From one extreme to another. We go from a road trip to the Inner Hebrides to a sporty, winter warmer in Lanzarote! We went to an old Roscoe family favourite; Club La Santa on the far side of the Island. The La Santa bubble is something that is very easy to get sucked into. Once you’re there, it’s quite difficult to leave! In all honesty, you don’t really need to! I guess we found that it was so easy for us with Frank and Helen’s parents there. Club La Santa is very familiar once you arrive and get to know your bearings, it’s very easy to navigate and this was clear for Frank too. Within a few days he was ruling the roost, dictating his direction to get us back to the apartment, the track, the play centre or the pool. It’s minimal design means you feel like you’re walking through a giant sculpture at times. But it’s hard not to be drawn in by the busy schedules of activities that are on offer, after all this is a holiday!

Dave and I really enjoyed having time to do various forms of exercise that we wouldn’t usually have time to do. This included tennis, paddle boarding, squash, ariel yoga, a duathlon and a triathlon. Add to this regular running and swimming and we were feeling pretty healthy by the end of 10 days. We had that glowing feeling that neither of us have felt for some time. The grandparents took turns to look after Frank so that we could go off and do things and we took Frank swimming every day as well as got him a balance bike to get used to whilst we were there. They also have a play group for children, although one of us had to be with Frank because he is under 3, for most parents this means that they can leave their children there and go off and do their activities. The latest facilities that have been built are amazing at Club La Santa; two Olympic sized swimming pools and a bike centre to get any cyclist salivating! We were spoilt for choice!

So while Club la Santa is expensive, once you are there all of your activities, lessons, bike hire, equipment hire and coaching is included. The only thing you have to pay for is food really! Although we did decided to do an excursion and went surfing for the day in Famara with La Santa Surf. This cost around 45 euros each for about 5 hours worth of instruction and it was well worth it. We felt that the instruction was very clear and we basically managed to surf almost every time we got onto the board! So all in all we loved it! This happened the day after we got engaged so it was an excellent way to celebrate together.

With an abundance of warm weather, and so much to do it’s difficult to get bored at La Santa. Evening entertainment is there if you want to dip into it and the kids just love it! The big kids do too! We enjoyed Halloween without all of the commercial stuff that comes with it and Frank loved watching his first magician’s show. Coming home as a fiancé definitely made it for us all! We loved it! An interesting fact told to us whilst we were there; 4 out of 5 people who visit Club La Santa for the 1st time will return. Looks like we’ve got our winter sun holiday sorted for 2016!

(All images copyright to Roscoe Rutter Ltd, shot using Nikon D700 with 35mm f1.8 and 50mm f1.4)

It always takes us some time nowadays to get on with personal projects in terms of editing and collating. Part of the reason for this is ‘life’! We love embarking on personal projects as much as we can, but perhaps we don’t always have the time to reflect like we used to. Our son, Frank is nearly 2 years old! The time is flying by, but we are living each moment from one day to the next as he grows into a little boy. Part of the joy of being work-at-home parents is that we do get to see those precious moments more often than not, and the plus side is we can take off when we like on various adventures, big or small!

So our first adventure we are sharing with you today is our family holiday in the Inner Hebrides towards the back end of the summer. We loaded Helen’s Dad’s 4×4 with everything but the kitchen sink and took off on a long trip up to Scotland. We say long, because the journey up to Glen Coe alone took us nearly 6 hours with a break in Moffat. Bear in mind that a toddler and a dog to entertain and stretch, these journeys take a lot longer than they used to. We only stayed for one night in Glen Coe, using it as a stop over for Skye rather than staying to explore the beautiful landscape. So onwards from Glen Coe we drove to Mallaig and took the passenger ferry to Armadale on Skye. We chose this route because it meant less time in the car and more time outside for Frank and Rudy. Our first taste of Skye was breathtaking. We enjoyed fantastic weather and toured around the south-west cost because we’d read some very lovely things about it. So our first afternoon on Skye was spent playing in the sea in a very quiet bay called Tarskavaig. We suddenly felt like we were on holiday after the very long journey getting there. Although we still had to drive to the north of the Island, this was a beautiful place for us to stop for a while and soak it all in.

