Merry Christmas!

Good Afternoon Folks

I just wanted to wish all the readers of my blog a very merry Christmas and thank you so much for popping here to have a read of what I have been up to this year.  I hope you are all planning some time off to spend with family and friends.

This is the time of year to eat, drink and be merry!

Have a wonderful time and

It's Christmaaaaaaaaasssssss... in the great words of Slade!!!  

If anyone is reading from abroad they were a band in the 1970's that produced 

amongst other things quite an iconic Christmas song, so love it or hate it, it is here to stay.

I am posting a lovely wintry scene to get you all in a festive mood and I think that is the only snow I will be seeing over the festive period.

Claire )

If you would like to see more of my work pop along to my website Woodland Hill Photography

Wakehurst Place Ardingly West Sussex Photographers - Kew at the Movies

Good Afternoon Folks,

I had a real treat recently when we went to Wakehurst Place to see The Kings Speech.  I have never seen a film outside before and it was really good.

We arrived just before dusk and Wakehurst takes on another magical beauty at this hour; people were already here with their picnics and drinkies.  There were plenty of places to buy yummy things too so everything had been thought about.  Free popcorn and coffee was provided, which I thought was a lovely touch then as the skies darkened the anticipation rose and then we were off!

I was a very pleasant evening; the picture and sound quality was superb so if they are holding another one definitely pop along as it was great fun.

Hope your week is going well and I have another Salomons wedding to show you soon.

Claire
 If you would lke to see more of my work pop along to my website Woodland Hill Photography

A day off in Rye, East Sussex

Good Morning,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend; as promised I thought I would post something personal today. Last week I had a really lovely day off and we decided to pop over to the ancient town of Rye in East Sussex. This area is very familiar to me as I spent all my childhood holidays in and around the Rye area, and I have so many fond memories of some wonderful family times here.

We visited a spice warehouse just along the harbour road; when you arrive and park, the pungent aroma of the many herbs and spices just tickle your nose buds continually. They have a brilliant array on offer with very competitive pricing so a few purchases were made! They are a family company and so nice too, so if you are ever in the area pop in and have a smell!

We then had a lovely lunch and this stained glass window caught my eye. I also found another location for my secret project and visited a venue that is coming up for a wedding in May. All in all a very good time was had by all.

I had a very pleasant day in the studio on Saturday followed by two wedding fayres on Sunday. I attended The Spa Hotel in Tunbridge Wells and my fantastic assistant Lorraine attended Lansdowne Place Hotel in Hove. Both these venues are lovely so if you are getting married be sure to check them out.

The images today show one of the cobbled streets for which Rye is so famous, a stained glass window from the restaurant and a memento of our visit to the spice company.

Enjoy your week although not sure I am liking the cold but having read the latest newsletter from our 'rent a cherry tree' they say we need a few more chill hours. I think I am happy to suffer it if it means lots of cherries in July!

Claire

No10 Bridal Launch Party

Good Afternoon Folks,

Well here we are at the end of another week and I have loved being able to smell the freshly cut grass.

On Wednesday I attended the No10 launch party with the amazing Emma Tindley. The boutique is arranged over three floors and is beautifully presented. We walked into the ground floor reception area to be greeted with pink champagne and it was then up to the middle floor to see the dresses on show. No 10 are the latest stockists of Emma's collection and it was really good to see them in their new environment. No10 had showcased one of Emma's blush pink designs too.

The third floor was amazing; it had a candy bar! Oh dear what a thing to put in front of me! Apart from being a mecca for sweet lovers on the night, the third floor is dedicated to the bride. It is her area to try on dresses with sumptuous furnishings for her guests to sit on whilst they wait for the grand unveiling.

There were beautiful canapes on offer, lots of wonderful champagne but it that wasn't enough we were all given a goody bag and a posy of flowers beautifully arranged by Evelyn Cole Flowers.

I had a lovely chat with the most wonderful fudge maker and you really must give her fudge a try, it is sublime. Liz, you are really talented so pop along and see her website Mummy makes Fudge.

I am still eating sweeties and marvelling at the goodies we were given; how lucky am I.

