Day 242 - Candle

I was struggling for a photo today but as always had my camera with me when I was out on Ecclesall Road for a few drinks with friends.
I was chatting to my friend James who was talking about his new teaching timetable which starts in September. He mentioned that he'd been asked to teach photography which was exciting! We were talking about different projects he could get the students to do and so decided to have a play with my camera in the bar. Some of the shots weren't great but I loved this one of the candle!

Day 241 - In Memory of DJ

Today was a very sad day for our family. We should have all been getting together to celebrate DJ's 90th birthday but instead we were gathered together for his funeral. DJ has been a special member of our family for the last 14/15 years. He was widowed at a similar time as Granny and they became great friends and companions. They worked so well together with so many similar interests from the History Society to theatre, going out for dinner, drinking G&Ts and martinis! Granny loves cooking and DJ enjoyed washing up so they were a great combination! DJ looked after Granny and became like another grandfather to us and he will be missed but remembered with much fondness.

Day 240 - Mum's Lace

I traveled over to Ormskirk today for DJ's funeral tomorrow. Mum, Dad and Fiona arrived later in the afternoon. Fiona went off to finish some work that she needed to do and mum sat down and got out her lace! Mum's been making lace for a number of years now and it's always really impressive to see what she creates. This is a fan which she started back in 2006 and has finally finished it. It's a gift for someone in the family and will hopefully become a family heirloom in years to come! What a clever mum I have!

Day 239 - Green Fingers

A few months ago my friend Chris gave me a tomato plant to take home and grow on my balcony. It's not been doing great but I noticed the other day that there are a couple of flowers coming out which can only mean one thing....tomatoes! Here is the first shot of my very own home grown tomato. Quite exciting!

Day 238 - "Why are you making me do this?"

I love this photo!!
Kim, Rafi and I went down to Millhouses Park for tea, cake and a play on the swings. Rafi kept pointing at this merry go round so we took him to have a go. I sat him on the swing and he was strapped in and then I walked away.....if looks could kill!! He was really unimpressed or just very unsure but he didn't complain or ask to come out, he just sat in the seat in stoney silence....very amusing!
He came off the ride asking for more so it can't have been all that bad!

Day 237 - Cool Chic

At last...a sunny Sunday in August! It's my friend Lucy's birthday today so we went for a picnic in Western Park. It was great just to lie in the sun and play frisbee with the kids. Ella took a shine to my sunglasses and asked to wear them. She then posed for the camera! I think she's getting used to Aunty Katy taking photos all the time. She's a cool chic.

Day 236 - Time out

Finally an evening to relax and do nothing!! I've been looking forward to this for a while. Tonight's menu is a long hot bath with a glass of wine and then curl up on the sofa with me book...perfect!

Day 235 - Daisy

Not my usual subject to photograph but today I spent the day out at Staveley Hall Garden Centre. I was asked to spend some time with my friend Jayne teaching her how to use her camera. She has recently set up her own business with her partner which is running from Staveley Hall. She wanted to learn how to use her camera so she can take photos for their website and start to build up a portfolio of the plants that they have to sell.
The garden centre is based at an English Heritage Site and is steeped in a lot of history. Jayne and her partner are keen to preserve the history of the area and develop a great little garden centre. I really enjoyed learning about the area and it was amazing looking round the garden centre and listening to all their plans to develop their business. They have a lot of work to do but it will be amazing when it's done.
If you live in the Sheffield/Chesterfield/Worksop area it's well worth a visit, the more support they get the better it will be. If you're looking for new plants for your garden or a real Christmas tree then Staveley is the place to go!
www.staveley-hall-garden-centre.co.uk

Day 234 - Boarding!

It's August and meant to be our summer but the weather is rubbish and we're not getting much of a summer so I decided to get myself right into winter mode and spent this morning snowboarding!
For a while now I have been wanting to learn how to snowboard and so decided to treat myself to some boarding lessons. I headed back to Xscape in Castleford and spent 3 hours learning how to board leading with the toe and then the heel. I had a brilliant time and picked it up really quickly. By the end of the session the instructor was giving me some pointers on doing some turns and I loved it! I have passed levels 1 & 2 and am booked onto another lesson to pass do 3 & 4 and then I'm allowed to be set loose on the slopes! I can't wait!

