It's a New Year

Welcome 2014.

I look forward to all that you promise and all that you will bring.

2013 left me pretty exhausted, but also fulfilled in many ways. I have this little shining light in my life ... she is four and oh so fabulous. She's hilarious. She's testing (She's 4. It is part of the job description). She keeps me busy.

I love her more than I ever could have imagined. She keeps me wanting to record the world around me in a photograph. Her world. Our world.

The last few months I have eased up on the business side of my photography. As I mentioned, I was exhausted. Two small businesses, a part-time job, a household to keep control of and being a Mummy. Quite tired really.

I'm focussing on achieving some more balance in my life, photographing for the sheer love of it, and trying to enjoy each and every day.

I need to break the cycle of feeling so busy and at the same time feeling like I'm not getting anything done. Oh list of things to do, help me out here!

Tonight I re-charged myself a bit, and headed out to a place I have been driving past on an almost daily basis for the past two years, constantly saying that I must take Tara out here and take some photos.

Two years.

Here I go in breaking the not achieving anything feeling.

My husband was my assistant, my daughter my muse. My camera in hand.

Lucky she likes to ham it up for the camera. Funny girl.

I rediscovered some of the pure & absolute love for taking beautiful images. I promise you now, I am printing some of this pictures BIG and putting them on the walls of my home. (That has been on my list of things to do for too long!).

Mitchell Family - {Natural Light Photography}

Welcoming their beautiful second daughter Eliza Mae into their loving family a couple of weeks prior, I had the pleasure of a Mother's Day photo session with the lovely Mitchell family. A family full of love for each other, and lots of kisses & cuddles too.

Sprinkler running

Summer is fading in Australia, but there are still some warm days ripe for sprinkler jumping fun :)

Puddle jumping on a Sunday summer afternoon

Rain, glorious rain ...

L'il T had a fabulous afternoon, trying out her new gumboots and making a big ol' splashing mess.

Hope you have all had a lovely Sunday afternoon too. What did you get up to?

Ethan's 2 year old session

This little boy was an absolute delight to take photos of ... an ABSOLUTE delight! Cute as a button, happy to engage with his Mummy & I, and with big brown eyes to die for.

Eighteen months ago I photographed his big sister, for her 2-year old photo shoot, and for Ethan's session we tried to re-create some shots, to create a wall of pictures to adorn the family home (and with another baby to join the fold in a few weeks time, this wall of cuties sitting at the piano will be quite the feature!).

Eth & I sat and played trains to start with, whilst his Mum (one of my most precious friends) had a wonderful catch up chat. These truly are the best parts of my job, and by the end of the session I knew all the names of the Thomas the Tank crew.

Boys and their toys ... to get Eth up at the family piano, some of the engines needed to take a ride too ...

She likes jumping in muddy puddles

I will say, up front, this wasn't easy.

Mud, everywhere. On her clothes, in her hair.

But I did it! I let her get into the mud and I sat back and watched her have fun. This was definitely a lesson in 'letting go' for me.

Oozing between fingers and toes, stirring, piling up and singing as she went.
Making mud pies, jumping up and down like Peppa Pig in muddy puddles ... giggling as she went.

 She had a most fabulous time and this Mumma learnt to take a breath and just let it be.

 

In a previous guest post over at Capture That Kid! I explored some handy tips for taking photographs of children. Capturing them in a natural, un-posed way will make for great photos.

The advantage of taking photos whilst playing in the mud, finger painting etc is that they are also less likely to run away - which is usually one of the biggest challenges in trying to take photos of them.

These are wonderful keepsakes - so I encourage to let your children get down and dirty, and you stand back with a camera and clean towel!