In the Loch!

Well, that was certainly different!

I was asked to get some photos of a young lad swimming in the loch with his dog, fair enough, and I was delighted when I turned up to find his older sister was also along for the shoot.

What I didn't expect though, was that the guys would be fully dressed, and there would also be an old child's scooter along as well.

It was quite late when we got to the loch and the light was very flat, but it was still very warm and the water, apparently, was lovely!!

It all contributed to the complete bizarreness of the evening, and we've come home with some totally bonkers photos!!

Not the usual family portrait shots, but what a laugh!

I love location shoots with families as much as with models. This will stick with me as one of the oddest, but, professional as ever, I kept to the brief and the family are delighted. I love this job!!

Have a look at my website to see how I can help you get the shots you want,

http://www.rtphotographics.co.uk/

or contact me by e-mail rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk

Rebecca,x.

Glamorous!

The further happy tales of a portrait photographer...



A model, a make up artist, and a whole apartment all to ourselves...




Last Saturday saw myself and Hannah heading across to Dundee for a glamour shoot with Irena. We knew it would be a busy day and were armed with bean bag, flowers, a shedload of lights, stepladders, reflectors.... all the usual gear.



Hannah was along for her first shoot as a make-up artist, and this was my third shoot with Irena so I was confident we were going to have a pretty good girly fun kind of day! I wasn't wrong!! It was fab.



Irena had some amazing gem-studded false eyelashes, and a very good idea of how she wanted to look...



One of the things I love about Irena is that she puts so much into the shoot. She has ideas and we try them out and discuss them - real teamwork



With a whole apartment to ourselves there was no shortage of corners to shoot in, and we tried most of them!




We used the rooms upstairs to get some different angles and styles, and Irena had a set of outfits ready to try on that evoked a feel of more sophisticated glamour.




This inspired a series of shots to capture that atmosphere,



even on the stairs...



and into the bathroom, where Hannah pushed in some bubbles to create a fun but classic set.
Five costume changes, four hours, three girls, two lenses, one camera... job done!





One very happy photographer!! Thanks Irena and Hannah for your hard work that day,xx.






Contact me by e-mail if you'd like to book a shoot or if you'd like any help with your ideas... rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk






Intimate Portraits, Family Portraits and Actors Headshots...

http://www.rtphotographics.co.uk/

Bubbles and the Beach... I love photography!

How much better does it get than last Sunday? I don't know that it can!

I was at Kenmore on the shore of Loch Tay in the Scottish Highlands. The sun was shining but softly diffused through the cloud, perfect for portraits and a stunning location for an outdoor family shoot.

The girls are absolutely stunning... fun, relaxed in front of the camera and so beautiful, they are amazing and it was such a joy to photograph them. Add their gorgeous wee baby brother, a couple of bottles of bubbles and a fluffy blanket, and the afternoon was officially perfect!

Perhaps a little alarmed when we met in the car park at Kenmore beach, the girls soon accepted the fact that I was clearly bonkers but obviously ok, and happily helped carry my stepladder, hula hoop and dog's bed down to the shore!

First stop was going to be at the famous dead tree on the end of the rocky jetty, but nooooooo, it was gone!! Never mind, the rocks are big enough and flat enough to sit on and the backdrop of the mountains, the loch and the crannog more than makes up for any missing tree stump!

The trees along the head of the beach have wonderful twisted trunks that lend a kind of stately and organic contrast to the hard rocks and driftwood along the shore. Ashley and Emily settled easily into a nook at the base of an old tree and the soft green leaves of the trees behind completed the frame. Gorgeous!!

Surrounded by soft grasses and wild flowers, Brodie was thrilled to be allowed to stand up against an huge old tree root. I seriously think that given food, drink and his family, the wee man would have happily stayed there all day! His facial expressions were fantastic and I still chuckle now to think of him...

Further along the beach we played around with a tyre swing and got some shots with the island crannog and the Scottish Crannog Centre in the background, before heading round the mouth of the loch to Dalerb.

More trees, this time dripping with lichens, and the soft dappled shade provided excellent photo opportunities and an excuse for climbing trees... I don't need any encouragement and the girls bravely followed!!!

Finally, the blanket and the bubbles! Brodie was settled on the blanket as Ashley and Emily fired bubbles from a battery-powered bubble gun (who knew there were such things?), and all I had to do was watch and wait as the delight and wonderment took turns across the baby's face... I truly do love photography!!

