Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!

At the moment I have my Uncle and Aunt visiting from Australia, and its so nice to have family close by!

My children absolutely adore them, and enjoy all this precious time. My daughter was so excited, as our Aunt (fabulous costume designer!) made her the most gorgeous Red Riding Hood cape for Halloween. If I could fit it I would be wearing it everyday!

It also came in handy with the cold weather while Guising tonight, but the wind did not phase my little girl as she ran the streets for candy! 

Of course she could not just be Red Riding Hood, sweet with a basket off to the Grandmother - no she had to embellish and become deceased Red Riding Hood, eaten by the woof but back to get some sweets....academy award, I'm telling you, she will be there one day :)

I love my husband and his patience with my artistic designs for the Pumpkin. He usually doesn't have much patience for anything arty, so I love him for doing this xx

I was told to list her name as 'Dead Red Riding Hood'............

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 29 - Hope

There are too many things I hope for (probably some too selfish!) :)

I hope to fit in that gorgeous dress I bought a year ago in a goal to lose weight for xmas haha

I hope I win the lotto one day and make some of my family and friends happy!

I hope for peace with all mankind.

I hope that animal testing is completely abolished!!!!!

I truly hope that my kids will always be happy, creative, inspired, sweet and soft.

And the best of friends.

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

2000

Can't believe this little blog has been viewed over 2000 times!

That is probably minuscule in the Blog world - but means everything to me ! Yay!!!

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 28 - Hard

Ive been a bit behind with the old challenge blogs, mainly due to a sick little boy (that is 'hard' going) - but also the cold cold cold weather!

Our study is at the top of the house, and it takes quite a lot of courage to brace the stairs, and the coldness of the room to go on the computer :)

This was a photo a couple of days ago of the 'hard' compacted ice on the window up there!

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Buds

My daughter's best friend in the world is moving to a different country shortly, so they are spending as much time as possible together.

I try to capture my children's memories as best as I can, so that in years to come they have references, photos to help spark memories, and keepsakes to pass on to their children's children.

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 27 - Old

For this challenge, I wanted to share some 'old' photos of my Grandmother.

She must be aged 3 or 4 here, and there is a collection of passport sized photos that are just beautiful.

In her own right, she was an artist, a singer, an actress, and seeing her at this age I think she must have always had that X factor! 

I just had to use (again) my favourite green door from the local cemetery for the backdrop - I wish I had this door at my house - soooo lovely!

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 26 - New

From a small baby who was only saying a couple of words (and compared to his sister at the same age - this was worrying as she talked for Australia!)...we have been a little worried about his speech.

Until recently - maybe boys just take things in more than actually talk, because now its like he has been harbouring all this knowledge, and now its spilling freely.

So the 'new' word we have at the moment is 'Doctor' - more sounding like doctaaaa.

It's great - maybe I have a budding medical practitioner in the making...but no, he is referring to Dr Who!!

OMG - I think I know every word from the episode Series 5 Episode 1.

'Box falls from sky. Man falls from box. Man eats fish custard'

It is well worth a watch of the first 10 minutes of that episode, where Dr Who is trying new foods at the help of a little Scottish girl called Amelia Pond.

One can only take so much Dr Who though....................

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 25 - Bright

I was actually dreading this photo challenge, as I don't like using artificial light and shooting in the dark bugs me. Everything always comes out blurry.

I decided last weekend that I was going to play around with the camera, and try and get some lights at night without it looking like an object being viewed cross eyed!

I think it probably took me couple of hundred test shots at different settings, different ISO, different apertures, but finally I got my groove going on for London town.

This is my most favourite 'bright' shot of the London Eye.

I recently got it printed, and it is clear, no real haze, no real blurs...result!

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Pearl

As a kid did you ever find anything, that you thought was some lost treasure?

I remember being about 5 and playing on the school oval, and I found by chance a coin. It wasn't any coin I had ever seen, although copper, I remember thinking it was a 1 cent or 2 cent coin.

Until I saw the writing, and it was Persian. Looking back, I probably thought it was some magical writing, I would have not even know what a Persian cat was let alone Persia. I do recall embelishing to myself that it had been pushed through the soil from China...I was 5.

