Andaleeb Lilley Photography

Gruyeres and Moleson Trip with ZIWC

Something a little different from me today as I am a little busy with family shoots and have these images I have been wanting to post for a while.  I was lucky enough to be able to join a day trip to Gruyères and Moleson with the Zug International Women's Club recently.  It was heaven to leave the house alone, have a whole day to "myself" and to discover a part of Switzerland I haven't been to... and of course to have everything organised!  Thank you Anne and Jacqui for all your hard work!  I also wanted to travel light for a change and so ONLY took a 24-70 lens, no flash and no zoom lens... I wanted to look at the whole thing as a creative exercise and try to get as many different images as possible and to see how high I could push my camera in a dark castle without flash too (for those of you who don't know, the Canon 5D II doesn't even have an automatic flash... but it does have a very high ISO!)

Here are some images from the day - the castle tour was wonderfully informative, the lunch and especially the meringue and heavy clotted cream divine (and took me back to Sunday lunches with my "Grossi" in Beckenried) and I think the alphorn blower and flag thrower did very well on that windy mountain whilst we watched and listened laden down with cheese freshly bought from the cheese dairy...! Hope to join you all on another trip soon! 

Loved these gruesome scenes and kneeled down very close to the wall for these angles.

You have to love that high ISO! 

A tiny part of a very large battle scene which covered an entire wall. 

Liked this due to the colours and what they represent in Switzerland - the green fields, blue mountains and red house to the right. 

 

A little nostalgia here- my gran had one of these on every floor of her house in Beckenried and I have memories of her breaking wood over her knees and stoking up the fire!

Hopp Schwiiz! 

I am guessing it would be hard to keep a svelte figure in Gruyères... 

Tempted to comment but I won't. 

 

I love photographing signs to place a shoot and I think ski lifts always look a little forlorn in summer... 

and I am hoping Club members won't mind me posting this one :-) 

Winter wonderland

I am busy packing my camera bag for my trip to London this week to attend the SWPP Convention.  I am looking forward to immersing myself totally in photography for 5 days and in particular to the workshops with American photographer Doug Gordon and Australian Jerry Ghionis, both renowned for their different styles of wedding photography. 

Changing the subject slightly, if you are going to the International Men's Club Burns Night in Zug this month, keep an eye out for my raffle prizes of a complimentary photography shoot and two tickets to my comedy nights in Zug which start up again in February. When I get the time, I will be blogging on a pregnancy shoot I had between Christmas and New Year when I sprung into action a few weeks before the planned shoot due to the baby arriving early (yes, the shoot took place after the mother's waters had broken!)  

As both Switzerland and the UK are covered in a white blanket at the moment, I will leave with you an image I took up on Mount Zug (Zugerberg) recently and which I used for some of my corporate Christmas cards last month - wrap up warm! 

 

Ich packe gerade meine Kameratasche für die Reise nach London, wo ich in dieser Woche an der SWPP Convention teilnehme. Ich freue mich sehr darauf, mich fünf Tage lang voll und ganz auf das Fotografieren zu konzentrieren. Insbesondere die Workshops mit dem amerikanischen Fotografen Doug Gordon und dem australischen Fotografen Jerry Ghionis kann ich kaum erwarten. Beide sind wegen ihrer ganz unterschiedlichen Stilrichtungen bei Hochzeitsfotografien sehr renommiert.

Zu einem ganz anderen Thema: Falls Sie in diesem Monat zur "International Men's Club Burns Night" in Zug kommen, dann versuchen Sie doch, bei der Verlosung einen meiner Preise zu gewinnen, nämlich ein kostenloses Foto-Shooting und zwei Eintrittskarten für die Comedy-Abende in Zug, die im Februar wieder beginnen. Wenn ich noch etwas Zeit finde, möchte ich gern noch über ein Shooting mit einer werdenden Mutter berichten, das zwischen Weihnachten und Neujahr stattgefunden hat – ein paar Wochen früher als geplant, weil das Baby es plötzlich sehr eilig hatte, auf die Welt zu kommen. (Die Fotos entstanden tatsächlich, nachdem die Fruchtblase geplatzt war!)

Nicht nur die Schweiz, sondern auch große Teile von Großbritannien liegen derzeit unter einer strahlend weißen Schneedecke. Hier sehen Sie eine Aufnahme, die ich vor kurzer Zeit auf dem Zugerberg gemacht habe. Ich habe dieses Bild für einige meiner Weihnachtskarten verwendet. Ziehen Sie sich warm an!

 

Spring is in the air (everywhere I look around)

...and despite the photo below which was taken in the fog on the Zugerberg in February!  I just couldn't resist that title though.  As I write, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the snow is melting - and soon the long, hard winter will be forgotten.  I really enjoyed taking snowy photos this year though and learnt so much from my camera by doing so and in fact, had some photographs published in the local newspaper last week (the Zuger Presse).  The photographs published were some of those I had posted previously in the post "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."   Here's a reminder again of what a tough winter it was...

Trotz des nebeligen Fotos auf dem Zugerberg (s. unten) kommt der Frühling.  Die Sonne scheint, die Vögel singen und der Schnee schmelzt und bald wird der Winter vorbei sein. Ich habe es sehr genossen, Winterlandschaften zu fotografieren und habe dabei viel gelernt.  Letzte Woche hat die Zuger Presse einige Fotos von mir benutzt (s. unten: "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow"). 

 

But I am now busy planning promotions and working on my website and branding and it is slowly all coming together - I wish it was all set up already so it would be ready to go but as they tell us at the Annabel Williams Studio there will always be something that isn't quite ready but it's not a reason not to move forward! 

I have several promotions in the pipeline with maternity wear and children's clothing boutique, Pumpels (www.pumpels.ch) in Zug which I will be posting about and will be exhibiting at the Expat Expo in Zug on April 26 in the Lorzensaal in Cham (www.expatexpo.ch) so come along and say hello!    

Ich bin jetzt beschäftigt mit Aktionen-Planung und mit der Webseite und Branding.  Ich habe auch mehrere Aktionen mit Umstandsmode und Kinder Boutique, Pumpels (www.pumpels.ch) in Zug vor und wird auch an der Expat Expo in Zug am 26. April im Lorzensaal in Cham (www.expatexpo.ch) dabei sein - kommt mal vorbei!  Ich freue mich auf Euren Besuch.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

and finally the snow has arrived in the UK and what chaos!  It's great to live in a country like Switzerland where everything pretty much works regardless of how many inches of snow are on the ground...

Today's post is to remind you to look around you... on your way to work (especially if you are in traffic!), on the school run, on your way back from a night out... we are all so busy nowadays and it's so easy NOT to really 'see' what's around us - being interested in photography means you look at the world in a different way and discover things in the unlikeliest of places and weather.  Of course, we don't always have the time but it doesn't really take too long. I had planned to go and take photos in the snow a few weeks ago but by the time I got out with my camera, the sunny weather had disappeared and it was cold and foggy. So my photos were not what I was expecting but I enjoyed those few hours parked up on a mountain road, changing my manual settings as the fog came down... and trying to feel my fingers (note to self: buy fingerless gloves)... here are a few from a few trips up the Zugerberg which is a 10 minute drive away.  Enjoy! 

 

This shot was taken by the International school on the Zugerberg.

 

I found some logs which had been felled and got caught up in taking some detail shots.

 

  This is the St. Verena Chapel half-way up the Zugerberg which I love to shoot in different seasons.

  Sina the dog was having fun in the snow with her owner...

 

... and this just reminded me of Christmas - next year's Christmas Card maybe?