So this weekend sees me at both The Spa Hotel Wedding Fayre and Lansdowne Place Wedding Fayre. I will be on the stand at The Spa and my lovely assistant Lorraine will be at Lansdowne Place. Both are amazing venues and if you want a wedding in beautiful surroundings you cannot go wrong with these venues that have fantastic coordinators; Ula at The Spa and Jo at the Lansdowne. I love popping in to Brighton to have a Choccywoccydodah with Jo from Elegant Stationery and Jo from the Lansdowne....yummy :)

Have a great weekend all.

Claire

Happy New Year! - West Sussex Photography

Good Morning,

Welcome to 2012 and Happy New Year to you all. January is often considered a rather depressing month; we have enjoyed the festive season and it seems ages until we can look forward to long warm days with blue skies. Looking out the window this morning January is certainly living up to its expectations.

With that in mind I thought I would post some imagery to cheer us all up a bit. I received a Christmas gift in 2008 of a cherry tree that is part of an orchard called Rent a Cherry; I absolutely loved it, as soon as I opened the envelope I was instantly taken back to summer and the promise it held, so it was a gift that had so much to offer from the moment I opened it until that first succulent cherry. I loved it so much I have renewed each year since.

Today's imagery will take us back to April, May and July. We visit our tree during blossom time (we were lucky enough to see some of the cherries setting last year) and again in July to pick the wonderful fruit. The first image shows the beautiful blossom, the second shows the fruit beginning to form and the third shows the delicious cherries ready for picking and eating.

I hope it cheers you up a bit on this dreary day and it will not be too long before I am back to Northiam to watch our lovely tree in blossom again.

Enjoy your week folks,

Claire

Last Order Dates: West Sussex Photographer

Good Morning Everyone,

I thought I would keep the festive theme going and post an alternative view of my Christmas tree. As you can see I am not known to hold back on the decs! This week is the last week that orders can be made to ensure they arrive in time for Christmas; so things are a little hectic chez Woodland Hill!

The majority of the sessions are for Christmas surprises and I will not be blogging anything from these until January so as not to ruin things. There is all sorts of subterfuge going on at the moment and I love it :) I also have some nice blog posts planned for January that will cheer up what can be quite a dreary month.

I am starting to feel a wonderful atmosphere now as everyone is planning their Christmas with loved ones. I love getting together with my family to make new memories and reminisce over our childhood Christmases, which are dear to my heart. We had huge Christmases as a child and I loved them; I think my Mother, Nan and Aunts were such troopers to make everything so special and memorable. There are so many stories to be told and it is great telling my cousins who are not so little now the antics that my Brother and my Cousins got up to when we were younger; often met with a few glares from the elders...ahh happy days! For those of you who know me would probably not be surprised to know that antics were involved somewhere; and for my poor parents it was double trouble with my Brother and me :)

If you are having your Christmas party this week have a great time and enjoy singing along to all those Christmas classics.

Claire

Paul G Smith Installation Luncheon - The London Guild of Toastamsters

Good Morning,

Yesterday we attended the installation luncheon for the London Guild of Toastmasters. Paul G Smith who I think is the best Toastmaster ever is now the President of the London Guild of Toastmasters, and it was a real honour to be present as he was installed in his new position.

We had an amazing lunch at the Kingswood Golf and Country Club and it was lovely to see everything looking so festive. After the lunch there were some very good speeches; and of course they would be. I did feel very sorry for the Toastmaster who is now the vice president having to be the official Toastmaster at an event of Toastmasters; now that's pressure!

There was an excellent raffle and all proceeds went to Hounds for Heros, which is a very worthy cause, some of the stories told brought tears to my eyes. Over £1,000.00 was raised in total and I won a spa day for two at Alexander House, how fabulous!

The day did not end there as it was rounded off with some carol singing, I had to cajole but I managed to get our table to animate the 12 days of Christmas. They were unsure but where we lead others merely followed and not before long the whole room was involved; so I consider that one a personal success.

I have also had a honour bestowed upon me as I will be photographing Paul in his official uniform with the President's chain. Looking forward to it too.

Thank you all for a fantastic afternoon and here's to a successful Presidency Paul.

