Photography by Sharon Curran

For those who have been reading my blog for a while will know that back in November I took a few shots at Benjamin’s Christening. Ben is now 6 months old and I’d arranged to go and visit his mum for the day and take some pictures while I was there.

The drive up to Manchester was rather rubbish as the weather couldn’t quite decide what it was doing but I soon arrived at my destination. Unfortunately Ben was teething and was a little grumpy but with the help of his play mat I managed to get some nice shots, helped by the natural daylight coming in through the window.

He is so active now pulling himself around and starting to learn how to move accross the floor so keeping up with him was sometimes quite difficult. He is a proper little poser though stopping every now and then and just giving the most perfect look – it was just making sure I was ready and waiting when he did and unfortunately I missed quite a few shots but this is the joy of photographing children you never know what they are going to do next.

Bens mum showed me how he loves playing in his Jumperoo, his face was a picture but it was impossible to get a shot whilst he was bouncing up and down. After a while he was a little tired out so he went off for a little afternoon nap which seemed to do the trick as he came back a lot more smiley. By this time it was dark outside and so I got to test out my new flash which I’d only recently brought, this was my first time of using a hotshoe flash and I really like the difference it made to the pictures.

I got some amazing smiles from Ben which I caught on camera and some really cheeky little faces too. I especially love the expression in this next picture.

All too soon it was time for bed and for me to head back home. The drive back was atrocious as I got caught in a blizzard and in some of the worst fog I think I’ve ever driven in during my seventeen years of driving so I was definitely glad to get home. I don’t want to put up too many pictures as these are a bit of a taster of them for my friend and her boyfriend but I can’t resist putting this last one up as I love it – I just hope they will too.

I’d just like to say many thanks to Colette and Dave for letting me take some photos, Ben is definitely one of my favourite subjects to work with as he is such a happy, smiley little boy. I really hope that you both like the pictures.

Next weekend we are off to a wedding and I am going to be taking my camera with me to try and get some shots so I should have some more photos to share with you all. As always many thanks for reading, your support is appreciated – please feel free to leave comments as I enjoy reading them.

I thought I’d do a little update on what I’ve been up to with my camera recently as it’s been a while since I updated my blog.

I’ve now started my photography course which is going well, the first few weeks have been covering the basics such as composition but we are now moving onto the more practical side. The course is only 6 weeks long but it has given me a few pointers on areas I could do with working on which was the main reason for me going on it so hopefully it will prove to be helpful. One of the things that the tutor has shown us was Adobe Lightroom 2, a programme I hadn’t had any experience of previously which can be used to post process your images – with great effects.

Up until recently I mostly used a combination of Picassa 3 and Photoshop to edit and process my images, though I tended to use Picassa more regularly. I had intended on trying to learn how to use Photoshop but since being enlightened to Lightroom I am now going to concentrate on trying to teach myself how to get the best from it instead. Hopefully this will have a positive effect on my photographs and I’m hoping that my images will be improved as a result.

Unfortunately due to a bout of illness I haven’t been out on many photographic adventures recently, this combined with the absolutely rubbish British weather really has cut short the opportunities that may have been available to me. However I did have the chance to pick up the camera last weekend when some friends invited my husband and I to the christening of their son Benjamin. I had wanted to try and get a few shots for them but knew the conditions wern’t going to be great as photography in churches can be very difficult due to the difficult light conditions. This would take a little research so I turned to Google and a few photographic forums for advice and inspiration!

After a relatively easy drive up to Manchester we arrived at the Parish of St John the Evangelist in Failsworth, we arrived within plenty of time so I had a chanced to assess the inside of the church and was pleased to see that it was extremely well lit so I hoped any pictures would come out relatively well. I had already done some research and found out there would be no photographs allowed during the ceremony so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures inside the church beforehand.

There were three children being baptised, Benjamin and two others. It had been a while since I had been to a christening so I was unsure of the procedure but the ceremony was relatively quick and all of the children were very behaved, there were hardly any tears even after the priest blessed them with the holy water at the font.

The priest agreed to a few posed shots at the font with the parents and godparents after the ceremony, he even mimicked the actual baptism to enable me to get a picture so I was very appreciative as from what I understand not many priests are happy to do this. Although obviously with three families all trying to get their pictures he wasn’t going to stand there all day so I quickly got my shots before he changed his mind.

