Mine. Four compelling, riveting and equally beautiful souls.

They make me laugh, and cry. Sometimes at the same time. On occasions they drive me up the wall. Probably more often than not. But without them who would I be? Sometimes I can hardly believe I’m so lucky. Sometimes I can hardly believe they’re all mine.

Thank you for sharing in my journey. Especially for your lovely, uplifting words regarding my ‘Day 18′. I truly felt every bit of love. And for that, I am beyond grateful. Until next year my friends…

Nic xxx

There is not a mother in the world, me included, that does not love that cliche, first day back to school portrait.

Byron is heading into year three. My mind boggles at the thought of this being his fourth year of school. Little Lily is braving her very first day of big school. She is beyond excited. And Willow. My beautiful poppet still has three years to go before she dons her uniform for the very first time. And for that I am thankful.

…well at least she’s found a use for it and it’s regular use too.

This child is a monkey in the making – she’ll swing from anything I swear.

Essentially, I am shifting focus a little with my ‘family’ portrait sessions – in essence they’ll have a beloved theme, with the crux being love of course. Love is in all of us, as a couple, as parents, as siblings and sometimes, for what ever reason we loose sight of it. It is my hope that instead of taking images of people and trying to make them look happy or in love (which I’ve always tried not to do), I will focus on inviting them to a place where they are feeling incredible joy and love, and being acutely aware of their connection with one another, and then capturing those powerful, genuine expressions. It is a celebration of love and genuine communication.

Everyone is beautiful; I truly believe this with all my heart. It is not about what one looks like or how they’re dressed. It’s the little things, like the crinkle nose when they smile, or the sound of their laughter. It’s the way they say ‘mumma’ instead of ‘mummy’, how they curl your hair when they’re tired. It’s about the way he touches your cheek tenderly just because or the instant abounding cackle of your toddler when you say ‘boo’.

My goal has always been to make honest images that move people; that document these small moments for you to cherish that may otherwise get lost in a compound of daily living. From now on, I will be inviting families, to share a piece of themselves that I’ll then capture through the art of photography. You will also notice a new focus in my family portraiture and that will be towards the ‘parents’ because I came to realise that my focus has always been on the children as the centre of the family and that made me sad. Sad for all the mums and dads out there who never make time for them or their relationship; who haven’t had a photo together since their wedding 9 years earlier. I want couples to remember they are unique to their children and a unique part of a family.

So, in essence, what I hope for my Beloved family sessions is that instead of reflecting the surface, I want to be an invitation to the families I have the opportunity to meet, to experience the richness that each of their members has within them. It is about remembering what is important – a celebration of love.

Of course, what’s a blog post without some photos. How beautiful is the family below? I smiled and smiled and smiled editing the snippets of their life that day. So blessed was I to share it with them.

Well, as it turns out last weekend was nothing on what this week has been – rain, rain and more rain. So, in the end things turned out for the best – by best I mean showers and cloud and not torrential downpours. Despite the fact the sun didn’t want to play, the kids still had fun – they frolicked; they laughed; and they got wet – seriously, what’s not to love about that!

Damn it!

Time is just going way too fast. I want to savour it. I want it to slow down just a smidgen. I feel like I’m missing bits. How can you possibly absorb all the utter delight at such a fast pace?! I don’t know, but I’m trying really hard to make sure I do my dandiest to not miss a thing.

You’ll never believe it but my sweet baby girl is still to roll over. She is content. She is lazy. She is helping in my quest to hold on to all that is baby….gosh I love her!

Since I took these pictures (two weeks ago)  two little toothy pegs have popped up. Needless to say, when they’re up and fully fledged pearly whites, I’ll be certainly getting some pictures to show them off as any proud mumma would do. In the meantime, here she is in the afternoon glow…

Thank you to all those that followed…for the lovely emails, comments on my blog and facebook fan page. xx