CandidKama Photography

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Lauren and Grayson

These two cuties are Grayson and Lauren. He's almost 3 and she's just turning 4 month's old. I met them in their home on a snowy morning, where we hunkered down in their home for some photos of the family.

Lauren was all smiles, and would perk up when Daddy would play peek-a-boo.

Lauren was kicking and moving all about.....I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she will start scooting her way across the floor.

Ray and Brandi loving on their babies.

Grayson is a good big brother, was giving his sister kisses and hugs. He looked so handsome in his nice winter sweater.

Those eyes!

And a sleeping baby to finish the session. She was a sleepy girl, her eyes got heavier and before long she was out. Sound asleep. What parent doesn't love that, while it lasts. Sweet dreams baby girl.

Labels: Portraits

Written at 7:13 PM by Kama.

0 comments

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Jolly Ol' England

It was hard seeing Scotland in our rear view mirror as there was lot's more I wanted to see, but we had so much more ground to cover on our list as we made our way into England. Our first stop was not that far from the Scottish/English border at a beautiful castle called Bamburgh. It is still lived in today. I spoke to one of the guides on the grounds who told story after story, I could have listened to him all day.

From the castle looking out over the nearby village.

We then went on to the town of Alnwick where we spent a night. Alnwick Castle was another lived in Castle that get's lots of extra attention due to filming of some of the Harry Potter movies. I personally have never seen one of them, but I could certainly see why they chose to use this castle. It was very grand and even the grounds of the castle are well laid out. An can't forget to mention Bunyip the castle cat. I was told that he comes from a long line of a litter, and that he sadly is the last cat with no kittens of his own to carry on. He was just content to lay out in the sun and get his afternoon nap as the tourists walked about. Meantime, Ephram got a lesson on how to fly on a broom, so it was all good fun.

This is a mixture of doors from Ireland, Scotland and England. I have a thing for knockers. Yea, I said it. So many different type's of knockers on the doors with interesting details. From scary to a bit of a head scratcher.

York was certainly a fun place to visit. I have collected for year's the Dicken's Christmas house's and this is the life like version of that. The town is full of shops of everything you can imagine, but full of old style.

One of our house hosts shared with us that in York was a must see train museum. We kept it a surprise to Ephram until we arrived there and the smile on his face was so worth it. It was such a cool place with trains from all decades and means. From steam to trains that the Royal Family have used, to of course Thomas the Train. Ephram has been a train fan since about his 2nd birthday and it's just grown with him. So this was a real treat for him and I think Marty and I enjoyed it too.

One of the highlights of the trip was meeting Lee and his family. We met through Facebook cause he shares in the family name. I can't say where on the family tree we connect, if at all, but I'm convinced somewhere we do. There is only a handful of them out there and they all go back to the same roots. It was such a delight for us to meet with them. They welcomed us into their home and took good care of us. Lee showed us around their hometown area of Northampton. We had such a good time seeing stuff that we never would have seen otherwise. And though we'd never met in person until now, it felt like family, felt like we'd known each other for year's. It was nice to have a personal tour so to speak of some of the area's around them. We learned a lot of interesting things.

Lee took us to see this canal boats, it was fascinating. We arrived just in time to see a couple of boats come through the canal and the water fill up and let out. The boats were anything from fancy to standard, but certainly not a cheap boat. It's a slow ride, but a relaxing one. We had a nice lunch at the local restaurant there while Ephram and Lee had some fun on the playground. Ephram enjoyed spending time with Lee, who is a kid at heart.

After lunch Lee took us to a place that literally blew my mind. Boy did I ever step into a place out of my league. He took us to the grounds of Stowe School. Elite at it's best. I just had trouble wrapping my head around the idea of the kind of money these people have. That young children are sent off to this school from all around the world and this is basically where they grow up and see their family from time to time. And the land alone was beautiful. The buildings were monumental and romantic, and yet it had it's own Historic feeling.

Some of England's great's are carved in stone on the grounds of Stowe School.

Later that afternoon, I got to take some photo's of Lee's daughter, Shelby. She's in her final year of school, an to my understanding in England, they don't do senior portraits. So we took a drive to a lovely area and got out into the countryside. I was in heaven. This was such a treat for me..being able to do this. Shelby is such a beautiful girl and she did such a fantastic job. She was a lot of fun to work with.

