A visit to Bradgate Country Park

We've been planning a visit to Bradgate Country Park in Leicestershire for a few weeks; I (David) went to university in Leicester and used to go regularly for a good stretch of the legs and to see the deer that live semi-wild there. There are no fences so they roam completely freely over many miles of moorland and through forest. Ellie and I went once last year but far too late in the day and saw no deer (although we did see a gorgeous sunset) so it was high time to return.

We got very lucky with the weather; it's been so drizzly the last few weeks as we pass into wintertime but the day we went to Bradgate was clear and sunny. Almost embarrassingly, we went a good few miles out of the way before we got to Bradgate to visit... a new Waitrose! Did I say almost embarrassing? But it does have a café, and with our Waitrose cards (oh dear, sorry) we can get a very nice free cup of coffee and sit and have a read. We do this quite often... it really is fun! Especially in the lovely Malvern branch. Anyway, I'll shut up now!

So, caffeined-up, we tipped up at the gates. To find that yet again we had stumbled on a Christmas fayre; a really nice one this time. This happened the week before too in Malvern - but with only a few hours at best of light, we hauled our equipment out of the car and set off.

It was a long time before we saw any deer - and around 45 minutes in, we decided to take a few photos of Ellie through the beautiful long grass which fringes the moorland. I'm very lucky to have a beautiful model on hand everywhere we go! 

Not too long after we saw deer in the distance; Roe deer females. Nice - but I really wanted to find some of the Red deer stags, with their fantastic antlers. We kept walking until eventually we found a good group of them. They're pretty used to people being around so we managed to get within around 20 metres of them - just enough with the 200mm lens. I lay on my stomach and watched as they calmly made their way past, chewing constantly and also very vigilant. Ellie had a really interesting experience as another stag looked directly at her for some time before moving on. I was very struck by the calm grace of these animals, as I always was when I used to go regularly.

Suddenly, it seemed, the light was failing fast - so we walked pretty quickly back along one of the main paths. We'd actually walked quite a bit further than either of us realised, and we were fairly freezing by the time we got back to the car!

Bradgate's main entrance is in Newtown Abbot, some 5 miles outside of Leicester. Definitely a highly-recommended place for a very hearty walk and of course to see the deer.

An evening walk

With spare time to enjoy before lessons today, I took a stroll with the camera around Lightwoods. The mist was hovering thickly just above the ground, and the moon brightened as the sky darkened - just an atmospheric British late autumn walk. Reminded me of why I love this time of year!

Please click the photos to view on black.

Russian Fine Art Photography

A few weeks ago we discovered the work of some very wonderful Russian fine - art photographers, who shoot in a very natural yet somehow quite formal style that is rarely seen in "western" photographers in our experience. In particular we were drawn to the child photography we saw. It encompassed the innocence of childhood but without straying into all-to-easy saccharine portrayals - often the Russian photographers used very earthy, warm tones rather than the overly-bright, even garish, colours found in some similar work from the UK and America. There is something about many of the work of these photographers which seems to offer more than "just a pretty face" - the children's sense of individuality is portrayed very well; they are shown to have a much wider range of feelings than we normally see.

  

Ellie remembered a set of photos she had taken some time ago with a girl named Sascha and was inspired to revisit the work in light of what we'd found; here is the finished piece. I think it's wonderful and I'm very proud that it's a new piece in our fine art portfolio! We'll definitely be paying more attention to this very meaningful avenue of our field in the future.

Christmas Family Life Gift Vouchers

We have put together some gift vouchers for Family Life photo shoots, which would make wonderful Christmas presents for either yourself and your household, or close relatives and friends. Maybe a relative has recently had a new arrival; or equally, it's lovely for people of all ages: young couples (and their pets!), older or retired couples who have hobbies they enjoy doing together, "crafty" people, those who maybe indulge in creating artwork at home. 

The vouchers will be presented in a beautiful, hand-finished (by us!) recycled card gift box and can be sent either to you, or straight to the recipient by first-class post. 

We currently have a 25% reduction on both packages, saving up to £138, which are as follows: 

Full Day        £550    £410

* 5 Hours of photography between 9am and 9pm (taken as a block)

* Both Ellie and David photographing

* Approximately 50 fully-edited photographs - both high and low res

* A large, high-quality photo-book with approx. 30 of the best images from the day

Half Day £400   £300

* 3 Hours of photography between 9am and 9pm (taken as a block)

* Both Ellie and David photographing

* Approximately 25 fully-edited photographs - both high and low res

* A large, high-quality photo-book with approx. 20 of the best images from the day

If you'd like to make an enquiry about booking for yourself or a friend, please email us at gwynne.gibbons@gmail.com. The special prices are available until 31st December 2014 and can be redeemed throughout 2015. 

Why Family Life photography?

