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.

I just wanted to let you guys know what has been happening around here and why it has been abit slow and also what will be happening in the future. Last week I was finally diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. After spending the last 12 mths being extremely tired and with my arthritis playing up I went to the doctor to expecting to be diagnosed with Rhumatoid Athritis as this is what we had thought I had for the last few years. Instead of my bloods showing rhumatiod factors they showed that I in fact had an underactive thyroid. After getting over the initial shock I read a list of symptoms and lo and behold I had all but 1. I thought I was just exhausted because I have 4 boys and I am running a business…..lol. I have now started on medication which I will have to take for the rest of my life and I have been told that in 3-4 weeks I will start to feel much better. Unfortunately it seems that my body is have trouble adjusting to them and I feel so much worse right now. Hopefully in a month or so we will be back to normal programming and I will once again be up to date with everything.

So if I am a little slow in responding to emails or a little slow in getting your slideshow up, this is the reason. I really hope to be feeling better in a few weeks time, especially as I am heading north for an amazing workshop AND I have my 35th birthday, so I have to be better for that. So please feel free to give me a nudge if I haven’t responded to an email for a couple of days or if your slideshow has taken longer than 1 week and I will do my best to get back to you.

I just wanted to share a few more from my session with little Satu, her mum asked if I could come back and take a few of her feeding as she is the last little one to join the family and wanted some memories of this fabulous time. There is nothing that can compare to the high you get when you are feeding your babies. I loved this part and I do miss feeding my babies. If this is something that you might like to have as part of your session no matter what age your baby is, I would love to do that for you.

Gosh it has been quiet around here. I have had a few thigns happening in home life so unfortunately my photography had to take second place. All is good now so look out, this blog is about to be inundated with gorgeous photos of gorgeous people.

So on that note let me introduce you to this gorgeous little girl. Satu is the youngest sister of a friend of my eldest boy Ryan, so I have known her mum Leanne for quite a few years. When I found out that Leanne was expecting another little girl I was so very excited. We had planned on taking some maternity photos but Satu and the weather had other ideas. I did get to meet her over the weekend and she was oh so lovely I could have cuddled her all afternoon. She is going to be very loved, and looked after, with two older sisters to help take care of her.

Isn’t she just so sweet, especially with a little hint of a smile in this first photo.

Congratulations again Leanne and Petri on your new little girl, she fits so perfectly into your family.

Now there is a bit of a background story to this session and I will try to tell the short version. I grew up with two brothers and 4 male cousins. We would spend a lot of holidays and special occasions at each others houses. Now at my cousins house they had become really good friends with the family that lived in the house behind them as they had four children, 2 girls, 2 boys the same age us. They even created a gate in the back fence to go between houses. Oh man how I wanted a gate in my back fence but the people behind us were old Anyway my cousins eventually moved house and even though I was kept up to date with the family behind the fence, by my aunt who was still in contact with them, I didn’t see them again.

That was until I saw a blog post by a fabulous photographer friend of mine, Christine. I recognised Emily straight away and was so excited to read that he was pregnant, not only that but they are very close friends. They play squash twice a week. So I contacted Christine to see if she wanted a hand doing some newborn photos for Emily as I would have loved to catch up with her again.Not that we actually got that much time to sit and chat whilst I was there…lol.

So this is the result of that session……gorgeous little Lucy May 9 days old, and oh so squishy.

Emily and Justin she is just beautiful, thank you so much for letting me tag along. It was lovely to see you again after so many years Em. Enjoy your new little girl.

You know when you meet someone for the first time and it feel like you have known them forever?? that is the way I felt when I first met Jen in Spetember last year. We had been chatting on a forum for a few years but never had we met. Then during the shool holidays last year I made a quick decision to go to visit my brother in Orange, it then dawned on me that he is not that far away from where Jen lived so made arrangements to visit her and her two boys aswell. Well we didn’t stop chatting the whole day, it was really relaxed and her two boys and my four boys played so well.

 Now Jen is a fabulous and I mean fabulous photographer you can check out her work here and I decided late last year that I wanted her to do our family photos….yes I am having my photo taken aswell. At the time Jen was pregnant with her third little boy so we made a time for when she will feel like picking up the camera again. I was thinking how nice it will be to have some photos of me with my boys and that got me thinking about Jen having photos with her boys. Suddenly one of those lightbulb moments hit me so I sent her a message…as we do in this day and age of modern technology….offering her a newborn session so that she could be in some of the photos with her brand new bubba.

Well over this seriously rainy weekend I travelled to Orange and then to Bathurst to do some photos for Jen of her new baby Mitchell Quinn. He was just so gorgeous, with the most amazingly smoochy lips. He slept the whole day with only a couple of feed breaks. Now I ended up there quite a while due to the fabulous storms passing through the area, and while it played havok with thelight at times we still managed to get some gorgeous photos.

So here we are….introducing Mitchell Quinn Stocks aged 10 days.

and this is the gorgeous Jen and her husband Damien

Thanks so much for letting me spend the day with you guys, I just wished we lived closer so we could catch up for coffees. The love you two have for your boys is overflowing, they are so lucky to have such kind and caring parents. I know that you will be surrounded by three fabulous strapping lads that you will be proud of in 15 years time.

I had so many wonderful entries for this competition, I am really humbled by the response. So as a result I have decided to give two prizes. The first prize winner will get a 9×9in album with ten 5×7in photos. The second prize winner will get a session with me and a 12×18in wall print valued at $175.

Now to the winner of the first prize….I chose this couple because when I read their answer I immediately said “awwww that is so sweet” They look like the cutest couple too….so relaxed with each other. So I am happy to say that

David Atkins has won a session for him and his partner and his 4 words were “everything I ever wanted” CONGRATULATIONS David I will email you soon…….I can’t wait to meet you both.

and when I saw this answer from the second prize winner I couldn’t resist as his answer is what my hubby says about me. So the second winner is

Christopher Inglis and his answer is “gorgeously breath taking smile” CONGRATULATIONS Christopher I will be in contact soon.

Now I thought since I am getting you guys to tell me in 4 words what you love about your partner I figured I should probably do it too. I would describe what I love about Brendan “he believes in me” he is my biggest supporter in everything I do in life. That said he is level headed and when my imagination gets carried away with something he is the one to pull me back to earth and look at things realistically.

On that note as it is Valentines Day and I haven’t seen my husband since Friday morning due to a trip to Orange I am going to sit down with a nice glass of wine and a lovely dinner with him.

I hope you all have had a lovely day weather it was a big one or just a little bit special….go and enjoy it.

Oh and check back here tomorrow night to see what I got up to in Orange with a very gorgeous 10 day old little boy called Mitch.