48/52

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week"

Sophie: Best friends are awesome!
Henry: This little boy.. what a little sweetheart!

Playing along with Jodi's '52' project

the nursery

I think that some people have a natural talent for taking beautiful photographs. They just seem to pick up a camera and capture an image with the perfect amount of light and at exactly the right angle. Their photographs capture what they see so beautifully.
I, unfortunately, am not one of those people.

So a few months ago I attended 'The Nursery' with photographer Tim Coulson.

I arrived at 10am with my Canon DSLR that I had never taken off the 'automatic' setting. I was feeling pretty nervous (I always am walking into a room full of people that I don't know) but really looking forward to the day ahead.

Tim and Kesh made everyone feel relaxed straight away (they are such lovely people) and as we went around the room and introduced ourselves I realised that most people were in the same boat as me.. they had bought this fancy camera but didn't really know how to use it.

We spent the morning running through the basics of photography, learning how to take the camera off auto and learning a bit about connecting with our subject. After lunch we put our new skills to the test with a little photo shoot outside.

Photography is really an incredible skill to have. Not just as a blogger but as a parent as well and I am so glad I have taken the time to try and learn a little about photography and improve my skills.
I am proud to say that since attending The Nursery I have not taken my camera off manual. Not even once.
Every shot now takes a little more time and sometimes I don't get it right (the photo is almost all white or all black) but I'm slowly learning and I like the fact that I have to think a little more before taking a shot.

Have you attended 'The Nursery'? Do you shoot on 'auto' or 'manual'?

All photos above were taken by me.

stills: a snapshot of my week

I have decided to play along with Em over at The Beetle Shack in her weekly 'stills' collection.
(I only just discovered her gorgeous blog and very glad I did!)

I take so many photos each week as I am still trying to master my DSLR camera, although I am very proud to say that since I attended 'The Nursery' with Tim Coulson a few months ago (more on that another day) I take all my photos on manual (as opposed to just leaving the camera on automatic) which is much more complicated than just switching a button over!

So here are a collection of photos from this week..

1. The rug in front of the couch is surrounded by toys.. most days you can't actually see the rug under all the toys and puzzles! But it's a happy mess.

2. Our dining table is right in the middle of the house. It's where we eat, play, draw and work. It's where I put my bag down when I walk in the door. It's covered in coloured pencil and splatters of last nights spaghetti sauce. It always has a big bowl of fruit in the middle and flowers in a vase.. these ones are picked from our garden!

3. This teapot was given to Tom and I as a wedding present. It says "for life" on the top which I think is nice. Every single morning this teapot gets filled with 2 spoons of loose leaf english breakfast tea and boiling water and two cups of tea get poured a few minutes later. If I make myself a cup and forget about Tom he will say "Are you making divorce tea?" because apparently making tea for yourself and not your husband is behaving like you want a divorce.

4. Poor Henry. I am constantly saying to Sophie "Don't pick him up, please", "Just let him walk on his own", "Be gentle", "He just wants to do this himself.. just let him be!"
Oh it's tough having an adoring big sister!

5. Beetroot bolognese.. It's a winner!

6. When he entertains himself I should take the opportunity to get things done (that pile of dishes, a load of washing) but most of the time I just sit back and watch him adoringly. Sigh.

7. Charlie. The weirdest cat who ever did live.