Last Christmas I offered my Collection 1 up for bid in the Silent Auction at the Garden Fields JMI School Christmas Fair in St Albans.  Both of my children attend the school and I am heavily involved with the PTA so I’m happy to help where I can 

The lucky bidder was Clare, and we booked her session in with her two beautiful daughters a couple of weeks ago.  It was one of the rare sunny days in Spring – yes there were some! – and we were lucky enough to be able to get out in their lovely garden and also up to the local woods at Batchwood.

Despite Emily promising she “absolutely definitely” wouldn’t smile as she didn’t like having her picture taken – as you can see she did and dare I say it, she even enjoyed it just a little bit!!    Here’s a few of my favourites from their session:

I met with Erika and Dan up at Heartwood Forest  in St Albans a few weeks ago to photograph Erika’s gorgeous baby bump!  She’s due with their first baby in just a couple more weeks and they wanted to capture this fleeting time before it passes all too quickly.

The original plan was to take the pictures up at Heartwood at the beginning of May to take full advantage of the bluebells, but  unfortunately that plan was foiled by the great British weather .  We still made it up to Heartwood but the bluebells were way past  their best, so after a short spell in the woods we spent a lovely sunny afternoon walking around the Magical Wood and chatting as we took the pictures.  Bliss!

Can’t wait to see Erika and Dan again very soon for their newborn family session in London – watch this space!

This month our theme was ‘Beautiful Ugly’.  The challenge was to photograph things that are not pretty at all – and to MAKE them pretty!

With all the recent rain and crazy weather we have had in the UK our garden has gone a bit mad, and the weeds are thriving.  I decided to embrace those ugly weeds and try to make them pretty    I don’t own a macro lens…. yet….. so I used my 50mm 1.4 with macro extension tubes for these.

Click here to see what Debbie made pretty this month!

Here we are already for May!  There are some amazingly talented photographers in this blog circle (please make sure you check out their work if you haven’t already) and I have found them a constant source of inspiration over the past few months.   I have especially liked the lensbaby used in street photography, and that’s what I tried my hand at this month in and around St Albans where I live.  I deliberately picked market day for a bit of extra interest.  I find it hard to just shoot out and about on the streets, people are very wary of what you are doing!  So I did some in the town, then headed out to our beautiful cathedral.  I hope you enjoy this little slice of England as seen through my lensbaby!  Follow the link here to see what Jerri shot with her lensbaby this month…..

Through my photography I have made a couple of great friends and we support each other wholeheartedly.  It’s a very personal thing putting your art out there for others to see, and it’s lovely to connect with others who do the same.  As an added bonus our kids have become great friends too and it was lovely to spend a day together in Greenwich a few weeks ago!

As you can see we had a ball down by some of the beautiful University buildings and the (very high!) River Thames. A few children got rather wet in the making of some of these photos!

Meet who’s behind the camera!  This is Andrea…

Never too young to start learning!

and this is Nina!

Yes the river was pretty high that day!

And yes – because I was there too – here is one of me and my two! © Nina Mace Photography

A few weeks ago a very special little girl turned one and I was lucky enough to spend the morning of her birthday with her!

Happy Birthday sweet Charlotte!

This is a personal post that I wanted to share.  I took these pictures a little while ago of my son practising his writing.  He’s found it hard, but he’s really starting to make good progress now and I am so proud of him!  I love that he is concentrating on what he is doing and ignoring Mummy with her camera on the whole – by far my favourite kind of pictures!

The many concentrating faces of Jack!!!

And the finished product…. “I have been playing with policemen and robbers with Daddy!” ♥

There’s a few key dates throughout the year that no photographer wants to miss – the Spring bluebells being one of the first and the most lovely.  Did the weather get the memo that it’s now Spring??  It seems not, but thankfully the bluebells finally came out – and in between the rain the sun did a little bit too.

The bluebells up at Heartwood Forest in Sandridge, St Albans are stunning this year.  Here are some of my favourite pictures!

I’ve already shared some pictures from this couples shoot for specific monthly projects I participate in and you can see those here – lensbaby and shooting through glass.  However, I enjoyed it so much I wanted to share a few more of my favourites from this very wet day in Shepherds Bush!

The theme for April was shooting through glass, something a little bit different.  I got the opportunity to do this on a recent couple shoot in Shepherds Bush, London for some good friends of mine, Ray and Katy, who are due to get married very soon!

As you can see it absolutely poured down on the day of the shoot!  But we decided to embrace the rain rather than reschedule and were forced to get a little creative.

My original plan was to get them a well-earned coffee at the end and shoot them through the cafe window.  However, we had so much fun we ran out of time and there was no time for coffee.  I know – shock, horror!  Instead, the pictures below were shot through some glass panes outside Shepherds Bush Tube station.  I’m not really sure what their purpose was, but who cares, they made for a good picture!

To see how Dawne shot through glass this month click here and follow the circle round.

I shared a couple more from this shoot in my lensbaby blog circle here.  If you like to see more of the whole shoot you can find it here!