“I look so beautiful,” said my daughter in a voice that was not quite a whisper, but soft and filled with a mix of pride, awe, and wonder. Her voice at that moment was one of the most beautiful tones I have ever heard. I wished I could just bottle it up to play again and again. I had just played her a slideshow I created from some images I captured a few weekends ago on a stunning Sydney afternoon. It was an ordinary afternoon spent at the park – not a planned session or a special occasion. True to my daughter’s nature, she had picked a sparkly dress even though she fully intended to climb, play in the sand, throw the frisbee, and get all sorts of dirty and sweaty. Since the dress sparkled, I grabbed my camera as we left but didn’t pick it up until we were heading home. The light was amazing so we went on a little walk along the wharf. It was a walk filled with the usual six year old shenanigans – twirling in the light, playing in some water, tossing the frisbee with her brother, and playing their favourite game of Sleeping Beauty. But something about that afternoon shimmered, creating a window that allowed me to capture my daughter’s spirit – her joy, exuberance, beauty and tenderness – in a way that I don’t get to see very often.
“Of course you do,” I replied. “You are beautiful.” She looked up at me with a huge smile that literally brought tears to my eyes. I tell my daughter she is beautiful a lot. But often all those articles about how instead of saying your daughter is pretty or beautiful you should tell them they are smart or hard working or strong make me catch myself. I do tell her she is strong and smart but I equally believe that children should believe they are beautiful – both girls and boys. But especially little girls. Our culture will always put beauty on a pedestal. I want my daughter to grow up knowing she is beautiful. That her beauty radiates from deep inside. That it makes her compassionate, strong, capable, and kind. I want her to believe in beauty and how it makes the world a softer gentler place when it is used for good and not evil.
She wanted me to play the slideshow again and again. I watched her as she watched and I hoped that the true to life, candid images she was seeing of herself were being etched in her mind somewhere. So whenever she doubted herself, or felt bad, or had a bad day, one might just pop up and she’ll remember how her mum saw her on that ordinary day. And her day will rise with the smile that crosses her face as she remembers she is beautiful.
I would love to capture the beauty you see in your child. Contact me to book a session.
I spent the majority of last year working on my focus skills: focus at wide open apertures (shallow depth of field), focus on moving subjects, focus in strong backlighting, back button focus, focus in low light, etc, etc, etc…. I also learned things I had no idea about – like the fact that after I had carefully chosen my focus point, my camera (or yours) could decide there wasn’t enough contrast in that spot and pick a totally different spot to focus on. So then I had to learn about where to put my focus point to guarantee that my camera would focus there. Lots and lots of trial and error but it paid off and my focusing skills are much better for it.
At the beginning of this year I found myself yearning to explore a bit more on the creative side of things. I started playing with intentionally out of focus shots. You can see a few examples in Week 1 of my 365 Project. And like most things, I found that I couldn’t just put my camera on manual focus, give the focus ring a spin and expect greatness. There is an art to out of focus images that I didn’t realise existed. There are degrees of out of focus – too little and it looks like a mistake. Too much and you loose all structure. And even in the middle, there are points where it makes your eyes hurt and then there are points that are interesting.
I decided to do a little experiment one Sunday afternoon as I walked the kids home from their grandmother’s. Her building has this lovely rock garden in the middle courtyard, and the kids love to play there every time we leave. On this particular day, it was approaching sunset (golden hour we photographer’s call it!) but the sky was a bit grey in between bursts of that golden light. My daughter had on a flowing pink dress and the whole scene just seemed to lend itself to trying out some intentionally out of focus images. Added to this was the fact that the week before she has started Kindy and I was feeling a bit “out of focus” in terms of who my little girl was now – no longer a preschooler but just one week into being a big school kid. There were changes as she stepped up to her new role in the house and certainly changes in our relationship now that she wasn’t by my side five days a week. We were in a period of transition, and focus was indeed a bit blurry…..
So as the kids played, I snapped and below are the results… I think some work better than others. My husband says some still make his eyes hurt. I love the ones that look a bit like an Impressionist painting the best. They were all shot with my 50mm at around f/2. I would love to know what you think so leave me a comment if you are so inclined. And if you decide to try it yourself, I’d love to see what you come up with!
I’d love to capture your every day moments. Let’s make a date to get together
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Big school was upon us in the third week of January. I found myself making a list of all the things I hadn’t yet done with my daughter. The realisation that she would no longer be by my side every day became quite real. I was excited for her but a bit heartbroken at the same time. We filled out days this week exploring the Sydney Festival, hung out at the Opera House, rode bikes, and enjoyed days without any schedule. While we have lived here for almost five years, there are still places right in our own backyard that we have never visited. For example, this week we made our first visit to the Chinese Garden. And it was great! It was too hot to dress up so we will have to go back this autumn for that. All in all a very fun week.
15/365 Meditation
50mm ISO160 f/2.2 1/4000 sec
16/365 Mum’s Favourite Spot
50mm ISO 640 f/4.5 1/4000sec
17/365 Bike Riding
50mm ISO 160 f/2.8 1/1000sec
18/365 Chillin’
50mm ISO 160 f/2.8 1/320sec
19/365 Shower
35mm ISO 1600 f/2.2 1/100sec
20/365 Say Cheese Shopkins
35mm ISO 400 f/2.5 1/160 sec
21/365 May the Force Be With You
35mm ISO 250 f/2.5 1/320
I’d love to capture your every day moments. Let’s make a date to get together
Contact me to book your session!
My kids are always in costume. On the street people always ask “What’s the occasion?” 99% of the time it’s just what they chose to wear. Personally I love it and will be so sad when this period of their childhood it over. Today was no exception – except for the fact that they both dressed from STAR WARS! My husband would be in heaven had he been home. So this day in particular called for some quick photos outside. I had my 35mm lens on my camera from some early morning shots and normally wouldn’t use it for candid portraits. I prefer to compress the background a bit more than my 35mm will allow. But sometimes you have to go with it when your kids actually want to take pictures! My daughter was more game than little Darth but 5 minutes and a potty break later I got these little gems. Treasures for years from now for sure. And I can’t wait to see people’s faces as they take on the city today!
I’d love to capture your little ones playing. Let’s make a date together soon!
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