Merry Light in the Dark Festival to you all!

I'm signing off from work tomorrow and wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas. May your festive break be a red flower and some spangly lights in the deep shadow of the midwinter. 

Christmas

It seems appropriate to post these on Twelfth Night. A quiet, contemplative festive season this year. I cannot say I'm sad to see the back of 2013, but I really feel that 2014 is going to be a stonker. 

A shoot with the Voskoboynik family

Before Christmas I head over to the beautiful home of the Voskoboynik family to shoot some images of sweet baby Leon.

  

And here's the whole family, sporting some fabulous Christmas jumpers (anyone else still not over the fact that Christmas is done for another year?)

A New Year

 Well, hello.

I have got a bit slack lately both with posting and with pursuing all those more creative personal projects. One of my New Year's resolutions is to post at least once a week, and to start sharing some more collage, painting, printing and scan projects (which I dabble in but don't often post here).
So here's my resolution post, there'll be another tomorrow about the recent client work I've shot, and then I will be on the road to fresh new pastures. At least, that's the plan.

Above are images from my Christmas, in Maidenhead, Essex, and Oxford. It was jolly and I'm still sulking it's all over.

Happy New Year...introducing Hunt the Pickle

Wow. What a fantastic Christmas game this is and I'm only sorry I haven't posted it sooner. My brother's delightful American paramour Jess joined us for Christmas week, and introduced this tradition to us. You pin a pickle-shaped ornament somewhere in the branches of your tree. Then you all look for it. The first one to find the pickle gets a special prize. Apparently it's a tradition of German-Americans but Jess does admit that she hasn't met any actual Germans who know anything about it. Well folks, lucky me - I was the winner of the 2010 Leedale Pickle Hunt. I think that actually it's fair enough that I won since the prize was some glittery, kitsch-beyond-kitsch Christmas decorations in the shape of American junk food. Hurray! 

Top-bottom, l-r: milkshake, hamburger, hotdog, Philly cheese steak [? not sure about this one],  pretzel,  French fries, pizza, popcorn. God Bless America.

The pickle! 

I hope you've all had a wonderful 2010 and that 2011 proves to be happy, healthy, and productive!

Walking in a winter wonderland...

Christmas Day in Berkshire rose sunny and white, crisp, clear and beautiful. We walked along the river and fed the ducks while I forced everyone to pose for me so I could try out the new lens Father Christmas brought for me...

Josh gives it his best Blue Steel.

A very pretty Christmas!

I love Christmas and it's mostly because of the sparkling decorations helping keep the dark and cold at bay. We were decorating the flat this evening, and I'm sure I documented more of the pretty lights than I helped hang baubles! Lisa (my crafty flatmate and the author of the Hawk and Fallow blog) and I have done a splendid job I think and there'll be more photos to come over the days. (Thanks for the lovely bokeh, Canon!)