The next phase……

I’ve pondered back and forth for quite a while now, wondering, what do I do next?  Where do I want to take my photography?

But I totally missed the point!!!  I don’t want to take my photography anywhere!!  I want to remember where my photography started!!!  The passion, the emotion and the honesty.

So………….

I think I’ve finally found it, back to the basics, no posing, no props, no paying customers, just me, photographing just what I want to photograph….what’s most important to me.

I totally forgot the reason I got into photography in the first place!!  To capture those memories that will be gone in a flash!!  Right now, with my family.

The medium I choose is 35mm, it’s made me step back and take my time again, it’s a medium I feel that I can experiment with further.

These images are NOT meant to be perfect, I have experimented with shutter speeds, focus and composition.

This set of images is about my family life, capturing these beautiful children in the natural light and environment they are surrounded by.

Although not perfect, I can’t honestly remember the last time I felt so happy and content with a set of images.  They represent the honesty and truth that I seemed to have forgotten about these past few years.

This is me, my family and my photography 🙂

 

Traditional Blues

I’ve had a ball this summer, I really have. I’m also fortunate to be off all summer to enjoy it with my girls.

This summer we went camping in France, visited Brighton and Findhorn, caught up with friends,looked for stars and ghosts!! Drank Champagne and ate Macarons. It’s been really, really great…..

It’s always the same though, the last few days of holidays and I’m thinking….’we should’ve done this’ ‘why didn’t we do that’ I feel bad that we didn’t do more or that the time has gone by so quickly. Silly I know.

Anyway, it’s gonna happen. Tomorrow will be the last day of the summer 2013 holidays. And there’s nothing I can do about it! So big girl pants (as a friend says to me) and best get the uniforms looked out and my work bag sorted!!!

I’m going to enjoy working full time as a lecturer at college, and hopefully my plan to be super organised works!! Jades starting academy and Faye’s going into P4!!! Geoffs almost finished his Sargent’s course so looking forward to his passing out parade next year!!!

Big changes again this year, and looking forward to the journey.

And of course,time to plan what to do for the next holidays 😝

Letter to the Girls 2

I know it’s been a little longer than a month since I last wrote your letter, but that’s just me isn’t it?  A little late for most things but get there in the end 😀

I’ve been watching you both a lot recently, with working full-time these last few months I feel like I’ve seen you both with fresh eyes lately.

I suppose I finally realised that you’re both growing up so fast!!! Jade this time next year and you’ll be in 1st year and want make up!!! Not teddies and schools :(.  Your such a lovely girl though, I’m very proud of you.

Faye I’m sure you’re growing up much quicker than Jade did, I suppose it’s having an older sister that makes that happen, I just hope you don’t feel like you’ve missed out on being little for longer…..or perhaps that’s me just being a bit broody for my little babies??  Your such a character Faye, you bring the madness to the family 😀

This is the first ‘proper’ break we’ve had since summer and I wanted to capture the essence of your childhood before it was too late.  I’d been thinking about this shoot for weeks but it spiralled into much more!!

All those days playing schools with Jade as the teacher and Faye and the Teddies as pupils, being cosied up watching DVD’s on the settee together and of course playing hairdressers and make-up in Findhorn…….there used to be a price list on the bedroom door and Faye you needed a step to reach our hair!!! ( no idea where you get that from ;P)

I’ve found it very emotional to do this shoot, I’ve had to dig deep in all our memories.

So with all these pieces of your childhood I wanted to capture some of those scenarios so that your memories of childhood games can last forever. 😀  I hope you think I’ve done your memories justice……….

Love Mum xxx

There are photographers all over the world writing letters to their families too. Here are a few links ;D

Kirsty Lamour

Red Balloon

Rashmi Pappu

Normality??

Well, it’s an interesting point in my life at the moment. My oldest Jade is now away to start Primary 7 and on the short road this year to start Academy! Time is passing so quickly!!!