We’d booked into a family friends cottage very close to Stein in Waternish for 5 nights. The croft cottage is a rustic little place, full of charm and family quirks such as games, books and ornaments. Frank and Rudy felt at home straight away! The views from which led out across the bay and we didn’t get board of sitting in the conservatory looking out at the sunsets that kept coming. The main thing that was a bit difficult for us on this holiday was the distance we had to travel to go and do things. It was a case of everytime we went out, back into the car and dealing with a stroppy Frank (and dog) who didn’t want to have to endure another car journey be it little or long.

However what we did experience was really appropriate to us as a family. We spent time at Dunvegan Castle and explored its interior and grounds. We enjoyed picnics in quiet bays, a walk to Neist Point, local markets and an afternoon in Portree. We didn’t try to do too much, we just wanted to enjoy the fine weather whilst we had it, and when the weather closed in, we hibernated! Reading books, snoozing and playing games at the cottage. This place is cut off from the world, no internet or phone reception meant we had time to switch off from work and enjoy quality time together.

When we left Skye we took another road trip to the Isle of Mull where we had booked into Adarchy House Hotel for 3 nights. Helen had previously been to Mull on a family holiday years ago and was pretty keen to go back. Staying on the south of the island meant we kept everything we did pretty local to where we were staying. We enjoyed long walks on the nearby beach, a trip to Iona, and a day on Fidden Bay, which plays host to some of the clearest waters in the UK. It’s even been described as one of the best wild water swimming places in Europe! It didn’t disappoint! Although we had some rain and wind, generally the weather stayed pretty fine for us whilst we were on Mull.

We really enjoyed an impromptu visit to Ardanalish Isle of Mull Weavers, where we had a little tour of the weaving factory wearing ear defenders along the way. It was really educational watching the weaver at work, operating the machinery and enjoying a cup of tea in the process. There was someone else doing some documentary photography while were there with a Leica m9! Definitely the right place for this camera.

We hadn’t really thought out the guest house situation very well with Frank and Rudy in tow. Our room was pretty small and Rudy had to bunk in with us! This meant a very wet, stinking dog coming in at the end of a day playing in the sea! Still he was amazing and we survived! It was nice to let someone else make breakfast for us for a few days. They are extremely hospitable at Adarchy House, but we didn’t think they were that well set up for families…so if we were to return to Mull, we’d definitely go down the self-catering cottage route. It just works so much better!

Our journey home took even longer because we traveled in one go from the south of Mull to the Lake District including the ferry journey over to Oban. We all survived, but breaking up the journey whenever possible is highly advised! Frank was a trooper in all honesty and we had enough entertainment to keep him going when we needed to! The main thing to think about on this sort of trip is to be flexible! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to do as much as you can in terms of travel and the things you decide to do! It makes everything so much more fun for everybody if you can chop and change plans depending on the situation. So here we go…

(All images copyright to Roscoe Rutter Ltd shot with Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, Zeiss 18mm f4)

Since our return to the UK in April 2012, after 14 months relaxing on beaches, hiking up mountains and sleeping on over-night trains, we have finally managed to sort through ‘some’ of our photography archive. Between work commitments and fitting back into the UK way of life we are working hard to sort through the thousands of images to be able to do things with our favorite photographs. Like offer some for sale!

Thanks for looking. Helen and Dave.

We had our first ‘family holiday’ experience towards the back end of the summer, taking advantage of the Roscoe cottage in Llanberis, North Wales.  We spent a lovely, relaxing week away which gave us a chance to explore the area with an 8 month old baby. We’ve always traveled as Helen and David but now there are 3 of us there is a lot more to think about. The car was full to the rim with walking gear, wet gear (this is North Wales we are talking about) a pram, a carrier, food, drink, toys…I wont go on.  Yes we definitely are more organised now it has to be said.

