For the love of dogs (by Cheshire Photographer Jane Burkinshaw)

You’re either a dog person or you’re not - no halfway house nor sitting on the fence about whether you like them or would have one as a pet. If you’re in the “don’t like” camp, you probably see them as loud, dirty, smelly, messy, unruly, destructive, slobbery, hairy, a restriction on your freedom and possibly even downright scary and dangerous. Non dog lovers (I won’t go so far as to call them dog haters - they just don’t like them or “get” them) are usually more forgiving towards cute little puppies. That is until they leave puddles and steaming piles around the house and garden! I suppose if you look at all these negatives then it’s surprising that anyone even lets these nuisance canines into their houses, never mind on sofas and beds (53% of dog owners let their pet sleep on their beds*)!

But with approximately 23% of UK households owning at least one dog, and a UK dog population of around 8 million**, many of us must be willing to put up with their less pleasant attributes, feeling that they are outweighed by the benefits of sharing our homes and our lives with a dog.

We had a succession of pet dogs when I was a child - Copper, Jason, Muffin and Penny (two boxers, a springer spaniel and a golden retriever). I remember Copper being a bit fat and old, but very gentle, Jason farted for England, Muffin would bite your hand off if you went near her when she was eating and Penny shadowed you everywhere. Following a long period where I had to make do with visiting my parents’ and brother’s boxers - Chloe and Basil - we finally found ourselves in 2007 in a domestic and work situation which allowed us to have our very own dog at last! I felt I was immensely well prepared, having come from such good dog-owning stock and without hesitation we decided to choose a boxer - well it was in the family after all!

However, we were soon to learn that having a dog around the house to cuddle and occasionally play horsey on (as a child!) is very different to actually being responsible for all its needs and training! Boxers are notoriously boisterous and require a lot of hard work and time to train as we found out.

It’s easy to see why the campaign “Dogs are for life, not just for Christmas” is necessary. Puppies are simply irresistible and it’s so easy to fall head over heels in love with every single one. We fell  for Daisy from the moment we saw her aged just 4 weeks. She was like a little pot bellied pig with wrinkles of super soft skin everywhere. Her dad, Tom, put his front paws on my shoulders and peed on me - I assume he was giving his seal of approval for us to take one of his babies away. We couldn’t wait until she was old enough to come and live with us.

She came to us in August 2007 and immediately became a huge part of the family.

Apologies to Paul O'Grady and ITV for nicking their phrase but it's so apt.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

50/50 Project: #4/50 Poor Ferb (by Cheshire family photographer Jane Burkinshaw)

Day 4. Poor Ferb

50 days with a 50mm lens
Technical stuff: Canon 350D, 1/160 f/2.8 ISO 100 Aperture Priority

Have you ever seen such a sorry sight. Poor Ferb went off to be neutered today and has to wear this collar for three days. He's so frustrated and unhappy as you can tell. I know this collar looks enormous but he was still managing to lick his wounds with the first one he came home in. And to add insult to injury this one is pink - as if he wasn't already feeling emasculated.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Introducing stunning fine art albums (by Cheshire family photographer Jane Burkinshaw)

You wouldn't believe how excited I was when this arrived earlier this week! It's the culmination of several days work putting together some of my favourite shoots from 2012 into a portfolio album that I can use as a sample. I've been looking for a supplier of fine art albums for some time and finally decided to go with Folio Albums as their attention to detail is unsurpassed by anything else I've seen.

The moment you remove the outer packaging you know you have a special product in your hands. Each album comes in a sturdy presentation box made from recycled board.

Inside the box the album is protected by a bag made from natural unbleached cotton. It's also possible to  have a lovely printed bag for a small surcharge.

There is a choice of cover and colour options - leather, silk, plain cotton or photo printed cotton. The cover can also be embossed with names etc. I really like the fact that the albums are printed and hand bound in the UK. I know this will be a quality product and that I can easily speak to real people to check on its progress.

I've ordered many high quality photo books but this fine art printing is in a league of its own.  The images have a vibrancy and clarity that traditional photographic prints cannot achieve. The 200gsm matte white art paper has a lovely soft texture.

Each double page spread opens out flat with an almost invisible crease so that each image is on full view. This also allows a single image to be spread across two pages without losing any of it in the binding.

These beautiful albums are available in 4 different sizes - all square -  6"x6", 8"x8", 10"x10" and 12"x12". The minimum number of pages is 30 (15 double page spreads).