I am also starting a new temporary post of lecturer at college teaching HND photography. I’m feeling very excited by the new challenges ahead, not only from work but the act of ‘full time work Vs still being a mum’

I’m already trying to figure out where they will all be at what time, who’s helping and what transport we will all be using, never mind trying to get the girls to their after school clubs. Thank goodness for friends and families!!!

It’s weird though, I’m shocked by my brain as it seems to be adamant that I have to not only start a new job Monday to Friday 9-5 but that I should now cook from scratch every night, make homemade snacks for their packed lunches, etc etc…….what is this extra pressure?!?!?

Why is it even on my list of priorities?? Is this something all mums feel when returning to full time work??
Is this to ease the ‘guilt’ of my girls missing out on some time with me??? Never mind that I’ll be in the privileged position of having the holidays with them. Faye is only 7 so does that mean that she’ll suffer because I won’t be around for the 2/3 hours 5 days a week??

Do men feel this guilty when they go to work?? How very odd!!! The mind works in mysterious ways indeed!! One comfort is the old cliche that I am indeed doing this for them………showing them that a career and hard work will enable you to get the things in life that you want, will encourage them to go to uni when the time comes and hoping that they understand that too.

I am actually really looking forward to starting my job, it’ll be great to combine the creativity I use in moments and teaching. Getting excited by being able to speak, research and talk about photography all day every day!! I think moments will benefit greatly from it 😀

So here’s to new challenges!!! Being Super Mum and keeping my sanity ;P

Letter to my girls 1

Well I’ve spent a long time thinking about these letters. What should I write and what approach I should take.

I decided to take notes through our normal day to day lives and try to piece together a letter from there.

While I write this letter we are currently taking our summer holiday in Findhorn.
Your nana and Ian have a holiday home here and we are lucky enough to be able to use it often. This is a place where we can get away from our busy lives at home and spend some real time together :). Relax and enjoy life as a family 🙂

Just now you are both at what I call ‘the golden age’ playing with dolls, making imaginary worlds and feeling the magic of childhood. I watched you both from the kitchen window earlier….it made me feel so full of love that you were my daughters. I love watching you play together, it reminds me of when I was your age playing with my sisters and playing magic games and stories. So precious…..

My favourite band at the moment is Elbow. There is a line in their song ‘Lippy kids’. It says …..do they know those days are golden…… It explains how I feel perfectly while watching you both play…..

I worry that I don’t tell you both enough how proud I am of you, how much I love you and how beautiful you both are……But I guess all mums worry about that……

So this is my first letter I’ll try not to let it be too long before I write the next.

Love Mum xx

Letter to my Girls – what it’s all about

While looking through the blogs I follow last night, I saw that in America there are some Mum photographers doing the most lovely thing.  They have decided to write to their children each month using their blog…….I read a few of the letters, I have to say it brought a few tears to my eyes.  The sentiment was beautiful.

I’ve decided to try to do this myself, for my two girls.  It may sound like a very strange thing to do.  It’s not very british to bear your soul, never mind in full view of whoever reads my blog.  The thing is though, although I am a very emotional person, (my sister calls me a sap!)  I never can never find the right words to say these sentiments out loud……I can however write these feelings down…..I discovered this at University.  And in college I discovered that I can use photos as a medium to try to express how I see my children, how I feel about them and how very, very proud I am of my two beautiful, amazing girls I have.

I’m excited about the fact that Jade and Faye will have something to look back, there will be stories and little anecdotes to annotate the photos, which will hopefully in time build a picture of a happy childhood :D.

I’m also hoping that in writing my little blogs, that I’ll be able to verbalise my feelings more comfortably too.

So……..

Today I took my first set of photos, ready to write my first ‘letter to my girls’……..I’ll get that posted this week 😀

Here are a few links to the photographer mums who have already started this circle………..maybe it will inspire you too

Red Balloon letters

Amy Lucy Letters 

Kirsty
If anyone in the UK wants to start this circle too I’d love to hear from you…………it works by adding a person to the bottom of your letter to send the viewer along to.  I’m happy to do this with my blog too. 😀

My Girls :D

It feels like it’s been an age since I’ve taken some ‘real’ photos of my girls.  With having a long weekend off I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take some pics.

