Andaleeb Lilley Photography

May events: Family expo in Luzern and Danishdesignkids at the studio

I am excited to be joining several companies and Joy Foster of Living in Luzern at the first Family Expo in Luzern on Tuesday 8th May (10.00-13.00) at Kinderland.  More info here: 

http://livinginluzern.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/familyexpo.pdf

You can register your family (5 CHF per family) here: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9G5JS8N

All families who come along on the day will be entered into a raffle being offered by each company involved - I will be giving away a pack of ten gift cards worth 35 CHF for the raffle and 20% off all shoots booked on the day. 

The second event in May is a coffee morning on Monday 14th May at my studio in Baar from 09.30-12.00.

I will be joined by Charlotte Bruun-Christensen from www.danishdesignkids.com who will be showing her spring collection.  Charlotte selects fashionable and high quality clothing from individual Danish manufacturers and a lot of her range is eco certified.  Her range is sold only via home parties so this is your chance to browse through the collection at the studio.  Clothing sizes are for children aged 2-8 (size 92-128) and range from 5-50 CHF. Charlotte is Danish and mum to two children. 

Studio address here and details on where to park here: http://www.andaleeblilley.ch/contact.html

Come along and see Charlotte's collection, my new range of photography products and enjoy a cup of coffee and other refreshments.  Children very welcome (kids corner available).

Article on Presenting your photos

I recently wrote the article below for the New Stork Times which is celebrating their 20th Anniversary this year - congratulations to the team!  For those who subscribe, the article below is on page 19 of this month's edition. 

Presenting your Photos  

It's a new year and I am guessing many of you have taken lots of photographs over the holiday season.  I am a big advocate of not just letting images sit on a CD or a hard drive and actively encourage people to produce albums, books and different types of wall art. Nowadays there are so many ways to present images, enabling everyone to find something they like and at the same time suiting every budget.  

Choice of presentations 

Framed prints are the traditional way of presenting images and many of my clients like to buy square multi-frames which can include up to 12 images.  These are great for families - a typical compilation would include a family image in the middle and then individual photographs of each member along with siblings grouped together and an image of the parents together. When selecting these, look at colours that blend together and select a frame which complements them or work with a framing shop that can provide a customised service ensuring quality and longevity. 

Images can also be printed in digital coffee table books and albums or put together as traditional albums with prints added individually. These are a wonderful keepsake for every member of the family and are lovely to leaf through together.  There is no doubt that technology has changed things but there is something nostalgic about looking through an album which holds so many dear memories and in the event of a fire, many still say they would save albums and nothing else.  There are many suppliers of online albums and, although these take time to do, they are worth the effort.  Another old-fashioned way is having printed images bound with ribbon in a beautiful box or mounted onto card. 

Wall art is another popular way of presenting images which can be mounted on glass, perspex, aluminium, wood, and even slate!  Images can be printed and stretched onto differing sizes and thicknesses of canvas - bespoke sizes are available. There are many options and certain images look better on some products. 

And of course there are digital files.  Slideshows can be put together and images shared with family and friends all over the world in a matter of seconds. Family websites are popular too and are a great way of keeping everyone in touch if you are abroad. Digital Frames are also a flexible way of changing and displaying images too. 

Personal reflections 

Each family is different and everyone has their own personal way of how they want to present their images. 

I am a little behind at the moment ... but what I personally do is print some images I can take with me if we go away (and the children love to look at them too).  I am about to print some family images for our walls and these will be framed - I have also picked one of each child when they were slightly younger to be stretched onto canvas.  Each year I also print a coffee table book the children keep in their room from the year and another is printed as a family album.  My children also love their own personal calendar too (as do the grandparents and godparents!)  

Many of these take time to put together and you can either do them yourself or consult a photographer who would be happy to discuss the options with you and advise you on which images look best on the assortment of products. 

 

Photography tips for the holiday season

Here is an article which I wrote for the New Stork Times this month - if you are a subscriber, it's on page 19 of this month's edition.  Thanks to all subscribers for their interest! 

Photography Tips for Christmas 

The run-up to Christmas and the holiday itself is a great time to get your camera out and capture the atmosphere at this special family time. Here are some tips on capturing christmas decorations as well as photographing during the holiday.  