Day 233 - Tenderness

This is beautiful baby Erin with her mum Katherine. Erin is the niece of one of my ex teaching colleagues Ali. She bought my "bump to 1st birthday" baby package for her sister when she found out she was pregnant. I took the first photo of Katherine and her husband Mark when Katherine was 8 1/2 months pregnant and today I went round to meet baby Erin and take her first photo. She's 6 weeks old and gorgeous. I'm looking forward to taking more photos of her over the next year. I have such a great job!

Day 232 - Mother & Daughter

On my way back to Sheffield I stopped off in Luton to see my friend Claire and her 4 week old baby daughter Georgina. The plan had been to go to Whipsnade zoo so that I could take some shots of animals for Georgina's nursery. Unfortunately the weather ruined the day again and we ended up catching up over a cup (or few cups in Claire's case) of tea and then going out for lunch. My present to Claire and Stuart was to take some photos of Georgina so I got some lovely shots of her and then a few of her with her Claire. This is one of my favourites.

Day 231 - Girls who lunch

Fiona took the day off work today so that we could spend some time together. The plan had been to go to Brockwell Park Lido in Herne Hill but the weather was rubbish and neither of us were feeling brave enough to go for a swim! We went over to have a look at it just to say we'd been but then went to meet our friend Jenny for lunch instead.

Day 230 - Family

Whilst in London I had planned to catch up with my family who all live really close by. I drove over to my sister's in West Norwood and then we went to Clapham to have lunch with my cousin Michael and his girlfriend Milla. Mum and Dad and Granny then joined us a little later for tea and cake! It was good to have us all together and I think Granny really enjoyed having 3 of her grandchildren in one room.

Day 229 - Charlotte & Perry

My main reason for coming down to London was to photograph Charlotte and Perry's wedding. They are friends of a friend of mine which is how I got the job. They are a lovely couple and I had a brilliant day taking photos for them. They were so easy to photograph and so much fun. Couples like them make my job easy!

Day 227 - Head Shots

One of my jobs in London was to photograph Emily. She is a drama student who wanted to put together a portfolio which she could use to send to agents and casting directors. Her 21st birthday present was to have a photo shoot with me. I went round to her house and she has an amazing garden so there were loads of places we could use for backgrounds. I got some great shots of her and hopefully she'll be really pleased with her portfolio.

Day 226 - Wedding Rehearsal

I drove down to London today as I have a number of jobs down there this weekend. I have a portrait photo shoot on Friday and then a wedding on the Saturday. The drive took me 7 hours!! When I arrived there was literally time to drop off my bags and then head out to the church to see Charlotte and Perry who are getting married on Saturday. It was also a great opportunity for me to see the church and play around with the lighting that I will have on the day.

Day 225 - Ben

A few months ago I took some photos at a local toddler group which was good fun but not necessarily the best thing as far as earning money went. However last week I got a call from a family whose son went to the toddler group. They had recently had a new baby and wanted some photos taking so had immediately thought of me which was brilliant. I went over to their house this morning and got some great photos.

Day 224 - Soggy August!!

Our run of good luck with the sunshine and dry weather ran out this morning! We woke up to the sound of rain on the tent. A sound I usually love, just not on the morning when you know you have to get up and pack up the tent! It was miserable packing away the tent and nothing was dry as we packed things into the car!!

The only bonus about packing away was that we went to treat ourselves with a proper cooked breakfast at an amazing little cafe just next to the station. Packing up in the rain was definitely worth it!

Day 224 - Kinder Scout

This morning we were woken up with the sun streaming into the tent so we saw this as a great start to the day. We planned a walk up onto Kinder Scout and down Jacob's Ladder. It was a brilliant walk, scrambling up rocks, walking alongside waterfalls and looking out over amazing views!
The rain held off until we were 1/2 mile from the end of the walk and the pub. Not bad for this August and we just spent the evening in the pub watching the olympics and drying off..nothing better!

Day 223 - Camping in Edale

Leanne and I decided to spend a couple of days camping in Edale so we had a very quiet day in Sheffield with Nick. We introduced Nick to Millhouse's Park Cafe (amazing cake!) and then after he'd left we drove out to Edale and pitched our tent. It was a lovely afternoon, sunny and dry! We shouldn't be surprised with it being August but this year's summer is pretty rubbish so far. We found a great little campsite which was inbetween 2 pubs..perfect for when the rain showed up!

