Day 211 - Sunflowers

Something to brighten up my day today. I was given these by a friend who felt that after the last couple of weeks I needed something to cheer me up. Perfect!

Day 210 - Skiing

I gave myself a day off today and went up to Castleford to Xscape with some of my BNI contacts. We'd decided that we needed to have a social and a few of us were keen to go skiing. 15 of us spent a few hours in our salopettes, gloves and thermals whilst the sun was beating down outside! It was brilliant and just the kind of thing I needed to do. After a coffee a few of us decided to have a go at the high wire assault course! I was fine until the guy told me to throw myself off the ledge and jump out to the first platform! I made the big mistake of looking down and realising quite how far up I was! Once I was off it was OK, scary, but I'm really glad we did it. I spent the rest of the day lying in the sun on the balcony. A perfect day off!

Day 209 - Cheeky

I am starting to get quite a number of family portrait bookings which is great. I had a sitting with a family (a 10 month old, 2 4 year olds and a 10 year old) up in Castleford. It was a really hot afternoon so not the best for taking kids into the garden but we found some shade and let the kids play whilst I took photos. I took some bubbles with me which the kids loved and I got a few good photos of them playing. I loved this photo of the 2 cousins, they were a cheeky pair and were coming up with all sorts of photos I could take of them together....my own little assistants. To keep them interested for a little longer I let them help me take photos of their dolls which worked a treat!

The shoot lasted for about 25 minutes before they all started to get fed up and the idea of eating an ice cream was a much better option than having their photo taken!

Day 208 - Jennie

I had another wedding today. This was booked about a year ago when I was first thinking about leaving teaching to start my own photography business. The bride, Jennie, is one of the teachers from the school where I used to teach and it was great to be able to take the photos for her. She was brilliant to photograph and I'm really pleased with the photos I took. I can't wait to put them in an album for her and Adam. I'm definitely starting to enjoy photographing weddings. It's an exhausting day but I can't compare a day photographing a wedding where everyone is having a good time to a day teaching teenagers! I don't regret my career change in the slightest!

Day 207 - Thank Crunchie...

...it's Friday!

OK this photo is an excuse to:
1. Buy chocolate and eat it!
2. Play with my macro lens again!

Even though it is Friday I'm actually working all weekend doing a wedding tomorrow and then doing two portrait sessions on Sunday. It's been good to get out for a drink tonight before the manic weekend begins!

Day 206 - Macro

I bought myself a new toy/lens today. I had been thinking about buying a macro lens after seeing it being used by many other photographers for portraits with excellent results. I'm shooting a wedding on Saturday so am looking forward to using it then.

I decided to have a play with it this evening...I think we're going to get on just fine!

Day 205 - Devonshire Green

For the second year in a row summer is struggling to arrive in the UK so it was great to have a sunny evening today. I went down into town to meet a friend who wanted to pick my brain about photography. He offered to buy me dinner in exchange for my wealth of knowledge! I'm easily persuaded so we met in Devonshire Green and enjoyed the sunshine with everyone else before eating pie and peas...true yorkshire food.

This photo is taken in the newly developed Devonshire Green area which was being made the most of by loads of people. The Forum has deckchairs set out and people were chilling out and enjoying the evening sunshine...just as it should be.