Jade is due to start Primary 7 after summer and I notice that she’s not such a little girl any more……..especially when I’m doing her hair and have to ask her to sit down to do so!!! ;P

And cheeky Faye, has changed too!  Her gummy grin……..you can’t miss it!! LOL

So out we go with husband to help, two dogs and Jade and Faye…..not the ideal set up for a shoot!

Despite a few stressful moments………Faye almost falling in the estuary, Nero wanting his photo taken constantly, Jade unable to open her eyes because the sun was ‘too bright’ and Bruno thinking that the log (which someone had set on fire) was more interesting than his ball!!!  I think I managed to get some decent pics?! LOL

So for all the friends and family afar…….here are my baby girls 😀 xxx

New Toy!!!!!

I’ve been away for just over a week on holiday, while we were away it was my birthday 😀

The gift I received from my lovely husband and beautiful girls, I’ve wanted of ages……..a Lensbaby!!!!!!!

On top of getting a wonderful new toy, I also had some wonderful QT time to spend with my family and practise with the Lensbaby.

More about my holiday later because I’ve been so excited to edit and upload these images!!  I’ve been home for about 3 hours and couldn’t wait any longer ;P

I know it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it sure is mine!!! ;P   Hope you like this set of images 😀

Instagram

It feels like all I’ve done since I started this blog is work, tidy, clean and work!! No lovely trips any where or big adventures to report 😦 But the Easter break is looming ;D Yippeee!!

And we have plans!!!  We are off to Findhorn for the first week of our break to take things real easy.  There’s not much in the way of plans but just hoping that the weather holds out (please, please, please, say it will!!).

After my wee panic attack about never printing off any photos, it dawned on me that I I don’t take a camera with me as much as I used too either.  I think the main reason for this  is that phone cameras are so much better than they were and I always have my phone with me no matter what! (cause without it, it feels like I have no limbs!!) The app that I love the most on it, is Instagram .  I use this all the time to take family snaps and then post them on Instagram and Facebook. Last month I discovered that Blurb had connected with Instagram to print books using only the Instagram photos.  Perfect!!! I thought!! So I promptly  ordered it so that I can finally have some photos of ‘us’ 😀 I named the book ‘our moments’ and thought you would like to see a few of my favourite photos from the book ;P

 

New Year Resolution

In the digital age I’ve found that I have a tendency to take lots more photos than I did when I had a film camera.  That’s a natural thing to do, we all do it.  There’s no film to waste and it won’t cost lots of money if we take photo’s of everything.  Especially with cameras much more accessible these days (camera phones, compact cameras etc etc), problem is after recording all of these wonderful memories that I have with my beautiful family I suddenly thought last night (5am!!) that I just dont’ print enough off!  I have lots of albums to sit and flick through from when I was little, even from my oldest (Jade who is 10).  Since my youngest (Faye 6) was born I’ve been to college and uni to study photography,  my photo’s have improved (hopefully LOL) and I still take lots, if not more photo’s but!!!! I don’t have many albums after 2004 to ‘flick’ through. I just don’t print off the photo’s I take 😦

I’ve not really made resolutions this year, but at 5am this morning!!! I decided that I’m going to go back through my archives and start to slowly print off some of those magical memories I have with my beautiful family.

I know that it’s not only me who has a habit of snapping away and then uploading to the hard drive and have photos that will never see the light of day.

Do any of you make a conscious effort to print off photo’s that you have taken, or are you like me……good intentions but no prints to show for it 😦

I’m going to upload a few photo’s on here later from some years back and might just upload some more as I sort through them for printing 😀

Have a great Sunday folks, we’re just away to walk Bruno….and yip, I’m taking my camera too!! ;P

 

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