A WET AND DISMAL SEPTEMBER

Well what an end to summer a rather abrupt one wasnt it. The nights are now pulling in at 3 minutes per day and I must admit to switching on my central heating on a fair few chilly evenings and mornings.

The wet weather has meant a few rescheduled lifestyle sessions , and a few indoor sessions
One of my favourite sessions this month was a family and bump session we did actually manage a few outdoor  pictures in the harsh low sunlight until the dark clouds decided to water the grass yet again.

Now i am looking forward to shooting a new little person.

September sees me going out for some street photography both locally and in London and Brighton, capturing people  unaware complete strangers I will never know. I love this kind of photography and capturing  different moods of people, Its like a little snap shot on British life. I recommend going with a friend if this is not practical then  use a zoom lens so  your intended subject is not aware your near them.

Isnt it against the law ?I hear you cry, well no not if your in a public place, This excludes railway stations and underground, Most public places your fine in but you must not course a nuisance, Basically do not follow people around and dont be to intrusive with your camera distance is better then close up. There are plenty of websites offerring guide lines for candid/street photography.

Street shot Witham

Witham

Candid London

Candid London

Candid London

I have also been adding a little more art to my own images now I have CS5, This can be time consuming but great fun, 

An image of a street entertainer in London

mixture of 5 images 

A view of London and hand drawn window .

Also this month as you may have seen on my facebook profile. I had my picture taken with my daughter . Its not often I get my picture taken so Thanks to Robbo and the GNPC studio

My girl and I

So rolling in to October when mother natures studio is at her best, So why not put on your wellies hats n scarfs and book a fun outdoor photo session with the backdrop of golden Autumn hues. A few dates are booked on the mornings of the 24th and 25th as I am doing lifestyle session at Westonbirt The national Arboretum, supposedly the most spectacular Autumn colour in the UK. If your in the area and would like an afternoon session at the Arboretum then please do contact me  ASAP

Well bye bye September remembered for her rain and roll on October

A photo session with a VIP

On Friday September the 3rd I had a very important rendezvous with a VIP named Aidan. Aidan is 14 and since the age of 8 has been having on going treatment for his illness, The treatment now is not working and Aidan is fully aware he will be saying goodbye to this world.

I first met Aidan a few months ago at Barts hospital , His parents had approached me as Aidan wanted a photo session,. On meeting Aidan I was in awe of this bright cheeky young man who told me "your not the only photographer I am meeting I have got to find the right one".

Well I got a call last week from Aidan's parents to ask if I would do Aidan's photo session and where he wanted it done which was Dungeness in Kent.

I arrived at Dungeness at 10:30am the weather was fine the sky was blue, Aidan loves this place its special to him. we had a wonderful photo session. Aidan wore a variety of hats , we had a super model session and a family lifestyle session.

I didn't charge a fee just petrol and picture prices Aidan's family treated me to a meal in the pilot Inn.
At Aidan's request his images will not be hosted for public viewing until after he has gone. He has given me a letter which contains what he wants written on my blog and is picking what image he wants blogged.

For me as a photographer it was a very strange feeling knowing  that no doubt this would be the last time Aidan would be photographed. Aidan himself directed most of the session it involved mirrors and feather boa,s and posh frocks for his mum and sister.

I call Aidan a VIP not because he is famous or well known but because he is so brave and light hearted and fun.

Addie I know your read this I want to tell you that you really touched my heart that your wisdom is beyond your years and that you are the bravest nicest person I have ever ever had the pleasure of coming across.

That we sat on the walk way you hugged me and told me not to be sad you had a great life and now you had never got to worry about who to marry or  what job to have or credit card bills.

Thank you for your email and I am so glad your thrilled by your pictures

I dedicate this image to you Addie where we sat on the walk way with my broken filter which I wont be replacing. Like you said somethings happen because they need to happen and sometimes bad things happen yet they can be beautiful things we just dont know it at the time

For Aidan

All image remain copyrighted to Andrea Abbott

Lifestyle photo session in the country park

This morning I had the great Pleasure of working with family R. A local family whom had been rather disappointed with the images  received from a studio session with another photographer.

The image were not bad the family just didnt feel they captured true feelings and emotions. The studio images were also very posed making the family feel stiff and not at all relaxed.

Mrs R approached me a week ago asking if I could photograph her  family, Of course I could,
All though the sky this morning was slightly overcast we didnt have rain and the sun  did keep breaking through.
 The family decided the best location for them would be the country park as this would allow the children to  play and run around. I was assisted today by Jeff Schwingen. Jeff is a great photographer but lacks confidence so I hope working with me this year will make Jeff see just how great he is.

We started the photo session with some must have images that are wanted by the family.

The Boys

Boys having fun

The family soon all relaxed Granddad was a great sport and Little R kept me busy. Uncle C was just a gem with the children and great and getting them to runaround and have fun. It certainly was a fun session and the R family were just excellent and a pleasure to photograph.

