Green fields and trees leading down to the Firth of Forth with Fife in the distance

Tea Break Tog Awards

Tea Break Tog, sadly now defunct, was an incredibly welcoming and knowledgeable online community whose podcasts and natural light course taught me a lot of what I know about the mechanics of photography.

Tea Break Tog awards - Infinity pool at dawn at the Dionysos Hotel in Turkey
The Dionysos hotel in Kumlubük, Turkey. I got up at stupid o’clock, something like 5.00 am, to get this shot and it was well worth it. Before the heat of the day and other hotel guests really got going, this was such an oasis of peace.

In fact, had I not stumbled upon Tea Break Tog a while ago, I honestly don’t think I’d have this website and be writing on it as I just wouldn’t know how to expose a photograph properly. However, I must have done okay with these images below for them to be short-listed!

Tea Break Tog Awards - Green fields and trees leading down to the Firth of Forth with Fife in the distance
Confession: I’m a bit of an Outlander fan (the books! The show, not so much).  So when I went just outside Edinburgh to look for Lallybroch, erm I mean Mid Hope Castle, the bold patterns and lines in this field struck me. Sloping down to the Firth of Forth with Fife in the distance, this area is NOTHING like the surrounds of book Lallybroch but it’s still lovely in its own way.

I’m now a children and family photographer in Edinburgh, but it’s not only children and families I photograph, and not only in Edinburgh I do it.  In fact, before I got into portrait work, I really enjoyed taking landscapes, and often still do. It’s not difficult to find fabulous subject matter on your doorstep when you come from Inverness-shire, I’ll tell you!

Tea Break Tog Awards - single track road through Glen Nevis, Scotland, in the evening sun
Glen Nevis one late summer evening – just look a that light on the mountain in the distance! I’m sure I annoyed my family by stopping every few minutes to take pictures!

Some of this “other stuff” I’ve submitted to the Tea Break Tog weekly competition and are pictured here in this post, and I’m really chuffed to have been short-listed four times for their competitions.

Tea Break Tog Awards - Little girl in pink coat kneeling down in daffodils, peeking over top
I really love the way this one turned out! My daughter’s eyes just peeking over the flowers, the vibrancy of her pink coat in the yellow daffodils, the sunlit background … My favourite shot in this list, I think. (Not biased, obvs!)

If you’re at all interested in taking photographs, their Facebook group is definitely the place on the net to be, to blether with likeminded people, share images, ask questions, and learn LOADS!

Normally I never bother entering photography competitions, not because I have anything against them, but more because I usually forget.

But as I’m now primarily a children and family photographer, I love having a good nose in the Tea Break Tog group – the work of the photographers of lots of different genres in there really inspires me.

If you want to take your photos to a new level, I’d definitely recommend you check them out properly on their website here, and their Facebook group here.

 

Edinburgh branding photographer