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!

I had a few opportunities to get out and about with my lensbaby this month.

The first was visiting home up in Chester and seeing some very welcome daffodils – the first sign of Spring after a winter that seems to have lasted forever!

The second was on this Couple’s shoot in Shepherds Bush, London, for some very good friends who are getting married soon.  I was hoping to get to use the lensbaby more given I had relatively co-operative subjects who could stand still (!) – but unfortunately it rained so hard that I ended up having to put  a rain cover on my camera, which requires a bigger lens with lens hood to keep in place.  These are a couple I managed to get before I had to swap out lenses. You can see more from the shoot here and here

I’m sure the group have been as creative as ever this month!  Follow the circle round, starting with Jaimi

I’m a little behind in blogging, I’ve had an exciting month with lots to share!  First up is this wonderful session I did in Verulamium Park, St Albans, a few weeks ago with Lynsey.  It was one of the very, very few nice sunny days we had in March so we got very lucky.

Lynsey has recently qualified as a personal trainer, and wanted some pictures for her new website.  Very different to what I normally do, but it was great fun and such a beautiful setting!  She loves to train outside in the fresh air, so the park was the perfect place.

Here’s a few of my favourites from the day, and I’ll share a link to Lynsey’s new website once she’s all up and running.  I guess I should book myself in for a session……maybe once it’s warmer ]]> http://www.clairelanephotography.com/2013/04/personal-training-photo-shoot-i-verulamium-park-st-albans/feed/ 0 http://www.clairelanephotography.com/2013/04/2013-cm-blog-circle-march-interesting-perspectives-personal/ http://www.clairelanephotography.com/2013/04/2013-cm-blog-circle-march-interesting-perspectives-personal/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:00:20 +0000 Claire Lane http://www.clairelanephotography.com/?p=3355 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

So Clickin Moms are really pushing us this year with the themes!  For March – Interesting Perspectives.  So many different ways to interpret this theme, but I decided to go with some Photoshop size manipulation.

All of these picture ideas were the children’s, shrinking Daddy was especially popular!    They and I (and Daddy and even Molly the cat!) had a lot of fun doing these.

And I now have an even greater appreciation of those who truly work wonders in Photoshop.  I use it regularly to enhance my photographs and make them look the best they can be.  But doing this kind of work and really making it look realistic is something else entirely.  A lot of it is in the shadows I decided – it’s a real skill to work those shadows properly to keep it looking real.  And one I clearly don’t have, haha!  Just like photography really – good photography is all about the light and the shadows.  It’s easy to have an idea in your mind for a picture – but actually executing it with the available light takes a lot of skill.

So take these for what they are, a bit of fun.  You won’t be seeing manipulation of this kind in my client work any time soon!!!   And make sure you follow the blog circle round, starting with Dawne…

I have known Emma a long time – in fact I first met her the very same day I met my husband, so I remember it well!!  It was the day we started work at KPMG way back in 1996, and Emma was our trainer!  We’ve stayed in touch over the years, and I am absolutely thrilled that Emma and Tim are expecting their first baby in just a few weeks.

It was so lovely to take her maternity pictures over a good catch-up – I’m sure you’ll agree she is absolutely blooming!  Just a couple of weeks to go now, and I can’t wait to meet the new arrival.

Bump sessions are best done around 30-35 weeks, and newborns ideally in the first couple of weeks – so don’t leave it too late to book if you are expecting soon!

Here’s a few of my favourites from Emma’s London maternity session: