Category Archives: Self Portraits

Today was a sad, reflective today. The day of national mourning to remember the (last I read) 209 people who were tragically killed in the Victorian bush fires 2 weeks ago.

7 February, 2009. My G turned 6, it was a lovely day here and we had no idea of what was going on. I photographed the most beautiful wedding, their lives starting a new beginning. Happy times. It breaks my heart at times to know that while one person experiences sheer joy another experiences sheer heartache.

Today I sat in the lounge room playing “babies” with my girls. It was fun, it was great to have a break from my work. As we played away happily a few tears rolled down my face. “I am Australian” was being sung, and I felt so, so saddened to watch the service. I hope that somehow these people can move forward, but as a beautiful friend once said to me after a tragedy “you don’t move on, you just learn to live a new life”. It is true isn’t it? When you loose someone you love, or you are faced with hard times you don’t ever forget them, you just have to keep breathing. Sometimes each breath physically hurts to take!

My offer of all booking fees being donated is still running, so please consider this for the months of Feb and March! Thanks to those who have donated already, it is a lovely gift to give. In light of the mourning I won’t share any of my “education week” topics today. Be ready for tomorrow.

Finally, I am going to share this image of myself. I don’t know who to pray too, I am not 100% set on religion. I just hope that when I ask in my head “please help those in pain” that someone out there hears me and please, please makes a difference!

I have declared this to be “education week” my friends. Through out this coming week I would like to share some of the reasons why I do what I do. I will cover the following and more:

“But a 5×7 only cost $1 why do you charge $xx?”
“If I had a good camera I could take those photographs too”
“Why wall art, what is it?”
“Why should I pay more for a photographer, I can get it much cheaper down the road”
“You only have to own a camera and you are a successful photographer”

Why am I doing this I hear you all ask? I am doing this as I come across these questions from time to time and I have been wanting to educate you and potential clients about what is involved. Almost like an insight into the business of being a photographer. I don’t want to say *ever* that I have all the answers, I definitely have had to learn through some bad decisions!

I will kick this off tomorrow for you all, and hope that you come in daily to give me your feedback and opinions (and yep, each day I’ll share a new image!).
Happy weekend

The year of 2008, in images. Here is a video of most of the shots I took through the year:

2008 saw me take on a personal challenge of a photo-a-day. This wasn’t too hard when the girls were at home and I was able to photograph them. But then at the end of January both girls were in full time schooling. Then I quickly realised that it was mostly me and the camera during the day. So therefore a lot of entries turned into self portraits. It was daunting at first, as I use to really dislike having my photograph taken. But quickly I learnt to feel comfortable in front of the camera and the challenge continued.
I have not only learnt so much about photography (and photoshop hehe!), but also a lot about myself. Well, yesterday saw day 366 finally come around and I was able to complete the challenge. It really felt so amazing to complete it, and such an achievement. Here is the last image that I wanted to share:

Many thanks to those of you that supported and encouraged me though this, it really was a great feeling to know I had you there.

Ok, well you all know by now that photography is my passion. I dream about it, I think about it and I see potential images all over the place. This year I decided to set myself the task of a 365 (well 366 for the leap year!). Basically this has seen me taking a photograph a day, editing it and putting it on a site (if I am able to get to the net when away that is!). It has been very difficult, but rewarding and fun at the same time. The challenge was when both my daughters started school – so I went to doing self portraits! Here are some I wanted to share with you all: