studio, because they are just so much more relaxed and natural.

These are some of my favourites from the day. We will be editing out some of the backgrounds before they go up on our online gallery, but I wanted to post these here before we go off to Scotland for our Christmas break.

BNI Christmas Party

We attended the BNI Christmas party last weekend and took along the camera (of course). It was really nice to attend this event because as self-employed business people we would probably not have had a Christmas do otherwise. It was a really nice dinner held at Sweetwoods Golf Course. Some of the other members went along earlier in the day and also played a round of golf, but we passed on that as neither of us play golf. It was a great opportunity to get to know some of the people we see on a weekly basis on a more personal level and big thanks to Nadine for all her efforts in sorting it out.

Our quickest turnaround yet!

We had an enquiry for a baby photo shoot at the beginning of the week and they wanted the images in time for Christmas. It turned out the Dad could be off work on Wednesday. I normally go up to London on a Wednesday to visit my uncle in hospital, but we worked out we could just about manage it. Iain came with me and then immediately after the photo shoot he drove home and processed the images while I went up to London. He put them into the online gallery at around 3.30 p.m. so that we could put the order through before the Lab's Christmas cut-off date (tomorrow).

He is a really lovely little baby and it was so worth making that special effort. He is just gorgeous! Get in touch with me if you want your own baby photo shoot as we still have some dates available in January & February. http://www.pureviewphoto.com/

Loving those Babies...

November & December really has been all about the babies. I have really enjoyed going out to take photographs of babies from 3 weeks up to 11 weeks old. And what is great about babies is that they are all so different. A few weeks ago I had a baby where it was impossible to get a sleeping shot because he was so wide awake and then yesterday the baby I was shooting just couldn't stay awake! His Mum asked if she should try and wake him up, but having had babies myself I just couldn't consider doing that. It is just wrong!! So we ended up with really lovely "quiet" shots. Another great thing about the baby sessions is that I will do 3 shoots in the first year so it will be fantastic to watch them grow during that period. I can't wait to do the next batch in about 3 months time. In the meantime, I have another 11 week old baby to photograph tomorrow...

If you know someone who has recently had a baby, and they live in the Sussex/Surrey/Kent area, ask them to get in touch with me if they would like to organise a baby photo shoot. It is definitely worth preserving those memories as they grow up so quickly!

Email: louise@pureviewphoto.com Phone: 07595 044252

A very cute 2 year old

This week we went down to Brighton to do a portrait session with a very cute 2 year old (and her Mum & Dad). It seems that most of the babies & toddlers I have shot recently have all had a runny nose - and this one was no exception. I also found out that asking her to lie down was not a good idea because she thought she was going to bed. I will remember that for our next session! However, inbetween wiping her nose and a few tears we managing to get some great images. I've also included a few of her Mum & Dad as they were a big part of the day.

Shooting just for fun

Last weekend my daughter's friend came round and we went into the woods near our house to just have some fun with our cameras. What I love about Autumn/Winter - apart from all the gorgeous colours - is the fact that it is cold enough to wrap up in coats, gloves and hats. I was relegated to second shooter so that Faith could do most of the direction (with a little bit of guidance from me) and I think she did really well. Although she did let me do some direction of my own and these are a few of favourite shots from the day. All comments welcome...

Keeping it in the Family

I mentioned in an earlier post that Faith is planning to take Photography as one of her AS Courses next year. She wanted to start getting used to using a Digital SLR so she used our son, Max, as her "model". He is a hairdressing appentice, which explains the interesting hair! These are some of the shots that she liked. She will be taking some more shots of her friend this weekend and perhaps next time I can even get Faith to update the Blog.