A week in Llanberis and here are some of our highlights…

Walking through Newborough Warren to get to the glorious Newborough beach on Anglesey, where Frank experienced his first handful of sand, and very nearly a mouthful! We managed to sit down for our first picnic of the holiday only to be threatened by a big, dark cloud which was heading our way. There was even a little tornado on the horizon. If it had swerved a little more to our left we would have been okay, but we sat it out a little longer and suddenly started to make a dash for it only to get absolutely drenched. It was good fun though. We managed to keep Frank nice and warm under our make-do picnic blanket shelter.

So beach time scuppered by the weather we drove down the road to the Anglesey Sea Zoo, which was money well spent. Frank again had another ‘first’ experience, this time of sea life and was mesmerised by the fish following them with his newly found pointing finger, at last he had something definite to point at and follow. It’s £7.50 per adult but the ticket lasts for 7 days and under 3′s are free.

When Nanni Barb joined us for the next few days we ventured over to the Llanberis National Slate Museum, which is free and a good option for half a day of ‘sight-seeing’, not that we were expecting anything else but you have to be open minded when it comes to finding activities that not only appeal to us but may also engage Frank’s ever increasing imagination. And so the Slate Museum did this for us, we even attended a slate cutting session which again was enjoyed by us all. So that Frank could have a bit of play time we took him to the village play-park which definitely helped him to work up an appetite for some dinner.

Another trip over to Anglesey, to Beaumaris saw us take in the Puffin Island cruise, which although there were no Puffin’s on the Island as they had all migrated for the winter, was still a really nice ‘family-activity’ to do. Having said that Frank snoozed the whole time, so perhaps we’ll come back when he is a little older and the Puffin’s are back from their travels. We did spot all sorts of birds though and a lonesome seal popped up to see us too. The boat trip costs £8 per adult and we were out at sea for 2 hours, along with lots of other families and a really fun tour-guide/boatman who was informative enough. On this very beautiful day we had clear views across to Liverpool.

You can’t really visit this area and not go hiking, afterall it is one of our favourite activities and with Frank we managed a couple of half day hikes. The first being a trek upto the Halfway house on the Llanberis Snowdon Pass, a moderate hike, probably one of the busier paths up to the top of Snowdon. When he is older we will go all the way up, this route is scenic and it’s nice to wave at the train as it makes its way up to the top. We also walked through Padarn Country Park around the back of the Slate Museum, not too steep, nicely sheltered from the wind and some lovely views too. Closer to the village it’s nice to walk around the lake and take a peak into Dolbardon castle too. Follow this with a hot chocolate at one of the many tea rooms and you will have a nice day planned!

Sometimes we didn’t want to put too much pressure on doing too much as a family. Afterall, not everything we did was free, suddenly there were various admission fees to consider, plus it’s nice to enjoy our time together, watching sheep through the window rummaging in the compost pile, or spending our time eating as a family and photographing it. Frank is used to the camera now and so it’s easy enough to capture his cheeky smile, or document him exploring his toy box. The simple things bring so much more enjoyment now.

Llanberis is a lovely part of the Snowdonia National Park and it’s a really good location to base yourself if you want to explore further. There are loads of family activities going on there too from canooing to rock climbing so we are sure to be frequenting this lovely mountainside village time and again as Frank grows. We did manage some child-free time too with a walk up to and around Moel Eilio behind the back of Llanberis village when the Roscoe grandparents came to stay and on the night time the Mennai Seafood festival was taking place and so we enjoyed our first night out together since before Frank was born.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 and Nikon D600 with 35mm f1.8)

These events took place earlier in the summer, at the start of July to be precise when Yorkshire and Derbyshire hosted the first stages of the Tour De France. It’s really taken us this long to get these images onto the blog but we didn’t want to miss it as an event on here. We also celebrated a certain Nanni’s birthday and so the two went hand in hand.

