How divine is this little girl. I kept stopping when I was photographing her just to look at her, watch her and listen to all her little noises of protest. She wasn’t very sleepy but eventually she succumbed to the land of nod. Such a beautiful little girl, from a kind and loving family.

Thanks Jane, I can’t wait to watch your new little girl grow up the way I have with your other two girls. You are truly blessed.

It has been all systems go around here lately with getting galleries ready and sending off orders. I am still waiting on two little bubbas to greet the world aswell, but hopefully not till next week now as I am heading away on a plane tomorrow morning to a workshop up on the Gold Coast. The workshop is called Inspireme 2010 and I am hoping that is exactly what it will be doing as we have an amazing line up of photographers coming out to teach us including one of my all time favourite photographers Ashley Skjaveland all the way from Canada. So I will be out of the office from Thursday 20th till Wednesday 26th of May.

On the plane though I will an amazing book to read. Written by a friend of mine who became a surrogate to a good friends brother and sister. It is the story of what happened to her as she selflessly carried another couple baby for 9 mths. She herself has 3 children of her own…..and check out the cover photo….up it’s mine. I can’t believe that when you walk into Dymocks on teh shelf is a book with MY photo on it. How cool is that.

The other book that is in my bag is one written by a very special boy….my Liam. Yup he wrote a book and not just any book it is a serious one with over 1000 words and full story line about a dragon called Longsar, a King called Tareb and the Lord Dragon Gollois. We are so so so proud of him and can’t wait to read his next book when he has finished. By the way he wrote this book just before his 7th birthday…how’s that for pretty cool.

On that note I hope you all have a lovely weekend, I will have limited internet access while away and will answer any emails on my return.

Cheers

*Sigh* I spent another beautiful autumn afternoon playing with this family. I am so lucky to spend my days at work like this. These guys were the most beautiful, loving family. Now originally this was meant to be a couple session as David was the winner of my Valentines Day competition, but when he asked if I could include his children I of course couldn’t say no. BUT there was 1 condition…..that we still got some photos of them, as it is the parents who usually hide in the background avoiding the camera. These guys have been married for was it 18years adn oh my they were just like  a couple who had been married for 2 years. It was so sweet to watch them still be so in love with each other. It just goes to show you that love dosen’t peeter out after a while if you keep the fires lit they will warm you for the rest of your life.

Those fires are also kept going by the three gorgeous children they have, so kind and well mannered and you can tell they they genuinely love each other sharing thier inside jokes, helping each other without a second thought. It was so beautiful to watch the interaction bewteen them.

Now I am so lucky to be doing one of my dream jobs which is photographing babies and children but my other dream job which I looked into very seriously a few years ago was to be either a midwife or a doula. Well guess what Amy does…..her dream job and my other dream job. She is a doula and she has worked for many years in Singapore where she had her original business. She is now setting up her business here in Canberra. I will tell you she is so warm and caring if we were to have another bub *sigh…no I am finished* Amy is the type of person who I would want to have by my side. She is a beautiful person inside and out everyone should have  an Amy in their life at some point. You will see what I mean when you see her amazing, warm smile. Her whole face lights up and I’ll tell you the kids got her huge warm smile too.

Thanks guys for such a lovely afternoon, there isn’t a better way than to spend your day than palying in the warm autumn sun.

If you are pregnant now or looking at becoming pregnant and you want someone to help guide you and your partner through one of the most important times of your life then Amy is your Doula. Her business is called Four Trimesters and if you want more information on what it is Amy does you can give her a call on 0449 880 222. Her website will be up and running very soon.

This little guy had such an impact on me when I first met him about 1 year ago. He reminded me so much of my boys when they were babies. He was just so calm and snuggly, oh he made me cluck sooooo much. I knew he was going to grow into a gorgeous little boy, how could he not with two such fabulous parents. Now Nadia and Cameron are the sort of people who after spending time with them and Xavier you go home and think yep the world is going to be fine when you see that hey are raising the next generation.  They just take everything in their stride, so cool, calm and collected and so very devoted to their little man.

When we met up for our session Xavi had only had a 1 hour sleep which when  you are 13mths old…that is not much at all BUT you would never have picked it. He was a trouper and my gosh so happy and chatty with the biggest brown eyes and the cheekiest smile. He is certainly going to be beating them off with a stick when he hits his teens. I feel so priviledged to be able to watch him grow and that Nadia and Cameron have trusted me to document this time in their lives. When I first met them Xavier was 11 days old and I got what is still one of my most favourite images to date. So this is Xavi then…..

and this is him now 13 mths old and gorgeous. I could have quite happily taken him home and slotted him into my family….lol.

It was so lovely to catch up with you guys again on Sunday. Xavier is the most gorgeous little boy and I can’t wait to watch him grow into a strapping young lad in the years to come.

Do you remember the first time you saw your partner?? do you remember the first time you knew that they were THE one. That feeling you got in your tummy when they would smile at you, the smile that would slowly unfold when you thought of them. I tell you when I met my man I knew that I would marry him, I even said it to my bestie at the time but she thought I was crazy as I was only 19, but I knew.

Well on Saturday afternoon I got to see all of that all over again when I did a session with Tara and Chris. You could tell that they were completely in love. They just fit together so well, they were completely comfortable with each other. There was no fussing or awkwardness, they just were. So when I found out that they had been together for 8 years I was astounded. I thought, no, this is fresh, new love that I am seeing they can’t still be that giddy for each other after 8 years.  I am happy to tell you that it is possible, I witnessed it on Saturday. It was so lovely to spend the afternoon with them. They are just like old friends, even when I was bagging out Chris for various reasons. 

Now Chris was the second place winner of my Valentines Day competition, yeah I know that was ages ago but we only got round to it now….lol. I will tell  you his answer to my question of “describe what you love about your partner in 4 words” was just so right.  His response was  “gorgeously breath taking smile” you couldn’t help not smiling when Tara smiled, such a genuine smile and person.  

So I better get on with showing you the photos, I will warn you this is probably my biggest share as I just couldn’t decide what to show. I have so many gorgeous photos of this couple, you won’t be able to not smile when you see the love that these guys share. I still smile when I look through the photos.

Chris thank you so much for entering the competition, it was lovely to meet you both. I had a ball and I hope you did too. I can’t wait to show you the rest of your photos.

I absolutely loved doing this couple session, love session, just because session, why the hell not session, what ever you want to call it and because I had so much fun I am offering another 2 sessions to the first two couples who contact me. In return for a signed model release you will receive a 12×18in print. BUT be warned you might have to do something a little bit daring depending on the location so if you are a little shy about your love this may not be the time to have a session as I am looking for people who are willing to put their love out there for people to see. You may end up in the middle of Civic posing or in a coffee shop. So be daring show the world how much you love your other half and contact me…..it will be a blast.

that is until my camera came out. Then little William turned all serious on me. Who wouldn’t be serious though when a strange woman is holding a big black thing in front of your face. That said I still did get some lovely shots of him, especially when he had a little nap. At all of 8 weeks of age he certainly knows how to wrap people around his finger and I reckon he is going to do that for the rest of his life.

This first shot…..though serious, has to be one of my favourites. I just love the expression on his face…..lol.

 Janelle and Matthew your new little man is a charmer, it was lovely to meet you all.