Author

Ally

Does my chin look big in this?

by Ally January 15, 2019

How to avoid having a double chin in your photos

You’d be surprised how many people enter my studio and within the first few minutes, say to me: “Can you get rid of my double chin?”

Even more surprising is that actually, none of these people even have a double chin.

So why the fear?

I guess we’ve all been, at some point, caught off guard, in an unflattering pose and ended up with a photo of ourselves where we might appear to have a double chin. It has certainly happened to me … Which is even more frustrating since I spend a large proportion of my days telling people how to pose, and how to position their chin.

In my history of photographing people I have heard a multitude of ways to reduce the so-called double chin. One involved a complicated pony tail (which I imagine would be quite difficult if you have short hair!). Another suggested to have someone literally hold the skin of your neck back and then photoshop their hand out of the picture (sounds so painful and a total photoshop nightmare). Or, the one I have heard the most is to put your tongue to the roof of your mouth. The latter is probably the easiest, but not my favourite, as I think it distorts your mouth and makes you look like you’re talking.

So here is my method, which I have shamelessly copied from the amazing American headshot photographer, Peter Hurley!

I call it the Chicken Neck!

The chin and jaw are a very flexible part of our face and it is extremely easy to either give yourself a double chin or to show a beautifully defined jaw line. In the first photo, I have a glorious double chin, all because I have pulled my chin back, reducing the space between my chin and my neck. Not flattering at all!

In this photo however, I have extended my chin forward, and then brought it down a bit, therefore stretching the skin under my jaw and chin. I now have a beautifully defined jaw line.

Here are the photos from the side, just to give you an idea.

Double chin

No double chin

My photos above are slightly exaggerated, of course, to showcase my point of view. It is in fact a very subtle posture move, with incredible effects. And if you don’t believe me, check out all the famous actors and celebrities when they walk on the red carpet … and suddenly you will notice them doing it too!

Because, just like you, they are also afraid of the double chin!!!

So if your LinkedIn profile picture is not up to date, or if you think you have a double chin, then send me a message or give me a call and we can have a chat about portraits, headshots, or personal branding photos, all without any extra chins!

January 15, 2019

My photo challenge

Hygge

by Ally January 11, 2019

This winter I’m embracing the principles of Hygge living

I love December, with its dark evenings, late night shopping, glitter, excitement, parties, friends, family and the anticipation of Christmas. By the time January comes, however, the excitement is well and truly over, and I start longing for spring to come.

Hygge, pronounced “hoo-ga’, is a Danish concept which encompasses a feeling of cosy contentment and wellbeing through enjoying the simple things in life … reading a book, drinking a cup of hot chocolate (or hot Ribena) and generally wrapping up in warm, cosy clothes.

My plan for this January is to embrace the cold and dark winter nights, spend cosy evenings in, and enjoy crisp morning walks, and do more of what makes me happy.

So when the theme for this week was Winter, I decided to combine my new found love for Hygge with my desire to do a flatlay photo to create an image worthy of a Pinterest post.

I chose an admin day to do this, when I knew I wouldn’t have many interruptions and I could really get into a Hygge mood. I started by making some cupcakes. Baking is a huge passion of mine, I love making cakes, and trying out new recipes.

As it’s usually the case after Christmas, there’s always lots of alcohol left over, so much so that there is not enough room in my alcohol cupboard for all of it! I know … I know … I should get a bigger alcohol cupboard! But for the time being I thought it would be a good idea to use some of it up some cupcakes.

So I decided to make these amazing Asti cupcakes. They are delicious! If you’d like the recipe, leave me a comment below and I’ll send it to you.

And now that my house smelled amazing and I had cupcakes to eat, it was time to take some photos.

I have done flatlay photos before, but always for clients who wanted product photography, and never just for a bit of fun. So, I was pretty excited!

Flatlay photography is the latest craze in Pinterest and Instagram images and for all product photography in general. Flatlay is essentially what it says on the box … you lay everything you wish photographed flat on a surface and then you photograph it from directly above! A bit like this …

It was important to me that the photograph looked cosy, but not Christmassy and I also wanted to use the colours on my new website colour scheme. My newly baked cupcakes fitted perfectly, as did my gloves and scarf. Candles and beautiful smells are an essential part of Hygge, so I used some of the items from my pot pourri and of course, my lovely candle from Marber which smells of pine and pink pepper … divine!

A little while ago I bought some backgrounds from Amazon, and they have been fabulous. I have used them so many times. It was a tough decision between the dark or the white wood, so I had to try both to see which one looked best. Which one do you prefer?

What made my shoot slightly more difficult was that I wanted to use my own hands in the picture. Obviously, I could have borrowed someone else’s hands, but for the purpose of this exercise I liked my own. Which meant I had to set up my tripod … I love my tripod, but I don’t use it anywhere near as much as I should. It’s very rarely needed in portrait photography so whenever I happen to use it, I always feel like I’m doing something creative, something outside my comfort zone.

