Black & White Lade Braes

One of my favourite things about living in St. Andrews is walking down the Lade Braes path. It takes you from the town, past the park, through the forest, beside the Kinnessburn (river) and out into the neighborhoods. At the end of October I like to walk down Lade Braes with my camera because the leaves are in full bloom - autumn colours everywhere you look! There are these fabulous leaves I want to call maple leaves (though I'm not entirely sure - no tree experts nearby for me to ask). These leaves are giant and the sun shines through them so prettily! This year I took a model with me on this Halloween time walk and we had fun with the late afternoon sun and all the toys at the playground. We even found a couple dandelions!

This model, Elvyra, is in here first year of university at St. Andrews studying science. As we were snapping photos she admitted to me that she is a geek. "What kind of geek?" I asked. "A video game geek!" she said with a shy smile. I never saw that one coming but I loved it! She said she'll play anything from kid's games to zoombies and racing games. haha

 It may surprise you that I captured autumn leaves in black and white but I think I was more inspired by Elvyra when I was taking these photos and she is a very black & white kinda girl. She was wearing all black (her norm) and her dark hair and fair complexion just had B & W written all over it :) No point in fighting it.

I absolutely loved photographing Elvyra's gorgeous face! Her soft cheeks and bright eyes were so charming and I just couldn't take enough photos. I love these last couple close-ups. I asked her to make a funny face for me (I can't help myself - gotta be goofy) and she pulled this one (below). She called it her duck face. She could only hold it for a couple seconds before breaking into laughter. So sweet :)

xoxo

Cham

PS: I had Elvyra throwing handfulls of leaves again and again and again and again!! Hardly any of the photos turned out the way I wanted them to in the end but it was fun tossing leaves into the air anyway so no regrets :)