Ups and Downs and Apple Chutney
It's been quite a year for my family.
I've still been photographing lots of lovely families but the extra things that go with running a business, the social media updates, the blog posts, and all the boring paperwork have very much been neglected.
At the beginning of this year my father-in-law, Adrian, was diagnosed with cancer. Bile duct cancer to be precise, one of the rarest and most aggressive forms of cancer out there. And so began a relentless cycle of doctors appointments, hospital visits, scans and tests in the hopes of delaying the spread of this hideous disease.
Adrian was a private man who suddenly found himself surrounded by doctors prodding, poking, examining and telling him all kinds of medical things that left us all feeling scared and confused. But he always managed to remain positive and often talked about how much he was looking forward to feeling better again so he could tuck into one of my mum's Sunday roasts.
But sadly on the 24th September, a few short months after his diagnosis, Adrian passed away peacefully at Cransley Hospice in Kettering.
Adrian lived in a beautiful house in Northamptonshire surrounded by a stunning garden full of apple trees. Every year Adrian wanted us to take bags full of apples home with us (usually the slightly dodgy looking windfalls - he was a war baby after all) and I have so many lovely memories of playing in that garden with my son Lucas and husband Chris, and picking those apples together.
During this October half term, Lucas and I spent the morning picking apples in the garden and made lots of jars of apple chutney in his grandad's kitchen. For the last few years my mum and I have run a Christmas craft market stall, and this year we're going to give the chutney away in return for donations to Cransley Hospice, which is full of the most caring and understanding staff you could possibly wish for.
Adrian Smith, 1939 - 2015
Cutness Personified
I posted some photos of this cuter than cute newborn a while ago on my Facebook page with the promise that I would put some more on here too, ooops.
Better late than never and hopefully worth waiting for.
This is the baby brother of a little boy who I have photographed three times previously. In fact, one of the photos from his brother's newborn session two years ago has got to be one of my favourite photos that I've ever taken. So, no pressure to deliver on this shoot then :)
Thankfully, his baby brother takes after him on the photogenic, well behaved baby front and we managed to get a lot of absolutely adorable images.
And this little beauty is his big brother. If you click HERE you will see some shots that we did last year including that favourite newborn photograph of mine that I mentioned earlier.
I have now decided that it's impossible to take a bad photo of this family!
Unique School Photography
Following on from my PREVIOUS POST about the exciting project I did for two London schools last year, here are some further images from Goldbeaters Primary School.
This building was very different from The Orion in that it's an older more traditional school, but it was just as photogenic with loads of different places, colours and textures to pose the kids in front of.
I can't say how much I enjoyed photographing these children and relished the opportunity to take school photographs that, as a mum, I would want to have myself.
Newborn Newness - Islington Baby Photography
I love photographing newborn babies. They're so precious, tiny and delicate and only stay like this for a matter of days really. This little one was just 6 days old, but just look at all that hair!
School Photography ... but not as we know it.
Sometimes a job comes along that at first feels a little daunting, but ends up being one of the best things you've ever done. This was one of those jobs.
Last summer I received an email from a school asking if I would consider photographing all of their pupils (650) for a special project they were doing called 'I Am Somebody'. The idea behind the project was to photograph the kids wearing their own clothes and perhaps holding something that they felt represented them. The head teacher spoke to me about how children are bombarded with beautiful and often false images of people in magazines, and he wanted to show his kids that they are beautiful and amazing just the way they are. The photos were to be displayed in an exhibition at the end of term, and then all the parents were to be given the photograph as a gift from the school. Amazing!
The school initially asked me to take the photos in front of a plain backdrop, but this just isn't my style. So, I suggested that I photograph the kids around the school: in their classrooms, outside on the playing fields, in the corridors, anywhere and everywhere around the building that would make each photo feel totally unique. Yes it may take a little longer, but I was convinced that the end result would be worth it.
The school (being very forward thinking and creative, not to mention their recent Outstanding Ofsted report) loved the idea and booked me up, and then asked me to photograph their sister school too. That's over 1000 children (that's where the daunting bit comes in).
And so, over the course of 6 days I photographed each and every child at The Orion Primary School, and Goldbeaters Primary school in Edgware and I have to say, I loved every minute of it.
As I'm sure you remember, we had one of the best summers ever so we were able to get outside for lots of the shots, but I also photographed the children inside in their classrooms, standing on tables, jumping in the air and basically just having a really lovely time. Being a mum, I simply took school photographs that I would love to have myself and I'm now considering offering my style of photography to other schools as an alternative to the standard white backdrop school portrait.
Both schools were very different which gave each one a different 'look' to their images. Orion is brand spanking new with white walls, large open spaces and a minimalistic feel in the classrooms, perfect for a natural light photographer like me! Goldbeaters is the opposite but totally charming and bursting with character. They even had an old fashioned blackboard in one classroom which gave me the idea to get the kids to think of a word that represented them and we'd photograph them standing in front of it written on the board. We did this with the year 6 students and it worked brilliantly.
6 days later and I'd finished the job, over 1000 children had been photographed and all that was left was to get them printed and mounted ready for the exhibitions.
One of the proudest moments I've had as a photographer was walking into the two school halls and seeing hundreds of my photographs all displayed beautifully for the parents and children to see. Watching the children run in and search for their photo, and then seeing their face light up when they'd found it was the best feeling in the world.
(Faces have been obscured due to privacy)
To work with a school who will commission a photographer to produce a project like this and not charge their parents a single penny for the photographs is pretty unheard of, and one that I'd love to see other schools consider doing too. The object was to boost the children's self esteem, to make them feel special and worthwhile and I'm very proud to say, mission accomplished.
So, thank you Orion Primary School and Goldbeaters Primary School for giving me this fantastic opportunity and allowing me to photograph some of the sparkiest, funniest and brightest children I've ever met.
I have since been in to The Orion on a number of occasions to photograph various different events for them and it's been so nice to build this relationship with them. They've now asked me to do this project all over again this year but with a brand new theme and quite frankly I can't wait to get started.
The images on this post are from The Orion Primary School. Photographs from Goldbeaters Primary School can now be seen HERE.
You can see a lot more photos from The Orion HERE.