After the service we all decamped to a nearby pub for some refreshments. By this point little Benjamin was starting to grow quite weary, even if he was the most popular boy in the pub – everyone wanted to have a cuddle with him including his granny and auntie.

Unfortunately the lighting conditions inside the pub wern’t so great and my photos have a little bit of blur on them, one of the pitfalls of poor lighting conditions – this is definitely an area I need to work on as I am not particularly happy with the pictures I took there. I must admit that once we got to the pub I was so busy catching up with people I hadn’t seen in a while that my camera took a back seat while I chatted away but I was quite happy as it meant I got to speak to friends I don’t see enough.

After a few hours of chatting it was eventually time to leave, we had a long journey home and so we hit the motorway after having a lovely day. I was a little annoyed with myself for not getting more shots and I was also rather disapointed at the shots I took in the pub but I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy with the available lighting and at least I had a go, I always like a challenge and it is part of the learning curve – if you don’t attempt these things you can never get better at them.

So thank you to Colette and Dave for inviting us to celebrate Benjamins special day with you.

So that brings my blog to a close for today. as always many thanks for reading, if you have enjoyed this then please take a moment to leave me a message, they are all very much apprecaited.

As autumn falls over us with a blanket of brown and gold leaves on the floor it appears my opportunities for getting outside and taking photos is diminishing with every passing day. Almost gone are the lovely sunsets of a few weeks ago and it seems that each day becomes drearier and colder outside and the evenings are darker earlier – boo! As someone who loves spring and summer, autumn and winter are my most dreaded times of the year and I have a feeling that this year we are in for a harsh one.

Because the evenings are darker it means I am less able to get out and to take photos after I finish work as by time I get home and sort myself out the light is fading away faster than an Olympic sprinter off the starting block, so that only leaves the weekends for possible photographic outings. This would be fine except weekends are precious as I am sure most people would agree and I find that when Friday evening comes I have so many things I want to do and only two days to do them all in before the working week starts again. This sometimes photography has to take a back seat at the weekends so I can fit in everything else or because our unreliable English weather throws a rainy day our way which thwarts any plans I may have had for a trip out with the camera. I do love photography but I don’t love getting wet!

Last weekend though I had the perfect opportunity to put my camera to some use, by arranging to do a photo shoot of a friend’s son. He had recently celebrated his first birthday so I offered to do the shoot as a present as I thought it would be nice to try and get some lovely pictures to commemorate the occasion. Plus I could then try my hand at children’s photography and get some shots for my portfolio. If you’ve read my blog before then you are probably aware I like to try all different kinds of photography and this would definitely be different to anything I’ve done so far.

Having looked up on the internet about what kind of settings I should be aiming for and hints and tips on how to get the best results I packed my equipment bag and headed off towards Nottingham where the shoot was taking place. After a nice easy drive I arrived and acquainted myself with my subject Shay a lovely smiley young man with a great personality. Once sure he seemed comfortable with me I slowly got out my camera and started taking a few shots.

There was a slightly shaky start which was to be expected as Shay hadn’t met me before, but after a short while he really settled into it and was pulling pose after pose for me and even gave me a demonstration of his dance moves every time some music played, which was extremely cute. He seemed to feel more comfortable with me using the camera around him as after a while he just ignored what I was doing and carried on as he would normally playing with his toys and bounding around the room.

I was aiming for a nice natural photo shoot at home in his own surroundings, using nothing other than the available natural light rather than a more manufactured set up as personally I feel the candid style really suits this kind of photography as you can really capture the child’s personality when they are just being themselves. Shay was just the perfect subject as was such a smiley happy boy and he has such a great little character.

Now I’m not going to put too many of the pictures on here as I am still in the process of sorting through them all and I don’t want to spoil it for the parents as they are still to see the full set of images that I took so I’m just going to include a final picture which I think is one of my favourites from the day.

I really enjoyed doing this shoot, so much in fact that I would love to do some more and I’m in the process of putting together some advertising leaflets to try and get some bookings for children’s photo shoots. However to any of my friends that’s may be reading this through Facebook who may like me to take some pictures of their little one (or ones) please contact me as I am looking for a couple more children to photograph to add to my portfolio.

I have to say lastly a massive thank you to Liam and Loz who allowed me to come and take pictures of Shay – he is one adorable little chap and he was a pleasure to photograph.

As always thank you for reading – all your comments are appreciated. If you are reading this through my website then don’t forget you can subscribe to my blog – it only takes a couple of minutes.