My Mum's Retirement Party

As promised some news and pictures from this weekend's trip to Scotland. Laura and I had a lovely time. We were on the catering staff for much of the Sunday, which was mostly quite good frantic fun, although only because the majority of the food was provided by Marks & Spencer.

(Apologies for the strange layout errors, it seems that Blogger's handling of images is only partly fixed.)

My dad and my sister did an amazing job arranging a number of lovely surprises for my Mum, one of which was the treble clef cake. The guy who made it did a bang-up job except for failing to notice there are five lines on a stave and not four.

My Dad holding my nephew Gregor. I was really struck by the different colours and textures of their skin (less obvious in this copy than in the original, which I might post on Flickr). I think it makes for an aesthetically pleasing contrast.

Laura spent lots of time playing with Gregor, as did we all since he's so much fun at the moment, but I think they formed a special bond.

Gregor in a gigantic chair. I think it speaks for itself.

Ruth and Laura in a spare moment - when we weren't running around refreshing drinks or organising food - having a natter.

Infuriatingly, I didn't manage to get many decent shots of my Mum, this one is the best I can muster (and I had to modify it a bit). This is partly because she was darting around talking to so many people, and partly because I found myself shooting into the light all the time. I still have so much to learn about photographing people.