NJOY THE MOMENT photography

We have an old garden shed in our back yard, which probably used to house hens or something equally as smelly or messy.  We’ve tried to keep Jaedon (and Alicia-Rae) out of it up until now, mostly because it looks like a nice, cosy spider’s den (and we all know what Aussie spiders are like…).  But mummy was nice and brave the other day (and let me tell you, considering there was more than a very remote, slight chance that I would run into a hairy-legged creature I was very brave indeed!) and she went in armed with an iron will, a broom, dustpan and vacuum and tidied it up.  Now Jaedon has his own little cubby house, that is imaginatively reffered to as ‘Jaedon’s house’. 
I may be regretting it sooner than I thought though as he is constantly dragging me by the hand to go out with him into Jaedon’s house. Not that I mind, but I haven’t gotten around to putting anything else in it just yet, and there’s only so much staring at the concrete and bricks looking for leftover spiders that I can handle…
Anyway - here’s our little fella begging for a visit to his house tonight, typically while I was trying to get dinner ready.  I did promise to come out with him after dinner but by then hanging from the garden swing was much more appealing. Thankfully.

This photograph of Alicia-Rae would have to be one of my favourites for a long time.  I’m not sure why though.  Perhaps, as they say, I’ve just got my ‘mummy goggles’ on. Maybe it’s something I see in her eyes that I know, maybe it’s her expression, maybe it’s the curiousity of what’s running through her mind… but it feels like more than just a photograph to me. There’s an emotion behind it that I love.
Perhaps I’m the only one that feels it, but that’s ok. That’s what I love about photography. It’s such a personal thing, and open to individual interpretation.  Often I find that a client will fall in love with a photo that I would never have expected them to - but I totally get that as a mum.

Liking this photo as much as I do, I couldn’t help fiddling with it to see what else I could bring out of it.  That’s the beauty of digital photography. There are so many more ‘processing’ alternatives enabling me to bring the photo to life in the manner I envisaged it at the point of releasing the shutter. Often I know exactly how I want the end product to look, but occasionally I’ll hit apon something while processing  that jumps out at me and goes WOW. And lends a whole other look to the photograph.
That’s what custom photography and portraiture is all about. It’s not so much about taking a photo. It’s about capturing a point in time, an emotion, and translating it. It’s a very personal thing for me - something that I probably involve myself in too much (if you’ve ever had to wait longer than you thought you would for your gallery - that’s why.  I like to get it ‘just so’ - exactly like I see in my mind).
So, as an example, here are a few different takes on the above photograph of Alicia-Rae.  Not huge changes, but they lend a completely different feel to the image.  But while there are so many (endless) possibilities I mostly know, instinctively, what I want to do with each one. I think you get a feel for it after a while. Or maybe it’s just a ‘gut’ thing. And while many of my images may not be ‘perfect’, so long as to  me they feel ‘right’.  It’s not so much about creating a piece of art as it is about capturing a piece of heart…

{ Melbourne Photographer }