Photographing Christmas Decorations  

Depending on whether you are photographing decorations on a tree or a whole house on your street, the equipment you will need are a macro lens (or the macro mode on your camera), a wide angle lens and a tripod.  For outdoor decorations on houses at night - a tripod helps to make sure you don't have any blur.  If you do not own a tripod, put your camera into manual (M) use a higher ISO (try 800 but be aware that the higher the ISO the "grainier" the photo) and a low aperture (anything from 2.8-5.0) to allow in as much light as possible.  It is important though not to set a too low shutter speed as this is what will cause blur in the image (initially set the shutter speed to 1/50th of a second and then go down from there if the photo is too dark).  

Without a tripod the best way to photograph decorations is to time it so that you arrive at sunset / early evening although you will need to pick a house which put the lights on early before it is too dark. Photograph the house from a low perspective and include the sky to get the golden colours in the sky.  

Changing your AWB (auto white balance) to tungsten will make your lights the colour they are meant to be too (as christmas lights tend to be tungsten balanced).  Otherwise you may have an orange tint to them. 

The later it gets, the more the lights will sparkle - take several shots as the light changes.

When photographing decorations on a tree, make sure you also photograph other decorations around the house - tins of colourful sweets / baubles in a vase. Be careful to stand so that your reflection is not in the ornament though (unless you want this effect... one of my christmas cards from many years ago was exactly that although I was surprised at how many people didn't see me in the shot!)  With lights on a tree, try to "declutter" your shot and focus on one light/bauble and use a large aperture (2.8-5.0) to throw the background out of focus.  

Photographing Family at Christmas

Be prepared - prepare your camera bag the night before, load and pack extra batteries / a recharger, a flash and memory cards. 

Capture the preparation stages - putting up decorations, wrapping up gifts, setting the table, children in outfits, food preparation.  Photograph the room decorated before it is filled with people and then also when it is filled with people later (this can also be done with the decorated table - without people and then with them afterwards). 

Take the group photo when everyone has arrived and before chaos descends.  Use a big aperture (f11+) to make sure everyone is in focus. 

Capture the opening of gifts by switching your camera to burst mode  (continuous shooting  mode) as this a great way of capturing emotions (joy and sometimes disappointment) and the colour of Christmas day.

Set up an area where you can photograph all the guests - ideally the background would be red or have some decorations in it. 

Fill your frame and get closer to the subject to show emotion.  Declutter the background before taking the shot.

Give someone the responsibility of taking the photos if you are busy so that it doesn’t get forgotten. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jelmoli Fashion Shoot

I recently worked together with journalist Tsitaliya Mircheva-Petrova on a feature article for the Christmas season for www.zurich4you.ch. We got together to photograph several outfits from designers featured at Jelmoli in Zurich.  Some of the images from the shoot can be seen here.  The shoot took place in an apartment in Zug and the images below are some of my personal favourites from the day.

Model: Daniela Schrüffer 

British Swiss Business Award Nomination

Some exciting news from me - I have been nominated for Most Promising New Business/Entrepreneur for the British Swiss Business Awards - more details on the awards here.  This is the first year the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce is doing this and the award ceremony is on 30th November in Geneva.  

If you would like to endorse my nomination (which are all anonymous), please do so by filling in more details here.  If you need any contact information, its on my website here.  

Nominations need to be in by Friday 30 September - thanks very much and will let you know how I get on! 

Andaleeb 

 

Authenticity in Photography

Congratulations to Ms. S Kessler who was the winner of the complimentary portrait shoot at Expat Expo in Zurich - a special offer was sent out to everyone else who took part in the draw too.  

Several people at the fair commented on how authentic my style of photography is and I had actually just written an article on this for the New Stork Times.  You can read the article below - enjoy!  

http://andaleeblilley.typepad.com/Authenticity%20Article%20.pdf

Beach and Holiday Photography

I wrote an article in the July/August edition for The New Stork Times and it arrived this morning so here is another post from me before we leave for our holidays.  I am copying and pasting it into the blog post as my scanner has stopped working... I have also included some images of my children on the beach last year. Have a great summer!

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Holiday Photography 

Before we know it, school will be breaking up for summer and the holidays will begin.  Many of you will be booking holidays and hopefully be off to far-flung places for some well-deserved relaxation.  

