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Hannah and Andrew's Wedding at Kingscote Barn, ...

a dy full of champage at Kingscote Barn

Hannah and Andrew's Wedding at Kingscote Barn, Tetbury
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Tilly: Part 3 of our One Year Package

Our third session photographing baby Tilly. Now she is one!

Tilly: Part 3 of our One Year Package
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Livvy's Christening

Candid photos for Livvy-Mae’s Christening

Livvy's Christening
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Paul's Graduation at the University of ...

Relaxed graduation portraits with his family…

Paul's Graduation at the University of Nottingham
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Sarah & David's wedding at Norton Fields ...
Sarah & David's wedding at Norton Fields Barn, Warwickshire

The Longest Day



Right... today is the longest day of the year, though I'm not sure it counts if is grey and cloudy! Anyway, if you're looking for a way to mark the day you should join in with this month's solargraphy [DEVELOP] Challenge. 

To spur you on we did a two week tester to see if these things really do work. And it did! We don't have a south facing window, but we pointed it as south as we could. It sat there for two fairly grey weeks on our bedroom windowsill in a bizarre arrangement propped up on some novels from Malc's Nanny and held in place with lots of masking tape.

Here's the original, if you're interested. You can actually see quite a bit before you scan and digitally enhance the image. 



We've been chucking these little fellows at anyone we can persuade to take one recently, so hopefully there are lots of people joining in the waiting and wondering game. While you wait why not send us in a snapshot of your little camera wherever it ended up... like this sprite can which is now loving life in Lewisham. 


Don't forget you can read all about the challenge right here.

Tommy & Leo: Christening


Excited to be able to share these photos we took at a christening a little while back. The twins got christened on their first birthday and threw a big party for friends and family. Double the cuteness, double the fun. And a little shout out to Alexa, the boys' very stylish big sister.

The service took place at St Mary of the Angels, Aldridge and then we moved on to Great Barr Golf Club.

the [DEVLOP] Project for June

Solorgraphy examples from Original Hamsters, Boris Pophristov Photography, Atrabiliario. 

 For 2013 we're got a challenge to set you each month, something to get your teeth into to help you [DEVELOP] your photography skills. Some of them might be familiar concepts to you others we hope you'll never even have heard of, but by tackling them we hope you'll try out something you wouldn't have done otherwise. 

 This month's challenge isn't so much using a camera as making one. Solargraphy uses a little DIY pinhole camera to record the line of the sun on a single photograph. June is the perfect time to make a start on this project, because the sun will be at its highest point in the sky on the longest day of the year (21st June), so you'll capture a great shape. You can leave the camera to take its photograph for any length of time between 1 day and 6 months. Half a year sounds like the most exciting option and as a bonus it'll be ready just in time for Christmas!






Our friends Charlie-Rose & Joe joined us to give it a go. Charlie's blogged about it over here. She wrote this about her plans for their Sprite can camera:

As we are fast approaching Midsummer, and therefore the longest day, we've decided that this will be the ideal time to fix the camera into position. Joe and I  have a sheltered garden/courtyard area so we have decided to fix our camera to the trellis on our porch in a hope to produce a photo with the old brick factories underneath and the line of the sun, traced over the course of the next 6 months, above. 
I'll let you know how it goes.

Its really easy, probably the only thing you'd need to buy is photographic paper.


This is the basic idea:
-Find a cylindrical container.
-Pierce a pinhole in one side (if you're using something hard to pierce neatly, cut a larger hole and use tinfoil to seal it, then pierce that)
-Go into dimly lit room.


-Open up the cylinder (use a tin opener) and place a piece of photographic paper inside with the working side facing the centre of the  container. You can cut a template to ensure you get the paper the right size.
-Tape the cylinder back together so that no light can get inside. Make sure you put a small piece of tape over the hole until the camera is secured in place.
-Attach the camera firmly to a stable surface outside pointing south (angle it up if needs be to see the full height of the sun).
-Remove the tape covering the pin hole.
-WAIT
-Reseal the hole and bring inside
-The final step is to scan the paper. No chemicals are needed! In a dim room quickly stick it in your scanner and without a preview scan, scan it at 400 -600 dpi. Use some editing software to invert the image and tweak the colours.

You're done! Stick the picture in a blacked out box to keep it from being destroyed by light. Remember to come back and share your pictures with us! Send us your "in progress" pictures too, so we can see where you put your cameras up.

There are loads of examples and guides online. This one is easy to follow. And this video is thorough, but so simple.
Don't forget, to join in with the project follow along in this Facebook group or use #developproject on instagram and twitter. 

Would you like to know more? We’d love to hear from you.