Kids day out at Greenlands Farm Village (for adults too...)

Greenlands Farm Village is a fantastic place to take the kids. Even if you don't get a kick from watching them interact with animals and having fun in the play areas, it a great place for us adults too!  The cafe serves very good food (we loved the ham, egg and hand-cut chips!), the wine shop allowed us to pick up a bottle of our favourite carmenere, and the farm shop had a surprisingly wide range of foods and other products. To top it off, today they had a Chistmas fair showcasing the work of local artisans. Here are a few quick pics showing a few of the local residents and some of the activities available. I only wish I'd taken pictures of the great food we were served in the cafe. Being a foodie family (well, the other three are), we were pleasantly surprised at how good the fayre was. Clean, tasty and well-presented - we will definitely be back!

Greenlands Farm Village, near Carnforth

Had the pleasure to meet Craig and Julie Walker at The Bay FM advertising event this week. They are part of a team who run Greenlands Farm Village, near Carnforth. They have a Christmas fair happening soon, an event we are now planning to attend. Watch this space for pictures!

Edit: Back from a lovely afternoon at Greenlands Farm Village and what a positive report we have. Details on the next post, but here's a festive image taken from inside the barn that was selling unique gifts from local artisans. It's a decorated branch from ceramist Wyn Abott's stand. So beautiful - I couldn't resist!

Lancaster student needing house next year?

I know someone who can help. Gulam Hassan has eight houses in Lancaster for student rental. Building and maintaining his website - Lancaster Living - I declare an interest in recommending him, but I can also recommend Gulam on a personal level and know he looks after his properties as well as treating his tenants with respect. Here is one of his recently refurbished kitchens - not bad for student digs!

Covering sports and dance photography in Lancashire

EWM Photography covers sports and dance events in Lancashire. A Nikon D3s camera and professional lenses freeze sports action in very low light without flash. Sometimes it's also nice to capture a cute pose during the warm-ups! Here's one from a recent event.

Tom Webster, Fine Furniture Maker, Lancaster.

Tom Webster is a well-known cabinet-maker in Lancaster, crafting fine quality bespoke furniture for clients. You can find out more about Tom and the work he does on his website. Below a couple of snaps I took at his workshop. The look of concentration hides a friendly and warm character. You usually find him smiling - honest!

 

Free Hotel Rooms for Lancastrians on Great North Run

Are you from Lancaster and taking part in the Great North Run this year? If so, we have hotel rooms to give away in Newcastle on the night before the race. Details on our facebook page... We'd also appreciate your 'like' on facebook as we need 25 of them. Thanks! :-)

Lancaster Graduation Photography & Family Portraiture

EWM Photography, recently launched full time, is offering graduation photography next month at Lancaster House Hotel. We will have our portrait studio in the hotel's Dalton Suite throughout Lancaster University Graduation Week and into the weekend.


We welcome graduates and their families as well as 'regular' families to book a session with us. We are at the hotel from Tues July 19th - Saturday July 23rd and working 8 till late. We'll be printing onsite and offering a special pre-booking package @ just £45 for a full photoshoot and three prints. 


Hope to see you there. For more information or to book a photoshoot whilst places are still available, please see our website for more details

Lancaster Tumblers!

Tumbling training at the City of Lancaster Gymnastics Club on a Saturday morning. Those gymnasts sure can fly!

City of Lancaster Gymnastics & Trampolining Club receive cheque

Mr. Barrie Wells of Wells Sports Foundation presents club choreographer and coach, Ms. Melissa Gardner, with a cheque for £2,000. The club, until now known as SmartAc, will become The City of Lancaster Gymnastics & Trampolining Club from September. EWM Photography was delighted to capture the moment when financial sponsorship was symbolically enacted!

Summer Light, Lancaster

Went looking for an image today as the light was so good. Didn't imagine I'd capture such an interesting light.

Lancastrians transformed into blog headers

Don't know if you remember Nygel Harrot and friends from a previous post on this blog?  For me, there is something compelling about unsmiling people staring directly at you. It's why I've used this image of them as the header for the new ewm blog.

Incidentally, building that ewm blog yesterday has opened the way for me to resurrect the original purpose of this one. Lancaster images will return to Lancaster Today tomorrow or the day after. "Lancaster today tomorrow or the day after." Hmm... I like that. If only Nygel would stop staring at me, I could it enjoy it more.

p.s. critiques of that new blog are welcomed. Although this blog is sloppy and spontaneous by nature, ultimately that one needs to be more considered.

Football Photography

There is an art to football photography, and an art to playing football. Anticipating action before it happens: is this the art shared by footballer and football photographer..?

An impression of Jon Culshaw

I did get a chance to share a few words with Mr C at the very end of the evening as he slipped out ahead of other guests. A gentle soul, polite and respectful. Just wish I'd had more than 90 seconds to capture that. 

Lancashire black tie photography

I had the great pleasure of photographing guests at a charity dinner on Saturday evening, at the University of Central Lancashire's inaugural Harris Bursary Ball. Hard work made easy when you meet so many varied and interesting Lancastrians in one evening.

Having set up the background and lights, my first task was to capture two or three shots of each person / couple / group as they arrived. With only a couple of minutes to spend with each of them, I was humbled by their collective good-naturedness, and pleasantly surprised at how much personality can be captured through the eye of a fast lens.

It's hard to choose one image, but this young couple appeared to me thoroughly comfortable in their own skins as well as with each other; that's good enough for me! :-)

Gordon Brown: Judgement Day

May 6th 2010. The UK votes. Prime Minister Gordon Brown insists this is not a beauty contest, despite what Simon Cowell would have us believe. I'd like to believe this portrait is a sympathetic one.

Good Ship Scarecrow, Wray Village

On the Good Ship Scarecrow in Wray Village. These little men were about 3 inches tall. Great attention to detail on a wonderfully wacky remote control pirate ship.

Scarecrow from Wray Village, Lancashire

Along the picture-postcard streets of Wray village yesterday were dozens - perhaps hundreds, we lost count - of not so scary scarecrows.

No, that isn't a Labour Party candidate's rosette. It's a 1st place prize of some description. Couldn't quite work out how the results were organised as there appeared to be a few first prizes on show (more in later posts). Presumably, there were different categories, but what they were wasn't obvious. There was definitely a detective theme going on though...

Wray Village Scarecrow Festival 2010

Taken at the Wray Village Scarecrow Festival today, May 3 2010. Wray is a several miles from Lancaster, but was stuffed full of Lancastrians today.

More images from the scarecrow festival over the next few days, including some scarecrows of course, but also a portrait of Gordon Brown. It's election week, and politics is everywhere. The conservative village of Wray couldn't help but show its colours today, with several of the displays lampooning the Prime Minister. Rather disappointing if you ask me...

Lancaster DIY

Lancaster B&Q, perhaps an interesting contrast to some of Lancaster's older buildings?

Lancaster Lunatic Asylum 2

Derelict building, obsolete term. Here is the building commonly known as 'Lancaster Lunatic Asylum' since its completion in 1816.

In the background is Morecambe Bay. The town of Morecambe is Lancaster's neighbouring seaside resort (click on the photo to enlarge).