I can't wait to start showing this album to clients. They are the perfect way for people to enjoy and share their images for years to come. Albums were once reserved just for weddings but as we move away from the traditional photographic prints and photo albums, fine art albums are becoming increasingly popular for all sorts of special occasions - to celebrate the birth of a baby, or baby's first year, a family photo shoot, a christening or special birthday or anniversary.

If you would like to find out more, see this beautiful sample album and arrange a shoot please get in touch for a no obligation chat. Call Jane on 07868 750505 or email jane@picture-it-big.co.uk

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

A trip to Crosby Beach with Big Boy

After endless days of rain over Christmas we were desperate to get out somewhere - me particularly so as I had only been able to use my new Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens once since Christmas Day!

This is a real Big Boy of a lens - extremely sharp, focuses almost instantly and silently, is image stabilised and has a wide aperture of f/2.8 at every focal length. Basically it's great for making sure moving subjects are really sharp even when the light isn't great.


I first got my hands on one at a pet photography course in December and it went straight to the top of my list for Santa (I did help Santa out a bit with the cost!). I couldn't get this shot of a spaniel in flight with my best zoom lens - it just wouldn't focus fast enough nor let enough light in to achieve the amount of blurred background I wanted.

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On Christmas morning I barely had time to get one shot of our puppy, Ferb, before the holiday monsoon set in. It was well into the New Year before a free day and good weather came together at the same time. The beach seemed like a great idea, especially as Ferb hadn't been to the seaside before.

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Nic's wanted to see Antony  Gormley's "Another Place" art installation at Crosby Beach for a while (once he explained it was those naked statues of men staring out to see we were a bit more enthusiastic!).

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Conditions were perfect for an uplifting frolic across the sand and for getting used to Big Boy - bright, low sunshine, clear, flat light. At any other time of year the sun would have been too high and direct, causing harsh contrasts but it was perfect that day. The sun was at the right angle and bright enough to create silhouettes and I was able to get an amusing picture of Abi assessing one of the figures - we all know what she was looking at! Works well in black and white as it emphasises the contrast.

OK, so the naked statues weren't exactly going anywhere and I wanted some practice shooting moving subjects. The kids and puppy duly obliged by dashing around on the beach, somewhat complicated by the fact that Ferb was on a 30 metre long lead! To keep them in focus I used the AI Servo focusing mode, which I'll admit I've largely steered clear of, but it performed perfectly. You just have to remember to keep tracking your subject with the lens and it looks after the focusing. Takes a bit of practise but well worth it.

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It's not often we see Nic in full flight - he's renowned for falling over, so this is a rare sight indeed! I love Ferb in this one too!

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And freeze framing the kids kicking water around worked well too. (Spot the full frontal statue in the background!)

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Nic had made that fatal mistake of forgetting to put a memory card in his camera so we nipped into Crosby to buy one and to refuel. When we got back to the beach around 3pm the sun was lower in the sky, the light had changed significantly and the tide was in. I would have loved to have got a proper sunset shot of the statues being immersed in the sea but cold, bored kids and wet dog were clamouring to go home. So I made do with this shot instead and felt very jealous of the increasing numbers of people appearing with cameras and tripods.

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By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

New year, new look blog

It's been a while since my last confession post... I fell out of the blogging habit last year, largely because I spent most of my free time on a project to take and post a photograph every day during 2012. (Separate post on this is simmering away in my brain and will come to the boil soon).

I've really missed writing and have made it a resolution for 2013 to do more. I'm planning to combine all my blogs into one - it was getting confusing for me never mind anyone else. So top tips on photography and posts about recent shoots will all nestle here alongside tales of our exploits as a family.

I've given my blog a bit of a facelift - it took far longer than I expected to do a few simple changes to the background and header - but I'm pleased with the overall result. Feels a little friendlier than all that serious black and green I had before. And it seems more appropriate to feature my lovely children and dog in the header too!

Ferb, the dog, is a new addition to our family and he will no doubt be the star of the show for the foreseeable future - he's so darn cute and extremely photogenic. He even has his own Facebook page if you can't wait between posts to see his little hairy face.

Also set to feature a fair amount is our new (to us) caravan. With two successful outings under our belt (we won't mention the encounter between our gatepost and a caravan window!) we're planning holidays up and down the length of Britain this year.

I've already got a long list of ideas for blog posts and am itching to get started. With heavy snow supposedly heading our way I can forecast lots of photo opportunities and lots of time sitting in front of a roaring fire, blogging away. Hopefully they won't just languish unread in the ether somewhere - at least I know my other half reads them and points out where I've used apostrophe's (sic) in the wrong place and embellished the truth somewhat, in order to be more entertaining!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!