Aoife at Christmas!

Aoife is Susan and Mark's daughter (Susan is my cousin). I last photographed her when she was about 8 months old (I think...!). Susan, Mark and Aoife are heading over to Ireland for Christmas and stopped in Cardiff on their way over. We hung out for the evening and I followed Aoife on her travels around my parent's house. She made friends with Max, played with some Christmas decorations, got on the exercise bike and spent some time on the phone. Huh, its a hard life being 2 years old...





Hello? Can I help you?



Sharon will recognise this!



I thought I would put these together in a little storyboard. So cute!!:





Aoife found santa so we decided to do some Christmassy shots with him:



Until she wanted to undress him. It seems nothing is sacred...





Aoife was determined for Max to obey her and come to her when she demanded. He had other ideas.


Okay, I did sit Aoife down in front of the tree with santa.. but I promise I didn't tell her to kiss him!! It seems Aoife has one eye on sweets, toys and having fun... and one cynical eye on the commercial Christmas card market - one savvy 2 year old.



She is so gorgeous I want to take her home too. I'll have to kidnap Aoife along with Natasha and James, put them in a cupboard and then bring them out for my Christmas parties! Hm, that sounded a bit sinister - I mean it in the nicest way of course... :)

Two Sisters, Kim and Sam

Kim and Sam wanted some portraits that they could give to parents and grandparents for Christmas. They have a big garden with a great view but it was soooo cold that we only managed a few outdoor shots before we had to run inside again! We mostly did studio style shots with different backdrops. Kim and Sam are good friends and very patient models!





Kim is the oldest:



And Sam is 2 years younger:





Once we had lots of grandparent-suitable images, we did some more styley ones too:









The family have 2 border collies (lush!) who were keen to be in the photos too, although I don't think they realised how tiring modelling can be:



Okay, I have to post all of the following images because we managed to get 2 smiling humans and 2 smiling (read 'alert') dogs at the same time, success!!









Thanks for putting up with the cold guys! Hello to the dogs, see you soon.x

Portraits of Chetna

Of course now that I'm a superstar photographer I get to photograph gorgeous model types like Chetna! These are Christmas portraits really as a special surprise gift for her Dad and other family types. Its finally stopped raining so we got some great outdoor winter sun shots too.

Wowee, isn't she gorgeous?



Look at those eyes!







We did loads of different poses, styles and backdrops, and Chetna was such a trooper - she could definitely be a professional model.



The winter sun was so strong but it makes for great back-lighting! This is at Penarth Pier by the way...










I think winter light is so dramatic, I might prefer it to summer light, especially in the morning when there's lots of mist. If you're commenting, let me know which shot you like the best, I'd love to know!

Has anyone else not bought any Christmas presents yet.....? whoops...

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!

Natasha and James - Engagement Session!

Phew, I haven't posted for a while, bad me. I was on holiday and then I was sick (excuses, excuses!). Anyway, here is a post that will cheer everyone up. Natasha and James are THE cutest couple I've ever met! They are so lush - I want to bottle them and take them home with me. They are getting married in September next year and I'm unable to shoot the wedding because we'll be away (...darn! - its going to be a really cool wedding too) so we decided to do an engagement session instead. I just realised that I've chosen lots of kissing photos for the blog, but thats okay, because the idea of the engagement session is that I capture Natasha and James being in love together. This was done in London by the way.

Here they are!




I used to work with Natasha so I know that she is always this smiley - I imagine her and James are like this all the time! Lush.



Look at the fabulous shoes!!











This is so romantic in a kind of gritty urban way don't you think?





How sexy is this?



Okay, just to set the scene here - it was about 5pm on a cold, windy, rainy Saturday in November, and Natasha and James are each wearing a cocktail dress and a thin shirt, standing in the middle of the traffic on tower bridge being stared at by tourists and photographed about 15 times to get the shot right (we did non-kissing shots too). I feel like I should be paying THEM! Wowee!



This is such a good idea. We did a few different versions of this shot so that they can choose one to send on a card to friends and family about the wedding next year.



Ah, more romance - this is where they had their first date!



The ring - I didn't even comment on it on the day, but looking at it in the photos I love it!! So unusual and really stunning.



Okay, last one I promise!



I'll have your gallery up in a couple of days guys. Thank you so much for being such good sports. Natasha, if you have a cold now after all that exposure I'm sorry - it was worth it though wasn't it? speak soon xxx