Wednesday, July 29, 2009

daisy





My pop used to sing a song about Daisy when I was little. I sang it to Daisy while we were shooting. If babies could talk, I'm sure she would have asked me to stop singing. But she just stayed there and looked cute. And how cute are her little toes?


Big brother Ashton jumped in for some pix too.

Monday, July 27, 2009

baby levi { eleven days old }











I love newborns. Can you get much cuter? Look at his little smile, he's gonna be a charmer!

time for a makeover


Sometimes life gets in the way of life. When we moved in, our other studio had sold quicker than we thought it would, so we threw a lot of stuff in the house in a rush and said we would fix it later. That was two years ago. My office has been annoying me for a while now. Its just such a mess and not organised enough to keep up with my workload. And i have to share it with Craig.


The problem was that it was such a huge task I didnt know where to start. The other day I was reading some notes from a Jerry Ghionis Seminar, at the end I had written "Now go out and change the world, one day at a time." I replied grummpily "I dont want to change the world today, i just want to change my office." Light bulb moment. Seriously! I was looking at the whole office. Time to break it down into bits. So here is the "before" pic. Coming soon, the "after" pics! Its not finished yet, but I am tackling one thing at a time. And already its such an impovement.


So today has been marked in the diary as " get organised ". Sometimes you really have to work on the business, not just in the business, which is hard to do when you get busy.
EDITED to add : this is ridiculous. I have spent hours and hours and even the best part of my Saturday trying to get this room organised! I have put huge amounts of stuff in the rubbish and recycled as much as I can. And there is still a huge pile of stuff on the floor. I am tempted to put a post-it-note on the top with "miscellaneous" written on it and leave it there.

machu pichu


So many people have asked me about my travel photos, I thought I better start putting some up on the blog. Even though its kind of starting in the middle of the trip, I am going to start with a bit about Machu Pichu. One of the seven wonders of the world, Machu Pichu was built by the Incas and its purpose depends on who you ask. Some say a temple, some say a school of medicine. Whatever the real answer, its a spectacular place set high up in the mountains of Peru.
To get to Machu Pichu you have two options of transport. You can catch the train from town and enjoy a leisurely hike to the top of the ruins. Or you can do what we did and hike over a couple of mountains for four days to get there. So you strap your backpack and camera to your back ( or, as in my case, hand it over to craig and get him to carry it. ) and head off. At about the middle of the first day, I sat on the ground and said " Nope. No way. I can not do this. " The altidude is the hardest thing. Five steps and you are out of breath. It took some serious encouragement from Craig and the crew to get me to keep going.

By day two I had found inner strength I didnt know I had. I was not going to let a huge mountain beat me. I walked, I stopped, I walked and stopped some more. Day two of that trek was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. The achievement I felt when I reached the top of that mountain... It was so close, you could see the top, but getting there... Take ten steps, stop for a rest. While you were resting other trekkers from all over the world were going past, offering words of encouragement. In five minutes you would return the favour as they stopped and you struggled past. The last five hundred metres were the hardest. You could see the top of the pass. You could hear people yelling encouragement. But you were so tired, your feet felt like lead and your lungs refused to work. Sucking in a breath, you would take ten more steps, and be that much closer. But still so far away.
Working my way to the pass you can see at the top.




The view from the top was spectacular. The feeling of achievement was amazing. I made my own personal little rock pile. An offering to the gods for safe passage. My personal little monument to inner strength. Every obstacle in my life from now on would be measured my that climb. The tears flowed as I hugged Craig. I could not believe I had done it. He stayed by my side the whole way. Silent in strength, always there, but letting me do it at my own pace. Holding my hand when I nearly fell over, holding my camera when I just couldnt carry it, handing me water when I needed a drink. Without him by my side, I could not have done what I did. ( And strangely enough the tears are here as i type this! )


And that was only day two. Day three was tough, but after the day before you knew that you could do it. I fell a few times, I was the slowest in the group, and I was completely in awe of the porters on the trail. These men would run past you with 25 kilos on their back. Wearing sandals. And they would have you tent and a damn good meal ready for you by the time you dragged your sore and aching body into camp.

Day Four was an early start, up at four, starting the trek in the dark with your head lamp on to make it to the Sun Gate and see the sun rise over the mountain. Then still more trekking to reach the actual ruins themselves. We did a tour with our guide and the three other fantastic people who did the trek with us. I couldnt have asked for better people to travel with, not just on the trek but on the whole trip.