It was a pretty exciting event to go and support as we found our spot on a grassy bank after the Holme Moss ascent. We didn’t take the bikes instead opting for Frank and his push chair so we could all go and witness this one off sporting spectacular. The shuttle buses from Hadfield train station ran smoothly and the entire thing was much easier to access than we had anticipated, especially with a 7 month old baby to bring along.

As the build up escalated we waited in anticipation of the incoming cyclists who were preceded with an entourage of sponsor-themed caravans some of which were really funny, others less imaginative but all of which managed to add to the ever-energetic atmosphere of supporters.

They did come through in a flash but it was a really awesome sight and we enjoyed our sunny, windy day up on the banks along with the thousands of other people who were there sharing this amazing event. On the way back to the shuttle buses we were greeted with even more thousands of cyclists who had traveled far and wide on their bikes to be a part of it all.

The next day we had a bit of a more leisurely visit to Chatsworth House where we celebrated Barbara’s birthday with a tour around the house itself, a spot of afternoon tea in the Cavendish Restaurant and a lovely walk around the gardens. We are seriously considering National Trust membership for next years outings having already visited 3 grounds close by to us, it only makes sense. They are family friendly places to visit, which right now is very appealing.

Chatsworth is stunning, the house itself is very regal and home to one of Europe’s most significant art collections. From old Masters through to contemporary sculpture we were delighted by the contrast of old and new within rooms that have been fantastically maintained and restored to the rich history of the Devonshire family. Frank seemed to enjoy it all too, perhaps even more so the cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches which were served as part of our afternoon tea.

At the time of our visit there was a major display of contemporary sculpture in the gardens by Micheal Craig-Martin, a giant wheelbarrow, fork and stiletto shoe to name a few. It’s always refreshing to have such a juxtaposition of nature, regality and the contemporary sublime coming together.

We’d really recommend Chatsworth as a family-friendly day out, its the most beautiful of all of our national trust visits so far this year. Although the ticket into the house is expensive it’s worth doing at least once in your lifetime if you get the chance to visit. The gardens are always lovely and the afternoon tea a nice way to complete Barbara’s birthday. We paid £21.50 per head for the Traditional Afternoon Tea including a glass of home-brewed Rose wine, which was delicious. I think we’ll come again!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0)

So here we are 4 months since the time our little man Frank joined us to make 3 in the Rutcoe camp. It seems as if he’s been with us forever and is still yet only 4 months old. We love being parents and the joy that he gives us every minute of our lives. A babies development is something to be in awe of, just today we put a glass up to his mouth, he held it around the edge and went to drink from it, like we do! There was nothing in the glass to drink, but he knew this was what he should do. He’s starting to let us know what he wants through more hand gestures, cries and laughs and we are greeted by more and more giggles each day.

In our backyard we have a wonderful array of English Bluebells growing wild, they look stunning at this time of year and so a week ago we decided on an impromptu family photo shoot with our old best friend the Leica M9. Getting stuck into parenting has meant less time with the Leica, more time with Frank…this is to be expected surely? I mean the Nikon D600 gets daily use but we tend to save the Leica for those one off moments, when the light is lovely and golden and we just know that something special will be captured. Just like when we were exploring the world, we often felt that if it was an image worth keeping it should be shot on the Leica, we didn’t really think we’d have around 30,000 or so images but this is how it is when you explore so many amazing places.

And so it was on this late spring evening that we felt we would create some imagery that would be something we will go onto cherish for a long time to come. Of course it helps when it’s all there ready for us, a wonderful backdrop and willing participants – us! Frank is getting more and more accustomed to the camera now so he makes it easy for us.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0)

It’s all been a bit quiet on here of late. The main reason being there is a LOT going on for the two of us right now! We have pretty much settled into our new home right on the cusp of the Peak District and within easy reach of the wonders of the City…the City being Manchester of course! In truth we absolutely love it here, out in the country with walks from our door step and fantastic hillside and valley views. We have found our spot, for the time being at least.

