Sorry I abandoned you!

The blog has been on the back burner for a while!
But I've been very busy with photography and video; it's been an amazing couple of months! :)

Last photo shoots of 2015!

It has been an exciting and busy end to the year, with what felt like an endless flow of photography work!
I feel so lucky and grateful, to have such a wonderful network of friends, that have come to me to capture their special family moments.
As always, for me, the nerves are always there, but it feels great to work with new situations every time and come away with great results that my clients treasure and love.

Peace to the world, and here's to a prosperous 2016!

My first timelapse

Glorious weather this past weekend! We spent the weekend washing and spring cleaning.

What I've been up to

This year is flying! We celebrated book week last month and I had the pleasure of doing another photo shoot. I hope I can do this every year; these kids are a wonderful inspiration :).

Last weekend was Father's day. I made this little stop motion which I'm really proud of :). Will definitely make more!

Rejoice, Spring is here!

Having fun

Wherever I go, I take any opportunity to capture something special.
I have been having a lot of fun playing around with video and stop motion.

 

I've also been watching a lot of Casey Neistat's work. His Vlog is amazing, inspires me every time.

It is simple, entertaining and real. Attempting to use some of his ideas makes me realise how much effort and work he puts into his videos; this in addition to running a business.

Creating virtual identities

Head-shot photography is something that's been at the back of my mind; an interest I've wanted to explore. In the last couple of weeks I've been experimenting with some head-shot photography, and I've enjoyed the experience :).

In this digital age we all seem to need a digital 'shop-front'; every time I look for someone to come a do a job at my house, a product or a shop, I google. I also google the business names, etc to see if they have a website, to see examples of their work.
So I think it's becoming important to present a good image of yourself; to along with the body of work we do.

My setup is quite simple: large glass double-doors let the light in, and I use polystyrene sheets that act as v-flats. One side is white, the other beige. I'd like to get black ones in the future as I think they would look great. I am making notes on the things I need to work/ improve on.
Here are some of my favourite shots so far :).

Make good art

 
"When things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician — make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by a mutated boa constrictor — make good art. IRS on your trail — make good art. Cat exploded — make good art. Someone on the Internet thinks what you’re doing is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before — make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, eventually time will take the sting away, and that doesn’t even matter. Do what only you can do best: Make good art. Make it on the bad days, make it on the good days, too." - Neil Gaiman

This quote by Neil Gaiman has resonated with me, time and time again this past week.
A lot of people in Adelaide are now counting their losses due to the terrible bushfire in the Adelaide Hills. We never thought we would be caught up in such a thing as we only ever think of these disasters happening in the hills or out in country areas. But a lot of us live near vegetation and in our case, where the suburb meets the outskirts of the hills, we had visited the area where the fire started just a week ago! And here we were, evacuating our home.

We managed to collect the important documents we could think of, data, cameras and computers. We left in the middle of the night, and it was a surreal experience to watch people leave. It was like peak hour, with some people just trying to get pictures of the glow you could see at the back of the suburb.
Overnight as we waited for news, all sorts of things went through my head. I was checking my tweeter feed for any (bad) news, but that never came. The next day we were able to go back home and everything was intact, with just the smokey air.

I had booked a shoot for the next day, but I managed to reschedule it for the following day (Sunday). We went to a park in town and we made it for early morning. The temperature had dropped and the park was cool and peaceful. I watched the family I was photographing and they reminded me of my own. I felt nothing but gratitude for having passed this hurdle; all we lost was a bit of sleep.
I'm now working on a series of mini photo shoots, with the proceeds going to the bushfire relief effort.

Nine months in the making - part 11

Over a year ago, I embarked in a photography project in which I wanted to document a baby's first year through photography. So I wrote a post in our local community on google plus.
Shahy and Haythem responded and the rest is history. :)

Their beautiful baby girl Haya turned one today and I was fortunate to be on holidays, so we spent a relaxing afternoon at a beautiful park.
It was the last shoot for the project and the year, so I would like to thank Shahy and Haythem for being part of the project. May you continue to enjoy this beautiful journey that is parenthood :)

Amazing what can be achieved when you dare greatly. - ("Daring greatly" by Brené Brown)