Greg and Adam

Opening hours at the Studio are pretty flexible, usually 9am – 6pm, 7 days a week. Last evening I had a late shoot , an 8pm start. If you are interested in a shoot and need an early or late shoot, just let me know.

Mum, dad and their two boys, Adam and Greg, arrived from Watford. For mum’s birthday, Adam and Greg had agreed to pose for portraits, they were in their early twenties and it had been many many years since they last visited a studio!

We started with the group shot, with the two young men taking direction very well and not seeming to mind too much. After a change of shirts we then moved on to individual poses by which point both Greg and Adam had mastered posing and quickly titled their heads positioned there arms and shoulders for each set of shots. Mum and dad watched intently and glanced over at the monitor to see the shots appear on the screen (I shoot tethered where images are downloaded from the camera straight onto a computer – this allows me to accurately and quickly check exposure, lighting etc).

A great smile!

This is fun!

It was a pleasure to meet the family, and work with Adam and Greg. (I look forward to seeing you again at the viewing!)

Family, High Key Boys, High Key, photographer, photography, Portrait, Watford, Young men

Edlesbrough Church

Today is the last day of half term for our eldest son and I’m looking after him and his younger brother, so the question was should we:

• go shopping in Watford
• visit the natural history museum in Tring
• or visit Mead Open Farm

As you might guess, Mead Open Farm was the winner. So off we went via Edlesbrough (stopping for a quick picture of the church) and on to the object of the children’s desire! I’m new to this 1/2 term thing, I should have expected it, yes, every other parent from miles around decided that’s the place to take the kids today. I’ve never seen it so busy, the car park was full, as was the overflow. I decided that we wouldn’t brave the crowds, we headed back towards Berkhamsted and stopped at the Common. Both the boys were wearing their wellies and so they went for a walk and I followed them armed with my Canon EOS 5D.  The youngest is still a toddler at 20 months old and isn’t too experienced at running through fields or the woods, he ended up on his bottom quite a lot but at least he was enjoying exploring all around him (even what was on the bottom of his boot!).

What's on my boot

I'll help you up!

What's this muddy stuff?

I love to pose for the camera!

Now it’s time to go and feed the ducks down by the canal and no doubt William will want to go for a Bambinocino at one of the coffee shops after.

Children, Out and About, Studio news, Toddlers Children, Informal, Outdoor, photographer, Portrait, Toddler, Tring, Watford

Newborn baby

This weekend I had the pleasure to meet a wonderful young couple with their new, new baby. They arrived from Watford on Saturday morning proudly carrying their 3 week old beautiful baby girl. After a chat and having reviewed some example newborn pictures, the shoot commenced, little M didn’t seem to mind, she was still asleep and so I took advantage of this creating compositions with her lying down on her own, still and peaceful.

A beautiful moment

After a while, M woke, a little hungry; I remember those days, newborns asleep apart from when they are feeding … after a feed, we continued and mum, whose valentines surprise this was, joined her daughter on the stage. It was a pleasure to be working, seeing mum and daughter enjoying each other’s presence, seeing the happiness in a new mother’s eyes; who can call this work?

A proud father

As the studio session progressed, dad, who arranged the shoot as a Valentines present, joined the rest of his family on the stage, there were some wonderful intimate moments the emotion of which I hope I have done justice in the images I captured.

Another feed, a change of tops and another backdrop – I set up the studio with a black backdrop and a different lighting configuration, gone were the soft boxes and out with the brollies and a snoot. This section of the shoot followed a similar shooting plan as the first half (oops, yes I usually like to have a plan for a shoot), but the compositions were a little different to make the most of the directional, moody lighting.

Babies, Family, Studio news Cherub, Family, Newborn, photographer, photography, Shoot, Valentine's, Watford

Mum having fun with her sons in the studio

Mum and her sons recently visited the studio. Mum was very organised (as most are!), she came prepared with a couple of maching outfits for her two boys and a favourite toy for each which meant they had a full complement of Planet Protectors. The eldest was about 4 1/2 and the younger about 18months old and as usual at this time of the year they had runny noses! Mum has ordered lots of prints including two larger ones of the shots below to go either side of her mirror in the lounge. They were a fun family to work with and this definitely came through in the portraits!

Toddler

Playful boy

Children, Family, Studio news Berkhamsted, Boys, Mum, photographer, photography

The studio looks at home in the snow

It’s difficult to believe that for the fourth day this week, schools in Berkhamsted are again closed. My wife works in London, but the trains aren’t running very well today and so she is at home. It’s a snow day. The studio is closed. I don’t think that driving around town will be an option.

I’ll head out and take advantage of this unusual weather, there will be some beautiful scenes down by the canal and over in the local woods. I’ll be the person with the blue coat, tripod and the heavy camera! Please feel free to stop me and say hello. I’ll post the results in flickr over the next few days or so.

Out and About

A proud mum to be showing off her pregnant tummy!

Once upon a time, pregnant women covered their bumps in large frumpy maternity clothes but that’s all transformed. Ladies now show their pregnant tummies with pride; even celebrities, concious of their public image, show off their bumps for all to see.  With such changes, maternity or pregnancy portrait shoots have become a popular event for mothers to be.

I’ve put together a maternity / pregnancy portrait page for the website. I hope you will find the information contained useful should you be considering having a pre-birth portrait now or in the future. The page details what you might expect if you were to visit my studio for a shoot, provides some food for thought regarding clothing options and displays some recent examples of pregnancy portraits I’ve produced.

Babies, Maternity/Pre-birth Berkhamsted, Maternity, photographer, photography, Portrait, Pregnancy, Watford

A  young man was in my studio a short time ago for a photo shoot. It was a day or two before his first day at school and he arrived proudly wearing his brand new uniform. His mum wanted a record of him starting school for the first time, his school is a local one here in Berkhamsted.

This young chap was a joy to work with, he really enjoyed posing for the camera, he did want to check the LCD on the back of the camera every few shots though, but that was no trouble. Sessions like this with children are so much fun; this was one of those shoots where everything worked out perfectly and it was over from start to finish in under 45 minutes!

Children, Studio news Berkhamsted, Children, Hemel Hempsted, photographer, photography, Portrait

Today school is closed again and so I’m looking after our eldest son. The studio is still covered in snow, but I’ve made a start at clearing the pathway to it.

Snow around the Studio

This morning we headed out to Ivinghoe Beacon for a walk and some sledging, there were quite a few people doing the same – there’s some great sledging and photography opportunities to be had at that location.

After this mornings energetic outing, William is having a nap (he’s only young). I’m writing this and doing some post processing. I’ve completed a couple of maternity shoots and have around 200 shots to work through. I’ll be posting some of the shots here on the blog in a day or two!

I’ve also got a series of shots from a young man’s photo shoot. It was a day or two before his first day at school and he arrived proudly wearing his brand new uniform. Again, I’ll get something prepared to post on this blog.

Now back to post processing!

Children, Maternity/Pre-birth, Studio news Maternity, School Closed, Snow, Studio

A snowy day here at the studio in Berkhamsted

Overnight there has been 3 or 4 inches of snow! None of the local roads have been gritted and our eldest son’s school is closed for the day. I’ve cleared the path to the studio once already and the snow is starting to cover it again. Just as well I don’t have a busy shooting schedule today.

I’ve been summoned to help build a snowman!

Studio news Berkhamsted, photographer, photography, Snow, Studio