My little girl has grown up (nearly!).  Having worked so hard and passed her entry exam for Senior School, Saturday was an opportunity to let her hair down and join all her class mates for the Leaver’s Ball.  A totally amazing night that provided some wonderful memories. My heart skipped a beat to see how much she has grown up in confidence and looks and  quite frankly, couldn’t be more proud of her if I tried. I couldn’t help but shed a few tears as she now moves on to the next phase of school life.  For me I guess it means no more costume making, finding tins and packets for Harvest Festival, collecting shoe boxes for model making, attending sports day  and all the other things that come with your kids being in the lower end of the school - it’s actually something that I will miss terribly.   

Although short of time, I did manage to grab her and her brother for a couple of shots before she headed off to the party…

I was recently asked to help out my fellow photographer and friend Charlie Johnson with an idea he had for a present for his wife’s “significant” birthday.  As you can see below that involved taking fab pictures of Charlie and his two gorgeous boys  running, jumping and rolling around in a field of buttercups.   I’m not sure who enjoyed it the most, Charlie or the boys but I left behind two over excited little boys who were sworn to secrecy and an exhausted  dad desperate for the nearest glass of wine  All the images were presented in a gorgeous Queensberry album much to the delight of his lovely wife Fleur  and needless to say, lots of brownie points were earned that day for Charlie.

Over the weekend I was invited to photograph this great family.  Clients wanting informal pictures of them having fun together is my idea of a great photoshoot and it’s definitely those sort of photographs that memories are made of.   I’m not sure whether it was his Irish heritage or whether he was just a wonderfully gifted storyteller but this dad had his little girl in stitches acting and recounting the story of Cinderella.  As you can see in the picture below, she took great delight in turning him into a pumpkin with the wave of her pink marabou feathered wand.  As for her little brother, he was just a total cutie and is obviously desperate to be able to join in when he’s big enough.  Thank you all for a great morning

I’m a little late with blogging on this subject but a couple of weeks ago I was invited to the Getty Image Gallery in London to receive my prize for Best Portrait Album in the Annabel Williams Photography Awards 2009.    The awards are held bi-annually and entries were received from professional photographers from around the world. Judges included photography industry experts including Queensberry Albums and Canon UK as well as Annabel herself.  

The judges kindly had the following to say…

‘Sarah’s portrait album demonstrated blindingly good photography, executed with total assurance of vision, composition and skill.  She’s used extraordinarily good cropping and a wonderful range of shots.   Fantastic, simple and powerful design.’

I was totally thrilled to win and it was great to catch up with some old faces as well as meet some amazing new photographers.  The following images are courtesy of  Jo at Shoot-Lifestyle, who deservedly won Best Wedding Album.  In the pictures you can see (L to R) Simon & Jo (Shoot-Lifestyle), Gill Maheu - runner up Best Portrait Album, who came all the way from Geneva and John Archibald who came runner up in the Best Children’s image - my favourite image from the entire competition.  It was great to meet you all, please keep in touch. 

A great photoshoot with this lovely family.  They brought along lots of gorgeous clothes for the kids to wear including this lovely tutu and pink shoe combo, which I totally fell in love with and made for some great photography.  Getting “the family” shot proved a little difficult but as soon as the kids were on their parent’s shoulders lots of hair pulling ensued and although mum and dad no doubt have bald patches as a result, I just loved the shot!