Sheer style

Sheer style

This is a rather short blog, but life is getting busier in the Duder family, as my wife and I discovered on Saturday in a family video call. Slightly more distant relatives and friends may well have picked up the news from Facebook, where the image at the top of the page appeared with the caption ‘The Duders wish to announce that there is a bun in the oven.’

So we’re going to be grandparents for the first time in September if everything goes to plan. Poor little mite, with me for a grandad: stylish as the announcement is, and the parents are, my complete lack of sartorial elegance could easily skip a generation, and visit itself on the grandchild. Mind you, there’s a rich inheritance of cameras, lenses and lighting equipment somewhere down the line!

I am, in many senses, superfluous, as Emma takes pictures professionally, as Doodah Designs, so my photographic usefulness will largely be confined to the occasions when both parents are absorbed in the many and varied duties of childcare. And I haven’t had many models of grandparenting to study: though I have affectionate memories of my later father-in-law staying up late when our daughter was very young and suffering from colic. She went to sleep draped over Grandad’s arm, and he went on holding her until she woke up for her post-midnight feast…

And it’s an example of why photographers should be willing subjects as well as clicking at others: you (and any partner) are around more than usual at present, so why not consider what you ought to announce, and how you can do it in a post on Facebook – or possibly a post on here. Saturday shadows are calling for dramatic light – and there’s always Silly Sunday, which may be my natural home. It doesn’t matter if you’re camera-shy – self-timers and remote shutter releases are cheap and easy to get.

Go on. You know you want to.