Anyway I still have that coin today, and for some reason hold great hope that it is some ancient relic, as it has no date or numerical value on it, just a whole lot of worn Persian scroll. I haven't taken it to be valued yet, as I dont want to break the dream and be told it is a slot machine coin for some old carnival :)

My little guy found his own jewel the other day, a magical ball that reflects light. Otherwise known as a lost bead from a broken necklace :)

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 24 - Black and White

This is my absolute favourite B&W photo of earlier this month. My daughter had tried on a new dress we got for celebrating Christmas in Australia, and I took some photos of her reading, twirling, dancing and singing.

I caught her afterwards leaning against the door in our sunny room, and asked her to pose for me. I love that she is just sitting naturally, and that she is smiling, I love that little reflection of light on her cheek, and the way her hands and feet just fall gracefully. My little sweet pea.

 All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Harlequin

Today in the photo challenge it is about B&W, so I thought I would use the same theme for my own blog today.

These are a few of my snaps from the last few days, but I am saving my absolute favourite one for the challenge later.

All my blogs have one word titles, so keeping in theme, and not being boring to use B&W twice, I am going to call this post 'Harlequin' - a name used for black and white Danes.

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 23 - Dark

I thought I would totally love this challenge today, but all my captures ended up looking more b & w, than actually daaark. I have an amazing b&w shot for tomorrow's challenge anyway - so I tried to persist with the darkness. Inspiration took hold and I was taking shots in tunnels - closing blinds and making the room dark - at one stage I even had the little guy dressed in all black (including batman face mask!) - at the end of it I decided why not try something new, and do a long exposure.

This is something I have never done, and to be honest not interested in. Currently I am following a photographer, who does for example, 30 long exposure shots on one subject and gels them on photoshop, and the end result - well it is a fantastic landscape photo - but that just does not rock my boat...maybe because it seems too much hard work haha...but I def prefer photographing people.

However I tried this evening with the local windmills (again), and played around for this image - its def dark, and almost scary - a dark storm - well it is Scotland!

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 22 - Bokeh

Umm, yeah I found this like totally mind boggling lol

I thought Bokeh, had more to do with something in the foreground being perfect, and the background out of focus - but now I am not sure, and think it has something to do with those light circles in the background...that are IMPOSSIBLE to capture..for me anyway!

I had originally taken this photo based on my original assumption that bokeh is the overall feel of the blurred image in the background with a focused foreground, if that makes sense...

After googling, and trying to check some other photographers images, it seemed to feature the light circles quite frequently, so I tried, and tried, and tried again.....this is 7:30pm last night, in our village street trying to get our 'Bokeh' groove on!

This is definitely something I am going to try and develop further!

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Cuz

Photographing children is quite hard. Most people want a photo with their child smiling and looking straight ahead, but to actually get something like that with small children is very difficult - and I think sometimes comes off looking staged.

I really am all about natural portraits, and on the weekend I got a heap of shots with my children and their cousins.

Soft, whimsical photos, that will be on my walls for ever!

I love this group shot, and it reminds me of a photo that was taken of my 3 brothers and myself when we were kids. My little brother Chris was on my lap, my other little brother Tim was next to me looking into space, and the oldest of the little brothers Matt was looking straight ahead - its a classic photo, and as teens/adults we reconstructed it, sitting in the same positions, and it was hilarious. Anyone who knows me, knows that my 3 brothers ain't so little, all towering over 6 feet in height and built like footballers, so the later photo was so cool! I actually wonder where that is, as I would love to post them both to show! Investigations needed!

So with these guys, I will def be taking this same group shot in 10 years, and see how they have changed!

The other beautiful thing about portrait photography, is that for those moments in time, you can capture, love, friends, family, and keep those images forever.

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 21 - Air

I had some great photos of Air-a' planes...but thought I would use my cloud photos.

I unusually take alot of photos of the sky and clouds - I never really realised this, being so in love with portrait photography, but I am starting to notice when I am editing my photos, portrait, portrait...cloud...portrait, portrait, portrait....cloud with bird...

So these are a few I got over the weekend...the travelling balloons are thanks to my children fighting...if only a picture had sound...well that's a movie, isn't it, trust me, you would not have wanted to hear that one :)

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 20 - Nature

Nature for me used to be the beach. Growing up in Oz, if you are getting down with nature - then you are heading for the sand!

Now, after being in Scotland for so long, Nature is more like walking in fields, exploring in forests - and this is my favourite photo from the last month.

My kids playing in Nature!

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

London

Well, usually I try to post a photo a day on my blog. Usually of my kids :) but always of something new and for me, something technically new with my camera. I like to try different styles, and I love Portraits, but this weekend it was nice to get out and see the countryside!