A stunning location, beautiful family, fun, sunshine and bubbles... does it really get better than that? Thank you so much; you made a middle-aged lady smile and she's still smiling now!

Rebecca,x.
http://www.rtphtographics.co.uk/

p.s. we never did use the hula hoop!!!

The Birks of Aberfeldy

Sunday was another bright and beautiful day, perfect for a trip to the Birks of Aberfeldy!

Now, I'm not a Rabbie Burns nut, and if I'm honest I haven't a clue what half his poems and songs are about! But, if ever there was a song that summed up the gorgeous light that filters down through the trees and sparkles on the water, 'the Birks of Aberfeldy' is it!!

What a beautiful little spot and one that I shall revisit many times through the year. The autumn colours are going to be amazing and I shall certainly be back for that!

I can also see a model draped across these rocks in my imagination, so if you fancy that and want to do some modelling, send me an e-mail rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk and we'll definitely sort something out. Don't worry, I take great care of my models and will make sure there's plenty of coffee, hot chocolate, and anything else you need to be comfortable and warm!!

You can check out my website http://rtphotographics.co.uk/ and if you like what I do, get in touch and we'll have some fun!

So bonnie lassies (and laddies!) will ye go, will ye go to the birks of Aberfeldy?

Rebecca,x.

Across the Sea to The Isle of May

Friday was another day out for the East of Scotland branch of the prophotoinsights forum http://prophotoinsights.net/forum/index.php and what a corker it was too!

Blue skies, calm seas, hot rolls and coffee / tea / hot chocolate... perfect conditions for setting sail on a day of adventure. Cap'n Walter, First Mate Susan, Bos'un Sid and Bos'un's Mate Pips (er, that's me) climbed aboard the 'May Princess' at Anstruther for the 6 mile sea crossing to the Isle of May.

Home to literally millions of sea birds, this island has been reclaimed by nature from human occupation. The former monastic settlement, established in the ninth century, is still evident in the ruins of the 12th century chapel on the island, and the two lighthouses on the island were officially de-manned in 1989. It is possible to stay on the island in a bothy, and researchers and wildlife wardens obviously stay on occasions, but the vast majority of human visitors are day trippers such as ourselves.

The journey across was very much a part of the pleasures of the day. The crew of the 'May Princess' obligingly throw bread into the sea to attract gulls and gannets for the photographers on board.... which was pretty much everyone on board. There were more zoom lenses on that boat than a branch of Jessops on delivery day (probably not the best analogy in the current economic climate and the fact that Jessops doesn't seem to hold much stock these days, but you get the drift anyway!). One tourist with a compact camera was heard complaining that it was more like a day out with the paparazzi than a bird watching trip, but we weren't bothered and joined the throng in the gannet gallery.

The sea was almost dead calm, the horizon hazy but Berwick Law and Bass Rock clearly evident on the southern side. We were overtaken by a RIB, also from Anstruther and also heading out to the Isle of May, but from a photographers point of view, the 'May Princess' is definitely the way to go... though the kid in me would love to go by RIB one day as well.

As we got closer to the island, we spotted our first puffins in the water along with numerous other seabirds and seals.


No dolphins or whales unfortunately, but they are about and you may be lucky if you go on a visit one day too.

Three hours is not long enough to really see this lovely Scottish island, which just means we'll have to go back again!

The cliffs and crags are stunning. 150ft sheer drops and decked out with tufts of sea campion, pink thrift, sedges and grasses and all sorts of lichens and mosses, the island is a naturalist's paradise!!

There's so much more than puffins - we also saw fulmar, kittiwakes, shag, guillemots, terns, eider ducks, oystercatchers, even a rock pipit. I also need to go back and get some landscape shots with the lighthouses, fog horns and the chapel ruins. My dream would be to spend a few days in the bothy to get some sunrise and sunset pics and to have the island to myself for a while as well. That'd be awesome!!

So, eventually we returned to Anstruther. The day was still delightful and we spent an hour wandering around the harbour and popping into one of the local restaurants for a well earned brew and some grub.

I had to get back home to cook tea (with the obligatory trip to tesco, pah, I hate shopping... get's in the way of all that's good about a day), but Walter, Susan and Sid had a few hours still to spare so they followed me back across Fife where I showed them a little place I'd discovered in Wormit that offers views across the Tay to Dundee. Leaving them under the arches of the Tay Rail Bridge, I crossed the Tay Road Bridge leaving my day in paradise behind, but bringing home happy memories of a beautiful day on a stunning island in fantastic company.