All the light...

Remember I told you we visited the cinema before I took the portrait shots at the beach in my last 'A Mother's Dream' post?  Well the following images in today's blog are from that same day.

I love our local cinema;  The Light in New Brighton.  It's been around for a few years now as a main part of the regeneration of our seaside complex and has become a favourite place to go on a dreary weekend morning for the family AM film showings.

On this morning we had already booked our tickets on the word of my weather app that had told me it would be cloudy with some showers.  Fitting for sitting in the theatre for a couple of hours before lunch.  But wouldn't you know it.  We rock up to New Brighton with the sunshine already making our eyes all squinty at 10am.

We formulate our usual plan of one of either me or my Hubs going with the kids to get some snacks from Morrisons, while the other heads into the cinema to pick up a much needed (on my part) coffee. This weekend I headed to the cinema first.  I arrived, ordered our 'as large and strong as you can make it please' drink, then turned to find a seat in the lovely, bright foyer area.  To my delight I see that the tables have the most pretty and simple, fresh flower arrangements on them AND I had remembered my camera that day.  Winner.

My daughter and I spent the next 10 minutes taking photos and playing with the shadows.  We were having so much fun that we didn't care about the odd looks we were getting (it happens often) from others as we clicked away, chatting animatedly about how much fun we were having.  My daughter even took some herself using my camera.  She's desperate for a DSLR herself at the age of 8.  I'll add her photos too.

So here you go...

Thanks for reading peeps.  Best wishes,

x Fleur x ~ https://fleurdavies.wixsite.com/fleurdaviesphoto

(As always, click into the images to see them at full resolution.  Cheers loves!)

Now Poppi's images.
She told me that she loved the orange so much and she wanted that to stand out when we edited. :)

The 365 struggle was real.... (a jesting post)

So my 365 completion date is upon me with under a week to go...  I'm not going to pretend I loved doing it every - single - day, but on the whole I am very happy with the result.  I'll blog monthly collages as soon as I get chance (so like in 2017...), but for now I just want to share with you a funny aspect for me of this photographic journal.

Some days I would get a shot early in the day - in fact for most of the first few weeks - maybe even a month, I would plan and have an idea of something I would shoot that day.  I'd get it done quickly and efficiently.  And of course, on long, bright days in the summer and on days out with family I'd have plenty of images to choose from.  I was never one to be too concerned with the *must-get-a-truly-artistic-shot-every-single-day*, but when I had chance to really plan that was great.  It didn't take me long to just accept and embrace the fact that I was documenting mine and my families lives for a full year!  And so much went on in this year...  But any who - I digress - I'll go into more detail over that with a full year blog...

*     *      *      *      *      *      *      *

So some days would be simple... And some days would not!  I work mostly in lifestyle photography.  Capturing moments - so naturally this sometimes means that time isn't on my side.  I have to get the shot and get it fairly quick (parents will know what I mean - these pesky (now) 8, 6 and 4 year olds can be rather unforgiving when it comes to waiting around for the camera...)  But I'm comfortable with that.

On the days where I had less daylight hours, no kids at home (alas this was the year my final baby started full time school) and dreary, typically dull British weather I would attempt still life photography.  Please don't chortle at my attempts!  I love all styles of photography, but because I don't practise it as much I struggle - always looking for a different angle or perspective...  So here is where my blog post is going:  Some days the 365 was a struggle - a real one.  What would seems like an epiphany of "Oh, yes, I'll use this moment now for today's entry..." (and in my head imagining it would only take me a matter of minutes to grab my camera and have the shot done) would turn into a reality of changing perspectives - click - alternate lighting - click - shooting specifically for a black and white conversion - click - changing perspectives again - click - trying an arty out of focus shot - click - going macro - click - shallow depth of field - click - realising my iso was way off - click again - pulling back - click again...  And this would go on and on, and before I knew it I'd spent the best part of an hour on the entry and had a compilation of shots of newspaper, a paintbrush and a picture frame!!

Ironically through (or fateful perhaps), the frame I was painting here is the one I will be displaying the final collages of this year long project within...  So here you go.  One day's "It'll take me two minutes" which actually took more than an hour from conception to completion! Ha!

Thanks for looking ~  Fleur x

www.fleurlouisephotography.co.uk