you were brought here by love.

it’s all there is.

remember this always.

well this year, that will change.  i am making time for all the things i love.

starting back with my lovely clients.

i have already had a few clients over the last week or two, and it is so wonderful to be getting back into one of the aspects of my job that i love.  photographing the wonder of growing a little person inside of you, and the miracle of their tiny little lives.  and as always, seeing my clients grow their families and coming back to me time and again to capture those wonderful moments!  i absolutely love seeing how my tiny clients have grown into exploring little people!

so this year, i will be taking on maternity and newborn clients exclusively.  and i can’t wait to meet more of you.

i will be taking on limited sessions, so as to keep my creative mojo healthy and inspired, which is also going to benefit you greatly as my clients.

if you are thinking about enquiring and booking in for portraits with me, please don’t leave it to the last minute as i often have my weeks booked in advance.  Please remember that your maternity portraits are best taken between 32-38 weeks, and your newborn portraits are always within the first 2 weeks.

onwards and upwards, my friends.  and remember;  ”do everything with so much love in your heart that you would never want to do it any other way.” – Yogi Desai.

after much angst and undecisiveness over the last month or two, a number of events have occurred that have brought me to this decision.  in a nutshell, i am just following my heart.

i look back over the last 5 years with so much joy, over the learning i have experienced, the friendships i have made with my clients, the colleagues i have met, and the most wonderful friends who have made a place in my heart forever.  all because of this whim i decided on about 5 years ago to pick up a camera and shoot babies  i am so thankful for the time i’ve had.

i’m not saying i’ll never come back to it, i am saying that it is time that i took a little break.  i have so much more i want to do, that doesn’t necessarily involve a camera.  i want to start meditating regularly, i want to learn more about organic food and how it affects our bodies, i want to be a much healthier person and apply it to my family aswell, i want to learn how to make my own skin products, i want to learn more about alternative therapies, i want to be in the kitchen more and love what i’m cooking/baking…and so so much more!  and there is only so much time in the day to do all of this when i am also making sure i am there for my children when they are home from school, and my husband when he is home from work, and the house when it needs to be tended to!

i have been learning that i can’t be and do everything all at once.  it’s not healthy to be rushed and stressed all of the time.  so i am planning on making some changes in my life and i just feel like this is the right path for me at the moment.

of course, all clients i have booked in at the moment will be honoured, and i will be tending to you with the utmost patience and caring.  it’s not that i don’t love my work and my clients – because i truly value you all – it is more about making the time to balance my life out.

i will keep up this blog sporadically as i still have a lot of sessions that i can blog, but i may begin to share a more personal blog with my goings on throughout the rest of the year.  I will keep you updated either here or on Facebook so please keep an eye out if you’re interested to follow my journey.

thank you so much for all of your support and understanding at this time, i am grateful for each one of you that are there for me.

Signing off with a recent image of one of my own children…one of those precious little beings that makes all the hard decisions worth it

it’s inevitable that they will grow.

and so will you.

together.

that is just another miracle of this wondrous life – being able to grow someone with love and nuturing.

it is a gift, don’t ever take that for granted.

This gorgeous mama is so sweet and nuturing, she was born for this job.  This job being, a loving mama of twins.  They have since been born and i have met them, and i can’t wait to share them with you aswell.

due to personal commitments, i will not be taking on any further commissions for family portraits until October 2012.  during this time i will be working exclusively with my maternity, newborn & baby clients in the studio.  if you currently have a family portrait session booked in with me, or we have already spoken about booking you in, then your request will most certainly be met.  it is new enquiries that i cannot fill at the point in time.

i apologise for any inconvenience to anyone, but my time is going to be very restricted in the upcoming months so i want to dedicate what time i can to my most beloved maternity & babies.  i hope you can appreciate what a hard decision this has been for me.

and to finish off, it wouldn’t be a post without a gorgeous image, of a gorgeous client and her babe in utero.

thank you so much, dear friends.

The first artist i called upon to be my muse was my gorgeous friend Paula Fletcher from Calypso Designs.  Paula and I have crossed paths a number of times over the last few years, and she is someone who’s business sense i admire as much as her artistic flare.  It seemed completely natural to me that she be my first choice.

Paula is a successful graphic designer who works from her home studio, and has recently collaborated with two of her friends to create Fossick Handmade – a gorgeous boutique art gallery and gift store showcasing unique handmade creations from local artists.  Not only do they sell these wares, they have also been holding fashion shows and hosting crafty workshops for both adults and children.  Check out their Facebook Page to keep up with all their latest news.

So on the day we met up for my project, i waited inside the shop for her whilst she was riding her vintage bike into work.  I then spent a good hour or so just floating around the shop taking in all the various pieces of gorgeous artwork with my camera while Paula worked on some displays.  Oh my gosh i had a feast pouring over all the prettiness in there!  And do you know, it felt so wonderful to go around with my camera and just let myself wander through all the creations and be completely at ease with what i was shooting.

By late morning it was time to leave the shop and head to Paula’s home office where we talked candidly for a while about dreams and inspirations in the forms of politics, travel, pets, people who inspire us, and many other things in between.

Not only is Paula surrounded by creatives at work, it is easy to see how she is equally artistic when she is at home.  She is completely ensconced by artwork and poetic verbs and inspirational sayings at home too.  Whether these are her own, or by her the artists she is inspired by, or just little tidbits she’s picked up here and there that have found a place in her heart.  Her home also includes the one adoration of her life at the moment – little Lucille the toy poodle.  She is a sweet little pooch who has found her home with Paula, and vice versa.

At the end of our time together on this day, I was reminded that artists create from the heart.  We don’t just see a picture in front of us, we study each element involved and marvel at how the picture came to be, and who the artist was to create such a picture in the first place – what is their life story?  I greatly admire people who gain inspiration from others, take what they need, then turn it into something unique of their own.  It’s still something i feel i aspire to myself.

If you are living in Kalgoorlie and fancy yourself an artist, and would love to spend the day with me talking about the things that make your crafty little heart flutter, i would love to hear from you!  An artist can be in any shape of form, from painting, music, hand crafts, dancing etc..  if you are following your life’s passion then i want to document it!  Please send me an email from the contact tab above and tell me what you do and why you would like to be documented in this way.  I am looking forward to getting to know you better

Here are just a pinch of images from my day with Paula.

the last month, an awesome challenge was set of spending one ordinary day stopping to take a photograph every 30 minutes of whatever was in front of us.  the idea was to see the beauty around us and appreciate it for whatever it was.

well i had an interesting time of it!  i spent the good first half of it worrying about whether my photo was too boring!  i totally missed the point there   but i did finally manage to let go and just enjoy seeing new things about my day.  i did this on the school holidays so it was not a working day, and i just used my iphone 4s to take the photos.

i encourage any of you to give this challenge a try!  it can be an interesting insight and it doesn’t have to be anything exciting or fantastic.  and if you decide to take up the challenge, i’d love to see and hear about your outcome