Flying High!

Another glorious summers day in Scotland (not said that in a while!!) and Denise, her 8 year old daughter and husband are waiting to have a family shoot. She told me by email previously that she'd managed to get the use of a beautiful house that had fabulous gardens in her home town. The house is privately owned and apparently, 12 years ago, Denise and her husband had used the gardens for their wedding photographs, so Denise decided to be brave and knock on the door and…ASK a few days before the shoot! Later when I had finished, edited and sent the finished images to this client, I posted the shoot on my face book photography page and named the house Barncluith House. I have to admit now, after a little investigation, that this house is not called Barncluith House! I assumed it was, as it was on a street called Barncluith Road and was thee only grand, country, Victorian estate type house on that road, as far as I could gather. So, huge mistake on my part, was not finding out the actual name of this house and the owners name for future reference, especially since I was invited in for a cup of tea by the owner and we got on like a little Victorian house on fire!! This was a truly magical location to shoot photography and I could have, had I played my cards right, secured a nice little usage of her gardens next time I was in town. Since I've been google mapping and re tracing my steps to try and find this house again (I have found it, but not the name), I also found out the history of Barncluith House which is really interesting but totally by the by and nothing to do with anything at this point in the story. So, as I said, fabulous location, stunning, meticulously kept gardens with nooks and brooks and stone work surrounding the grounds. The owner lives alone, husband travels a lot, two grown up kids (who, by the way, went to the same school as my kids way back in the day when I lived in Glasgow, it was a long chat over that cup of tea!) so when I spotted a rope dangling from a big old oak tree, I thought, that's certainly not been used for a while. I got Denise's husband to tie a big knot in there and lets see if it can be restored to what it was put there for in the first place, a tree swing! Hannah, Denise's daughter, was happy to oblige and use it and we got a few beautiful shots of her on that swing,...and mum...and dad..........and me! It's hard to resist a rope swing at any age!

This whole shoot resulted in a selection of some of the best family pics I have taken for a while, for three main reasons. One, the location, two, the weather and three, Hannah! Apart from being a beautiful, aesthetically perfect little girl, she took direction better than any professional adult model I have ever worked with. Under the shade of some trees I said, ''Ok Hannah, you go far way from me and when I shout go, run towards me, but not too quickly, then when I shout now, I want you to jump into the air as high as you can, but, look right into my lens, smile, keep your feet pointed and preferably your fingers in a nice pose too. Now I know that's a lot to think about so we'll do it a few times, and each time I'll call out the instruction you're forgetting to do, ok?'' Off she went. I set all my camera settings for an action shot, lay down in the grass, got my elbows into position for a steady camera and looked through my view finder. There she is, in her little white dress, patiently waiting exactly where I told her to be, I call out..."GO!' I swear, there are times when you wish you were taking a video instead of shooting still images because what happened next, slowed down a little and add some music would have been truly beautiful to watch. This gorgeous little girl came elegantly running towards me, jumped on command to an alarming height, legs and feet in perfect balletic positions and arms outstretched in alignment with her body, all whilst looking straight into my lens, eyes bright and a perfect beaming smile! Bam, first attempt, in the bag! I made her do it another 6 or 7 times only because she was loving it, but the first shot was brilliant and all 7 after were just as good! The whole shoot followed in basically the same way, it was one of the easiest shoots i've ever done, she not only did exactly as I told her but added her own little poses and looks. Whoever said never work with animals or children had never met Hannah. I seriously hope this girls grows to be over 5'8'' as she would make a perfect model and if not, she needs to be on stage or in film, she's enchanting, she makes you want to look at her, she has a gift few people have and I told her mother exactly this.

Another shoot over and I pack up and say my thanks and goodbyes to the owners of this house. What a beautiful day, the clients were just lovely, could not have been a nicer couple to spend a couple of hours with and I think to myself, days like this I really love my job! I was in the sunshine, playing games with this cute little girl and her parents who were equally as nice and I get paid for it? It's a hard life.