And yes, while you are wondering, I was home alone at the time of this shoot, so I had to set up my phone on its own little tripod to take a photo of me using a tripod to take a photo! I am aware of the ridiculousness of this situation!

So here it is … my behind the scenes shot, and my vision for my second photo challenge of the year.

If you are looking for a photographer to capture your product, in a stylish flatlay way … give me a call or send me an email. Meanwhile, I’m going to do some pinteresting, and some reading, and some blog planning, and some cupcake eating. Happy January everyone!

Until next week when the theme is Time!

January 11, 2019

Family photography

Watch them Grow

by Ally January 8, 2019

It’s Tuesday, so here’s my first blog about my work as a professional photographer.

And this is JB’s first year montage.

As some of you probably know, I’ve been doing these monthly baby photos for a little while now, but I couldn’t think of an appropriate name for them … until yesterday! When the best idea ever popped into my head, and from now on, I’m going to call it the “Watch them Grow” experience.

Because that is essentially what we are doing … photographing your baby every month for the first year to watch them grow … and gosh, do they grow and change in those first few months.

Back to JB’s story though, I first met his parents, Mandy and Steve on my first day at uni, where we were flat mates. I still remember our flat, right in the centre of Bristol … those were the days! I lost contact for a few years with Mandy and Steve, but when they were expecting JB they got in touch, and it was such a pleasure to capture some maternity photos for them!

Once JB arrived, we started planning the “Watch them Grow” experience, and it wasn’t long before they came in for their first session. This photo is from that first session … how tiny does JB look?

By month 5, we were getting lots of smiles and Mandy and Steve jumped in for some family shots too! These are some of my favourite photos!

The smiles continued, JB became funnier and cheekier every month, but by month 11 the photo sessions became a climbing exercise, and constantly being on a verge of a heart attack for Mandy, Steve and I. JB had found his feet, and found that he could stand … on a chair … and jump on it … and try to climb on the back of it! So much so, that we even turned the chair around.

When photographing babies, safety is my top priority, and I always make sure that at least one of the parents is within the baby’s reach, should they decide to launch themselves … babies do that!

And then it was time for month 12, the last one! JB had grown from a tiny baby into a funny, cheeky little person.

So thank you Mandy and Steve for letting me be part of JB’s journey, it’s been such a pleasure, and so much fun! I hope to do it all over again for his second birthday too …

And if you too are having a baby anytime soon, or know someone who is, give me a call or send me an email and we can have a chat about your “Watch them Grow” experience.

January 8, 2019

My photo challenge

It’s Selfie Time!

by Ally January 5, 2019

Week 1 of photo challenge – Resolution

It’s the first week in January and the perfect time for making a start on your New Year’s Resolutions … So, what have you got planned for 2019?

What is on your list of things you would like to achieve? Or places you would like to visit?

One of my resolutions this year is to blog more … hence the photo of me blogging.

While I’ve always been comfortable writing (I used to write novels as a teenager – don’t worry, they are not published and they’re best left that way!), I have really struggled to keep a blog for my photography website. I think what I have struggled with the most is knowing what to blog about?

I think I have finally come up with some ideas, so for the next 12 months I am hoping to blog at least twice a week. Yes, I know … that’s quite a lot, but after all these years of not blogging, I have a lot to talk about!

Every Tuesday, I will publish a blog to do with my work as a professional photographer. It will alternate between posts about family photography, babies and maternity, and headshots, where I will talk about how to look best in your photographs and show you examples of my work.

Every Friday, I will publish a blog about my photo challenge for that week, what my vision was, how I re-created it and maybe some behind the scenes photos too … to give you an insight into my work. If you haven’t yet read about my 52 week photo challenge, check out my post here.

This week’s theme was Resolution, and my vision for this photograph was a stock photo of a person blogging – the kind of generic photograph that you might go to Adobe Stock, download (after paying for it, of course!) and then use on your website or blog. The photograph itself was not particularly challenging, but still quite time consuming. First of all, I wanted the colours in the image to match my new colour scheme, so I quickly popped in to my local M&S to find some pink flowers, and these tulips looked just perfect.

I also knew that I wanted to use natural light, rather than flash, but the only place where I could get the right light and the clean white background I was looking for, was where my sofa usually is. So I moved the sofa and replaced it my dining table. Once I’d set up the table, not forgetting the very traditional cup of tea (I needed it, after all that furniture moving), I then set up the tripod and was ready for the shot.

The only difficulty when trying to take a selfie with a dSLR is focus. Luckily my son Max was at home, so I got him to sit in my chair, focused the camera on him, and then asked him to quickly get out of the picture, so I could take his place. A few photos later (18 to be precise – I set my camera’s timer to take 9 photos at 3 second intervals) and I had exactly what I was looking for. I did download the photographs into Adobe Lightroom and adjusted the levels slightly, before cropping the photos square, ready for Instagram.