Probably the photography work closest to our hearts is our “Family Life” concept that we have been developing over the last 18 months or so. I’d like to talk a little about why we have chosen to move in this direction and why we feel it is so important and meaningful.

When we as people really think about what is the most valuable time in our family lives, often we might initially think “holidays!”, time away from work or just relaxing. But if we really look deeply into what the feeling is behind those things, it is almost always because we do those things with the people we love most, our immediate family members. Holidays are special because there is nobody and no situation that needs to draw you away from those people for the week or two or three that we might have “away”. We sometimes overlook the most obvious time, and I think the most important of all: the day-to-day lives of family units. This is the glue that binds everything together; the threads of meaning and belonging that weave our sense of wellbeing, purpose, and bring the most lasting joy to ourselves and our loved ones. And of course, the vast majority of this happens in the home.

At home we also have all the things – mementos, gifts and cards, the washing drying on clothes-horses or radiators, our own beds, photograph albums – that make the house a home and the central point of our family lives. Everything happens there! From cooking and cleaning to loving embraces, game-playing, potty-training, tantrums and laughter.

There are so many photographers who do an excellent job of photographing families, but 99% of the time these photos are taken in a relatively alien environment away from the home. If we think about it, so much of what we call “ourselves” exists as much as anything else in our environment; so if you take the family out of the environment, you aren’t really capturing the whole picture.

Another really important point is that while one family-member can photograph the others, there is practically no opportunity for the family to see itself as a whole – the whole dynamic of the family-unit. And of course these photos are usually posed: “Say cheese!”… which is certainly a lovely way of producing a certain kind of memento, but is completely other to what we achieve with our work.

What happens

On the day of the photography, we arrive at your house at the agreed time. We will have asked you when is a good time to come based on when you think you will be doing things together which you really enjoy or you would especially like to be captured. There is no posing here!

We simply ask that you continue with your normal pattern for the day, while we interfere as little as possible, simply observing and intuitively photographing. Cooking, eating, playing with the children, playing games together, reading; whatever you normally do, just do it. We will be there to get those special moments.

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We are extremely excited about developing this work further. We enjoy nothing more in our work than to see the connections between people, and we find that nowhere is this more apparent or more touching than in the case of a loving family in its own environment.

To enquire further about Family Life photography, please contact us at gwynne.gibbons@gmail.com, or send us a message at our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/gwynne.gibbons.artists

Schwarzwald

The view from the front of the Bauernhof

To see trees densely, wildly growing; trunks thin from the crowding and competition of the others, some whole and others snapped and bent - undulating lines of fir-tops hung with white mist blending seamlessly to sky: that is what awaits the traveller to the Black Forest.

Another view from Bauernhof

Travelling to a place where for a miles and miles trees outnumber humans by a significant margin is an inspiring experience. Small hamlets nestle comfortably in the green valleys, overshadowed and surrounded by the pines by day and under the immensity of the Milky Way in all its glory by night. It isn't a foreboding overshadowing though, and nor is it a bewildering sight of our galaxy. The people here, especially in the traditional Bauernhof where humans and their livestock live under the same roof, live in place. Martin, our host, replied when asked if he travelled much, "I feel well here. My children, yes - they like to travel much; but I... I feel well here." 

As he might. Every Friday, Martin and his wife Elfriede bake 200-or-so loaves in a centuries-old oven, and are collected by local villagers. The smell of bread lingers in the air much like the mist does in the trees, as Martin bakes engrossed in his work. Inside the kitchen, Elfriede cleans and puts away the dough and bread-making equipment and continues her day cooking lunch and then going outside to tend her small kitchen garden. I can't stress enough the simplicity yet fullness of life at Jocklisbauernhof. 

The Milky Way over the Bauernhof roof

The Moser Family's Bauernhof is well known
in the area

Martin with his little helper for the day, Sophia

During our stay we visited festivals in Schiltach (during a pilgramage to find fantastic Black Forest Gateau), Wolfach, and Baden-Baden. Each had its own character - the Schiltach version was a Wild West fest, with men in pink cowboy-suits doing very strange dances, and another dance-troup that we ended-up taking part in. The Wolfach festival was a night affair, with tables laid out through the main street, all the cafés and restaurants open and with stalls, and two live bands! As with all these things, people of all ages were out enjoying themselves. We really noticed that in Germany, people seem not to only want to be eternal teenagers - people seem very comfortable in their own skins.

Schiltach "Wild West" festival

We also found the most beautiful bookshop I've ever seen, "Das Freie Buch", in Schiltach. It was decorated in warm, deep reds and dark greens, with a woodburner and gorgeous traditional rugs, and the most perfect couple of reading-chairs in traditional German style. Though we didn't want to buy anything, the co-owner was happy for us to simply sit and read for a while. Unfortunately we only had the cameraphone with us, but here is a picture of Ellie in the comfy chair, reading. It doesn't do the place justice though.

