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!