Claire

Molly: West Sussex Portrait Photographer

Good Morning,

My gorgeous Cousin Molly and I recently had a 'play' session in the studio. It was a fairly dreary Monday morning and we fancied taking some images and just seeing what I could come up with. As a result of the session some very interesting images were taken that I am now going to perfect. This has reinforced my belief in just experimenting and playing in a stress free environment; it is often the time when new ideas are born. I had a good old chat with my Mentor Kevin about it and I will be back in the studio to expand on the idea and play with the light.

So the image I am posting of Molly today is not one of the prototypes but a classical portrait, which I love to bits, showing Molly as the beautiful young woman that she is. It seems like only 5 minutes since I was carrying her around as a baby and she believed our car had a magic roof!

Claire

Rememberance Sunday at Horse Guards Parade, London

Good Morning,

I was exhibiting with Emma Tindley at The Institute of Directors at 116 Pall Mall on Sunday; it was a stone's throw from Horse Guards Parade and Emma and I had the great privilege to be able to witness the gun salute with the two minute silence.

I was moving to see soldiers both young and old coming together to remember those that have fallen and to give thanks to the great sacrifice they made for future generations. Both my Grandfathers served in the First World War; luckily they survived but so, so many did not and have not since. My Uncle was a Paratrooper in the Second World War, again he was lucky enough to survive but when he used to recount the experience of jumping from the plane whilst being shot at by the enemy; one can only be amazed he made it through.

Today these experiences are usually in the form of games on the Wii and Xbox, but so many young men had to experience the reality and still do today, we must give thanks to those who fought and continue to fight for us.

I am attaching the video showing the two minute silence on Sunday; the guns were extremely loud, so much so they set car alarms off and that small scream you can hear is Emma as we both jumped out of our skins! The other image is of Horse Guards Parade with the London Eye in the background. I only had my trusty iphone with me on Sunday so images and video are from that today!

Isle of Wight

Good Morning,

The Equinox occurred on 21st September with 12 hours daylight and 12 hours darkness, so now starts the turn from longer days to longer nights. I love the seasons and each one has its beauty and I think as photographers we are very lucky to have such a varied climate; despite the constant complaining about the weather!

Today I am including some personal imagery that takes us back to the heady days of summer. We were lucky enough to enjoy a couple of days in the Isle of Wight in July. I had a wedding the previous day and before I could 'clock' off I had to ensure the images were backed up and another set off site. It was only a couple of days; it was so relaxing it felt like a week. We stayed with some lovely friends who took us to this little restaurant tucked away in the rocks that served just lobster and prawns. It is extremely popular on the island and just simple and lovely. On the way out I saw this door and loved it, I had visions of 'Under Milk Wood' and 'Doc Martin' of all things! To me this image summed up the ethos of the restaurant.

That evening we were talking in their lounge, which has big velux windows giving the most beautiful unsullied view of the sky. I spent quite a while gazing at the moon and watching the various cloud formations pass through, so I thought I would pop one on here for you to see.

Thank you Cay, Phillip and Amy for a really relaxing couple of days and yes this is the first chance I have had to look at the images properly!

Enjoy the weekend and I think we will be seeing some autumn colours starting to appear soon.

Claire

Julia Margaret Cameron

Good Morning,

A slightly different blog post today! Recently I went to an exhibition of Julia Margaret Cameron's work (1815-1879), she was a late blooming photographer who really experimented with portraiture. She was not afraid to close crop, blur and smudge her images, these methods so commonplace today were pioneering in her time. She was never afraid to use cracked negatives to create a new and interesting effect; and she was much derided by her fellow photographers.

I was wandering around the exhibition and could scarcely believe that some of these prints were 150 years old. She managed to capture a contemporary yet timeless element to her subjects that stand well with the imagery of today.

I did feel a little sad that photography and the art of taking an image seems to have become very devalued over the last decade and where are the prints that will be viewed in another 150 years; I truly hope they will not be lost in the digital mire. There are so many wonderful cameras on the market and in the right hands can really open up new and exciting opportunities for the photographers of today. On the flip side this new technology is giving rise to a fallacy that the camera will 'work' everything out and the operator will always get a good image. Alas this is not so, seeing light, creating light, composition, storytelling, instructing the camera and not letting it instruct you are the things that separate the a photographer from an operator who has bought a lovely camera.

