Grace and her Sweet Boys

“serendipity
sɛr(ə)nˈdɪpɪti

noun
the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

”a fortunate stroke of serendipity”

I photographed beautiful Grace, Metui and their sons on an overcast Wednesday afternoon, my first session for the new year. Our paths had crossed due to a mutual friend whom we both adore, and fate had it that Grace and her family were visiting Brisbane from their home in North Queensland, so we set up this session, by the skin of our teeth. 
 
 

We had planned on it being a Nourish session, but Thomas and Samuela had other ideas, so we followed the boys lead and the results are part Nourish session, part Lifestyle Family session. And it's perfection.

I came away from my time with this sweet family grinning, they are so joy-filled, so affectionate and so respectful and conscious in the way they parent their children. I felt blessed to have spent an afternoon soaking all of that up. I wanted to high-five Grace for her tandem feeding super-mama status (note also that the boys are cloth-bottomed kids ;), Metui too for the calm and paitient way he spoke to his children. Like the hopeless romantic that I am, I teared up as I photographed just the two of them snuggled up together - Grace looked like the cat that got the cream, you can see just how full her heart is in these photographs.

If this family, our time together and their collection of photographs are anything to go by, this year of business is going to blow my mind. Begin as you wish to continue ....

Mama-to-be, Kristie

A group of Kristie's girlfriends brought a gift voucher for this pregnancy session as her baby gift. Of course I think it's a fabulous gift to give, especially for a woman's first pregnancy, when in the midst of it all you can never imagine you'd forget how it felt to be pregnant. My selling point to anyone umming and ahhing about having pregnancy portraits taken is that those portraits become infinitely more important the further away from pregnancy you get.  I look at the few I have framed around our house from both of my pregnancies and I am instantly transported to that precious state of being in full bloom with a new life on the verge of being born.

Our dear mutual friend, Dale, knew best and organized this gift for her friend. Kristie was well prepared for their son to be born, and was glowing like most first time mamas do.  These guys are hands down the most easy going couple I have ever worked with - it may be because I met them on an afternoon after they had returned from their wonderfully relaxing babymoon ;-)   Together we made some beautiful portraits of them and Kristie's perfect little baby bump.

52 Project - 2.52

Second week into this project and I'm enjoying it, but boy it makes the week fly by.  Back to my part time job today, which meant the kiddies were back to day care, thank goodness it's summer and we can spend a good hour outside in the afternoon eating ice-blocks, jumping on the trampoline and burning off the last of the days energy.

This week I photographed my first session for the year, wow!, if that session, that sweet family and the photographs we made together are anything to go by, then this year is going to be a truly wonderful one!  The session was booked as a Nourish - Milk Drunk Love Stories session for a super-star tandem feeding mama, but her boys had other ideas for our afternoon so we had fun hanging out together before they headed home the following day.  Here's hoping I can share a little of our afternoon together soon.

My sweet, determined, feisty four-year-old began her kindy year this week at day care, all of a sudden those four years seem to have flown and I feel her childhood swiftly replacing her baby/toddler/small-child hood.  I feel like I have to keep my eyes held open extra wide this year to take it all in.  Sometime I stare at her, amazed, and remind myself that I grew her in my body, and I am amazed further still. 

I still cuddle him to sleep every night, it's what he needs, and to be honest, I delight in it.  The nights when I feel I'd like to have my arms free I am quickly reminded that this too shall pass and he won't need to be wrapped up against me to fall asleep, and I will sorely miss it.  This week he has been curling his arm up and around my face as he falls asleep, tracing circles on my cheek with his little fingers.  Oh my heart. 

He follows her wherever she goes and obeys her every command happily.  When I was pregnant with him, a friend was assuring me that my heart would grow to allow space to love both children equally.  And more than that that I would discover a third love when the second is born, their love.  I adore it and am grateful they will always have each other. 

Thankful to be joining in with Jodi on this project, read more about how the project came about, here.

Renee x
 

52 Project - 1.52

Happy New Year!  We're keeping cool in this Queensland heat by alternating between bunkering down in the air conditioning with craft activities or kids movies, and heading outside in the early morning or late afternoon to sit in the blow up pool or splash at the water table (thanks, Santa!)   I hope your Christmas/New Year period has been joy-filled.

As you can imagine, my kids are more often than not my photography subject, be it on film, learning with my newly acquired DSLR (yes, that 'D' is for ... digital!) or a quick snap on the ever present iPhone.  I'm so happy they will have piles of photographs of their everyday when they're older, I remember flicking through a box of photographs that my mum kept in a box in the linen cupboard - all of the 'outtakes' that never made it to the albums, but they were always our favourites.  Living in digital times  means an abundance of photographs of our lives, but they're all living on our phone or hard drives (even my film is scanned and stored digitally as well as the physical negative), forgotten after a few shares on social media and after their place at the front of the camera roll is replaced with newer versions.  It's why I'm so dedicated to delivering physical photography products to my clients, but more on that another day.

Following a few parenting and lifestyle blogs, I began to take notice of the 52 Project that a lot of the blog authors were participating in - sharing a portrait of their child, once a week, every week.  For me that's an achievable goal, the frequency suits me and I can see the physical product at the end - a book of my children's year complete with musings of little moments that I don't want to forget of them and that I want them to know about.

So, here we go, the first entry of this project, I'm so looking forward to working on this and observing my children with a new awareness.

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Santa delivered the kiddies a trampoline for Christmas, it has been a huge hit!  We're all outside multiple times a day and the kids are burning off loads of energy.  Georgina especially loves it and would spend most of her day out on it, she's content jumping around on it or laying on her back looking up at the sky.  And braids, she is all about her hair being braided right now, she has been challenging me with new ways to make four and five braids in her fine fly away hair.

