The New Year is fast approaching and I’ve been hearing fireworks going off all day… I really hope the fog clears a bit more so that we can see all the fireworks at the strike of midnight (the Dutch go C-R-A-Z-Y with New Year fireworks, I kid you not!) We’re lucky to have a view over the rooftops and usually we can see fireworks from all over The Hague which is great… of course, that only works on a clear night, and with all the fireworks going off too, it’s going to get incredibly foggy over here!

Well onto the sneak peak that I know Julie’s been so patiently waiting for! Just before Christmas we had a GREAT session creating some beautiful lifestyle portraits and studio portraits, and we were all over the house with my lights and backdrops! Julie, you are going to love your gallery once it’s all finished! It was so hard to choose just a few photos, they are all so good! But here you are, a few ’studio’ ones for your sneak peak….

I hope you enjoyed those Julie… can’t wait for you to see the rest….. I’m so excited for you!

I also have to say that is was soooooo good to walk into your home and see the huge canvas of your twins hanging above the fireplace. It looked fantastic! I love seeing my photos displayed in my clients homes :)

Have a great New Year everyone! Wishing you all the best for 2009!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! :)

Heiko and I spent Christmas Eve in Gouda with our friends, Vinita and JK. They treated us to a delicious Indian meal and afterwards we headed out into the cold to photograph the city hall for ‘Gouda bij Kunstlicht’ (I haven’t edited those photos yet, but I will blog them here once I’ve finished editing my client’s photos, so watch out for them!)

Having had a very late night the evening before Heiko and I had a nice lie-in on Christmas Day morning and were very lazy getting up! Our cats were pretty lazy too!

Here’s Eddy with Heiko… Eddy loves to lie on our bed and is constantly seeking cuddles!

And Freddy was curled up on the landing… his big gold eyes followed me curiously as I lay down on the floor and pointed my camera at him!

Oh look, reflections… so this is the only photo I have of me on Christmas Day, behind the camera as usual! ;)

Freddy is a nuisance when it comes to wrapping presents, he’s forever trying to play with the wrapping! And he was one of the first to find our gifts underneath the tree!

Heiko shouted “Freddy” … and Freddy responded with his “what? I wasn’t doing anything! look”… he’s so sweet, how can you not resist those big gold eyes!?

So it’s a little bit Christmasy around here…

I really like both these ornaments… I bought them on a trip to Dresden, Germany, unfortunately they are quite fragile and Freddy caused santa to fall last Christmas and his head has since been superglued back together… this year it was the snowman’s turn to loose his head, ooops - it was my fault this time though! He’ll be all superglued back together again soon though!

Couldn’t resist using our African placemats for our Christmas Dinner, even though they aren’t very Christmassy! ;) This was Heiko’s placemat, mine was a group of zebra.

Just before dinner was ready, Heiko phoned his brothers on Skype… no smile for me, Heiko pulled a silly face instead!

Dinner was delicious!!!! And we were soooo full we could hardly move… still had some room left to finish off the champers tho ;)

I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve tomorrow! I need to start wrapping presents and planning Christmas Dinner!

This year has flown right by and I’d just like to say a huge THANK YOU to all my clients - you have made 2008 a wonderful and exciting year. I look forward to seeing you again and to meeting even more new families in 2009.

Wishing you all the very best for the festive season. Have a wonderful Christmas, and a very happy New Year.

Warmest wishes,
Natalie

Remember this session? Frøya didn’t seem too happy during her 6-months portrait session so we cut the session short and I offered to reschedule. I’m glad we did, we had a lovely session in her home where she was much more relaxed and she was much happier this time too… now at 8-months she is still a super cutie and she had a lovely bright red Christmas outfit to wear too!

Till next time…

Oh, I have to share this… this afternoon I got home to find Freddy, one of our two cats, curled up in the cat tree faaaaast asleep with his head almost hanging off the edge of the cushion… he was looking so cute that I quickly went upstairs to grab my camera. When I came back down he’d moved, but only slightly and now he was watching me intently with those big gold eyes…

ps. I am in love with Heiko’s 24-70L lens ..anyone fancy buying one for me?! ;)

During my last trip the the UK I had the opportunity to photograph Lisa and Nikki at Arcphotos Studio in Preston where I also met several other photographers at their weekly club night. And since everyone at Arcphotos are enjoying their Christmas Party today I thought I’d dedicate this post to them, since I can’t be there to celebrate with them in person… *hope you’re all having a great party* :-)

So first, here’s Lisa (with a slight cross-processed treatment for this first one):

And Nikki:

And a couple more of Lisa:

Thanks Lisa and Nikki, you were great to work with. Hope to see you again soon! :-)

With thanks to Erika at Both Assistance and Support I was not only introduced to CONNECTing Women (a network for professional and internationally aware women, based in The Hague) but I also had a table at their December meeting which was a Festive Network Bazaar.