So what have we been up to? A trip to the Lake District saw us bring in Dave’s 30th birthday with a lovely spell in Ambleside. We stayed in a boutique B&B; The Waterwheel which with only 3 rooms really felt quite cosy! Our hosts Julie and Nigel made us feel very at home by leaving home-made chocolate cake in our room and rustling up a very tasty breakfast each morning. It was simply nice to be away from our work-related and home improvement environments. At this time of year it’s a stunning area to visit as all the leaves on the trees are turning into rich golden hues and vibrant reds.

Ambleside is well located for local walks and shops and has a pretty good selection of restaurants and bistros too, although with this comes a price tag. We are used to good grub, we are also used to fantastic vegetarian food so although we ate well at Lucy’s and Fellini’s we felt the food didn’t quite match the price tags at around £16 for a main in both.

We enjoyed a lovely walk up to Easdale Tarn from Grassmere, which again is a very twee, picturesque village and this can be appreciated even in the rain! After grafting our way along slippery paths and streams in a torrential downpour of rain we came to a very foggy tarn. We managed to take a few meter readings for our new friend; a Bronica Medium Format camera and then promptly took the loop path back down to Grassmere. Once back in Grassmere we enjoyed soup and drinks at   Baldry’s tea room, great hot chocolate to be had there.

Something that was a nice little bonus during our stay was that the Ambleside Salutation Hotel next to where we were staying were offering a Sunday lunch and swim deal for £15.95 per person. This isn’t just a swim though, we had full use of the facilities including the gym, pool, sauna, steam and hot tubs, one of which is outdoors. Lovely for the cold autumn chill. The 3 course lunch was fine for what we paid and we spent the majority of our morning there so it was a worthwhile thing for us to do.

Earlier on in October we attended Sukie’s 4th Birthday party, wowee that was a whirlwind event. About 8 little girls from her pre-school came along, presents in tow and prepared for pass the parcel, sleeping lions (or something like that!), party food, a tremendous Tinker Bell birthday cake made by Emily and of course some crazy shapes on the dance floor. This was all over within a few hours! They have some fast energy those little ones! Love their group photograph too, they obviously didn’t find it a smiling matter!

Coming back to a more sobering note, we attended the Broadbottom Community Remembrance Sunday service on the 10th November. This is our first community event since we moved here and it was a beautiful site to see all the families and friends of the village come together in remembering lost one’s through war. This couldn’t have been on a more perfect Autumnal day, starting off with a low mist which by mid morning had cleared to a beautiful blue sky and bright streams of sunlight. A local brass band led the procession up to the cenotaph where everyone gathered in remembrance, singing hymns and offering poppy wreaths. Very atmospheric. We followed the service with a local walk which took in hills, paths, roads and more rivers! It is really beautiful around here!

I shot this a few weeks ago when preparing for a shoot with a young actress in London. Dave was my model and in this particular photograph I just love the look in his eyes, he’s rarely captured like this. This was shot using 2 portable speed-lights, trying to get used to minimising my load when I am off shooting on location. I bought 2 really compact lighting stands and an even more compact shoot through umbrella from Calumet. This was all triggered using my trusty pocket-wizard system.

We have our fingers and toes crossed for this years AOP awards! The print is in head office along with all of the several other photographer’s entries whom Helen is facing! As a member of the AOP Helen tries to support the association where possible and the awards program is one way to do this. Plus it is one of the most highly regarded photography awards in the industry.

The second round means they get to look at the print in flesh, and thanks to The Printspace using Canson Baryta paper Helen had a 60x50cm print shipped straight to the AOP’s London head office.

We don’t know yet when the finalists will be announced, but what it means if it gets this far is a place in this years awards exhibition to be held in a London gallery later this year as well as a page in the prestigious awards book sent out to many agencies and clients looking for fresh and established talent.