So we finally reached Machu Pichu. Totally exhausted and dirty. No showers for four days, unwashed hair, wearing sneakers and a t-shirt that said "Little Miss Sunshine". With a blister the size of Spain on my foot. Craig suggested we go up the stairs to have another look at the Temple of the Sun. I couldnt believe he had even suggested it. I could barely stand. I wanted some shade and some chocolate and to take my shoes off. I wanted to lie down somewhere warm and sleep for three days. But he started off up the steps, and so I followed, using a lot of swear words that were directed at the huge amount of steps I had encountered over the last couple of days. Every step was agony.

At the top, at the Temple of the Sun, Craig proposed. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. He was shaking like a leaf. I hugged him tight, and he asked if I had said yes. Did he think I was going to say no? It was the perfect end to an amazing journey, one that made me stronger in so many ways. Made me realise that so many things in life in are possible, and even more so with someone like Craig by my side to hold my hand and say "You can do it."

So while these photos are far from award winning, and taken on my little crappy snappy as I havent even processed the files from my camera yet, they have the most meaning to me. This shot of me and Craig was taken by a random stranger for us just after he proposed. My camera bag on the wall, those amazing mountaings in the background, my unwashed hair and the expression on my face that I cant quite read... But a photo and a memory definately worth having.

Friday, July 24, 2009

I would absolutely love it if one of my couples did this at their wedding.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

when i grow up...

I have decided that when i grow up i want to be jasmine star
I love her photography but i also love the way she writes, i often tear up when reading her blog, and after six weeks of catching up i had quite a few tears! I love her faith, her view on life and her sense of humour. Its funny how you can read someones blog and feel like you know them, even if its just a little bit.
which makes me wonder what people think of my often random ramblings?

maternity


I just edited this maternity shoot, but i squeezed the actual shoot in just before i went overses. Lucky I did because bub was not waiting for me to get back! I get to shoot him tomorrow. Acutally I have two newborns tomorrow. I am going to be getting super clucky. And i have new hats from the MILK collection to play with.

Friday, July 17, 2009

weekend portrait dates available







Saturdays are really hard to get shoots dates for as i usually have a wedding, but i have two coming up if people need a weekend shoot date to get all the family involved.

Actually the first is a Sunday, the 26th of July. I have a two o'clock and a four oclock spot left, and you could have your shoot in the studio or on location if we get some nice weather. ( EDITED to add : only the two oclock spot is left now. )

The second is Saturday the first of August. I have the morning spots open on that one but the afternoon is already booked. ( EDITED to add : the saturday spots are all booked up now, and august is pretty much booked out too... and its not too early to start thinking about christmas portraits, beat the crazy rush! )
Call the studio on 0269713447 if you would like to book a spot.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

what a trip!

I so love Australia. I love travelling, but each time i come home i fall in love with australia a little bit more. The little things, like sleeping in your own bed, a hot shower, having your cat smooch all over your new black jacket so its now covered in cat hair... they just make you appreciate being home.

as you can imagine, after a six week trip my head is still spinning ( and no i havent downloaded the photos yet ) and i havent even finished unpacking. so its officially back to work on monday to give me time to get my head on straight and get over the jet lag. as far as my body clock is concerned the world is all turned up on its head. and its soooo cold!

i will be posting photos from the trip as i edit them... but then work will take priority so it may take a while. so the blog will soon be back to its regular programming!!

Thursday, July 09, 2009

travel updates

hello!
we are on the last leg of our trip now ( in argentina ) and will be home in less than a week. i cant believe its nearly all over! the break has been great and i feel totally recharged, which is great because the diary is full for when i get back. so the blog will soon be back to regular programming! i have wanted to upload photos but the internet over here is so slow its like some kind of torture so i will do a big batch when i get back to the office.
ps : in a post i did a while back the email and web site were off line but that should have been fixed and all working like a charm now. janice is in the office if anybody needs anything otherwise i will be back on deck in a week or so.
missing you all heaps!

Thursday, July 02, 2009

jazmin { part two }








This was the second half of Jazmins shoot where we switched gears and did something a little different. I love the results.


A round of applause to Jazmin, who laid down in burnt out logs, hiked up hills in heels and generally let me play all my ideas out.