Bella Rose

Wispy fly away hair that has a mind of it's own - much like this little girl herself. More of the beautiful girls who live next door coming soon.

This girl's curls

I love them. Isabella calls them 'tornado' curls. The longer her hair grows the curlier they get. I play with them all day long, pulling them down to watch them bounce back up. Sweet sweet baby.

My muse

I had the pleasure of playing with the 50mm 1.2 L lens for a couple of days. That baby is way too much lens for me to handle but that didn't stop me from falling in love and pretending I knew what I was doing with it anyway! Here's one I shot with it, there she is again ... my muse.

ready to roll

I snapped these before Isabella left to dance her little booty off at the school disco on the Friday. It's been quite a while since I've taken photos of her, each time I do I'm always shocked at how the lens portrays the reality of what I'm in denial about in my head, the reality of her growing up! She'll turn eight in February, that makes her almost a 'tween' if you listen to media labels. It's a special age to witness - all dangly long legs and big adult teeth filling in amongst  baby ones and that growing sense of humour. She  chose this song to go with this post, those of you familiar with the Nickelodeon channel will recognise it - it's very tween!

a little girl and her watering cans

Maggie was besotted with these watering cans we found while pottering around in our neighbours overgrown backyard a few lovely afternoons ago.You can imagine my glee when I realised 1~ they would keep her busy and 2 ~ they were so darn colourful they would 'pop' just nicely! 

I am grateful

...for this girl. For those of you who don't know, she is my sister Selina. She's my best friend, my grounding force and she happens to live a long way away from me on an island with the man of her dreams. So that makes it okay I guess... kind of. She's always been here for me whenever I've needed her, travelling back for the births of my daughters and to see me through tough times. She comes to visit us a few times a year, this time staying longer than usual to see our other sister get married. My girls have an incredibly strong connection with her despite the distance. Selina sees into their souls and I just can not explain the joy that fills them up when she's around. And me too, I have so much to learn from this younger sister of mine. Growing up we fought like cats and dogs, seriously. I'm talking about fist fights and drawing a line down the middle of the bedroom we shared. I would wake up before her every Easter and raid her Easter basket to swap her good eggs with my bad ones. Things changed when she turned 19, started University and came to live with me (I stopped stealing her easter eggs well before then by the way). I always joke I was waiting for her to mature so we could become friends. She'd actually be pretty close to perfect if she'd just let me take her photo more often, honestly she is worse than my kids with the whining and the groaning and the rolling eyes. I snapped this one of her a few weeks ago on a day trip to Tamborine Mountain. Just off to the right of her my youngest girl was dipping her forehead into the water feature. It went a little something like this.

Me: "Oh my god Leen the light is so good right here, quick, look at me"

Selina ( in a whiney voice): "Tone, not now, I want to play with Maggie- look at what she's doing"

Me: "Pleeease, just stay where you are, all you have to do is look at me".

I've always been the bossy one. She indulged me to get me off her back. I'm so thankful she did because I absolutely love this shot of her. She had to leave us yesterday, there is always much sadness when that cab arrives to take her away. If things go to plan next year we'll be seeing her more often!

Before she became a Mrs

sweet baby Lucy waited patiently for her mumma to be ready

looking SO gorgeous here

and here

and here too

I've finally gotten around to editing some more from Amy & Paul's wedding day! About time I hear you say. Getting to hang out with Amy so closely on this day was an experience that I feel honored to have been part of. Amy looked absolutely beautiful and was so serene that not even the numerous things that tested her resilience on the day could change.  The rain forced their perfectly planned garden ceremony to take place inside the ambient lit barn that was reserved for their reception. My photography duties temporarily ended here due to the low light  and 'Uncle Steve' took over with his flash. I was back on board again afterwards though - I hope to post more next week, with the groom in the photos!

the flower girls that rocked

These girls were so much fun. There’s Lily (the youngest) - so full of spunk and attitude. She was all giggles and cheeky grins and has this tip your head back and bellow kind of laugh thing going on. I wanted to put her into my pocket and take her home. And there’s Natasha who I already knew but hadn't seen in over a year. I was floored by how much she’s grown up  and she is really blossoming into a true beauty. Natasha did her best to be the more mature influence  but before long couldn’t help but be swept up in Lily's infectious energy. They were thick as thieves all day. 

Sneak peek

Amy and Paul. A  hundred year old camelia farm.  The start of their 'happy ever after'. More to come soon.

Phasing

I'm questioning a lot of things about my photography lately. Since completing the workshop recently and despite it being really wonderful, I'm a bit lost. I feel the way I do things has been desconstructed and stripped back to it's bare bones. I am trying to make sense of  it and find a way to build it again... but how do I want to rebuild it? Who do I want to take photographs of? What are the things that really speak to me?   I want to 'connect'  like I did when taking this portrait last December, somehow I've drifted from that path and want to go for  a wander down it again. How do I keep myself  from being influenced by other peoples work that I admire to find something... a style, a way to capture a moment...  that is 'me' ? Maybe there are several kinds of  'me'  and that is okay?

Finally...

I've returned to the world of  blogging! Oh my little blog I have missed you so! You may have noticed the lack of blog action here for the past 4 weeks (come on Kris & Katie, it hasn't been that bad...has it?) and without a word as to why the disappearance either!  Well, I was immersed in my first ever photography workshop and it was amazing.  While I had high hopes of continuing to blog during those 4 weeks I just didn't get there. Every minute of the past month was eat, sleep & breathe shutter speeds and assignments and because I don't like to do things half arsed I completely threw myself into it leaving no time for much else. I'm a little rusty on the blog entries tonight (I must get my mojo back, this being rusty will not do) so I'll just leave you with a photo that I submitted for the course in which we had to use window light. Hopefully it'll knock your socks off enough to make up for me being MIA ;) Our  fabulous teacher converted it to B&W for me and I am very much in love with it.

swimsuits and giggles

We are a happier household  now the warmer weather is here. It seems we went to sleep on the last night of Winter and woke up to  Spring delivering  her  glorious sunshine right on cue! On Friday after school Isabella went and got dressed in her swimmers and of course Maggie had to follow suit! We have no pool (like I said, the sunshine is making us all a tad high), they were just out in the backyard so I  ran inside to grab the camera . I recently read somewhere that a photograph  need not be' technically'  perfect, as long as it makes you  'feel' (or something along those lines). So I think this sums up these shots of  my ratbags, I missed focus at times but hell they sure do  make me 'feel'.

I asked Isabella to stop jumping on the trampoline to give me a lil' something ... then  Maggie had to have her moment too! Mmmm, does the word 'copycat' come to mind here?