Thanks to my neice who posed nicely for me whilst my sister and two kids spent some time on the farm during the holidays.
I've finally quit my day job (after years of thinking about it) to focus on my passion. In the first week after me having the courage to do this I secured two clients so, inner confirmation I have done the right thing. As yet I still haven't advertised my services to the wider community because I am still wading through a back log of things on the home front that never seemed to get done whilst in a 9-5 job, although still happy to accept word of mouth jobs.
Jacquie contacted me a while ago about photographing her family on their property at Martin Downs and now that all of the moons have aligned I was excited. Essentially this is my first real gig of going 'professional'. The girls aged 3 and 14 months were wonderful to work with after having to put up with me for over an hour. They are troupers for lasting the distance, in fact the whole family were. However, it's important to get as many photos as possible on location.
After submitting a portfolio of 20 images to the judges, I have finally attained my LAPS honours with the Australian Photographic Society. I am very proud of my achievement after working tirelessly toward this goal for years. It will be announced at APSCON at Port Macquarie, NSW in September.
Apprehensively, I attend this home with two young 'uns. It's been quite some time since I've photographed two kids under 3 before. In fact, the last time was with my own kids, like I said... quite some time as they are now 8 and 10. It's great to photograph them in there own home where they are most comfortable, but I have good reason to be nervous. I've forgotten what it's like with a one year old. Little Zac is on the go the whole time. Using flash will freeze all that activity, but I am one eyed about using natural light for better quality pictures. As a result I cull about 50% of the photos due to motion blur, but am left with plenty to show mum and she
is more than happy with the pictures. For what Zac lacks in a sedentary lifestyle, he sure makes up for it in the smiles department and his older sister, Chloe, is just a natural pose for me. I expect things to go pear shaped rather quickly as they do at this age (this much I do remember), but the energizer batteries keep
on going on for hours! Thanks so much for letting me be your family's photographer!
A big thank you goes to the Marsh's for being a great family to photograph. All dressed in a casual black and white colour scheme I took their portraits on our farm. Amongst other locations, I also managed to get some shots at the haybales before the roos and sheep ate though it all over the summer, I did however have to invest some time sweeping away the droppings beforehand! It's all part of country charm I guess and nobody expects to stay clean for very long! A perfect sitting with all being very cooperative and willing subjects...a pleasure to work with.
The problem here is Hester's corset is riding above her strapless dress line. My mum, an expert sewer, comes to the rescue with needle and thread and saves the day. The drama causes me to leave the house late which means I miss pictures of the groom and groomsmen waiting for Hes to arrive. If I thought I was late leaving the house, I have no words for how late I was getting to the ceremony. Unfortuneately, my mum's sewing skills bear no correlation whatsoever to her navigation skills, which I completely entrusted her to do.
Flashbacks of us two driving around southern Portugal instantly cause me to go into a spasmodic meltdown, but I manage to calm down when Mum's phone rings and it turns out we are in the right spot and Hester is waiting in the car just around the corner. In my mind we are 15 hours late, but in fact we are only about 15 minutes late, but that's standard industry practice for the bride isn't it? For anyone reading this and contemplating me doing their photography, I promise I won't bring my mum to your wedding! I'm glad to say the rest of the day went along wonderfully and the reception at the Left Bank Hotel in East Fremantle was just awesome!
