Introducing Little J

Life has been pretty busy for my alter-ego the PhD student and earlier this year I was sick, so this shoot was later than it should have been. Little J was born just after Christmas, he was a teeny, tiny little baby. So sweet and quiet. I know Cas was once smaller, but knowing and believing are two very different things!

So, finally a few weeks ago, we managed to arrange an afternoon for the shoot. You may remember this little sweetheart from just over a year ago, well she's much bigger now!

And she LOVES her new baby brother!

I love this family so much. There is so much love here it's almost tangible. These are parents who truly idolise their children. They know how precious they are and hold them tightly. But there's lots of fun here too. I'm proud to know this family. Proud to be able to call them my friends. And most of all grateful that they allowed me to capture these moments for them.

I hope you like the post guys! Can't wait to give you the rest of the pictures. 

C
xxx

Earth Hour 2013

Some of you may already know that last night was Earth Hour night. For those unfamiliar with Earth Hour, it is an environmental initiative that asks people to shut off lights and other electrical items for one hour, on the same day each year. The idea is to turn off all the lights in every town/city in the world; for one hour the world will go dark. In our house we have observed Earth Hour for a few years now, filling the time chatting and telling silly stories. This year Cas wanted to play Lego boardgames. So we got out the candles and settled down to play. The light was so lovely, and the moment with my boys so precious that I wanted to document it. I grabbed my camera and took a few shots. These pictures for me represent the sanctuary that my little family gives me, and how precious our time together is. They represent us, bare, stripped down without the distractions of technology, enjoying each other's company.

I really enjoyed our quiet time last night. But it's back to the grind-stone for me, I've a million things to do, not least of which is finish the editing from my recent baby shoot.

C

xxx

Gloucester

A few weeks ago Gary and I visited Gloucester. We went to an Open-day for a Masters course that Gary was interested in. It turned out that the course wasn't right for him, but that's OK, he found another one closer to home anyway! :)

We spent two days and one night staying in the centre of Gloucester. It was lovely to have some time for just us. We got to talk about grown up things and do grown up things. Though Cas was on our minds a lot and we brought treats home for him. 

I took some pictures on the Sunday around Gloucester, the sky was beautifully clear blue. The histogram on my camera told me all was exposed well and I was happy. Then when I got home and loaded the images on my PC.....THE HORROR.... my sensor is DIRTY. The non-photographers amongst you will not understand this pain, but basically those beautiful clear blue skies were covered with dirty splodges from dust on my sensor. I saved the images and left them, whilst I sulked!

Anyway, I decided to stop sulking and do the editing work to remove the marks. I HATE photoshop with a passion. I use Lightroom to process my images, and love it. But photoshop always makes me feel clumsy and doesn't seem intuitive at all. So I avoid it. If images really need a little touch-up that Lightroom can't handle, I outsource (to Gary). However, cleaning these images was a simple job, and I wanted to share them, because Gloucester is a pretty place. So I braved photoshop (aren't you proud of me?!)

This first picture is the Cafe where we had breakfast. I loved it, especially because it had the most delicious tea!

 These docks where on the way between our hotel and the centre of Gloucester's shopping area. There were some pretty boats, and like I said, gorgeous blue skies.

This church was right in the middle of town:

And then, of course, there was the Cathedral. It was gorgeous, and undergoing some renovation to the stonework. 

We had a lovely time. And it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be tidying up those skies. My camera is off to the "cleaners" at the end of month! 

C

xxxx

The "L" challenge

So, this week I've been off work ill. I've been completely incapable of doing anything, which for me is torture (and probably for those around me too). I HATE not being able to do things. I get restless, bored and frustrated. Earlier in the week, I was complaing explaining to Gary that I was upset because I hadn't managed to do ANYTHING! Knowing me as well as he does, he quickly translated this into me exacerbating my illness by stressing about all the things I wasn't getting done. He very FIRMLY told me that I was banned from anything to do with my PhD, to take the responsibility for the lack of work off me. (He's really clever with this one, he knows I'm way tougher on me than I would be on him, so if he says I can't, then I can't). In order to keep me occupied, he challenged me to take pictures of 10 things beginning with the letter L. However, since I couldn't go out, I had to do this in our house.

