Bumps and Babies

It's no secret that I think that pregnant women are absolutely gorgeous. I consider it an honour to be allowed to photograph a woman at such a special time. Here are a few images from the latest 'bump' shoot. The crops are a bit funny because I wanted to protect the anonymity of the model.

The idea for this shoot was to have a play around with this piece of white fabric and see what ideas we could come up. I think my favourite one is the classical style one in the centre. What about you? I also wanted to keep it fairly low key and intimate, the studio was all dark and warm, like a cocoon. It's a funny thing that in that situation you lose all concept of time passing and just get into what's happening. Both model and me were amazed how the time flew during the shoot.

Isn't she beautiful? I can't believe she's 7 months pregnant. When I was 7 months pregnant I was like a house end!

The only down side of doing these shoots is that I have the studio really warm to make sure the model is comfortable, of course I'm fully dressed and by the end of the shoot I'm absolutely dying with the heat. It's a small price to pay though to get pictures like these.

We have already planned a shoot for when the baby's born. That'll be brilliant, I'm really looking forward to it. Tiny babies only stay tiny for the shortest time, so I think it's really important to capture those precious early days because they'll be gone in the blink of an eye.

When photographing babies I think really important they are happy with what's going on. The shoot has to progress at the baby's speed with everyone all lovely and relaxed, just going with the flow. It can take a bit of time but it's always worth it.

Even more exciting news!!

Anyway, the same publishing company has asked me if they can use another one of my pictures for the front cover of a magazine they are producing about Lancashire. Eeeeeeee!!! Ok, sorry, slightly lost my sophisticated, professional edge for a moment there and got a bit over excited.

My daughter asked me if she could model for me for it so I had to tell her not unless she was prepared to dress as a tree because they want a landscape picture. I could put her peeping out from behind a tree I suppose and make a "Where's Wally" type picture ( I wouldn't really - honest). I'll keep you posted as to how it all progresses.

Here are some album pages from a recent wedding. This Bride and groom met us at a wedding fair about 18 months ago and booked us becasue they thought I was eccentric and my pictures would be 'different'. Thanks! Er.... I think.

The first two pages, just so there is no room for misunderstanding, are of the bride and her Dad. What a nice man. In the first pic they are on their way in to the wedding. It was all very emotional and the bond between father and daughter was clear to see. Lovely.

After the ceremony, the bride and groom had a quiet minute when they thought no one was watching. Teehee, well, they booked us for our unobtrusive approach! This picture turned out to be one of their, and my, favourites from the day.

Exciting times

Getting exciting now!! I love a challenge!

After I got my degree in photography decided to take a teaching qualification at the suggestion of one of my tutors and completed it this year.

I've been teaching photography to teenagers for a couple of years now, funny - I didn't ever see myself doing that but as it turns out - I love it! Recently I have been roped in to teach a 'summer school' course for 11-16 year olds. I've never taught young people of this age before so it will be an interesting experience, I'm really looking forward to it.

The layout for the week is:

How to take fab photos parts 1 & 2

Photoshop fun

experimental imagery

and then at the end of the week they can print a t shirt with an image of their own on it.

I've been told there are already quite a few people booked on to it so - yay!!

Here are a few images that are nothing to do with anything - just a few photos I've taken in my spare time. Bit of a busman's holiday, I know, shooting photos when I'm off duty. See, that's the good thing about your job also being your hobby - you never get bored with it. In fact, I can't get enough of it and wish I could go out shooting more often just for the sheer joy of it!

Fab weekend

No weddings this weekend, surprisingly for July. What we did have though was a baby bump sitting. Aaaahhh! I love doing those, almost as much as I enjoy taking photos of teeny, tiny little babies. I'll post some pictures of that for you when I've got them processed.

Here are a few images from Nick and Rebecca's wedding. They were a funny, funny crowd. I mean funny haha not funny peculiar. I spent most of the day in fits of giggles, always a good thing. The wedding was in Chorley and the Reception was held at Camelot. Yup, the theme park. The reception was in the banqueting hall, all beautifully decorated, I expected a couple of knights in shining armour to appear at any minute (They didn't though. Shame!).

Rebecca is absolutely gorgeous, the colour scheme was very unusual, the bride was in traditional ivory but the bridesmaids and the groomsmens ruches were in the most gorgeous royal purple satin. Fabulous. The bouquets picked up the ivory and purple and then softened the effect with some pretty pink roses.

Nick & Rebecca came over last week to pick their album photos. While we were chatting about the music they wanted on their slideshow they mentioned that they like Nothing Else Matters by Apocalyptica - Metallica. They were so impressed that I know it. Teehee. I don't generally make it known that I'm a closet metal head!!

Last time I heard this piece of music was at our son's wedding five years ago. The people who knew the music were very impressed at Paul & Gemma's good taste - and the ones who didn't just assumed it was a piece of classical music they hadn't heard before. Every one's a winner! Here it is on Youtube. Hope you enjoy it.

So, just to start us off..

These are a few images from Chris & Laura's recent wedding. The weather was very kind to us, it had been raining all morning and just as they set off for the church the grey skies didn't exactly turn to blue but it stopped raining, the wind dropped and everything was perfect.

The bride and groom were brilliant, we loved photographing their wedding. The reception was at Ferrari's in Longridge. Owned by an Italian family, it shows, in the design of the gorgeous gardens. You could point the camera in just about any direction and get a great shot. Hhhmm, maybe I shouldn't have said that, it doesn't sound good for my camera skills, maybe I should have said, "We made the place look gorgeous with our superb camera skills," Haha.

Aaah, the cake cutting, the bride's mum made and decorated both wedding cakes, I'll post photos of them next time. Yummmm!

The cars were lovely, as was the driver, very obliging and happy to let us get as many shots as we wanted with no sighing, huffing or looking at his watch. My kinda guy!!!

The flowers were amazing, they were so pretty and delicate, the pinks blended in perfectly with the pinks on the bridesmaids gowns.

Hope you like the pictures, I'll post more for you later.

Welcome one and all

Here it is, the brand new blog of Wow! Photographic which includes Wow! Wedding Photography, Wow! Portraits, and Wow! Bumps and Babies.

As you might have guessed by now, we take photos. 'We' being me, lesley and my husband Bob.

Photography has long been a passion of mine and six years ago, with the wholehearted support of my wonderful husband, I sold my business and went back to college to get a degree in photography and follow my dream to become a professional photographer, what a leap into the unknown that was!!!

After many trials, tribulations, laughs and very, very steep learning curves later, here I am, with not only a degree in photography but also qualified as a lecturer and teaching photography. What a great life!!

The purpose of this blog is to share with you some of the fun, laughter and wonderful experiences we now have as photographers, as well as a post a few images for you to look at and hopefully enjoy.

Watch this space!