getting back into photography: Autumn gold

It's been a while since I last blogged and I have now moved cities, started a new job and got married! I'm living in London working in the creative services team of a development NGO.

For those of you new to my blog, I love trying my hand at all sorts of creative ventures, from gig and travel photography, to filmaking, sewing and graphic design.

This weekend was the first chance I had to get out and about with my camera in London and these were taken on my way to Sainsburys for the weekly shop. Despite living in the city we're lucky to have a big common on our doorstep and the light on Sunday showed it off to it's best.

Another new addition to my life is Adobe's Lightroom editing software which I hope will add that je ne sais quoi to my photos but I am still learning. Here are the results...

Goodbye Durham

This is my second farewell blog post of the week (for my work one follow this link).

Today was my last day living in Durham and the sun was shining which makes the city look beautiful so it was a good day to have off work to enjoy wandering around the cobbled street, listening to buskers and bumping into friends.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera into town but I did get some snaps of the rest of the day. This is how I spent my last day in Durham:

          A delicious summer lunch with birthday chutney eaten in the sunshine          

Packing up all my remaining possessions ready to be shipped down south

Re-potting lavender plants on the patio

Watering the seedlings on my windowsill that my house mates are going to babysit for me

Making home-baked cookies as a goodbye present

Goodbye Durham! I will miss you and your inhabitants but I will be back to visit often and friends are always welcome in London.

a beautiful little girl

I've had my 50mm lens for a few weeks now and since getting it I've been doing a little flurry of portrait photography. I think it helps that compared to my other lens (28-135mm) this one is positively dinky and so it's much less awkward pointing it in people's faces! Although I think when you're the age of this little girl then you probably don't mind too much either way.

These photos were taken last weekend when my fiancé and I travelled just outside Durham to visit his sister and family. Last time we got to see them his niece was just a week old so it's been great getting to know her a bit more now she's smiling and interacting with people more.

 Baby photography is a completely new thing for me but it is a real privilege to be able to capture some special family moments and I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to seeing our little niece grow up and I can promise to do my duty as a doting aunty and take many more photos to come as she gets older...

A venture into portrait photography...

It was my birthday last weekend and very excitingly I got a new camera lens for my Canon 450D! I got my camera about three years ago and have been working with the 28-135mm lens ever since so it's great to be able to add a bit of variety with a lovely 50mm portrait one. 

As you can see I wasted no time in asking my friends to pose for me:

As you can see it's such a lovely lens to use for portraits and I'm looking forward to getting more into 'people' photography.

Here's a final pic to make you smile. It's my friend Tom with a fish piñata on his head:

back in time for Christmas!

Hello and welcome back to Ribbon Willow! As I said in my last post I had a bit of a break as life got busy. Things were starting to calm down but then I got engaged last weekend so I think it will carry on being busy for the next little while! However, I didn't want to neglect my blog any longer and I thought I'd getting a few little Christmas-themed posts in before the 25th.

Every year my parents ask me if I'd like to make their Christmas cards for them. Sometimes they're drawings or collages, this year they were photos. I went on holiday to Morocco for a week in October (look out for photos of this in the New Year!) and having taken pictures of camels during a trek, they made for perfect Christmas cards:

And here are a couple that didn't make the final cut:

It's nice to be back. Watch out for more festive posts on wreaths and Christmas jumpers!

a very Scottish summer

It's been a while since I've blogged so I thought I'd return with a nice summery post...

I went on holiday to the Cairngorm National Park with my family this year for a beautiful, if somewhat wet and windy, holiday. It didn't rain all the time though and we had some great days out exploring the landscape. Here are some of most Scottish shots to sum up my time away:

View looking back down the valley on the way back from Ben Macdui

Grasses on the mountainside

Out on a bike ride on the Rothiemurchus estate

Huge pipe band at the Abernethy Highland Games

Woods at Loch Morlich

Highland heather

Red squirrel making a bid for some food

Toadstools love the damp weather!

It wouldn't be a real Scottish collection without a thistle

Herd of reindeer on top of Cairn Gorm

Hay bales in the field

Hope you've enjoyed this and maybe feel inspired to visit yourself. I love it that there are so many beautiful parts of the UK that I'm yet to visit!

a tribute to a train enthusiast

This weekend we had a clan gathering at my grandparents house in Bedford. It was my Grandpa's birthday on the Saturday and so it was a good excuse for us all to get together and celebrate. And we had a lot of fun:

There's a prize if you can spot my younger brother Simon!

Also over weekend, I'd been asked to take some photos of the contents of Grandpa's loft...

Grandpa is a very big fan of trains, and has been his whole life. I think the beginnings of this set began to take form 70-80 years ago and there are some really beautiful engines as part of his collection.  The set takes over the entire loft space and comprises of multiple stations, tunnels and settlements, all named after his grandchildren. For example, Jennyhill Tunnel and Benchester Junction or Rhianna's Farm and Emma's wood. It was a real treat to be able to spend an hour or so capturing some of the details, and although I've posted quite a lot of photos here, it's only really a taster of the real thing. The detail is phenomenal, down to the tiny posters on station wall and the minute bus stop signs.

I have fond memories of going up into the loft as a child and playing with the trains. When I was small I could climb underneath the track and stick my head up inside a tunnel to watch Hornby trains zip by in front of my nose! And I think those memories are ones I share with all my cousins and also my Mum and her siblings as the set was already well under-way when they were growing up.

Unfortunately the train set is going to be dismantled soon, so these are some of the last pictures of it. But hopefully they fulfil their purpose to keep a record of an amazing collection and to stop our memories getting too dusty!

The all important keys to wind up the trains