Although I’ve always loved photography, it’s my kids who can be credited with really making it my passion. From the first moment my daughter was born, I wanted to capture every little thing about her so that I could always remember how she was at each stage of our journey together. This continued as the years went on and our family grew, and eventually also encouraged me to learn how to use my camera properly and to take images I truly loved as well as images that captured the moment. Since becoming a photographer and capturing endless memories for other people, I do find that I use my camera less with my own family. It’s still extremely important to me, so I’ve decided to blog my favourite images and memories from each month of my own family. This not only is to keep me accountable and make sure I keep taking photos of my own children, but also to show you all the little moments that are beautiful for you to capture with your own family so that you can tell your story. This being said, here is our story from October.
My son Kohen is a boy of extremes. When he’s naughty, he’s really naughty, but when he’s good, he’s sooo good. He can be so embarrassed to show his emotions (especially in public), yet he has the softest side to him and can be so thoughtful. He’s the type to SHOW you that he loves you, rather than TELL you. I woke up on this particular morning during the school holidays, and he’d started breakfast for everyone. He’s always up quite early, and his role is to empty the dishwasher, but on this morning he took it to another level. He had all the plates lined up, the toast, fruit and juice. He told me to ‘sit on the couch and be a couch potato’ and said that he wanted to do everything himself. And he did. Of course before I was a couch potato, I had to capture this beautiful moment.
My youngest son Alby reminds me a lot of Kohen. He has the same crazy energy, but at the same time, they are the only two of my kids who have attached to comforters and to dummies. Alby loves his bunnies – especially ‘floppy bunny’. He sleeps with them all the time, and carries them everywhere. I’m not even sure who gave them to him, or how he started to attach to them, but he loves them. He also loves the dog water bowl, and in one of these images you can see my daughter in the process of picking it up as Alby is contemplating the idea of either STANDING in the dog bowl, or giving his bunnies a wash in it. Both of which he’s done plenty of times, so the poor dog can rarely drink when Alby is awake as his water bowl is usually placed up high. The other thing Alby loves is food, and one of these images shows his little hand reaching up for some food which is on the table (and unfortunately for him, quite out of his reach!)
In contrast to his brothers, Louie is quite a calm and steady soul. He has an amazing ability to focus, and loves to paint. I love capturing him when he’s ‘in the zone’. He seems to go into his own little world. It’s these moments which are easy to capture with kids, as they’re already happy doing an activity so you don’t need to ask anything of them.
October was Kohen’s 8th birthday. The night before he turned 8 I said goodnight to him before I went to bed, and I cried! Yes – I’m a total sook! All Kohen wanted for his birthday was a fruit tree. This didn’t surprise me at all, as it’s such a ‘Kohen’ thing to want. He likes to nurture and care for things, he likes learning about how things work, and he loves fruit. So he has a green apple tree and a mandarin tree, and he’s happy. He also got a strawberry plant from his best friend. Let’s hope we don’t kill them!
Birthday mornings are always special, and even though this one was a little rushed as we had to get organised for swimming lessons, I still wanted to capture some moments.
Kohen had a birthday party at Darklight, followed by dinner at home with the family. My kids are lucky enough to have lots of cousins who they love spending time with, and lots of aunties and uncles who make family things feel full.
It was also my birthday this month and I got a new lens – which of course means I need to take the kids out to have a little try of it! We had to go in the middle of the day due to swimming and musical rehearsal commitments, which is never best for photos. Here are some we managed to capture. Louie always gives me flowers and kisses and plenty of hugs, so I asked my husband to capture one of our cuddles.
As well as lots of events this month, we found a little time to play. This is one game that the kids love to play – water chasey. They have to sneak past the person with the spray bottle and try not to get wet! Alby’s look of pure joy as the water is spraying him in the face is just the perfect expression of his for me to capture. It makes me smile every time!
This month our school had its Literacy Parade. This is probably not my favourite school event, as creativity with dressing up is not my strong point! I’m definitely not one of those mothers who can create something amazing for their kids to wear! This was our effort this year, with inspiration taken from the book Gangsta Granny – what do you think?!
Halloween! Do your kids celebrate it? Mine like to go trick or treating, and to be honest, although I’m not huge on dressing up, I love being out on this night. Walking through the streets with everyone out and walking as well, bumping into people you know, and everyone having a little bit of a joyful spirit, just feels really nice. Luckily for me, my older two like to create things and so they created some pumpkin and ghost lolly treats which make it look like I actually went to some effort ha ha!
If you’d like to let me help you create some family memories for yourself, Contact me here.