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My littlest love in an unusual moment of stillness.  He is our tornado of destruction, I am usually on the chase when it comes to photographing him.  The frame before this one is him saying 'cheese', the frames that followed were of him sticking stickers on his cheek, he is sticker-obsessed, he sticks them all over the house on any surface and anyone.  But this frame, and those eyes and those chubby cheeks, I couldn't go past it. 
(Meanwhile, that spot above his limp is a pimple!  He is 23 months old and he has his first pimple ...?)

Another rarity, my babes, snuggling together without one trying to squirm away from the other.  I'm not sure that I'll include a photo of them together each week for this project, but it might be a happy little addition every now and then.

You can read about how the 52 Project came to be on Jodi's blog Practising Simplicity, and join in if you like.  The second part of this memory keeping project has been inspired by a post on Elise's blog about a different spin on documenting her daughter's year.  My husband and I always lament "I hope we don't forget how they say this or do that", I'm hoping the 'I want to remember' prompt takes care of all of that.

I'd love to hear more about if you work on memory keeping for your family, and how.  Perhaps the 52 Project is something you could begin for yourself?

Renee x

Milk Drunk Love Stories - Announcing our Nourish Sessions

Feeding a baby is pure delight! 
I have happy and vivid memories of spoon feeding mashed veggies into the synchronised mouths of our neighbours twins daughters when I was ten years old.  I'd race over there every afternoon after school and took every opportunity to care for them.  I have adored bottle feeding my nephews and nieces over the years, snuggling them up close to me, my focus on them, their focus on their milk, the noise and chatter around us fading away.  It's a sacredness I wasn't aware of until it came time to have my own children I delighted in breastfeeding them both beyond their first birthdays.  A lot of hard work goes into learning to feed your baby, those early days and weeks can be especially difficult and demanding.  But all of a sudden it becomes easier - wounds begin to heal, the feeds spread apart, you and your baby begin to work as a team and feeding them becomes such a joy.  Happy days!

My sweet friend Candice asked me to make some photographs of her feeding her delightful second son, Luca.  She cherishes those moments, and knows that at eight months old these days wont last forever.  I was thrilled that she asked.  Thrilled!  It's always something I offer mamas during photography session, but only two have ever taken me up on the offer.  To devote an entire session to documenting their feeding story was pretty special.  Watching Luca burry his face into his mother's chest, nuzzling about for his milk made my heartache with the not-so-distant flashback to when that was me, I wish I'd had feeding photographs taken myself.

Candice and I both were emotional over viewing her collection of photographs and it got me thinking ... a mother's feeding journey is one of intimacy, it bonds mother and baba no matter the method used.  This time is fleeting and it is something to be celebrated and to be cherished.  So, let's do just that!  Let's document your  feeding story, no matter the road you're travelling, if you're feeding your baby milk - I'm talking to you  ;-)

Let me introduce the Nourish - Milk Drunk Love Stories sessions. 

Here's how they'll work:
We'll make a time in the morning before your baby's first feed, we'll find a comfortable spot in your home, and you'll feed your baby while I quietly document this moment.  It's a simple as that.  In place of the usual proof viewing and ordering session, you'll receive your collection of photographs from your Nourish session presented in a 6x6 inch book as a precious keepsake.  In celebration of this launch, I'm asking you to nominate a mama you'd like to gift a session to, and I'll choose a nomination by random before December 10th 2014.  Just leave their name in the comments of this blog post, or on the social media post. 

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To discuss your Nourish session in more detail, please contact me, I'd love to hear your story.

Renee xx

One of My Favourite Families

How do you like to spend time with your family?  For us in Queensland, we're quickly moving from our mild winter into summer, barely passing for spring.  Families are heading back outdoors as our days become longer and warmer, backyard pools are being put to good use again and local parks are quickly filling with long, lazy picnic lunches with loved ones, Frisbee and cricket bat in hand.  Others are heading straight to the beach to splash away their working week, nap in the sunshine and fill their cars with endless sand on their drive back home.

But before our hot, humid summer overwhelms us, I'm cherishing the last of my snuggly winter family sessions with a family who holds a special place in my heart.  Friends made by our mutual love of a beautifully framed piece of art as much as a good chin wag.  Life-long friends made while we waited patiently for our sons together, born only weeks apart, coupled with a not-so-secret adoration of Wednesday nights in front of the television for a fabulous Australian drama, watching it 'together' phones in hand for the entire glorious hour.  It's a match made in friendship heaven.

Our collaboration on their family photographs is always been a joy.  We simply play, cuddle up and read books in their home, and seemingly far too easily, this beauty is our result.  I always walk out of their front door anxious to play, cuddle up and read books with my little family.   It's such a gift that they return to me each time.

this is what eighteen months looks like, in Henryville

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A New Baby in the Family

My husband's brother and our sister-in-law are expecting their first baby any day now. We're all eagerly awaiting this lovely little ones entrance into the world and into our family. He or she has a gaggle of cousins ready and eager to play with. They have decided to not find out the baby's gender - my favourite kind of surprise - so the wait for this babe is extra exciting. 

With a little over three weeks to her due date, Tania and I met one Sunday afternoon along the banks of the Brisbane river to make a few photographs of her beautiful pregnant belly.   Here are a few of our favourites. 

our new niece or nephew

Hasn't she got a beautiful pregnant belly?  I'll admit to sneaking a fair few belly rubs to feel their little one kick and wiggle around.  Now we all just play the waiting game for a few days longer, no one more so than mama and daddy to be. 

 

Renee x