Together

The idea of a lifestyle photo session is to use the great outside  as the studio,.Allowing people to feel more relaxed and letting children behave in a natural way , In to days case  running  around and having fun, Which is how children should be. I never  say cheese which is why I capture the natural person. 

Todays session for me was fun the R family are such a lovely family and the children just adorable, full of beans running here there and everywhere. 

She did smile everytime she ran away from the camera 

The youngest little one laughed her head off every time she ran in the opposite direction to the camera. As you can see though  some nice natural shots were still managed.

Last but not least is the little man that kept me on my toes, such a fun great little one to work with. Even if did shot everyone with the bubble gun.

Little live wire

Thank you to Mr and Mrs R it was a pleasure to photograph you ,your children and your lovely Grandchildren. I hope you enjoy this sneak preview 

All images are copyrighted to Andrea's photography and are low res for web hosting

Final images are high res and printed by a master printer

Finding new places

Well I felt like doing some landscape photography and having really exhausted flat Essex, I decided to venture into the Chilterns. First stop was Pitstone and the little 13 century church . which is open on Sundays and Bank holidays from May until September.

Next port of call was the windmill with a nice walk across the countryside , taking in a pleasant view, We then made our way to Ivinghoe beacon, a good hill climb.

Stopping off at Whipsnade and The Chiltern gateway to fly a kite. Certainly different from Essex. It was also wonderful to watch the Red tailed Kites flying freely across the downs.

I normally take a holiday in July but this year has been fairly busy especially weekends and it looks as if 2011 and 2012 are going to be busier. I already have bookings for both years 12 bookings for 2011 and 5 already for 2012.

The good thing is my new passport arrived today so now to plan a trip I have promised myself for a long time which will be to Norway  around March 2011. I have been working out the places I want to go which include Finnmark for the Northern lights, Lofoten for whale  watching Svalbard island for Polar bears, the Fjord and oh so  much more


The best thing is I could not have achieve my dream without the support from friends . One of my biggest supporters and  the guy who made me believe in myself is my friend and fellow photographer Jeff Turnbull, whom  did tell me "Andrea this year is going to be great for you", did I believe Jeff at the time,no I didnt. Oh how wrong I was Thanks to his encouragement I have gone forward  not just with photo sessions and sales but also with the sales of my ICM images  which people in the USA cant seem to get enough off just recently .I decided to do a limit addition of an ICM print limited to just 10 canvas wraps including a certificate with the number of the print on so far I have sold 5 prints at just over five hundred pound each. This is just amazing and  each person whom purchased them has written back to me saying how thrilled they are with them. In fact 2 people put in further orders for different ICM prints .

Without the  encourage meant from Jeff and the others on the mentoring workshop I would never have achieved this so my Thanks goes to Sam Carter, David Tyrer, Ross Dean ,Gary Wilson and  not forgetting James Neale . Great photographer, great friends and a huge support

In Between The Rain

What a miserable few days we have had here in Essex grey skies rain,thunder,hail,wind and more rain. On the plus side my grass now looks a nice shade of green instead of burnt brown and my flowers certainly look a little perky.

Wednesday I took and afternoon trip out with my friend Amanda (click to see her images). We went to the lovely Mersea Island off the coast of Essex, Mersea is connected to the mainland via a causeway that can flood at high tide. Mersea is nestle between the Blackwater and Colne estuaries about 9 miles south east of Colchester . A wonderful little place to visit both East and West Mersea are different, with sandy beach,s as well as salt flats and marsh land. The weather was kind to us although we had cloud we didnt get any rain.

Thursday started off looking as if it may have been a fine day. I took a drive out through the Rodings and into Chelmsford by following the A1060  just before Chelmsford at the Writtle roundabout we found a field of wildflowers and sunflowers, Just had time to stop pick some flowers and get a few quick shots before the heavens decided to open and the rain came down and down and down.

Thursday night cleared allowing me to go out to  do some long exposures of the meteor showers and an extra added bonus of having the Northern lights intruded on my images. This we didnt know at the time as appeared to the naked eye as just intermittent random flashing across the night sky .

30 minute exposure capturing meteors.

8 minute exposure capturing the Northern lights Aurora Borealis.

To end my week Friday bought Thunder storms and more rain through out most of the day, A very cloudy night. Saturday looks much the same as well

Hitchin Lavender Cadwell Farm

I held out some hope yesterday that the Met Office may have been right with the weather, With rain ceasing at 13.00 and not starting again until 18.00.

I say held out hope because actually it lashed down all day. Anyway when we departed from Braintree for the drive to Hitchin things did looking promising, The rain had stopped, But after Bishop Stortford the rain just got heavier and heavier. I did debate on turning round but I was 3/4 of the way  to Hitchin and still held on to the  small hope that the Met Office may well have got it right for once.

My destination was Cadwell Farm The home of Hitchin lavender Just over an hour from my home, I would say far better then a trip to Provence although the weather in Provence was no doubt sunny and fair compared to huge misty grey skies chucking the rain down .

