Baked bread, malteser muffins and cheesy feet...

So, as I have posted before, I have been photographing the 'Taste of cornwall' series and last week we were with Tom and Nicky at the Quay Bakery in Fowey.
Freshly baked bread, rather tempting malteser muffins and tasty cheesy feet biscuits; some great things to photograph. It was a small space with not so much light and as it was mid morning the place was buzzing with customers and bread baking but the end result is great and I am looking forward to going through the shots today. It's going to be quite tricky to choose for the magazine this time as I like a selection of the photos for different reasons... I've got to narrow it down to 5 and, as usual I took far to many photos! For now I thought I would just post a couple of my favourites and, considering I'm all about portraits, this time I'm all about bread. It's making me hungry!

My mum, Brigit Anne...

I used to think that any old Tom, Dick or Harry could take a decent photograph until I first stopped using the fully automatic button on my 'Canon D...s...5...something or other'. - Brigit Strawbridge

It was mother's day today. For her present I wanted to take some portraits of my mum. Together we chose places that she felt at home and places that were particularly relevant or significant to who she is... outside with nature, home by a cosy fire or at her favourite cafe drinking a soya milk, half shot cappuccino! As with all portraits, the arty part of me also wanted to see if I could capture certain parts of her personality through the lens. After all, if I can't capture an essence of my own mum in a photo I probably should be looking at a different career! 

On a practical level it is definitely easier to do a photo shoot with a family member as you can boss them around and be pretty blunt about what you are trying to achieve with each shot. You can fumble, change your mind and generally be a little more unprofessional ;-) Unfortunately, there are some harder things to consider when photographing people close to you because you desperately want them to approve of the portraits... even more than usual (especially if it's a gift on mother's day!) Luckily, my mum is happy with these and has very kindly let me share them on here.

I had a lovely day and I hope my mum did too. She was an amazing model; patient and creative, and I think the end results are really beautiful.

As always I am proud to show off my mum... isn't she gorgeous!!!

for the ladies...

Photography was a licence to go wherever I wanted and to do what I wanted to do. - Diane Arbus

Just a quick post to say happy International Women's Day! 

I had a lovely shoot today with the first woman in our 'Taste of Cornwall' series too so I thought I would post one of the photos... Jane owns Pinky Murphy's in Fowey; a gorgeous lady who runs a gorgeous cafe.

Anyone who has been to Pinky Murphy's will know how amazing and unique the setup is inside, it is a cafe in a refurbished boat house and filled to the ceiling with eclectic knick-knacks, the veggie platter is scrumptious and the staff are fab but the best thing for me is that upstairs there is oodles of natural light pouring in the windows. It was such a great space to shoot some portraits in and I'm really pleased with the photos. Jane is such a special lady and has created a really special environment...so, hopefully she will be happy with the photos too!

Degree or not degree...

Keep this in mind the next time you are tempted to think that your creative output would be doubled if you just spent the rent money on a better camera. Better you should spend a fraction of that total on a few more photography books so you can study the images therein to better use the camera you already have. - Frank Van Riper

I've been searching for a next step with my photography and I have found an interesting online degree (http://www.idesigni.co.uk/courses/ba-hons/photography). I've read up on it, researched the tutors with some googling detective work, made some phone calls to ask about boring money things and I'm still on the fence. 

Assuming the application steps are fine and I get a place... should I sign up for a 4 year Photography Degree or not?

On the one hand the degree would teach me everything I want to know; handed to me in bite size modules via online message-like things. It would give me qualifications to make me feel like a 'real' photographer, I could study along side making money from my photos and it could open some serious doors for me in the future. On the other hand, it's a hell of a commitment if I find that distance learning isn't for me, student loans are not exactly the funnest things in the world to have hanging over you, and at the end of the day, do I need a degree in photography?

hmmm...
got some thinking to do. it could be great.

Anyway, if I apply I need to choose 10 photos to show as a mini portfolio of my best work. I've whittled it down to some of my favourites but can't decide on a final 10, so I thought I would post them here and try and get some feedback. If you have a sec and want to leave me a comment about which photos stand out to you or which 10 you would choose, it would be greatly appreciated!!
thanks ;-)