Do foxes have a sense of humour ?

Now I like foxes as much as the next person and I know they can be really cute. Look, I even photograph them from the kitchen window.

They can always see me.

They can be playful especially when young at the start of the season, when their coats are at their best.

I’ve even witnessed them occasionally singing duets to each other and here is the proof !

I think the song they were singing was ‘You don’t bring me flowers anymore’ ( ok it could have been ‘chicken legs’ instead of flowers, difficult to hear, they need to work on their diction!)

But I do not like them leaving their calling cards in my garden, on my patio or on my garden wall (No don’t ask, I do not know how they managed it !)
I do not like destroying their lair (which is under my old shed) in winter as that feels cruel to me. But I was advised that summer is a good time to get them to move on and look for something a bit upmarket.
At first I tried putting a mirror in the garden, as they do not like to see their own reflection (I can empathise with that !) They ignored it completely,  but a robin spent hours trying to woo its new mate.
The next advice was that foxes are frightened off by the smell of the urine of a large predator, so I bought a packet of SCOOT which is exactly that and is not cheap (but cheaper than hiring a wolf I guess). So having made up 5 litres of the stuff and watering their trail in the garden at night, the following morning first thing, I was greeted with this sight.

I’d never witnessed this before, but they are lying down in the area where I drenched most of the SCOOT and I am convinced this was a deliberate act of defiance, as it appeared to be waiting for me to open the blind !!

So I ask you, do foxes have a sense of humour or not ?

Child Photography- Mostly about patience !!

Hi, I’m Rob and still helping out Nikki for a little while longer. I love taking photographs of children especially my own grandchildren, but it’s not without its difficulties. Having all 3 of them do as you ask at the same time, can be quite a trial. The youngest has yet to learn smile on command.

So you have to go through a lot of these……

…and these, with everyone starting to flag

Before you get to this. If you can’t get them to smile, get somebody else to do it, but be careful where they are in relation to the camera, best if they duck behind the photographer’s head and play peek-a-boo.

Obviously it helps if baby is not hungry, or needing changing and also helps if there is a reward of some sort for the older ones. Sweets normally does it !

These were all lit with flash + one soft box and remote flash triggers. For standard portraiture it’s best if the faces of the children are all in the same plane for ease of focussing. Remember it’s the eyes that should be the target of focus.

The wonders of gravitational forces !!

Hello,

I am Rob and I am doing a Guest Blog for Nikki while she is indisposed for a little while.

I am delighted to claim that it was me, who first introduced Nikki to photography a long time ago. She is my daughter and I am very proud of her and the progress she has made, such that I am now the pupil and she, the teacher. So it was not easy to think of a subject blog that is different to hers but still interesting, but here goes.

Think of a pendulum swinging back and forth. We see them every day even though we may not realise it. A child on a swing is a pendulum. A bird feeder swinging back and forth in the wind is a pendulum. Anything dangling on a string or rope can be a pendulum. You may not give them a second glance but they are quite amazing. Take the child on the swing, you give an initial push and the energy takes the swing upwards in an arc, but then the swing slows down as it reaches the top of the arc and gravity asserts itself  to make it fall back towards the earth, to the centre of its swing, its resting position. By the time it reaches the resting position however, the swing now has so much momentum it begins to swing upwards again but in the opposite direction, until gravity pulls it back to earth again. Eventually gravity wins out and the swing comes to the resting position, unless you keep pushing !! (and we’ve all been there !)

Of course a pendulum can swing in more than one direction at a time. It can swing east to west whilst simultaneously swinging north to south, the result is that the pendulum takes an elliptical path. The physics of this, is both fascinating & beautiful, because each elliptical path is slightly different from the previous one and the result can be captured photographically  revealing quite amazing patterns. In photography these are called physiograms, the tracing a swinging light.

All of these photographs were taken using a £13 Maglite torch with the front lens removed, suspended from the ceiling with string and some sort of weight on the torch to give it momentum and to stop it wobbling, I used my house keys!  The camera lies on the floor directly underneath the torch such, that the torch is shining directly onto the camera lens. The camera must be capable of either having a long shutter speed or the shutter being held open to give a time exposure (sometimes indicated by a ‘B’ mark on the shutter speed dial.) The room must be in complete darkness, so is more of an activity for the darker nights. With lights off and the torch on, we just need to get the torch swinging and then take the photograph. For most of these I used a shutter speed of 30 seconds, the maximum for my camera. The camera needs to be perfectly still for whole 30 seconds. I coloured them digitally in an editing program, but you can achieve the same effect by using the wrappers from Cadbury Roses chocolates over the torch-light. You may have to eat the chocolates in the course of your work !

These are my very first attempt, a consequence of my wife being out and little on TV ! The whole process took less than an hour to complete. There are physiograms available on the net much more complex and beautiful than mine and no doubt took a lot longer to make.

I hope you like these physiograms and have encouraged some of you out there, to have a go yourself.

I’ve been wanting to create these since I was 14 years old, having seen a one in my very first photography book (which I still possess today!). It’s taken me all this time to get motivated to doing it, hence why here are so many to now choose from.

This next one was created in the same way but the resulting image was ‘inverted’ (ie create a negative from the original image)within Photoshop.

I hope, my very first blog may have interested you a little and if you have got this far, thanks for reading, much appreciated.

Baby of the Year Competition: Voting Begins…..

Earlier this month we carried out photo mini-sessions in an attempt to find a new ‘cute’ face for ‘Evolution For Women‘.

Its time for all of YOU to make the choice.

Look through the images below, make a note of the child’s number (found underneath each image) and place your vote at the bottom.

Remember, although prizes are involved, it’s just a bit of fun. You can see for yourself how ALL of these children are adorable.

Is Your Child The Cutest Kid?? **Photo Competition**

Evolution for Women are looking for a fabulously photogenic pre-school child to become their next top model. They want to find the cutest, most adorable child to use for their future promotional material. Does your child fit the bill?

Portrait Mini-Sessions will be taking place across Kent over the course of a week and slots are very limited, so get in touch if you wish to book your child in for a FREE photo session and see if it’s your little one that gets chosen….

Voting is by you, friends, family and the public so pick up the phone and book your session now 07786 300 140

Nikki Waterlow Artwork: Something a bit different

When it comes to my family’s birthday and Christmas presents it’s a bit cliché for me to give them something photographic (even though I spend sooo much time photographing them all )

For my sister’s birthday this year I wanted to give her something different. I still wanted to create something for her that was personal and had meaning but without a single one of my photographs being used.

I’ve been addicted to Pinterest in the last few months and have not only been using it for my business inspiration but also for my home and craft inspiration. It was on Pinterest, originally pinned from Etsy, that I found the idea for my Sister’s present and set to work creating it in Photoshop.

Let me know what you think?

This print is made up of my sister’s birthdate, her husband’s birth date, their wedding date, and the birth dates of their three children.

Check us out on Facebook to see how you could currently win your own personalised version

*Dates have been changed to protect against dodgy people that are out there!!

Happy Valentines Day

Once in a while

in the middle

of an ordinary live

LOVE

gives us a fairytale

How many Valentine cards did you receive this year??

I’ve recently designed a few Valentine cards. This one for Kim to give to her boyfriend.

Front Cover

Inside spread

There are loads of card templates out there now, available for photographers to use commercially, so I’ve had lots of fun creating new designs from this year’s new Valentine Mini-Sessions.

Front & Back postcard

A special commission for a little girl’s first love…

If you’re interested in next year’s Valentine Mini-Sessions or want to be updated about our next themed Mini’s, then get in touch.