Beaches are a lovely place to photograph your family against.  I always plan a little shoot with my family at the beach either at the beginning of the day when it is quieter or at the end of the day when the light is warm and golden.  Avoiding the midday sun when it is at its hottest and most challenging in terms of contrasting harsh light is ideal if possible (although if you do take shots at this time, someone holding a well-placed towel against the sun over a child can help). I take down special dresses and fairy tutus for my little girl and make sure that both children have something neutral on or white so the images look fresh.  I then just let them play by the water's edge and just capture them looking at shells, playing with seaweed, jumping around, doing cartwheels - just kids being kids.  Its nice to get shots of your family down by the beach not in beach-wear and although it takes some planning (and maybe even sweets), it's well worth it-some of my most treasured images of my family have been taken at the beach.    

I like to use the surroundings at the beach to place a holiday in time too - for example spelling the name of the resort or the country plus year out in shells on the beach or writing in the sand with a stick.  Sandy footprints or handprints once again place a time if your children are young.  Other interesting details could include a light-house, colourful beach huts or beautiful rocks.  These make lovely feature and detailed shots which can be used around family shots for an album.

One problem you may run into when photographing at the beach is that people will have shadows on their faces (cast by hats or sunglasses).  To get rid of the shadows, fire the flash when taking a photograph and the shadows will disappear and your subject will be well-exposed.  If the image is over-exposed, you can turn down the flash strength (if you can control this) or otherwise move back slightly as the flash range will become shorter and will lose its impact the further away you are - you may have to experiment a little to get the best image.  Squinting can also be a problem too - a method I have used is to ask everyone to close their eyes and then on the count of three, open them - you have a few seconds before they squint again... 

Beaches themselves with stormy weather make for very atmospheric shots particularly dramatic clouds and skies (these shots look particularly good in black and white).  As always, watch that the horizon is straight and not sloping and play around with where you put the horizon - if the sky and clouds like dramatic, then fill the frame with this and the sand/beach with 1/3 of the shot instead. 

Don't forget to minimize too the amount of time you expose your camera to the elements - sand and water particles are not good for cameras so keep cameras away until you are ready to use them - keep a microfiber cloth with you so can wipe your camera body and lens down once you are done. 

Most of all - have fun!  

 

Giving back to charity RoomtoRead

I was recently featured in the Swiss quarterly newsletter for the charity RoomtoRead and you can read more about that here: 

http://andaleeblilley.typepad.com/newsletter_q3%20R2R.pdf

As well as donating a portrait shoot for auction to the charity, I also raised funds by doing a 10km run. This was a big challenge for me as I hadn't really run in years so I trained up (sometimes even taking my children with me to play at the track whilst I ran there) and was really pleased with my time (77 minutes) and the fact that I ran the whole way without stopping. The atmosphere was fantastic so thanks to everyone who came along and supported us on the day - especially all those strangers who called out our names as we ran past (I had to help some with pronouncing my name...!)

I have attached a photo below and want to thank everyone who sponsored me! I plan to do another 10km at the Lucerne Marathon at the end of October so watch this space... 

 

 

Boudoir Article in the New Stork Times

As many of you know, I regularly write for the parenting magazine "The New Stork Times." Last month, I did a feature on Boudoir Photography - you can read more about it below (double click to enlarge). 

Here are some shots from a recent boudoir shoot at the City Garden in Zug. Daniela really wanted to showcase many of the dresses she doesn't always get to wear so it became more of a fashion shoot on location.  Make up by Tala von Daniken Berger.  

 

 

 

Encouraging Photography in Children

A short post from me this week as I have a busy two weeks ahead - so here is my article for March's edition of the New Stork Times on "Encouraging Photography in Children".  Click on the scanned article below to open to enlarge the document. 

I will also be holding another open morning at my studio in Baar on Monday 21 March from 09.30-11.30. Do drop in for a coffee if you have been thinking about booking a shoot and would like to discuss this and meet me beforehand.  Its a great chance to look at the photographic products available too - there are many numerous ways to present your images post-shoot. 

Studio address: Kunstambulatorium, Landhausstrasse 19, 6340 Baar.  Park in the Canton Hospital in Baar, turn right outside the garage (right by the ticket machines), pass the cafe (red building) and you will see a yellow/white building which is the Kunstambulatorium.  My studio is on the bottom floor (turn left past the tyres at the main entrance..)  If you get lost, call me on 079 654 4115.