Friday's 'Photography for Parents' workshop at the Medicine Garden, Cobham

I had my 2nd 'Photography for Parents' workshop of the year on Friday and we had a beautiful sunny day for it and a lovely friendly group! 

I was really touched by this comment from one of the feedback forms:

"Vicki, you made the workshop fun and informative. It is a real skill to be able to condense such a potentially complex topic into half a day. I am amazed that you managed it so well - it seemed an impossible task with all of the different cameras and personalities. Yet Vicki, you did it beautifully. Well done and thank you so much."

Feedback like that just make it all worthwhile! And I've already had emails from some of the group saying that they were practicing over the weekend and can already see a huge difference in the photos they are taking.

I announced a 'Photography for Parents - the next stage' workshop in May on my Facebook business page last week and it's already sold out!  This workshop is for anyone who has previously attended my 'Photography for Parents' or 'Photography for Creative Business Owners' workshops. Please let me know if you are interested in attending this workshop in the future (I will probably be running another one in the autumn) and I'll email you before I announce the date so that you don't miss out. And please like my Facebook page to be one of the first to hear about future workshops and special offers.

And I'm very pleased to say that my new workshop website is nearly ready! It's taken a lot of hard work, but the design is now finished, and I'm writing the content in any spare minute I get. I'm hoping to have it live in March (and now I've said publicly, I have to stick to it!) 

A family photo shoot in Richmond Park

Do you think that the winter is a bad time for a family photo shoot outdoors? Well hopefully this session will change your mind! I really like shooting in the winter, and you already know how much I love spring and autumn shoots. The summer is actually one of my least favourite times to shoot, which you may think sounds a bit strange (especially as I LOVE the summer generally!). The reason is that to get this lovely low light in the summer, you really need to have the shoot at around 7-8am or after 7pm...and having kids myself I know that those times aren't exactly convenient! However, in the spring, autumn and winter, the sun is low in the sky for most of the day, so we can have the shoot during much more sociable hours! 

This shoot took place in Richmond Park at about 10am one December morning.

 

What a gorgeous family they are! I delivered their order to them this week which included a stunning big canvas wrap of the black & white image on the top left. 

The lovely couple are getting married later this year, so we took the opportunity to get some engagement shots of them. 

I hope this shoot has demonstrated to you that it really is possible to get gorgeous images no matter what the season. I think I'm going to send future clients this link if they don't think the winter is a good time for a family shoot outside! 

Headshot session with Rona Wheeldon from Flowerona

I am going to be sharing with you a number of headshot sessions over the next month. I took the decision in April last year only to do headshots in Jan & Feb when the weather isn't as nice for outdoor family shoots. I found a wonderful location for the sessions which is around the lovely Harts Boat Yard Pub between Surbiton & Kingston; it's nice and private with some great backgrounds and light. I had a great morning last Wednesday photographing some very interesting business people; it made a refreshing change from chasing toddlers round parks! 


My first session was with the lovely Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona. Rona is a very inspiring business lady; around a year ago she decided to follow her passion after many years in the corporate world. That passion being flowers. So she started a beautiful blog (designed by those clever guys at Flourish Studios) which has been incredibly successful, and she also now has a regular column in Wedding Flowers magazine. The headshot that she was using was about 4 years old so she thought it was about time to update it!

I am very envious of her glorious curls....makes my straight flat hair look very boring in comparison! Rona wanted the photos without a coat on as her brand is very summery and bright, and she was an absolute trooper doing the whole shoot with just a thin jumper on a cold January morning!


Rona has chosen her favourite images from our session and I can't wait to see them on her blog! 

Three years on... {family photo shoot in Bushy Park}

2011 for me was definitely the year of returning customers! And it was great to see this lovely family again 3 years on. Here they are with their 5 month old girl 3 years ago back in January 2009. 

And now that gorgeous little blue eyed baby is a big sister! Here are some images from our photo shoot in Bushy Park on a rather grey November day.

I had lots of fun chasing them around the park and tickling them with my reflector (the kids not the parents, that would be slightly odd) It was so lovely to see them all again and to meet the new addition to the family!