Change

I have not blogged my usual daily rantings as there has been so much change in our little household.

At the moment, I am tirelessly trying to get my business catapulted into the open market. I am nearly finished with a business website.  So exciting!!! This will also be my new home for my blog.

The Daily Shot will shortly be moving.

The Daily Shot has grown into something amazing for me. It has helped me release my inner author to some extent, and also helped progress my photography.

Our family has also been picked to go onto a TV show in the next few weeks, so it has been very very very full on - and on top of that I am still finishing photos sessions and packaging goodies, and also embarking on new sessions which is very exciting.

I am also back to Australia in a few weeks, and will be holding mini sessions as such for anyone who wants some gorgeous photos. 

For now the biggest change for me, is the upcoming 8th birthday of my first born - where does time go.

I have embarked on an amazing journey with this little girl in the world of photography. She is my absolute muse, and she propells me to take amazing photos.

I started a project when she was born, one amazing portrait photo every year, and I can not wait until she is 20 and we can see them all together.

For now, here she is Miss 8 to be..........

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

Lil Bo...Ness

Today we crossed the water!

Wow - we passed over the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland, and we went over the water. 

I have lived here nearly 10 years and in all my time I have only done this a couple of times.

However this journey was more to do with my husband's interest in checking out a cemetery 

Don't ask - ok, I'll tell you.

It is the craziest thing.

One birthday, many moons ago (btw buying for my husband is absolutely the most difficult thing ever - forget the Rubik Cube - this is worse). Anyway I was in desperate states. 

Malteasers were the highlight of my purchases so far - so I needed something. 

All I know is he likes radios. I wasn't going to get him one of those. 

Why? because I had tried that, and to go in a shop for a radio, is like going into a spice house and locating salt. There are hundreds to choose from - and this was before Digital Radio was the real thing, so I walked straight out of the shop, over to McDonalds for a Happy Meal, and then over to T K Max.

Ok I am detouring again but that store is the BIZ. 

I love it I love it I love it. 

I find the best stuff there. Has anyone else found amazing things there? On the clearance shelf - wow there are endless possibilities. 

I am not joking there is me, and this other lady. I call her Yellow Bag lady. She and I are on the same wave length - many a time - maybe she just works there - but we cross paths too frequently. It used to be a "Oh hey" - that informal I know you, but I wont talk to you, this graduated to "Haha Hi Again", as we quickly sidestepped one another, taking note as to what direction we came from and what we were holding in our arms - to now - "YOU" - and "Move away from the table" - I joke, but there is a bit of that now. I think she has planted a tracker on my car - just saying.

So.....um...TK max - where was I going - ok birthday presents. Hardest thing ever. Then by chance I found a "Family Tree" book. This thing was Uggeeelee, it was like something you would get at a pound shop - discontinued 20 years ago - but I was getting it.

This became the 3rd wheel in my marriage. I dont know what happened, suddenly I was married to "Who Do You Think You Are?" (TV show on ancestry over here in the UK). He was coming home early, brushing past us, to go on the computer and continue his research. Dinner was downed in minutes - up to the computer. Middle of the night - woken up by click click - and see him with the lap top, and a small light attached to his forehead..haha I am joking there - but it became his life.

I am proud of him, as he has found so much out - and this is the crazy part - we discovered we were related. 

Not by Blood. My children are fine. 10 fingers, 10 toes.

Related only by marriage.

His mother's sister's husband is 10th cousin of my own father. Strange - but such great table conversation.

So Bo'Ness well more Carradine is where we discovered alot of my ancestry were born and buried. So today we checked the town out, and the cemetery. We also went walking on the shore for some pics, and yes of course got my daughter to stand in freezing water - it's for the love of art. 

Also we drove past a freshly ploughed field, full of men with metal detectors - I wish I had walked over to ask what they were searching for! Need to google that one!

I also tried out an old camera I won on ebay - 120 film - I can not wait, based on the digital results I got today I can't wait to see what I got on that!

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

haircut

I am at a crossroads at the moment, as to whether to cut my baby boy's hair.

It is looking very much like a 1960's surf bum presently, with a crazy Elvis flip at the front, and shocking bed hair (nest) at the back. I just love it.

I am really at the point where I think it is pure laziness on my part - I can not fathom taking him to sit in that chair.

Last time I went, we had to wait 7 minutes before he was called up - in that time, he managed to get behind the shop into their private quarters and came out with one of the ladies Iphone.

He pulled down 3 displays of jewellery.

He opened the glass cabinet and removed 3 bottles of shampoo.

He decided to run laps around the service desk, missing his forehead with the cash register each time he took the last corner.

The icing on the cake - taking one of the 'towels' - running away from me, clenched between his teeth.

Heavens - I really think he was a 'Rover' or 'Buster' in a previous life - woof!

OK, so I was being the 'MUM' - I wasn't sitting back with coffee in hand and smiling, aw ain't he cute. 

Ok maybe for the first minute I looked around like everyone else, lifting shoulders, shaking head, tutting - 'who's kid is that?'....but then I had to stand up. 'My name is Leah....and I am his mother'

So it begun. I had to chase him.

I was telling him I would give him chocolate (damn I gave it to him to get him to sit in the car seat), ok no chocolate - hey,  he could have my phone, he could have my purse. I screamed at him, under my breath, in probably a voice I could only hear, as I didn't want the other people to think wow she's cruel. I mean to an outsider, they must have felt sorry for me. All this time the owner was saying oh don't worry, he's ok...sure ok for a devil child.

So, the dilemma stands. I have to take him somewhere new. I mean, now when I drive past the shop, I wear a scarf on my head and big black sunglasses. So somewhere new probably means the next town - no - more like a 2 hour distance just to be safe.

Or do I do it myself - ah - the inevitable question - is it really easier? I have had my experience with my daughter. Unfortunately home haircuts instilled a thought in her, that it was ok to cut ones hair. When she was 4 she cut a big chunk, with plastic scissors - that had no blade - you can guess the zigzag we were left with and we saw a hairdresser from then on.

So today I had a hair day. I photographed it, loved it, spent time with it - and I have decided it stays....for now :)

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

Storytelling

Yesterday I did something different, photography wise. We went out for a walk to the park with my husband's sister and her little boy and with my 2 kids too. I still took my camera, but this time - decided I wasn't going to do the usual portrait shots - and instead focus more on telling a story.

This is something that is going to be very mainstream for me soon, as in my business I am going to offer lifestyle "storytelling" sessions - where I will want to capture all the different aspects of the moment - not just the eyes.

I do this everyday in my own personal shooting of my daily life and really LOVE it. Combine that with B&W and I am in heaven. Lately I have been changing my aim, so to speak, and bypassing my favourite thing 'eyes' and actually using my own eyes to look for composition, shadows, light, darkness, lines and patterns.

I am totally self taught in photography, and to be honest the whole composition, rule of thirds etc etc - I just start to shut off from rules, what you should do etc etc - I rely on what I see, if I like it, I take it, if I don't like it - I change my view, so I do like it - that is the only rule I follow.

Storytelling sessions, I think, for me, show real life - and although I love a close up of my children - I love more the little books I make of them doing what they do, lots and lots of pages of images of them laughing, fighting, building, playing, fighting again, reading, painting, creating, hugging - I want to see all of it, and hopefully soon my clients will want that of their own families too!

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