Thank you Gary.
It's a bit of a mixture really, some of the shots (ie the rapeseed field) were a special trip, i wanted a field on an incline and this was the best i could find but mostly they are just taken on days out.
i'm very lucky that my kids just love going for walks in the woods and exploring (i know others that just want to watch tv over the weekend, that would do my head in, I hate tv), they explicitly ask to go out every weekend and i try to make a game of photography with them so it doesn't get too onerous - we'll do a few shots, have a play and run around, do a few more - usually only a few minutes at time. sometimes it's frustrating and they don't stay still, look in the right place but i just have to stick with it. some weekends i'll get a bunch of keepers, others just one or two.
i'd say that as i my passion for photography has grown, I can see and keep an eye out for things that are visually interesting in the environment that i can incorporate into the photograph, i go for lots of walks on my own in my lunch hour and even though we rarely go as a family where i walk at work, it gives me ideas and inspiration, i try to see and spot compositions everywhere. it's a horrible disease as often i wish i'd actually taken my camera to work sometimes.
there is one element that is virtually unseen in almost all my photographs, but is perhaps the one single component that makes almost each and every one of these images possible: my wife.
she is very patient and helps me get the kids looking in the right direction and holds the reflector/flash/softbox for me (it helps that she's a sucker for a photograph and wants the pics of the children growing up) - she's very good at having games with them and asking them to tell her what they did at school or whatever, it's these things that gets the emotion and funny faces, they are real conversations, she is usually standing right behind me.
you'll also notice that i get many, many more photos of my little girl than my boy. the girl is a poser. she loves wiggling and dancing in front of the camera. the boy is a nutcase, he won't say still, ever. shooting something like that with a 5d2, at f2 or less isn't easy.
some shots of him take many attempts - these two here -
must have taken around 100 clicks to get. he was just in one of those moods, but i got there in the end. i suppose really, it's just making a game of it and trying to make them think it's a good idea to ride a log like an alligator or stand in a field with an umbrella. i'm sure they'll wise up to it in the end!
