Happy Birthday Amara

Yes I'm a little lazy and slack at wishing my gorgeous daughter a Happy Birthday.  She turned 5 on the 30th January and unfortunately we had to cancer her birthday party due to the horrendous snow we have had.  Poor Amara! Not once did she complain though unlike her brother who would have had a huge breakdown had his party not gone ahead.  Instead it was spent at home with some friends and my little sister Kelly, MJ and baby Cody (who is growing sooooo fast).

I would have posted a rambling blog sooner but I always forget what my password is and give up after a while.  I did start to store my passwords on one of those account password thingys but yet again I forgot the password for the password website.  You know what I mean right?

Anyway, hope the start of the year is going well for all of you, mine is off to a slow start but I'm getting there.

My gorgeous birthday girl x

Air Head

FINALLY today I had the chance to take a self portrait. Actually I think it was 30 mins in total before the school called to say that my little lad wasn't well and could I come pick him up, therefore the shoot was cut short.

On editing my darling little daughter asked what I did with my head and asked if I actually took it off and was really concerned for my brain because it wouldn't be able to breath if it wasn't on my body! lol

Lately I seem to have been a total air head, forgetting things, appointments, you name it I forget it! This idea has been in my noggin for a moment or two, although there is another one that I haven't been able to get out of my head for about 6 months or longer so I must give it a go, however I'm a little scared it doesn't turn out as I envision it.

Yesterday I was sent an email to ask if one of the photography students could come and photograph me for her photojournalism project which would involve documenting my life and my business, feels a little odd to not be in control of a camera and I'm absolutely terrified at the thought.

Anyway, I wish my forehead was as smooth as this balloon ha ha but then again there is always botox right? Bring on the needles I say!!!!!

My Graduation

Yay, I finally graduated on Monday after studying for two years in Photography and Digital Imaging.  Part of me is soooo sad it's all over and part of me still wishes I was learning.  However, it's nice to be at home and not up till all hours of the morning putting my workbook together.

I'll never forget my first day of college .......... I was absolutely terrified and after having been handed what seemed like a million briefs I came home, sat at the kitchen table and cried and cried and cried.  I said to Graeme (my husband) "I can't do this, I don't understand the briefs blah blah blah".   After him having no luck what so ever in calming me down I called Tim (my neighbour) who is a Uni lecturer.  Well to this day I can't thank Tim enough for coming up and explaining what seemed like a complicated brief was actually quite a simple brief.

So here I am after two years and probably a couple of years before that (studying or mucking about with a camera on my own) later and now almost finished in setting up my business, the only thing left to complete is my studio conversion which is in the middle of happening and I can't wait!

I made some great friends, one in particular but I know that I will NEVER regret going back to study.  I also can't thank my family and friends enough for all the help over the two years and I'm sorry for being unsociable and ignoring you all ;-)

Anyway this post is just to show off my graduation picture and to show you all how proud I am of myself hee hee and to say it's never too late to go back to school.

My family

Karen and I (my best friend at college)



















Me

The Girls

How sheep eat!

Yeah I know the title is a little silly but that's kinda where the inspiration for this image came from.  I've been dying to take some new self portraits for a while but just been too busy with other shoots to indulge.  Soooooo, today after my morning shoot with some gorgeous little people I managed to indulge before picking Ritchie up from the school bus.

Now.... Granny if your reading this I really didn't wonder about the countryside naked but I can't tell you on here so if your interested I'll tell you all about it the next time I see you ;-).

I'm very much looking forward to producing some new selfies for a change, it helps to keep my mind insane ;-)

Theeeeeee funniest shoot ever!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing a gorgeous little girl called Marlie.  Her Uncle Lee wanted to give her and her parents something different for her first birthday in November so the idea of a photobook sounded good.  The only thing was getting Marlie to me without Marlie's Mum and Dad knowing, which wasn't so bad as Granny has her on certain days so it was arranged that Granny would come over and we would take some pics.  I don't think I laughed so much in all my life at the cute little faces she pulled as I snapped away.

Anyway I've been dying to upload and share some of these with everyone and now I can as Mum and Dad received the photobook today.  My daughter and I have bumped into Michelle (Marlie's Mum) a few times and it's been difficult to not be overly chatty to little Marlie at times.  I almost died when Amara and I met Mum and Marlie in Tesco and Amara is shouting "Hi Marlie cooochie cooochie coooooo" lol.

These last few weeks have been busy with shoot after shoot, I suppose it's because we are nearing Christmas....... OMG only 8 weeks to go or something like that eek!   Hope everyone has had a Happy Halloween xx

Little People

This past week has been quite busy with the little people. I've had great fun on the past few shoots. I have to admit that it's getting colder at this time of year but little Leyton who loves windmills and my pink lady apples was soooooo cute but absolutely frozen. My other shoot was with Joss, his mum and dad were great sports also and mum Louise was like a personal stylist to Joss...... so cute!

Little Leyton



he loved the windmills


I love his little expression on this one


Little Joss and super Dad








These are just a few of my fave's from both shoots.

Now it's time for a cuppa and a biscuit.

Products

Some new products now on offer from Amara Ritchie Photography. There are many other options available and with Christmas not too far away (eek)....... Calendars are the perfect stocking filler for Grandparents and family. I'm currently offering the Long Wall Calendar but please ask for more details.



A gorgeous and contemporary and stylish way to show off your images.
Overall size of around 24x24 inches with 9 equally spaced 6x6 apertures.
Your images are carefully placed behind highly polished 15mm thick acrylic blocks and then fixed into each aperture in your chosen order. The product is finished with a high gloss lacquer in three popular colours - red, black and off-white.



Why not send out your images on a Christmas card.....



Alternative framing.....

Beautifully presented in a material lined black display box. Mounting the print to the back of the 30mm block gives a prism effect, allowing you to view the image in different ways from many angles.



Or why not treat yourself to a stylish 12"x12" custom designed Coffee Table Book to show off to all your friends.



Amara Ritchie offers many products with a variety of framing choices, please ask for more details.

I WANT your ideas, I WANT you to tell me what you WANT so that we can work together to create something that you will love.

Cute Bundles

I know I said I would blog more but it would help if I could remember my password to get in. It normally takes me about half an hour or I figure it out!

Anyway, on Sunday I had the pleasure of photographing this gorgeous little girl called Murron. Her name is from the film Braveheart and she sooooo suits it. She had the cutest, little face and was an absolute joy to photograph. It was rather tricky in getting her to sleep with a few piddly accidents on the way but who cares when you get shots as gorgeous as she was. So mum, dad and I sat and waited and chatted and had numerous cups of tea until little Murron fell asleep.

Things have been pretty hectic with me these past few weeks but I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Little Man

Not only does Cody have Auntie Joanne to deliver him but he has his own personal photographer ;-), how could I not resist taking his photo? Mum, Dad and Cody arrived just after lunch time in which they were here till about supper time. Cody likes to stay wakened most of the day you see.......... and likes to sleep all night!! Lucky for mum and dad but not for me. We had to wait a good while until we got him into that sleepy, drunk like state that is soooooo cute. Anyone who says photographing babies is a breeze is lying, I have to admit that I do love photographing them though. The hat and wrap were knitted by my 80 year old Granny (Cody's Great Granny), she's on her third one while I'm still trying to knit my first ;-(
Oh we also made the papers today........pic to follow soon ;-)

Molly

Click on the image to view larger..

I promised I would post some more images of the gorgeous Molly and here she is! Sound asleep. I'm loving these newborn shots and sooooooo desperate to do some more. I need to get out and shooting more but it's very difficult with the school holidays etc.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Mine was rather hectic to say the least ;-)