A winter walk

We went for a walk on the Garth today. It was windy but the light was great. Steven even let me take about 4 photos of him!!!

Christmas at the McGiverns

Me and Steven spent Christmas at my parents with my brother Aidan. There's normally more of us, but my brother is travelling at the moment and my sister is volunteering in an orphanage in Thailand.



Its traditional for my family to have a huge fried breakfast on Christmas morning. Here I am cooking the eggs:



Aidan and my mum opening presents:




I got an Ipod - woooohoooooooo!!!



Here is what we listened to - Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins:



And here is what we ate(!) - the McGiverns like their food :) I could almost be that strange guy who eats Christmas dinner everyday. I reckon I could do that for about a month.



Max getting a tummy-rub:



Steven got remote-controlled jousting knights. Here he is putting the batteries in. Its a serious business...



The knights in action:



Aidan after too much food (and wine by the looks of it..)



We went for a walk on boxing day:



Here's where I get my good looks from :)



Max running like the wind:



We won't be here for Christmas next year. We'll be in New Zealand! Hope everyone had a great holiday xx

Rainy days

Well, I've been cancelling photoshoots recently because of all this DARN rain! So I've been at home catching up on lots of design and photo work. But I like to think that there are thousands of faithful blog-readers out there waiting anxiously for me to post on my blog(
...yeah right Sinead..). Here is a photo of me working... reflected in a bauble (very seasonal) and a gratuitous photo of Max. I woke him up from a nap to take this photo, but he doesn't mind because he's so vain.

A few little holiday snaps...

Steven and I went to the Peak District for a week in November. We hired a cottage and mostly just read books in front of the fire, and went for walks when it stopped raining, it was gorgeous! I've been keeping myself very busy at the moment, so having the chance to read was bliss! Plus the scenery was fantastic. Here is where we stayed:



It was gorgous when the sun was out:



Steven driving:



We stayed right next to this little mini train track:







It won't be long until we are off on our adventures again!

Halloween and bonfire night!

Yes! I love this time of year. Here are my favourite images from the last few days. We went to see the fireworks in Coopers field and they were great. The only thing was, the health and safety fence was about 300 metres from the bonfire. Oh well. Here are some fireworks:





After the fireworks Ann had to have a photo with her bike.



And then of course everyone else had to have one too. I'm not sure how happy Rich will be with me putting a photo of him with a girls hat on my blog.. but this looks like a cool bmx gang/band photo so who cares?



Emma is a tree expert. Here she is taking a photo of one on her phone:



Here is my first ever carved pumpkin - doesn't it look sinister!



Mel on Halloween, looking great with her new eyebrows. I think they suit her:



Fun with sparklers:




Yey! Right, I am going on holiday tomorrow and I'm not back until next Sunday. 90% of me is sooooo excited!!!!! I'm off for a week - no work! And its going to be so much fun!
The other 10% of me is quietly calculating 7 days without my laptop.

I'm sure I will have some lovely photos on my return. xx

Max the dog

I took the opportunity of a walk with Max the dog today to try out my portrait & composition skills. Max is a great subject, he's good looking and patient.

Here he is relaxing in some leaves:


Always on the lookout though for stray squirrels and birds:



I think this is a bit of a Lassie shot:



A nice portrait:



Max loves to snuffle in the grass:




Chasing a bird:




What a cutey!



If you want a pet portrait session (!!!) then they cost the same as a human session - £65 and that includes 2 8x10 archival quality prints. I can't guarantee any pet will look as cute as Max does in these pics though...

A walk in the forest

This weekend we went for a walk in the forest by Castle Coch with our friend Emma and Max the dog.

Here we are in the car with Emma (not) gamely joining in the silly face photo. I think I have one of these photos from every road trip I've been on:



The forest:







I wanted a photo of Max looking like a statue:



Some gruesome looking mushrooms: