More lovely images from a recent shoot.  He was the happiest, sleepiest little baby, so we managed to get a whole range of images for his parents to choose from.  I love shoots like this!

All images © 2013 Studio Deidre / Deidre Sorensen, London

Loving these images from a recent shoot.  This little guy has the most precious eyelashes. He just looks so serene!

He was also just a joy to photograph …

All images © 2013 Studio Deidre / Deidre Sorensen, London

Images from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Full portfolio found on the Turkmenistan gallery of my website.

All images copyright © 2012 Deidre Sorensen Photography

I’ve added images from my recent trip to Turkmenistan to my website.  Here’s the first set:  images of Ashgabat. … and some sneak peeks posted here. Turkmenistan is the western-most ‘stan, located between Iran and Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, bordering the Caspian Sea.  Its capital, Ashgabat, is a slightly absurd mixture of old Soviet architecture, with a modern oil-rich city (complete with Italian white marble EVERYTHING), filled with more monuments to the former president and national heroes than you can imagine.  It makes for a fascinating visit.  So often, capital cities are places you want to escape from as soon as possible when visiting a new country, but Ashgabat is worth a day or two, just for the wackiness.  But also because, behind all of that, are the people of Ashgabat — as warm and hospitable as any around the country.  The markets are fascinating and the side-roads and neighbourhoods give you an introduction to the culture.  I happened to get invited to a wedding on my second day — one of my favourite ways of meeting locals and learning about a people.  By the end of day two, I’d already learned some Turkmen language and been kitted out in a very lovely Turkmen dress, made by a local tailor — both invaluable as I travelled around the country over the next few weeks.
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I’ve added images from my recent trip to Turkmenistan to my website.  Here’s the first set:  images of Ashgabat.

… and some sneak peeks posted here.

Turkmenistan is the western-most ‘stan, located between Iran and Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, bordering the Caspian Sea.  Its capital, Ashgabat, is a slightly absurd mixture of old Soviet architecture, with a modern oil-rich city (complete with Italian white marble EVERYTHING), filled with more monuments to the former president and national heroes than you can imagine.  It makes for a fascinating visit.  So often, capital cities are places you want to escape from as soon as possible when visiting a new country, but Ashgabat is worth a day or two, just for the wackiness.  But also because, behind all of that, are the people of Ashgabat — as warm and hospitable as any around the country.  The markets are fascinating and the side-roads and neighbourhoods give you an introduction to the culture.  I happened to get invited to a wedding on my second day — one of my favourite ways of meeting locals and learning about a people.  By the end of day two, I’d already learned some Turkmen language and been kitted out in a very lovely Turkmen dress, made by a local tailor — both invaluable as I travelled around the country over the next few weeks.

Introducing Deidre Sorensen Photography

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be launching my new Studio Deidre website which will have its own blog built into it (which you can subscribe to of course).  However, I’m going to maintain this Tumblr for posting images and short blogs from Studio Deidre … but also more broadly from my other photo business as well, Deidre Sorensen Photography.

At Deidre Sorensen Photography, I focus on travel documentary work — with some landscape and cityscapes, but largely still people oriented.  I travel alone to the farthest corners of the earth, to learn the history and culture and meet the people. It’s the people stories that capture me, no matter where I am in the world.

I will post again when the new site and blog goes live, but until then, you’ll probably see a few photo blogs here from Deidre Sorensen Photography, particularly my recent travels to Turkmenistan.  The first blog, coming up tomorrow….

Studio Deidre’s current website: www.studiodeidre.com

Deidre Sorensen Photography’s website: www.deidresorensen.com

It’s hard to believe another year has gone by.  Our studio here in London is busier than ever and we’ve had a fabulous year.  So many shoots and amazing families — baby bumps, newborns, toddlers that we shot as newborns only a few years ago….! Thank you to everyone who has supported us, including our suppliers, neighbours, friends, and of course, wonderful clients.  We’ve loved meeting and working with you all, and we look forward to working with you again in 2013. 
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It’s hard to believe another year has gone by.  Our studio here in London is busier than ever and we’ve had a fabulous year.  So many shoots and amazing families — baby bumps, newborns, toddlers that we shot as newborns only a few years ago….!

Thank you to everyone who has supported us, including our suppliers, neighbours, friends, and of course, wonderful clients.  We’ve loved meeting and working with you all, and we look forward to working with you again in 2013. 

Recently we had the chance to take newborn photos of a little girl whose older brother we had photographed almost exactly two years earlier. They were so alike in how they posed and their expressions.

We’ve now done some gorgeous prints for the family’s new London home, and we’re looking forward to seeing them once they’re hanging on the wall.

These two images were mounted on aluminium with a matte laminate on top, giving them a very modern and clean finish — I love how the matte laminate completes them so well. The composition of these two shots also works so well for them to be hung next to each other. Lovely…

All images copyright © 2012 Studio Deidre / Deidre Sorensen

Final eclipse post! Just a couple of images today that were taken during the first part of the partial eclipse as we awaited the total eclipse.  The partial eclipse takes almost an hour, and in this case, it started just moments after sunrise, while the sun was only 1 degree above the horizon.  We had a lot of cloud, which made it a challenge to capture the partial eclipse, but I think they actually add to the magic of it all — really moody, mysterious shots as the sun slowly becomes just a tiny sliver.

NOTE: CLICK ON THE ARROWS TO SEE ALL 3 PICTURES

All images Copyright © 2012 Deidre Sorensen

One more solar eclipse post - or two … a final one tomorrow.  :)  It’s a busy photography season here in London, and so I’ve been slow in getting all my eclipse pictures posted from 2 weeks ago.  It was a magical eclipse, even though there were some clouds — in some ways, they made the images even more mysterious, and the sighting of the corona and moon during totality even more special.

I’ve shown these images to friends who’ve never experienced a solar eclipse to give them a sense of how it feels — the tone of the light as it disappears in the final minutes and seconds, the shadows on the horizon and approaching before and receding after totality, the degree of darkness in the middle of totality, the speed with which the eclipse comes and goes, and the intensity of the tiniest speck of light from the sun.

This is a series of 5 photos, taken in the final seconds, when I removed my solar filter from my camera, and then through totality until the sun re-emerged and I put the solar filter back on the lens.  I love these images for capturing the strange silvery light and the stages of totality.  I’ve put captions on each to explain what you’re seeing.

(click through the images by using the arrows on the right/left — much better if you click the zoom button to see the images large)

UPDATE:  appears some of the captions aren’t displaying fully, so here they are:

Image 1: The final seconds before the total solar eclipse.  You can see the shadow of the moon in the sky above, coming from the direction behind the camera

Image 2: The moment of the beginning of the total eclipse — second contact — as the corona appears and the last spot of the sun create a “diamond” ring for a brief moment

Image 3: The middle of the total solar eclipse, when the corona is visible and no direct light comes from the sun.  Everything is dark, but on the horizon you can see where it’s daylight with no shadow yet

Image 4: Third contact, as the sun emerges.  You can see it is now quite light above us, but on the horizon, where it had been light moments ago, the moon’s shadow has made it dark

Image 5: Moments after the eclipse, we’re bathed in a bright silvery light as the sun emerges again, the sky above goes blue, but on the far horizon, you can see the darkness of the moon’s shadow

All images Copyright © 2012 Deidre Sorensen

So this is a slightly different post to the usual baby photography shots from our London studio.  But indulge me for one moment … the wonder of a newborn baby isn’t that much different from the wonder of our universe being brought into focus through a total solar eclipse….

14 November 2012. Total Solar Eclipse, as seen from Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas, Northern Queensland, Australia.  The eclipse began moments after sunrise, reaching totality at 6:37am, at only 13 degrees above the horizon.  Our view was obscured by lots of cloud, but we caught glimpses of the partial eclipse and then the main highlight — totality — when the clouds magically parted and allowed us a full view of the eclipsed sun for well over a minute of the two minutes of totality. 

The first shot above is first contact, when the moon began its cross over the sun, from the top left.  There is a small bite out of the sun visible in the image.

The second shot is second contact, when the moon fully covered the sun.  Totality.  Stunning light out over the ocean.

After Port Douglas, the moon’s shadow moved out over the ocean, tracing a path toward but stopping short of South America, never crossing any other land en route.