I couldn't even manage to take the pictures earlier in the week, but I did spend some time thinking about what I could shoot. Today, I felt a little better, so I set off to complete the challenge:

1) Leaf-lights:

2) Liquid:

3) Lock:

4) Lego (obvious choice in our house):

5) Laces:

6) Lemur:

7) Lion: 

 8) Lambs: 

9) Lamp:

10) Lead:

After all of the shooting, I went back to the living room where our lovely dog demonstrated his NEED for cuddles. So bonus shot:

11) Luke (could you resist those eyes?):

This was actually quite fun, it wasn't too demanding, and once I'd taken the shots there was some minimal processing which engaged my brain again. However, it has left me really tired (how lame is that?! I HATE being ill! Did I mention that before?) so I'm off to veg on the sofa and cuddle my dog. 

C

xx

A Little help

This post is a little different to my usual posts. I'm not sharing pictures, I'm going to share a story, and ask you all for a little help.

The story starts just over 11 years ago, when my son was born. Cas was born early, 7 1/2 weeks early to be exact. He was a tiny little thing, weighing 4 lb 5 oz and 18 inches long. He spent three weeks in neo-natal intensive care. He was on a monitor, and regularly forgot to breathe. Premie's brains aren't fully developed, and since they're not supposed to be breathing yet, they need to be stimulated. Cas was given a daily dose of caffeine. He was pretty healthy for a premie, but let me tell you, watching your child stop breathing, waiting for them to start again. Hearing the alarms, and still having to wait (the nurses wanted us to leave him, because premies often start breathing again on their own). Holding your tiny baby in your arms, and willing him to breathe: IT DOESN'T GET SCARIER THAN THAT.

Cas had very few complications, he had a little jaundice, and was small. But he was mostly healthy, and he was a fighter. We brought him home a few weeks after he was born. When we got home he was just 5lbs. He was still tiny, but he was jaundice free, and healthy.

This story is one of many. While Cas was in the hospital, there were many others in his situation and many that were sicker than him. Friends and family have since had experiences of babies needing extra help, which is what brought home to me how much I want to do what I'm about to ask for your help with.

A few years ago, after buying my camera, I came across this website. At the time I thought my photography skills were not up to scratch. But this last year, I have been mulling over the idea more and more. As a parent who has been in NICU (or SCBU) I know how hard it can be. But I also know how many special and treasured moments there are there. The first time you hold your baby, the first time they look in your eyes. I have snapshots of Cas's first few weeks of life, and I treasure those photos. Though the situation was painful, and still is sometimes when I think about it. That is the story of my son's start to life, and those pictures document it.

So, here's what I want to do. I want to offer a service, pretty much like the Pictures of Hope Foundation do. A photography service that offers a free photo-shoot and a CD with images to ANY parent who has a child in the Special Care Baby Unit (or neo-natal intensive care). I want to help those families document those first days of their premies life, or those families whose babies are sick and need help. I want to give them something that will help them remember how amazing and SPECIAL their little ones are.

And this is where you come in. I have attempted to contact local hospitals, but have had no luck. I am assuming it's because I'm not getting through to the right people. So, wonderful internet people, do any of you have any type of link with Hospitals in the Lancashire area? If you do, please get in touch with me at Urbantangerinephoto@gmail.com

Thank-you in advance.
Happy Friday!

C
xxx

Manchester Christmas Market 2012

After our failed attempt at getting to the markets on Friday (Cas got sick in the car), we finally managed to get there yesterday.

Cas and I stopped in Kendals (it'll NEVER be "House of Fraser" to me!) and bought some cool gifts for Gary. And then as the light faded, we hit the markets. I was armed (as always) with my camera and Cas's eye. Together we took pictures that represent Christmas to us. I love spending time with my son, and being able to share a passion is beyond AMAZING.

The first thing we came across was this cool Rudolph on King Street! Cas kindly posed for some shots for me (you can tell he's used to having a camera pointed at him!)

Whilst we were on King Street we had lovely music provided by this kind gentleman (who also posed nicely for a photo)!

A little further along King Street, we found these guys. Cas is desperate for one of the penguins! :)

Personally, I REALLY want one of these "Advent Trees"!

Cas and I really like these candles, though I don't think I could ever light them, they're WAY TOO CUTE!! 

The Manchester Wheel has vanished! Not sure where it has gone, but the replacement is very pretty!

We had a great time at the Markets, and it now officially feels like Christmas! 

If you want to see more pictures, then check out my slideshow. (The music is the wonderful Tony Bennet. You can keep Michael Buble, he's got nothing on Tony!)

Happy Christmas guys!

C

xxxxx

P.S it's my first time posting a slideshow, so fingers crossed it works. ;)
PPS so it helps if you export the slideshow with the correct quality, though apparently this means Blogger doesn't like it! Hence, YouTube.