Our two week vacation was coming to a close, but not before the long awaited visit to London. I would celebrate my birthday in the city that has always been special to me. I could not believe that with the weather we had been having the last week and a half that our time in London made up for it completely with sunny skies and warmer temps. It was perfect! I didn't want to waste anytime cause I knew we had lots to see.

London's iconic buildings are everything imagined. They are so full of detail and the History of them, I wish I'd had so much more time to invest in them all. That was likely the most frustrating thing was wanting to see and do more, but also keeping with a 4 year old, we weren't always able to stop and read all the signs.

Part of an entry way into Westminster Abbey.

Our visit to St. Paul's Cathedral was over the top awesome. I just assumed we'd visit it. Little did I know what we'd get into. To walk into the church where my childhood idol, Princess Diana walked was something I'll always remember. I'll never forget her wedding day. The Cathedral is beautifully detailed from top to bottom, inside and out. But to our surprise you could actually go up into the dome. And if you went up into the dome, you could even venture up to the top of the Cathedral to get to the outside point at the very top. Few take this trip, but it's so worth it. But word of advice, it's a tough way up. I climbed The Sydney Harbor bridge and to me that was a piece of cake, but this was a work out. So count with me, 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery, 376 steps to the Stone Gallery, and 528 steps to the very top of St. Paul's Cathedral, that's 1,161 steps, winding and wrapping it's way up the dome of the cathedral. I realized how out of shape I was that day. I had to take several breaks on the way up to catch my breath and focus. All the winding makes you a bit dizzy after awhile. Ephram zoomed right up. But I'm so glad we had this experience. It is an awesome memory.

I couldn't miss visiting Kensington Palace, home of the late Princess Diana. Seeing all these places that I had grown up watching since I was about 9 year's old, it was like I'd been there before. It was bittersweet, but glad I was finally able to make it. It made a great memory for my birthday.

Our last night in London to finish off my birthday celebration we had a nice dinner along the River Thames and went for a ride on The London Eye. The thing is massive. It move's slowly all the way around an you can see for miles in every direction of London. It was a nice way to end the trip.

Our morning flight back to the states started off the way our trip began in Dublin, under a dense fog. Our scheduled flight was cancelled upon getting to the airport, but we were quickly put on a direct flight home on British Airways, which got us home about three hour's earlier than expected. I just thought this shot as we were preparing to land at JFK with our shadow was kind of eerily cool. We arrived home and now have lot's of memories of a wonderful vacation and new friends. Can't wait to go back!

Labels: Personal

Written at 7:57 PM by Kama.

0 comments

Monday, January 23, 2012

Scotland

Our ferry took us to the colorful village of Stranraer, Scotland. It was our intent to get off the ferry and make our way to Edinburgh....but one look from the ferry to the village before me and I knew I wasn't going to get far that day. We got our new rental car and found ourselves a room for the night and then made our way about the town. We had dinner that night in a Chinese restaurant a few blocks from our B&B. The girls working there couldn't get enough of Ephram and he was eating it up. He loved picking up the accents and they got a tickle out of that.

The next day we started making our way to Edinburgh. I quickly realized that again, we weren't going to make time as fast as I had hoped, but I couldn't resist the little villages we came through. While we might not have made good travel time.......the sight seeing was well worth it.

One of the villages we stopped in was called Girvan. We stopped in this pub for lunch an enjoyed some tasty treats. We walked up an down the streets to see the town before hoping back in our car.

After several stops we finally made it to Edinburgh. I've wanted to visit this city for a long time. It was so beautiful and better than expected. It's so rich in History and charm. It's true, the sound of bagpipes can be heard all around the city, it adds to the wonderful ambiance. The evening we arrived it was beautiful and sunny.....so we got our baring down after we got our hotel. The next full day in Edinburgh was greeted with a mist. All day long that mist kept up....I can say that I'd like to have gone without the mist, but at the same time, it just made it that much more what I expected. However the down side is I know I didn't take my camera out nearly as much as I would have liked. Better luck next time.

The architecture of the city is stunning. So much to see. You feel like your caught in a different era to a degree and that is what makes it so special. It's an easy city to navigate through and the locals are more than willing to help out. Park your car and let the bus service or another mean's get you around town.

Ephram was having a blast around Edinburgh. Doesn't take much to entertain him.

