"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place...
...where colours are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Ok I'm remaining positive... summer may be over but we did have some good days and for me, there aren't many things better than a summer's evening.
Visiting new places, meeting friends (old and new) and drinking icy cold wine are also up there. Oh and taking photos, of course. Lots of photos. So to get the chance to do it all over one beautiful summer's weekend in South Wales was just sheer perfection.
The weekend was organised by my good friend and Cardiff children's photographer Sarah Thomas, a fellow member of the Click Collective. The 'CC' is a group of female photographers from all over the UK. We found each other at different times, in different ways although mostly via Flickr/Facebook/Twitter and eventually we all got introduced and became firm friends.
Six of us headed down to Cardiff. Sarah got in touch with some of her past clients, with friends and even her son's teacher (the very beautiful pregnant lady) and organised a series of shoots over 2 days. We started in a natural light studio setting which is something quite new to me. Just look at our models though... I mean they really couldn't have been any cuter.
It was so much fun but if I'm 100% honest, I still prefer shooting on location... discovery somewhere often totally new... the freedom it gives you to explore... that's all part of the magic for me. Needless to say the late afternoon shoot that Sarah had planned.... in a meadow... with props galore... a picnic... and a group of totally gorgeous, amazingly well behaved and cooperative kids... was pretty much my idea of photoshoot heaven!
I will admit to being a little overwhelmed at first... there was too much choice. There were so many sweet spots in that field and so many children to photograph I didn't know where to start and with whom! However, start I did. And once I got going, I was in my happy zone. We were there until 9pm, until the last bit of sun ducked down behind the trees. We didn't waste a single drop of sunshine. (This is why I harp on about late afternoon shoots... just look at the light!)
The next day we headed for a very quick shoot at Penarth, along (and under) the beautiful Victorian pier. Another family kindly volunteered their time for us to grab some beautiful portraits.
Thank you so much to all the families who gave up their time, to the amazing kids who were ALL fabulous, to my CC girls for being, well... just brilliant fun and such an inspiration and especially to Sarah for organising everything, putting us up, feeding us and offering such a lovely warm Welsh welcome! xxx