Last week I spent a wonderful afternoon with Blair Pucknell, photographing her beautiful wedding dresses. Shooting against a grey background with minimal props, really allowed the dresses to shine. I’m looking forward to seeing how Blair uses the images on her new website and to shooting more of these lovely designs.
Latest
Shooting Stars
I love the energy of my Shooting Stars parties – everyone arrives so full of excitement and it really shines through in the photos. This fun bunch really enjoyed their themes of Pyjamas, Bright colours and all in black. I had also spent some time making some new props and a backdrop to brighten things up, which along with the balloons and party poppers really made the party go with a bang!
Know your meat
With all the furore over horse meat recently, it seems a great time to be blogging about my work with the local butcher. It seems to me that one of the reasons this whole mess with labelling has happened is the length of the supply chain; no-one has to be accountable because the customer never actually meets the person who has sourced the meat, which makes it all the easier for negligence and fraud to slip in. We are completely divorced from the whole process, so no wonder we feel cheated.
Visiting your local butcher cuts the supply chain down and means that you can talk to the people who deal directly with the farmers.
I know that we are all watching our pennies at the moment and that ready meals are sold very cheaply but I have to say, the crackling on the pork joint pictured below was stunning, and the meat was fantastic quality, which in itself makes it worth it. However, I also think we should also take a leaf out of our parents’ books. When I was growing up, our Sunday roast kept us fed for half the week. From the leftover meat roasted on Sunday we would have cold meat and salad or chips on Monday, meat risotto on Tuesday and if we were lucky, the remainder was minced for shepherds or cottage pie on Wednesday. That’s four meals from one joint, which I think is brilliant value.
Haywards Butchers in Tonbridge, source all their meat from the UK. Their pork, poultry and lamb come from Kent and Sussex and their beef from naturally reared cattle in Scotland.
They also supply lots of local restaurants, pubs and local businesses.
You can find Haywards Butchers on-line here: http://haywardsbutchers.co.uk/
and in real life here:
6 York Parade
Tonbridge
Kent
TN10 3NP
Emma Howitt – beautiful clothing for children
When you combine gorgeous children and beautiful clothes, the results are bound to be great photos! I recently had a lovely time photographing a range of clothes available to buy from Emma Howitt. The children were so comfortable in the clothes and enjoyed wearing them so much that they were immediately at ease in front of the camera. We had lots of fun and the morning sped past. What I love about these clothes, and one of the things we wanted to capture, was the superb detail. There were frills, pockets and layers to shoot, each one helping the clothing to stand out from the usual high street purchase. With the help of a few props (ladybird wings, pom-poms and a remote control spider!) our models rocked the shoot. Thanks guys!
Contact Emma for more information about the collection
t – 07801 894838
e – emmahowitt@rocketmail.com
w – facebook.com/emmajanehowitt
Shooting Stars Parties
I want to tell you about my shooting stars parties, they’re so much fun! So I’m going to talk you through a party that I shot last year and then give you some suggestions for other themed dressing up.
The birthday girl (and it is usually girls, although there’s really no reason why boys shouldn’t enjoy a party like this) can invite 8 friends along to their party and tell them what their chosen theme of clothes are. If you plan to bring along food for the party (there’s a great kitchen, with tea and coffee facilities and a fridge) I would suggest two outfit changes, otherwise, if you plan to eat later, we can probably just about fit in 3 outfits, as in this shoot. The birthday girl can choose any outfit theme they want. These girls arrived in bright colours, changed to black and white and finished in pjs.
These were great fun themes and worked really well, giving me a real range of shots.
Once we have warmed up with some group shots and silly poses, I photograph each girl individually. We get the blow-fan out, which gives hair a pleasing flowing look, and the girls really get into their poses, advising and complimenting each other (I love that). I get them jumping too, there’s some great poses to be caught that way
The second outfit change is another chance to capture each girl individually, and having a black and white theme gave us a change in mood and we went a little more stagey and theatrical. Someone had brought along a red hat, which went perfectly with the red chair and monochrome clothes.
By this time, the girls have really loosened up and are usually full of ideas about what to shoot next so we have lots of fun photographing these, it really is a collaborative event.