So here are my two favourite photos … One of me working, and one of me whimsically looking into the distance. Which one is your favourite? Let me know by leaving me a comment below …

Embracing my curly hair is another resolution for 2019!

January 5, 2019

My photo challenge

I failed miserably at this …

by Ally December 31, 2018

January is usually a quieter month in the photography world, so last December I decided January would be a good month to do a photo challenge … a themed photo each day for the whole of January, which I would post on Instagram. What a great idea! (or so I thought!)

January turned out to be one of my busiest months yet, and I had to abandon my challenge half way through.

If you haven’t followed me on Facebook or Instagram, here are just a few of the photos I did take.

So this January I am going to try again … why you might ask?

I absolutely love being busy, I love meeting you, getting to know you, and capturing some beautiful photos of you, your family, your children. It’s what makes my job so amazing, and what makes me wake up with excitement every single day (oh ok, most days!) … but you see, you all book me for the work I produce day in day out. You book me because I have photographed your friend, or your business colleague, or you have seen my blog, or my post on Instagram; and what you want is something similar.

Which leaves me with little space to be creative, to try new things, to step outside my comfort zone as a photographer and try new techniques, new equipment … essentially to be able to offer you, my lovely clients a little bit more.

And therefore I’m going to try again … but this time, I’m going to try a slightly different challenge – a photo a week for the whole of 2019. Fifty-two photos, fifty-two challenges, and a blog about each one. As I write this, I am beyond excited! I can’t wait to get creative, get some ideas bouncing around, and testing my ability to produce in a photograph what my imagination can create in my head. I am also looking forward to letting you guys know the girl behind the lens a little bit better, and to interact with you more through my blog and other social media platforms.

So here is a list of all my photographs for next year, week by week. Some are going to challenge my skills and techniques as a photographer, some my imagination … but most of all, I’m hoping to have a lot of fun!

Now, I’m going to dig out my highly underused tripod and start taking some photographs. My first post is going up on the 4th of January, so keep an eye out for it.

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December 31, 2018

Family photography

Rupert’s Green Chair

by Ally December 29, 2018

Twelve months, twelve photographs and one baby!

This is Rupert, sat in his green chair the day before his second birthday.

Rupert was my first chair baby … I still remember when, a few days after he was born, his mum, and beautiful friend Clare, text me and asked to book me for a photo shoot on the same day every month for the next 12 months. And that’s how Rupert’s Green Chair came about.

Every month, we set up the studio in the same way, used the same background and the same green chair, and dressed Rupert in a little white bodysuit – one that Clare could easily buy in every size needed up to 12 months. That way, the only variable would be Rupert growing up, from one month to the next …

And this was the final result! 12 photographs of Rupert, one for each month of his life!

These photo sessions quickly became some of my absolute favourites. The first couple of months were a little tricky … one month old babies don’t do much, but by month 4 the sessions began to be really great fun. Rupert was getting cheekier every month. Check out his month 11 photo … enough to give both his mum and I a heart attack, but he was having the time of his life.

I would like to point out that safety is extremely important when photographing babies, and if it means photoshopping parents’ hands out of photographs I would rather do that. At all times, there is a parent nearby who can spot and catch the child should they need to do so.

Anyway, I was having so much fun, that I decided to offer this as a stand-alone product to all my other clients, and I am now enjoying photographing lots of babies in chairs throughout their first year. If you’d like to find out more about booking a First Year Chair package check out my Chair page here.

Babies grow and change so much, these photos are my most treasured memory of his first year. I forget how much he has changed some days, looking back shows the incredible journey we have all been on. We plan to put him back in the chair on his birthday and get Ally to capture him every year too …
Clare, Chichester.

And just like that, I am now looking forward to photographing Rupert on his third birthday in the same chair, and seeing the difference another year will make.

December 29, 2018

Family photography

Maternity session in a castle

by Ally December 28, 2018

Amberley Castle is the perfect backdrop for a fun photography session, especially on a sunny winter day

It had been raining for days beforehand and it was scheduled to rain for the next few days too … but on this particular Friday in early December, the weather was simply perfect for this beautiful photo session.

Sydnee and Brian had planned a last minute weekend away before the imminent arrival of their twins in a few weeks’ time, and they wanted to use the beautiful grounds at Amberley Castle as a backdrop for their photos. It was by far one of the most fun maternity session I’ve ever done.

We explored the castle, with all its hidden corners, secret doorways and beautiful grounds.

The golden hour is every photographer’s dream. The golden hour usually happens an hour before sunset when the light becomes soft and warm, and it makes for amazing photographs. And wow, did the golden hour make an appearance on this day

My favourite photo has to be the one with the pond in the foreground and the castle in the background. The way the light falls on Sydnee and Brian, the way you can see the reflection in the lake, and of course, the grand Amberley Castle in the background with the beautiful blue sky.

December 28, 2018