As I have been away, I am going to do one post, but have a few photos from the last few days, to capture in a nut shell, our little visit to London!

Our main purpose was to see my Brother and his gorgeous family, and most importantly attend my little nephew's 3rd Birthday! It was great to catch up and better yet to grab some shots of all the munchkins together.

When I first moved to the UK, I spent some time in London, and I did actually in my time do the usual touristy things, but honestly I never saw it at night, the way it totally should be viewed! The city comes alive!

I won't go into boring details of everything we saw, but I will share a scary incident we had. So taking the opportunity to visit the city at night, was great and photo hopping to different hot spots was fab!

However London is made up of ring roads, and they are sooooo confusing. The city is huge! So to get to one side from the other, is mayhem - during the day, suicidal, and at night, bordering on suicidal. 

My husband thought it would be a great idea to see Piccadilly Circus. We were manoeuvring the car around the city, based on the guides of our mobile phones acting as Sat Navs - mine thought I was in London, Ontario! Hubs phone wouldn't reload properly - this was our costly mistake. Approaching what was the street to Piccadilly circus, we overlooked it and came to it a different way - mistake, big mistake, huge!

We were in the bus lane! I told him it was one, he said it would be ok, as a Rickshaw had now come behind us. The lights changed, and with the Rickshaw suddenly going up on the pavement, it was clear we were now down a ONE WAY road...It was like a scene from a National Lampoon movie, and I was married to Chevy Chase...honestly the terror that must be seen on our faces, probably being laughed at the traffic control centre as we speak - I was screaming, he was stuttering, a man was standing waving his finger at us - and about 100 cars and buses all originally coming towards us, suddenly stopped and starred - as hubby did a....3....point...turn...in....Piccadilly...Circus! My daughter woke up at that moment from the back seat, and called out "Are we in a movie?" - the bright lights were bright, or was it my face!

Totally inappropriate, totally embarrassing, totally a tourist thing to do...damn :)

I photographed this guy at Westminster, and he was actually pretty cool. He told me I shouldn't be out by myself. I showed him the car that was waiting for me, however, he went and put his bags under the tree, and continued to follow me around and when I left, he went and got his bags again.

Buckingham Palace..of course! The queen was waving out the top window to the left ;)

I was so annoyed - what a perfect silhouette photo for day 14!

Yes, well the fateful Piccadilly Circus. I did try to get one of us with all the cars in front of us, however I was quickly told by Husband, to put the freaking camera down..so this is what I got, sneakily...

A hotel room for 2 days, with a 7 year old...this collection is tame to our usual travels...great times with La La Loopsy dolls...wine required!

My little niece giving me the word - cut it out!

Cousins - you have to love them! This is why i absolutely love taking natural light photographs! Natural, bright, kids happy, own personalities shining through - love these kids xxx

Baby Cousin, is much better than a baby sister, so her dad keeps telling her....watch this space :)

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.

Day 19 - Noise

Catch up time for the last 3 days of challenge photos!

Over the weekend I was in the magical place that is London!

Living in the 'sticks', the highlight noises here are cows, horses trotting down our street on occasion, or fast jets that fly through the valley.

Noise in London, is in stereo!

Wow, we did a impromptu drive around London, late one night (from 9pm to midnight) and it was like a city that does not sleep! Driving through outer London into the city, and tens of barber shops were open, and people were having haircuts at 11:30pm at night - I wish I had jumped out the car to grab some snaps, at it was an amazing onlookers experience seeing these people have haircuts, it was almost like a meeting place - people were laughing, dancing, I even saw one small child sitting back in the chair watching his mother get her hair cut! The funniest one was a woman getting her hair cut, seated at the window, and her 'man' was sitting in the car outside, and she turned to 'show' him and he gave a thumbs up :)

Parking in London during the day - don't even attempt it, but at night, it is a different story, and my hubby managed to park so I could jump out and grab some scenic shots of Big Ben at Westminster.

Standing under Big Ben, and I was lucky to witness the quarter and half hour chimes, and they were amazing! The bright lights of the city loomed in the air around Big Ben, and the chimes timed with the people walking and talking, the buses and cabs zooming, and the River Thames flowing - it was an amazing noise to witness.

I have some other amazing photos from London that I will post on other challenge days - looking forward to Day 25  'Bright'!

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.