Cooking outdoors near Gutach

The wonderful Elfriede at home in her kitchen
garden at Jocklisbauernhof

We travelled back through Belgium and France, stopping for a few days in the Arndennes National Park; visiting Dinant in Belgium, hope of Adolphe Sax and the best chocolatier we've ever been to - Neuhaus, where we sampled incredible hot chocolate, pistachio gelato and handmade chocolates. Another place we much get back to at some point! There was really far too much to this trip to fit into a little blogpost like this. Suffice to say, we recommend the Schwarzwald to everyone interested in travel and getting a taste of a surprisingly different culture. It really does hold a special place in both our hearts and we hope we can return soon, for a longer time.  

Otto

Every home should have an Otto-cat. He’s fluffy, silky and soft to the touch, and always manages to lighten any feelings of tension after a long day at work. His mother is a black and white cat who followed David and I home after a short evening walk back in 2012; I was living with my mom at the time who (surprisingly!) allowed her to come and live with us. My younger sister, Kate, named her Tiggy, and it wasn’t long before her stomach began to swell with the promise of some cat-babies… A few months later, David and I had moved into a new house and were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the kittens since we’d already decided that we’d love for one of them to come and live with us. It was a Sunday when I received the excited phone-call from Kate announcing the arrival of the kittens – four tiny, squirming, black and white babies. We asked to have the cat that was had the most black on it, since David had always loved black cats. 

We had already decided on the name Otto (a German boy’s name) beforehand, and we got to bond with him when we visited my mom over the following weeks. He came to live with us at Christmas-time in 2012 when he was around 10-weeks-old, and he has been a most welcome member of our family ever since. We’ve enjoyed watching him grow up over the last couple of years, maturing into a strong, spirited - and extremely hungry - cat: he never stops thinking about food…but then again, neither do we, so we are definitely three of a kind.

October is Otto's birthday month and this year he has turned two, so today we thought we'd share some of our favourite Otto-photos to celebrate. Over time, we’ve come to realise how common Otto’s markings are, spotting numerous ‘Otto clones’ (as we call them!) in photos in the Internet; it always makes us chuckle. We know that having a cat with unusual markings is usually preferred, but for us, Otto is the most perfect cat in the world - he's 'our' cat and we are 'his' humans :) 

Ellie 

  

Beach

This shoot has a lot of lovely memories for me. Ellie and I had a really clear idea of a shot on a beach with the model walking away from the camera and a beautiful calm sea and sun. Ellie had a lovely white lacy dress that seemed perfect, so we went off to a beach I know to be extremely photogenic to put our vision into action.

The day was spent rather blissfully in Barmouth, north Wales, playing on the beach. Towards the end of the day when the sun was going down, we began to take some shots, and as we did the scene just kept getting more peaceful; the sea-birds were calling in their high voices and the sun began to rake across the sea and beach. Warm colours in the sky and a breeze.

We soon got this shot, and though we kept experimenting I think we both knew which one we wanted. I love it because it expresses something about Ellie that I love; her inquisitiveness, sense of freedom and her amazing openness. I think it also expresses that feeling of limitless potential so readily found on a fine day with sea and mountains... we’re both really proud of it.

David

'Family Life' Photography

Home life is something solid yet transient: we live it every day, it gives us our sense of solidity and wellbeing. It is where we retreat to after a busy day, and it is the "hearth" of our life, where the heart of the family resides and from where we go forth into our individual worlds. Relationships are held there; it is the place where new life is most often created. It is for those with children the place where the joys and woes of life's journey begins, and for the child it is the centre of the universe. Conversely though, it is often the one part of life which isn't remembered in the form of really beautiful photography which captures the essence of the family unit.

Why is it then, we thought, that family photography shoots happen so much in studios and other places where the family ...don't live? Maybe the lighting can be better in a studio, and maybe the photographer's favourite park is more photogenic... but it isn't where the heart is. Of course there is a place for that, but we want to expand our horizons and offer something really unique and special.

So it's our decision to make a key part of what we do to capture the family unit as it exists. To be for that time the quiet observer of family life and reflect the everyday, priceless moments as you can never see it for yourself; the family as a unit with everyone in it.

We were lucky enough recently to do just that with Carla and Andy, a wonderful couple who had very soon before been joined by Edward, their first baby boy. It was truly special to be there in the warmth and special stillness of the three. An aura of calmness and love filled the house as the parents naturally directed their nurturing towards the baby; long minutes would go by where nothing was said as if a bubble existed around them as they gazed lovingly at their baby and marvelled at his perfection. We joined them for lunch too, and bathing and changing the baby - just taking part in a normal weekend day with the family. We said goodbye really feeling like we'd joined in the energy for the day and so found some lovely photos for them to keep always.