All this from one exhibition, very profound; and I am sure she would be very pleased to think that generations later she is still having an effect on the photographers of today. I now know why I get so excited when I receive my albums and wall art back from the manufacturers, these images are here to stay for generation, upon generation of that person's family to look, touch and feel the emotion that was captured by the photographer and immortalised as a moment in time.

Have a great day everyone!

Claire

Playdays in Sussex!

I recently had a what I would call a 'play day' with fellow photographer Lisa Beaney and we went to a most stunning vintage location for a shoot. Lisa's daughter Holly kindly agreed to model for us and I am attaching a few images of the day.

It is always good to set aside time to explore and experiment with our photography and having a fellow photographer to mull over ideas with definitely makes for a really rewarding day.

We have so many stunning locations in the South East and I cannot wait to search out some more to see what I can come up with!

I hope you enjoy these tasters and thank you Holly for for infinite patience.

Claire

October - Project i phone

I love the cameras that I use for my professional photography and I am a Nikon D700 full frame user. My cameras are brilliant in low light and they are wonderful pieces of kit and enable me to become even more creative in low light. I recently had a few days off and was going to take one of my Nikons with me; but then a thought struck me; what would happen if I was stripped of everything and went right back to basics, how would my training and skill set cope? It was then that I set myself a challenge, and for me stretching myself photographically really helps me to continue to find new ideas and ways of taking an image. So for this challenge I took it back about as far as back to basics would go; the gear I took was an i phone, an app, a pair of sunglasses and a bonus thrown in by the hire car company…tinted windows!

Once I laid down the gauntlet to myself I wondered how the whole thing would go, but I really enjoyed the challenge and yes the kit had real limitations but I enjoyed finding ways to overcome them to achieve the results I had in my head. I call this project i phone and when I look at the images it made me think that a great camera is only as great as its owner, but a basic camera can be great because of its owner; and just owning the biggest and best camera in the world will not guarantee wonderful images. It is the skill of the photographer combined with great equipment that really makes for the best team.

I loved doing project i phone, for me it was very stretching and thought provoking. It has made me appreciate my lovely cameras and equipment even more but at the same time I see my little i phone in a different light now because in the right hands it too can achieve lovely images albeit a little restricted!

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL PROJECT I PHONE SLIDESHOW

July

Welcome to July! It has been a really busy June for me and I still have a few things to put on my blog, so hopefully you will see these popping up during the course of the month. I had an extremely interesting day at the MPA South East Region seminar and regional awards yesterday. Desi Fontaine gave a wonderful talk on her work and career. She also explained in more detail the judging process for the competitions, which for me was very interesting.

I have only just joined the MPA and I am currently preparing for my DiP PP and Licentiate with them. Only qualified members of the association are permitted to enter competitions, so I had the wonderful opportunity to assist Desi and Claire Louise with the admin during the judging process. For me this was an absolute honour and a wonderful insight into the whole process; and at the same time to see such a vast array of brilliant photography. I kept saying to myself how lucky am I!!

I am raring to go this morning!!

Enjoy July and let's hope the glorious weather continues.

Claire

June - Off Camera Flash Day!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE DVD SLIDESHOW

Had an off-camera flash day today and here are a couple of the results. I have loads to go through and will make a DVD slideshow later but all in all I am loving the drama of it all!!

May - Bluebells at Wakehurst Place

I visited Wakehurst Place yesterday and the Blubells were just magnificent. The weather was a bit hit and miss though! The Millenium Seed Bank was very informative and the work they do there is amazing.

Here is an alternative view of Bluebells and I will post some more conventional ones later.

March - Birling Gap

Went to the Birling Gap to view a wedding venue today, managed to capture this image of my Mum on the beach.

February - Helping Mum and Dad

I was helping my parents yesterday and managed to grab a few minutes to photograph the swans and this little field mouse who is hibernating in my Father's shed. Aww, isn't he sweet.