Tag: Childrens Portraits

Posted on

The Most Valuable Thing You Own

Eighty-one years ago today this little girl sat in The Waltur Studios, 141a High Street, Walthamstow, London E17 for a portrait.  It was a few days after her First Birthday.

She doesn’t look much like she enjoyed the experience.

I’ve no idea what The Waltur Studios charged my gandparents for this sitting or the couple of prints that survive but I’m sure that to them it wasn’t insignificant.  Given what I know of their circumstances, it wouldn’t surprise me if they went without something else to pay for these.

It was a gift to my generation that it’s now impossible to put a value on.

They obviously thought it was important to get a photographic record of their only daughter on her First Birthday.  In fact, considering the times they were pretty good at taking (and keeping photos).  My Dad have me a whole tin of pics from my Mum’s younger days.  If there was a fire (and everyone else was safe)- this is one of the first things I’d want to save (along with my own pics of my own family).

What makes this one truely unique is that The Waltur Studios printed their details on the back of the print and stamped the date ’26 Nov 1932′.

It’s been our policy to sign, date and identify each of our prints.  They are printed with professional ink and paper which is certified by the manufacturers for over 100 years (assuming you look after them).  I want you and your kids to enjoy these prints just as much as I enjoy having this picture of my Mum

Posted on

Daisy Days – 1

Although they’re here all sumer, June is definitely the big month for daisies. The last couple of years I’ve tried to get the kids together to get something going with the daisies but it just never seems to work out.

It’s a lovely idea but in the end they are just sooo small.  And all that intent on making daisy chains just looks like something else.

But this year we got out in the woods and parks an awful lot and this loads of really nice work from those sessions – some of which include those pesky little flowers…

Posted on

More on smiles

I’ve just finished re-reading Annie Leibovitz’s ‘At Work’.  I’m a big fan and I went back to it looking for ‘January Inspiration’.  Unusually (for me) it’s a photography book with more words than pictures but it’s her perspective on her work that I find most enlightening.

So there’s a few things that I want to mull over and a few references to work that inspired her that I need to follow up.

But there’s one quote that was immediately relevant to my previous post:

“There are not many smiling people in my pictures.  I’ve never asked anyone to smile.  Almost never … You can almost hear the sigh of relief when you tell someone they don’t have to smile.

“…The smile is a component of family pictures.  Mothers don’t want to see their children looking unhappy.  My mother would hire a local photographer to make a family portrait and he would inevitably ask us all to smile.  Forced.  In the fifties, everything was supposed to be OK, although half the time it wasn’t OK.  It took me years to understand that I equated asking someone to smile with asking them to do something false.

“There are people who smile naturally.  It’s their temperament.  And you can catch a smile that is spontaneous, of the moment.  My daughter Sarah has the most beautiful smile.  When you see it occurring so naturally in children you hate to see it lost. I crumbled inside one day when I saw Sarah fake a smile.”

There’s a contrast in the observation that mother’s require smiling pictures of their kids to prove everything is OK and the love she shares with all of us of our own child’s natural smile.

So the objective of a family photographer is to capture those natural, spontaneous smiles and not the fake ones.  Often these smiles are reactive.  It’s a big part of what I do to try and produce those reactions and capture then, no matter how fleeting they are.  This isn’t easy but we always get something. The hardest part is to get a reaction from more than one child in a family group.

She smiles too
Posted on

Big Thank Yous

A Big Thank You to everyone who called in before the mid-term for the Halloween Dress Up.

We had a steady stream of kids coming in for their pic and we raised over €450 for Crumlin and the Ronald McDonald House.

There are a few prints still here for collection so don’t forget to come and get yours if you took part.

Pics from the Halloween Dress Up for Crumlin
Pics from the Halloween Dress Up for Crumlin
Posted on

Thank You

I just wanted to post a quick ‘thank you’ to everyone who I photographed during Communion Season.

Well done to everyone involved, kids, parents, teachers, clergy and extended families.  It’s such an amazingly positive time to be taking photographs!

It was the busiest year yet for me and I’m still working through last week’s images to make them available for viewings.

As usual, there are lots of really nice pictures coming from the Communions this year.  I’ll post some images here soon once I’ve been through them and OK’ed them with the families concerned.

Posted on

Gallery Launch Event

Last Tuesday saw the official Launch of the Gallery with special Guest of Honour (and neighbour) Sean O Se saying (and singing) a few words to celebrate the opening.

Sean O Se Opens sings our praise

Sean was in fine form and a hard act to follow but the Small Fella did his best with the Ribbon Cutting

Small Kids and Scissors!

We were blessed with the company of good friends and fine weather (and yes it was our kids who were chalking on the path outside!).

We’ll have to find another excuse to get everyone together soon!