Tuesday 24 March 2015

#highlightsreel // enlighten me


Life lately....

Finding joy and just savouring the little moments with my precious family xx

Two little scallywags, post-waterfight. Do their cute faces distract from the grubby glass door?! ;)
Well, well, look who I discovered late one evening, snuggled up on the comfy floor!

My sweet girl stayed up late one night doing a picture for every class mate (20!). And some presents too. I love her phonetic spelling soooo much! :) Xavier, Ms Newton, Hayli, Ben, Grace, Athina.
I made these chicken and zucchini poppers for dinner, and put these little foodpicks in just for fun. Miles thought they were birthday candles and started singing 'Happy Birthday' and held it up like this for ages. Oh, cutie pie!
A little block building challenge inspired by the wonderful An Everyday Story



They took on the challenge with relish, experimenting with different building
methods.

Drawing a diagram of their building strategy...
He lies down with Daddy and tries to copy his pose exactly. (he had his arms
up too but I missed it!). Oh Miles. Like father, like son. 
The kids can now do an entire laundry cycle themselves. Everything from putting clothes and detergent into the machine, putting it on, hanging it on the line, and bringing it in, sorting and putting away. I am super duper proud of my independent little people :)
Showing off the empty basket after completing the task. I got them this cute little mini basket of their own :)
Oh Miles. This is how he requests to be tucked in these days. Sleep bag, blanket tucked over, then his fave toys lined up next to him. Hahaahaa! He is so quirky. I need to do a whole post on his various preferred bed time rituals. This kid, he has a lot of opnions ;) These little moments are so precious.
My tired little boy/big Preschooler. Although he is nearing five, he can still easily nap most days. On preschool days he can't so I have found him collapsed like this a couple times recently. Darling boy!
A night out at the amazing Enlighten festival. It has a lot of competition but I think it's now my favourite annual Canberra event. Love this town! Old Parliament House never looked so good!! The projections move and change, so enchanting.
Eli highlights the star he made for the cellophane house inside OPH.
She got 'swiped by a Teradactyl'... well, actually, that's just what she requested from the cool special effects make up artist at Questacon!
Next level cotton candy/fairy floss.... Glow in the Dark!!!!
No, I didn't feed my kids nuclear powered food, haha! It's a flashing rainbow glow stick with plain fairyfloss wrapped around it. Pretty fun huh??! Of course, we just had to let the kids try it :)

The National Library of Australia.
Beautiful 'paper boats' on the lake. They kept changing colour!


The National Portrait Gallery had a series of moving images that were so mesmerising. My favourite!












Monday 16 March 2015

a 'family photography' mentoring session with robyn geering


Photography has turned into my little hobby (as well as blogging, it turns out!). I love to photograph memories with my family, although when it comes to the technical side of photography, I am without doubt the world's slowest learner!! It just doesn't seem to sink in (what's ISO again??).

Well.

Last year I entered a Facebook competition run by the highly awarded, previous Australian Professional Family Photographer of the Year, the one and only Robyn Geering! She was offering a Mentoring Session and what do you know..... I won it. Trust me, I screamed the house down!! I couldn't believe it. Such a wonderful opportunity to learn both theory and practice from one of this country's best family photographers. Yes, I was in awe!

Robyn is truly lovely. It's inspiring how passionate she is about photography, it is so clear how much she loves her job - and loves sharing her knowledge too. She was so incredibly generous with her time and talents through the whole experience. After asking about what I wanted to learn, she kindly offered to split the single session I won into two... one for theory and one for practice. We had the theory session late last year. A lovely morning at her house, where she (very patiently!!!!) walked me through all the camera settings, how to understand light better and gave me several awesome tips and tricks for photographing kids who move at the speed of light - or so it seems! She even made up an awesome booklet for me, full of photography information and advice. I read that thing cover to cover, trust me!

We planned for our 'practise' session a few weeks later. But then it rained. And my kids got sick. And then it rained. Then it was Christmas. Then it rained and rained some more. Do you get the drift?!?! Sooooo many reschedules, but finally, recently, the clouds (literally!!) parted and so one Saturday evening we met at Robyn's amazing secret spot by the lake for a family photo session.

We had so much fun, and I loved soaking up all Robyn's wisdom. She truly went above and beyond the official 'prize' to give me so much support and practical advice. It was such a treat to have someone right there to ask advice about settings and angles, and so on. It really helped me learn to be able to ask then practically apply that info straight away, as well as get instant feedback on my images and settings. It was just cool to watch a master at work too! The kids were very patient as we snapped away for over TWO hours :) I was soooo happy with the photos I got as a result....

Thank you, Robyn, your heart and your talents have richly blessed our family. We both know it's about much more than just the photos - thank you, thank you for your support, dear friend!

And so, without further ado....


About to get started.. Mark distracts the boys down by the water while we take some snaps of my girl :)
Hmmm, what shall I do?
(Ha - Lily had so many ideas, I think Robyn may take her on as an assistant!?)

Shame I overexposed with the sun on her hair, because I just love this serene little face xx

If you look closely, you can spot a pirate tattoo on her forearm, She applied it just for Photo Day, lol!!!
Here come the fellas.... my three amazing men xx
And there goes one little man....
A little sibling chatter...

That little tongue!

My absolute favourite image from the day. Three little blessings, all in a row!! :)



The King of Funny Faces :)




Lily was getting bored with the photos and then Robyn said something funny while elicited this gorgeous series of beautiful smiles from my girl. Nice work, Robyn :)




So much sass!!! Seriously, where does she get it from!?

Boy with sticks.... 
Beautiful Robyn was simply amazing with the kids,  with so many fun ways to elicit natural happy smiles.
Miles did his best to charm her top notch camera away but he is not quite *that* charming, haha ;) 


Brothers in the bush... off on another adventure.

Ok, ok, let's creep away and just let the kids play xx



Needless to say... if you want some gorgeous images of your own family, check out the stunning photos on Robyn Geering Photography, and book in a session - stat! If you are a budding photographer, whether amateur or professional, check out her mentoring sessions too... you will not be disappointed, either way! :)