It was a great evening, and a wonderful opportunity to meet the members, buy Christmas gifts and find out a bit about each of the businesses that had a table there.

And on my table… which was overflowing with photographs… I held a special Christmas Prize Draw to win a portrait session with tigs creations photography. And the winner….

Many congratulations to Santina Hovanessian! You’ve won a portrait session in your home, or at a location of your choice for lifestyle or studio portraits. This includes one to three hours of session time (including set-up and outfit changes), custom editing of each individual image and a 4 week private online gallery of 25-30 proofs. You will also receive two complimentary 13×19cm prints of your choice.
*look out for my email with more details*

Ooops! I didn’t know the background wall would be green! lol I totally chose the wrong colour jumper! haha!

“This year we decided to go on an organised group safari aimed at photographers; we chose the ‘Ultimate Africa’ photo safari with Chris Weston (it was the opportunity to ‘walk with lions’ that totally reeled us in!) Now, where to start?! Honestly, this trip was incredible….”

Want to read more? My travel journal is now available on my website… whoohoo!!

Just follow this link: http://www.tigscreations.com/travel.htm and enjoy the read!

I can’t believe it’s almost December.. where did the year go?! Time is truly flying by and I’m working like crazy to get all my orders ready for Christmas…

Do you remember the prize draw I had at the Feel at Home in The Hague fair?

The winner of my Basic Portrait Package was Naira and we had a great session. I’m sure you will agree with me that she looks stunning, and her outfits were lovely, so bright and colourful!

Thanks Naira for a fun session… I had such a hard time choosing just a *few* for your sneak peak but here you are, I hope you enjoy them!

I hope you enjoyed your sneak peak!

Yes, ours! Heiko and Me! We’re getting married on 5th February 2009… in Africa! :)

Rewind just a couple of months and I would never have imagined it! And when Heiko asked me on 5th September I didn’t believe him at first and asked him if he was being serious (several times apparently!) and then tears came, and he still didn’t know what my answer was, I was in complete shock! That whole weekend I had to keep telling myself this was real. We’d had a drink to celebrate - so it must be real ..right?! I didn’t imagine it.. ;)

We liked the idea of a destination wedding, only we couldn’t decide where to go… the sandy beach weddings on beautiful islands just didn’t appeal to us at all. Then… what about Africa? Well, once we had Africa in our heads we couldn’t shake the thought away. It was so very ‘Us’. A wedding in the wilderness, with all of Africa’s beauty and wildlife surrounding us. It just sounded magic. And we were both so giddy as we searched the internet for ideas.

So, let me quickly update you all on our plans!! Our trip is booked already, we’re going back to Tanzania!! We discovered a travel company specialising in wedding safaris and they’ve put together an amazing itinerary for us! All our legal paperwork is now (thankfully!) completed and sent to them to finalise with the authorities in Tanzania. We bought my engagement ring and our wedding rings in a quaint little town called Schoonhoven where they still make jewellry in the old traditional way, and we had our wedding rings engraved with our names and wedding date by hand. I bought my wedding dress just a few weeks ago during a trip to the UK! Now i’m looking for some shoes.. and that’s not an easy task! Heiko’s looking for a linen suit.. and then we have to think about the flowers, the cake… and we still need to find a photographer! I can’t photograph my own wedding! ;)

We’re so excited to be going back to Tanzania! February just so happens to be when the Great Migration is in the Southern Serengeti; so we’re expecting to see hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra! I’m jumping up and down in my seat just thinking about it!!

We’ll first go to Arusha to finalise all our wedding paperwork and then we’ll visit the Ngorongoro Crater on our way to Olduvai. Our wedding will take place during our stay in Olduvai, where we’ll stay in a tented camp in the heart of the migration. Our wedding ceremony will be in the bush, in a place with a view overlooking the Serengeti. And apparently, the local Maasai people from the village love weddings and will be there to bless our wedding and sing to us too! Afterwards, we’ll have sundowners (drinks at sunset) followed by a candle-lit bush dinner. It sounds perfect! The following morning we’ll head to another camp in the Serengeti where we’ll stay at a remote private camping spot within the wildlife area, a perfect location to watch the Great Migration. After a few days there, we go to Lake Manyara and we’ll be staying in the only lodge inside the park boundary. Our final stop will be at Arusha National Park with views of Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro, and then we head back home …Mr and Mrs! :)

I love you Heiko xx