If you have decided not to break for some food, we carry on to a third outfit change. Every single shooting stars party I have photographed has included a onesie/pjs theme! It seems to work for any age, from 7 to 16, we all love a slumber party. Guests can bring along duvets, pillows and cuddly toys and a pillow fight often ensues. The birthday girl takes this last outfit change as an opportunity to have shots taken with each of their friends individually.
By the end of the session everyone is full of how much fun they’ve had and very excited to see the photos. I create an online gallery which I email round to all the guests and everyone receives a voucher which will cover a 5×7″ print, but of course they are welcome to order any prints they would like. The birthday girl also gets a hard back 8×8″ album including her choice of 40 images from the shoot. I recently had an email from a mum telling me her daughter had gone to bed clutching her birthday album!
What I love about these parties is that they can appeal to a wide range of ages, depending on how you decide you’d like to dress up. For younger parties, how about an animal theme? Or bringing a dressing up box? Fairies, princesses… the list goes on. Older guests might like to come in glamorous ball gowns or just something comfy and familiar.
I have started a pinterest gallery with ideas for dressing up themes, using some shots from my parties and some general ideas. http://pinterest.com/jpjanetpenny/shooting-stars-party-themes/
If you are interested in booking a Shooting Stars Party do give me a call on 07905 053 794 or send me an email to janet@janetpenny.com
You can find out more info about prices and timings here: http://www.janetpenny.com/shooting-stars
Nikki Page Antiques
If I told anyone who knows me that I had been photographing antiques this last week, they would agree that it was probably my perfect job. I LOVE antiques, especially the quirky, hard-to-find sort that Nikki Page has for sale. So, it was with a light heart that I spent the day shooting last week and with a head full of ideas that I left. Nikki is also organising an antiques fair in May, details to follow.
Contact Nikki via her website to see more of her wonderful antiques http://nikkipageantiques.com/
Any reason is a good one
A quick scan of Facebook proves that digital photography is everywhere. We can record every aspect of our lives and we do!
Yet we still turn to professionals to record those special occasions: Weddings, pregnancy, babies and landmark birthdays. There’s something about a professional shoot that really puts the seal on those moments that we want to remember. So what makes an occasion special? Countless moments pass us by, wouldn’t it be great to record just one or two of them professionally?
What would your moment be? Passing an exam, moving house, changing schools or losing those all important front teeth…
Artist spotlight- Carl Larsson
The work of Swedish painter Carl Larsson (1853- 1919) has long been an inspiration to me. I love his use of light and the warm way his depicts family. Larsson had 8 children (one of whom died very young) and often chose to paint domestic scenes including his offspring and his wife. For me, the delicate details and glimpse of 19th century life are fascinating.
In his book “A Home”, Carl Larsson writes: “On sunny and not so sunny days we eat behind the house below the big birch tree and, do you know, that really tops it off! If it wasn’t for the birch tree the whole place would be of no value to me. It gives such a magnificent shadow and it’s just windy enough to make the mosquitos go elsewhere.”
For me, Larsson is a perfect example of what I wrote about last week – being in the moment.
I have had a lovely time making a pinterest gallery of Carl Larsson paintings. I hope you enjoy looking at the them.
CARL LARSSON
Breakfast under the big birch
© Estate of Carl Larsson
CARL LARSSON
Flowers on the windowsill, c.1894
© Estate of Carl Larsson
CARL LARSSON
The First Lesson
© Estate of Carl Larsson
Being in the moment
These two images of my youngest are very precious to me. They were taken some years ago, when he was two and a half and we were on holiday with family in America. We were staying in some wonderful log cabins at Friday Harbour, Washington. Adam somehow never really got over his jetlag in the two weeks we stayed and this particular day he padded in to me at 4 in the morning. Both of us bleary eyed, we trooped to the kitchen and I made up a bowl of cereal.
These were pre-digital days for me and I took my Nikon FM2 with me everywhere, usually loaded with black and white film. The light was perfect, Adam had his morning hair and was intent on eating breakfast half asleep, I couldn’t resist snapping.
Shots that mean this much aren’t just about the image itself but how you were feeling when you took it too. They don’t have to be a masterpiece, they don’t even have to be in focus, they just have to conjure up emotion. They’re about being there, in the moment.
Warming up
Not every child sits in front of my camera and produces a smile first off. Like many of us, some children are shy and not convinced that they really do want to have their photo taken. I love this sequence because it shows that slow warming up that often occurs – starting with uncertainty and finishing with a very cute smile 
