The furbabies!

Today I spent some time with the furbabies, making sure they were doing ok with the cold snap and just being with them as they get so used to our almost constant company in the summer, it must seem lonely in the winter when we hardly venture outside. It was a good opportunity to get some snaps of them. I ended up with quite cold & wet knees!

1/365 - A project

I agreed, perhaps foolishly, to partake in a "picture a day" challenge with other people who took the same photographic course I took, over the last few years. I thought it would at least encourage me to pick up my camera every day, as I tend to go through phases or either taking lots and lots of pics, or weeks of not even looking at my camera. Plus, what better wat is thewre to get more practice in right? I am sure I will be utterly bored and lacking inspiration by about September! I also expect to see lots of my kids, my pets and my veg patch when I have no other idea for the day, lol!

Anyway, without further ado, here was my submission for 1/365

Christmas Day!

I don't think I need to post any explanations!

Christmas Eve on the Santa Steam Train

We took the boys to Kidderminster to take them on the Severn Valley Railways Santa steam special, a steam train that goes from the station at Kidderminster, via Bewdley to Arley, where passengers disembark and go and see Santa. We have dine this a couple of times now but not for the last 4 years or so. Since Z was a little bit older, we decided to go again as we love the atmosphere and it's a good way to while away several hours on Christmas eve when the kids would drive us mad otherwise!!

Our opted for the 11.45 departure. We managed to get into a private compartment, which is always a nice added touch. We then watched the train from the bridge for a while when we got off, then got some roasted chestnuts to eat in the queue. A brass band plays Christmas music while you wait. Then you see Santa. Zack was fine until we sat him on Santa's lap, lol! They boys got their gifts and then we decided to mooch around. We walked down to the river, over the bridge and back again before getting the next available train.

It was a good excersise in remembering that snapshots are just as acceptable as portraits and will probably be they pics I look back on in years to come when the boys have grown and left home.

Bathime fun

I suddenly realised today that I had not really taken any photo's of Zack over the last month. He turned 13 months on the 7th and I didn't pick up the camera. I think I might join one of the 365 things on the 1st Jan to force me to pick the camera up everyday.

Anyway, Zack was quite whiney this morning so I decided to give him a bath. It worked, he stopped moaning and just enjoyed splashing around. It is one of the best places to take photo's of him these days as it's not like he can go far!

Here's a few snaps I took and then I tried a couple of different edits.

Christmas pics - outtakes!

This one is not an outtake as such, I do like the pic, but didn't want to use it for the card:



These ones are the proper outtakes!

Christmas pics

It's been a while. At this time of year, I tend to find I go into a bit of a funk as I prefer natural light photography, plus 2 of my boys are at an age where they don't really want to cooperate and it just makes things stressful. I did however make time to try and get a photo I could use for Christmas cards. I didn't really get a single shot that I felt I could use. Sure, they were cute, but not really what I had hoped, so decided to use 3 seperate pics of the boys, which in itself created another issue as by the time I tried to get a shot of Z on his own, he was crying.

Here's what I got in the end:







The original of the baby:


The Christmas card!