Day 222 - Friends

My friends Nick and Leanne came up to Sheffield for the night. We went out for a few margaritas and onto another friend's party. A great night..great friends!

Day 221 - Baby Matthew

Today I spent the day out in Hope teaching a client how to use her digital SLR. She was bought a new camera when she had her baby and wanted to spend some time learning how to use it properly so that she could take some great shots of her little boy. It was a really good day and her baby, Matthew, was very tolerant of us as we practiced different shots on him!

Day 220 - Fish n'chips

A few months ago I was set a challenge by my friend Dave that if I could get a good photo of him he'd buy me fish n' chips! I thought it'd be an easy challenge with me being a photographer but Dave is very fussy about what he considers a good photo! I must have done something right though because I finally got my fish n' chips today. We went out to a little village in the peaks called Stoney Middleton where the chippy is the old Toll House. Lovely.

Day 219 - Negative Time

I've finally done it! Got to the end of the day and realised that I'd not taken a photo so I resorted to using the camera on my phone. Hooray for the mobile phone!

I had a play with the negative effect and think I've made my radio alarm clock look a little more interesting!

Day 218 - Working Lunch

I met a business contact of mine today, Rachel, for lunch and a catch up. We're both members of BNI and it was good to meet up and chat about how our businesses are doing.

We decided to be "ladies who lunched" and went out to one of my favourite Tapas bars on Ecclesall Road. One of yet more great things about my job!

Day 217 - Sheffield

Today has been a sad day. I got a phone call to say that DJ had passed away. I had been hoping he'd make it to his 90th birthday at the end of August but his health had been deteriorating for a while and I think he'd just had enough. I'd been to visit Granny and see DJ a few weeks ago so I'm glad I saw him before he died. It doesn't make it any easier though when you loose someone special.

I wasn't really motivated with work today and was glad to get out with my girl friends this evening. We went down to the Showroom to see Mama Mia and it was just what I needed to cheer me up. As I was waiting for the girls I took this photo of the Sheffield Hallam Students' Union, it was originally built to be a centre for music in Sheffield.

Day 216 - Anyone for tennis?

I used to play tennis quite a bit when I was younger and it was something all the family would play together. I remember having lessons in India with Waseem who was one of the Indian wimbledon champions!
A few of my friends have been playing tennis quite a bit recently and I was keen to see how much I'd remembered and quite how bad I'd got! I played with my friend Mark on Friday and then with my friend Dave today. I obviously let them both win because I'm lovely like that!! I also didn't want either of them to be humiliated by being beaten by a girl!
Ok, maybe I need a little more practice! It's good to back into it though.

Day 215 - Demolition

Leanne and I went into Luton before I had to catch my train back to Sheffield. It's an odd town centre..not the most attractive but they seem to be doing a lot of demolition which will hopefully mean an improvement!

I think this building used to be a place where they had offices because I remember going to visit one of my tutor group here when they were on work experience about 5 years ago. This is a definite improvement!

Day 214 - Girls and Cocktails

I went down to Luton for a night out in St Albans for my friend Leanne's birthday. We had a brilliant night out as always. A good night out is always topped off with a few cocktails and St Albans didn't disappoint. (Margaritas, Cosmopolitans, Sea Breeze, Bay Breeze, Mojitios and Long Island Ice teas)...finished off with lots of dancing. When's the next night out?

Day 213 - Indoor BBQ

The plan had been to go to some friends for a BBQ tonight but the great British weather had other ideas! We had a torrential thunder storm which put pay to any idea of a BBQ so the haloumi cheese was griddled on the griddle pan indoors instead!
Don't you just love the British summer?!

Day 212 - Tiffany

I thought I'd taken a photo of a glass of wine in celebration of my friend Leanne's birthday for today's photo but I can't find it! (sorry Lea!)

Fortunately I had taken a photo of my latest Tiffany perfume so this is my photo for July 30th!

When I went to New York a few years ago I wanted to buy something from Tiffany's just to have one of their bags! The only thing I could vaguely afford was their perfume and it's now a favourite. Whenever anyone goes over to New York I ask them to buy me a new bottle. My sister bought me this last one. I'm not a woman with many expensive tastes....just Tiffany perfume, Veuve Cliquot Champagne, Shrimps, cocktails, mercedes sports cars..OK maybe I am! : )