After over shooting the entrance to Cadwell farm and having to turn in the farmers drive way on a blind bend we arrived, Turning off the wipers on the car and  desperately searching for an umbrella, we made our way into the barn tea room and shop, Where we had a lovely cuppa with carrot cake , My husband opted for a cream tea while little Missy opted for fresh apple juice and a huge chocolate brownie.

We paid our £3.00 and was given a bag each and a pair of scissors to cut our own lavender or sunflowers to take home at no extra cost.  You are left to wander the fields at your leisure no pressure or guides.
On a better day the photo opportunities would be fab . Brides have wedding pictures taken among the lavender fields and they even do wedding teepees , what a fab place as a backdrop for your wedding.

I found out about Cadwell Farm via a friend the lavender season is short July to about the 15 September, But I really hope to return on a day when the sky is blue and I can put my daughter in a white dress. It will sum up summer for me in one image

The Lavender field 

Feeling droopy from the rain

The Umbrella came to

Looking down towards the farm

Sunshine on a rainy day

WEDDING-THEY ARE MORE ABOUT EGO THAN LOVE

This weekend friends of mine will be jetting off to an exotic island in the South Pacific. The cheapest flight they could find will include multiple changes and long waits at airports.

Despite this their stay on the sun-kissed idyllic island will last just 24 hours before they turn round and make the trip back to the UK.
Why the odd behavior why put your self through hours of travel and jet lag? Because they have been invited to a friend's wedding and felt unable to refuse and the funny thing is I'm pretty sure the bride and groom think they are doing their friends a huge favor by inviting them to their wedding.
No doubt they believe that all their guest are delighted to be part of their wonderful international extravaganza.
The truth is modern weddings have lost there way.The fact the average wedding now cost more than £20,000 is ridiculous and wrong, especially when you think of how many people on this planet struggle to survive on less then 50p a day.

The excessive cost is also a symptom of a deeper problem.For what all the taffeta in the world can not cover up is that the modern wedding has become far to much about the egos of the bride and groom.
These days its almost as if the happy couple are not just getting married- they are also directing some over the top Hollywood epic which they have cast themselves in the starring roles. Look at the couple who insist that everyone attended their wedding dressed in white from head to toe. Those that didnt have white suits and shoes handy would have had to pay out to get them. The couple then sashayed down the aisle in matching scarlet. Talk about look at me. It would be easy to laugh at this overblown vanity if it wasnt all such a huge waste of money.
Of course, its absolutely right that the bride and groom ought to feel special. After all this is the day when they look into each others eyes and promise to LOVE and CARE for each other for the rest of their lives, FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER,FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS and IN HEALTH

The appeal of my special day has now become an excuse to demand the best of everything from flowers to clothing to hairdressers to napkin rings.

To many couples want to sit in their Posh and Becks style thrones and be admired by the invited audience, is this what make the best wedding?
Or is it the simplest weddings  that are the best, The wedding in a church all country flowers put together by a friend trestle tables laid out with food cooked by family and friends. A heartfelt exchange of vows in the local register office then a table in a crowded restaurant for dinner. What makes these wedding so special is the love the couples had for each other a love that spilled out to family a friends.
The essence of that love whether expressed in a sacred or secular way is the promise to put the interests of another before those of your own. Love is a movement away from the idea that everything in life is about you.

Which is why modern weddings are a travesty. For in becoming a great celebration of the ego,they are a threat to the very thing they are supposed to be about.
Just look for instance at the excruciating self obsessed tantrums shown on livings TV's Four wedding series where four brides get to compete with each rating the others weddings.
Some of the problem is the widespread influence of celebrity magazines, where the whole experience charade of show biz marriage is posed for cameras. Of course these staged set up make everything seem fake and unreal, even worse is they treat their guests like props. For ordinary couples wanting to recreate that feeling of being a celebrity for a day is not the right template for a celebration of true love.

There is hope however as I feel people are tiring of the modern obsession with ostentatious weddings, we,ve had enough of this triumph over style.
Marriage is at the heart of a stable society It provides a secure environment for bringing up children and its conducive to our long term happiness.
Yes we need to celebrate and why not have a fantastic party to mark the beginning of your married life?

The images makers in the wedding business and thats to often what it has become want to persuade you that a simple wedding is cut price second class bargain bucker affair. In truth they don't like simple weddings because they don't ring up the cash registers
So they ramp up expectations with ever more glamorous proposals, investing the wedding with false hope and envious fantasies. These expectations can so impossibly high its no wonder so many weddings are desperately tense affairs in which superficial smiles mask blazing rows erupting off stage.

The happiest weddings are the ones where who give more weight to the promises being made to each other than they do to the table decorations or gift list.
Simple wedding are by far the most beautiful . For when we do away with the expensive and distracting rubbish, we are better able to see the love two people have for one another.


This LOVE is the most beautiful thing in the world.


taken from an article by Giles Fraser St Pauls London