Silvano is an accomplished Portuguese bodyboarder who has won several titles in the past 10 years including the European Championship, and reached number 5 in the world rankings.  He competes less nowadays, dedicating his time to running Baia de Peniche Surf Camp , his own surf/bodyboard school and camp established in 2008.   I highly recommend him to any of my readers – beginners, improvers and experts – he has something to offer every skill level.

I am excited about having a photo session with Silvano and Helio ‘Laranja’ Conde (another Portuguese bodyboarding legend) on my next visit to Portugal.

I have been photographing events and concentrating on getting my business cards printed that I completely neglected portrait photography.  I am now back in Portugal for a much needed 3-week break, and taking photos for me ♥   Here’s a photograph of my hubby, taken this afternoon, which I really quite like.

I spent half a day with Kate at her home in Maidenhead on Friday, 26 March.  It was a beautiful day so we went for a leisurely stroll by the river with her adorable dog, Vinnie (Vinnie Jones springs to mind, but you cannot be more wrong).  I never knew how lovely the area is – definitely worth another visit and take a longer walk along the river, and maybe even a picnic ♥

Kate was looking for a new headshot and she had a firm idea of how it should look, and by the river seemed like an appropriate location so we took some test shots and went back to her house to get ready.  We ended up taking a few shots in one of the bedrooms which had plenty of light coming through from huge windows, then moved on to her back garden.  She was so confident we’d taken “the one” so we decided to scrap the riverside location.

Kate hoped for just one good shot she can use so was thrilled to end up with about a dozen.  We shot four different looks.  I will upload more later.

I’d like to share some photos I took last weekend of one of my four grandchildren.    Evie was attending a friend’s birthday party last Sunday afternoon so was in dressing up mood in the morning, and she very happily posed for me (she actually changed into her fairy costume for the party; she chose the pink dress specially for our shoot).  She didn’t need much coaching (come to think of it, I think she was directing me); the photos show that she loves the camera.  Post processing these photos has been my way of “relaxing” this week.

It has been a super hectic week, juggling several jobs which for some reason all demanded urgent attention.  Still working hard on the photos from the shoot at Picchu Maternity; this time we need to meet tight deadlines for the catalogue.  In addition, target dates from my pensions wind-up work is also fast approaching (I won’t bore you with any details but this has been my chosen career for the past 25 years; hopefully not for much longer if my photography business takes off).  Added to this, I took Thursday off to drive to Maidenhead to do a shoot with Kate (the model from the Picchu Maternity shoot, remember?) – that is another post altogether.  I then attended a breakfast meeting of the Institute of Directors-Surrey Branch on Friday; I agreed to take photos for their newsletter (if you know me, you’ll know that I don’t do mornings but I managed to get to the venue at 6.45am to give myself time to prepare for the 7.15am start – just imagine what time I had to get up that morning!).

fabulous dresses, modeled by Kate

I have been doing work for Picchu Maternity for about three years now, taking product shots for the website and sometimes help make samples of Cammie’s designs for the factory (yes, I can actually sew, thanks to my complete attendance at Home Economics in high school).

It’s been very hectic at Picchu’s offices in the last couple of weeks; with the new website to launch and the new spring catalogue to issue, it’s all hands on deck.  Cammie asked me to come along to the shoot on 11 March to assist her and to take some behind the scenes shots – I’ve never been to a fashion shoot before so I enthusiastically accepted the invitation.  It was a blast – very tiring as it turned out to be another very long day ( I don’t remember sitting down at all between 9am and 7pm).

Getting ready …

Kate (model), Lauren (make-up artist), Cammie (founder of Picchu Maternity)

The set up …

Mark Langridge and his very able assistant, Andy Pye (a Physicist, would you believe?!)

To keep our sugar levels in check, I made cupcakes which went down well specially with Andy who was assisting our photographer, Mark Langridge (I didn’t get the chance to take any photos of the yummy things).  I must have accidentally slipped something into those cupcakes because our model, Kate, asked me to take some headshots for her! RESULT

Will let you know when the shoot actually takes, and no doubt there will be some photos posted here.

Cammie Wallace, founder of Picchu Maternity asked me to take some photos of her for use in her promotional materials and brand new website.  She picked this black & white version for her website.

The shoot with Alison and her two daughters, Tessa and Hayley on 12 Mar 2011 took place at Waverley Abbey in Farnham, Surrey.  We were blessed with good weather – not sunny but lots of very nice diffused light.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and we managed to shoot a few good shots.    A couple of scary moments when my lightstand (housing my new speedlight) nearly got blown down by gusts of wind; everyone to the rescue by lending me their bags as weights (note to self:  must get some beanbags, along with higher stool for me to stand on when shooting tall people).