Without a doubt Edinburgh Castle was so worth visiting. Word of advice..if you are going to visit it, do it first thing to start off your day. The lines to enter fill fast and by the time we left in the early afternoon, people were standing in lines outside of the castle doors.........with a long wait ahead of them.

Our last day in Scotland we took a trip to see The Royal Yacht Britannia. It used to be the home on the seas for the Royal Family for 44 years when they traveled abroad. It was something to see. I would call it a little more than a 'yacht'. It was clearly dated in it's decor, but still an awesome experience to see this Historic boat.

We then traveled on to England.......more too come.

Labels: Personal

Written at 8:47 PM by Kama.

0 comments

Northern Ireland

Back in October we took our family vacation. This was a special trip, so I was really excited to make this visit. We arrived at 4:30a.m. in Dublin to a dense fog. We gathered our bags and made our way to our rental car and began our drive to our first destination in Northern Ireland in the town of Armagh.

The sun began to rise an the fog started to lift by the time we arrived in Armagh. We were running on fumes from our over night flight and eager for a nap, but not before stopping at a cemetery. I've always had a thing for cemeteries and even on my last trip to Ireland, it started with a visit to one.

We arrived at our B&B in Armagh and it was beautiful. I'd found it online and knew I had to stay here, it was like my dream home of perfection. We thought about fighting the tiredness, but in the end, it won and we all took a good nap for a few hours to feel a little more like ourselves.

One of the things I love about our travels is that we just wing it. We don't put a lot of planning into it. We like to get in the car and just see what we see. We keep a pretty open schedule as we go. We went into the town of Armagh to look around and the surrounding area's.

Just the same, we spent a great deal of time at our B&B. The grounds were lovely just to take a stroll and Ephram loved playing with the dogs and the sheep.

It was relaxing to have a kitchen to catch up on our e-mails, or to fix our dinner at. We had an interesting start to our trip that had us in tears, the good and the bad, but it was all memories that we now look back on and laugh.

I have often been asked 'why' we take our child on such a trip. The assumption is made that somehow taking him oversea's is a handful. I can assure you it's not. He love's to travel and that is something important to both Marty and I that he has those experiences. I think it's so cool looking back at all the places he's been in his first four year's.

One of the reason's I wanted to return to Northern Ireland this time was because I wanted to visit a monument that is of my family name. The little village is called Shrigley, which is also the family name. This monument stands oddly alone next to a field, to the side of an industrial area and a apartment complex. There sadly is no signs posted on it for the general public to know of it's purpose. But it was such a delight to finally see it with my own eye's. To take it all in and wish that my family before me was there to share in it.

My Irish thug....

This was Marty and Ephram's first trip to Northern Ireland so I had to take them to see one of my favorite ruins, Dunluce Castle. The last time I was there was in 1994 and I didn't get to spend a lot of time seeing it, so I was happy to be able to really explore it. This ruins sits on the edge of a cliff side. It's really breathtaking to look around the ruins and imagine what it must have been like in it's day.

From Dunluce we went down to one of the beach's around Portrush. We had been having bouts of rain on an off all day long. We had just enough time to get down there and take a few photos before the sky let loose above us again.

We then made our way to The Giant's Causeway. I had forgotten about the journey that takes you down to the location of the rocks. Today they now have a larger area for the tourists to begin their sightseeing of this rare rock formation. It had cleared off by the time we got there but the wind was intense. It was hard keeping balance on the rocks, and the chill in the air wasn't helped by the wind.

Ephram was keeping up with his e-mails. He loves to play his games on the computer so we had to fight him for time.

This visit to Northern Ireland was shorter than I would have liked, but we had much more to see. We caught the ferryin Belfast to go to Scotland. It was a nice relaxing sail for about three hour's. Ephram enjoyed playing in the kids area with the other children, while Marty and I caught up on some sleep and walking around the boat. There was a group of older Irish men at the front of the ferry singing song after song of old Irish limericks. It was like icing on the cake. Song after song they sang and they had a captive audience. The water's got a little choppy the closer to Scotland we got. I am not one to get sea-sick so that was a blessing, but it was a little scary when the boat began to sway to one side and the sound of plates and glasses crashed.....but we made it to Scotland safe and sound. More to come.........

Labels: Personal

Written at 5:46 PM by Kama.

0 comments