We’ll keep you posted and here’s her entry taken from a temple look out site in Kathmandu, Nepal.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 4 and photoshop)

We keep saying this everytime we write but we wish we could be posting more frequently on our beloved Notworkrelated blog. The truth is we’ve both been so busy in our workrelated lives! This shouldn’t be an excuse! The reason we started this blog was for us to have a platform through which we could discuss and showcase what we get up to away from work. I guess with all the traveling out of our system (well for the time being at least) we have had to crack on and get back into our lives as photographer and designer.

So for a little update here’s what we’ve been up to…

Helen photographed Andre Bonomi, new Aston Martin shareholder for an Italian editorial feature at head office in June.

Helen has already visited Dubai, Spain, France and Germany this year with top client Aston Martin. She’s been photographing lifestyle and documentary imagery on launches, at motorsport events and various VIP visits to head office. It’s been a busy year for Aston with it being their Centenary year and so there has been lots to photograph! Not to mention their big celebrations in London this coming weekend. It’s free to the public on Sunday to witness Aston Martin’s biggest line up of iconic Aston Martin cars in history. Lets hope the sun stays good for us!  You can find out more here.

Bruno Senna leads the GT Pro class in car no.99 at this years Le Mans 24 hour race. Needless to say the gridwalk was a fantastic experience!

Unfortunately David doesn’t get to play quite so much with the Aston’s but he does often find himself joining Helen as a photographer too which is nice as this means we get to work with each other! And we have just both returned from the Goodwood Festival of Speed where we were shooting for Tag Heuer as a joint venture so he does get some of the perks!

David in the meantime has started a job! Nooooo! We cried! But there are a few responsibilities on our shoulders including a new house which we should be moving into soon. We’re moving to a lovely village on the cusp of the Peak District and within reach of the glorious city of Mancheser which is going to be our new back yard! Well actually the Peak District is more our back yard but it’s good to have Manchester only a 20 minute train journey away.

He is now working at Havas Lynx, a global agency leading the way when it comes to marketing and design. He’s in the design team putting ideas into reality. It’s a great platform career wise, plus it means we get to meet more people from Manchester!

So in between relocating and finding ourselves new contacts for work and play we took a little trip to Wales recently and opted for the less popular but perhaps more spectacular hike to the top of the Glyders in Snowdonia. We were greeted by glorious weather right before this ongoing heat wave began luckily for us as it rains often in Llanberis. We took the £1 bus up to Pen-Y-Pass where the path begins opposite the Pass car park alongside the hostel. We rarely passed anyone heading up this side of the mountain a refreshing change to tackling the masses of hikers who take on Snowdon every day.

Our ascent took about 2.5 hour or so with a few breaks to take in the views and to enjoy Mrs Roscoe’s homemade fruit cake! Its easy to loose the path because it isn’t well trodden however there are pink markers on the rocks every so often so if you do miss it navigating back onto it is easy enough. Approaching Glyder Fawr at 999m is fun, it’s a little like scrambling over giant rocks in Planet of the Apes. The landscape is amazing up here, the rock formations huge making us feel like midgets! We met more hikers as we ventured across to Glyder Fach (994m) and found the cantilever stone perched on top of more rocks. Some fun to be had there!

We looked out across to Tryffan and Devil’s Kitchen, perhaps routes that are taken more frequently although only in good conditions. As it was still and sunny this was the perfect day to hike around these peaks. We’re always reminded of the dangers when we see rescue helicopters flying around!

We took the path down to the Pen-Y-Gwryd Hotel where we enjoyed drinks in their historic and Everest themed bar. The only downside was the hour long wait for the bus back to Llanberis, but at £1 each its a bargain really!! Although this isn’t the Himalayas there is so much exploring to be done in this part of Wales either by foot or bike. We’ve enjoyed many hikes directly from Helen’s parents cottage in Llanberis and also bike rides around the Snowdon routes. It’s a part of the country that should be on everyone’s visit-list at some stage in their lives and especially for those who love the outdoors.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 processed in Lightroom 3)