Filtering by Category: Portraits

Newnham College, Cambridge - Head shots

I had the pleasure of being asked to photograph an amazing group of young women. They are all on a June event committee for Newnham College, Cambridge. They needed some head shots for their launch event and their social media.

Newnham College is an amazing college. It was established in 1871 as a house in which young women could reside while attending lectures in Cambridge, long before they were allowed to become full members of the university with the granting of degrees to women in 1948.

Newnham is beautiful with stunning grounds and buildings. They have bright red bricks and large Victorian sash windows. It was important that the backdrop of the photographs were Newnham, especially as it is where the event is being held. We were lucky to have a dry and bright sunny day for the shoot, but as it was January it was still rather chilly.

All the committee members were asked to wear pastel colours, so there would be a cohesive look to the photographs. When you are working on individual images that need to be a part of a bigger group of photographs a colour theme can really help pull those images together.

I was very pleased with all the photographs. The ladies were so lovely and it was a pleasure to meet them all. I wish them well for their June event and I hope it will be a huge success.

Viva Lewes - The way we work (out) 2020

I had the pleasure of being asked to photograph Februarys Viva Lewes 'Way We Work (out)’ section. The theme was local personal trainers. I got to meet and photograph four lovely, motivated people. That made me feel extremely guilty for my lack of fitness.

I am so pleased with the results and the photographs, they look even better in print. I love that all the photographs have similar colours, so there is a cohesiveness between all of the photographs.

I first photographed Lisa Dickson at the new fitness centre called Body Happy in Lewes town centre. The gym is relatively new and was full of the most up to date equipment to help you get fit or retain your fitness.
I then photographed Katie Weir who runs Lewesfit and is also a weight loss coach. She runs her business out of The Southdown Club. She has such a positive attitude and I could imagine her being a great help to someone who needs motivation to get healthy and active.
Then I photographed Gyles Abbott who runs Soulfit. He’s a personal trainer, but Soulfit also offers yoga, boxfit and other fitness classes, as well as having a healthy eating cafe.
Finally I photographed Nick Williams from That Coach Nick. His story is very interesting. A few years ago he found himself in hospital finding out he was diabetic. He turned his life around and is now helping others to do the same whilst training to participation in an Ironman.

It was lovely to meet these amazing inspirational people, I felt healthier and fitter just being around them.

Portrait of a family

I recently photographed a family of 16! They had won a £75 photo shoot, that we had donated to a charity raffle. It was such a lovely shoot, as half of the family were living in Australia and this was an opportunity to have a big family photograph taken with everyone in it. 
It was at one the the family members homes and they made me feel so very welcome, even if at times it was difficult to try to get everyone in the photo. I haven’t taken portraits at someones home before, as I usually prefer to be outside, you don’t have to worry about floor lamps and plug sockets getting in the way of your photograph.

It really did feel as if I was doing something very special (especially for the Grandparents), even one of the Grandma's thanked me for giving her such a precious gift, and said how kind we were to donate something so special. That's why I love photography, it's a way of preserving those magical moments that will be with loved ones forever.



Forever Autumn

I was very fortunate in November to photograph these lovely sisters and their families. I had photographed one of the families before and I always have the most fun with them. This shoot was to be the same jolly, happy, easy going and, as always, with fabulous outfit changes.

The photographs took place at the local Priory ruins in Lewes, (my favourite place). The seasons really change the place. There are so many colours the orange, red and yellow leaves contrasting against the gorgeous greys and whites of the flint and stones and so many textures in the ruined buildings. It is particularly beautiful in Autumn, there are so many different colour leaves, it is just stunning. We were fortunate to have had dry weather, so the children could sit on leaves without any fear of getting wet. A couple of days after the weather turned very windy so most of the leaves had blown off the branches.

I constantly wonder if I did the right thing by leaving my secure office job to follow this path, being self employed is difficult, especially if you’re like me a, ‘Cautious Carol’ that never that never leaves my comfort zone, but when I have experiences like this shoot and I create such beautiful photographs, that my clients love, it makes me very happy and pleased I made the scary move.

Santa's little helper

As I don’t have a studio I am unable to offer those kind of photographs, but I really wanted to take some Christmassy photographs of Hudson, my great-nephew. So thanks to a white bed sheet and some fairy lights on my bed we managed to take these. Hudson was an absolute star, He had an occasional moan but could be calmed with dummy breaks. My niece had bought his little outfits from local shops and I got some of my Christmas decorations out the loft. We hadn’t planned to put him in the Santa sack, we tried to put him in a Christmas stocking but he was too big, so we got him in the sack and filled it with Christmas toys. It was just magical, as he then fell asleep in there. It was a truly fun afternoon and I can’t help but laugh and smile at the photographs that we got. One of my favourites is him with my niece and he looks like he’s just about had enough of having his photo taken…enough Auntie Becky.