Au Revoir 2013

Hi everyone, I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and celebration of the winter/summer solstice (or whatever you celebrate) and are having a great holiday!  December has been a whirlwind of manic Christmas present wrapping (I've been wrapping not only the presents I got people, but also other people's presents as well as inadvertently wrapping my own!), delicious food, enjoying the company of friends and family, swimming, fun and summer.
I've been spending lots of time with my sister, Ireland, and her boyfriend, James, after finally meeting him for the first time. It has involved lots of trips to beaches and rivers, watching episodes of Doctor Who and introducing James to some of our favourite TV shows (such as Absolutely Fabulous and Black Books) debating whether Florence Welch says "you're giving me such sweet nothing" in her song 'Sweet Nothings' or if she's actually saying "you're giving me sexy gherkins" (yes, really), making Italian food, annoying each other, and James and Ireland finding interesting ways to wake me up, such as: James playing the Ukulele right next to my ear, slathering Vegemite on my face, and them both jumping on me (but that's okay, because James now has a distinct bald patch on his arm). I spent my Christmas with my gorgeous godfamily and my mum, which was lovely, and am looking forward to celebrating the new year tonight with Ireland, James and my dad.

Anyway, I'm off to do my resolutions (which is basically just a very large reading list).
Happy New Year!
I hope 2014 brings wonderful things for you all. xx

A photo summary of spring

                     

Once again I have been a neglectful blogger and haven't posted in almost three months. I almost missed posting during spring entirely, so I wanted to quickly share some spring photos I took.
All the photos of flowers are unedited, the other shots where taken while visiting my beautiful godsister, Jazz, at her new house. We just managed to snap the photos before it rained, so due to the gloomy light some of the photos needed a little editing.
She's wearing a gorgeous silky rayon Tree of Life dress which my mum picked up at a charity shop. The dress was also worn by my other sister, Ireland, in this post.

Jazz is such a brilliant photography subject and has appeared in many other posts: wearing an Alice in Wonderland-esque dress of my mum's here, posing in gorgeous silk layers here, donning a vintage summer dress and flower wreath here, enjoying a tea party in the afternoon light with me here and modelling a gorgeous sixties dress on a grey day here.

Hope to post more this summer!

Early Morning Sights

There was a horse attempting to eat my hair as I took this photo.

All images above are taken by me, and all (except for the landscape shot with the horse) are un-edited.

This image of the sunrise and mist was taken by my mum (who gets up very early).

I've never been an early riser, but I've recently been getting into the pattern of waking up every morning at six-thirty (with the aid of an alarm). The rewarding views of mist floating above the hills and the beads of dew catching the morning rays makes dragging myself out of bed on the cold winter mornings one hundred percent worth it.  I'll make myself a cup of tea and marvel at the beautiful view that can be seen just from our kitchen window. Then I'll set off down the stairs in boots and a wool coat while firmly clutching my much-loved red Nikon in search of beautiful things to take pictures of.

It's quite amazing how different things look so early in the morning, our raspberry bushes look like they're growing sparkling rubies and the usually avoided cobbler's pegs (twelfth image) look like something out of a fairytale. The sunlight and dew drops make spider's webs visible, flowers look good enough to eat and barbed wire fences beautiful to photograph, everything is transformed.


A combination of mist, dew, sunlight, webs, flowers, succulent berries, mushrooms and birdsong make me think of children's books that were read to me when I was younger, full of whimsy and fairy feasts, enchanted forests and dancing girls with butterfly wings. These beautiful mornings trigger similar feelings to when I was read fairytales and stories by my favourite children's authors (such as May Gibbs, Enid Blyton, Lewis Caroll, C.S. Lewis and Mem Fox). It was very easy to imagine Ragged Blossom from May Gibbs' series of The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie making her self a skirt from the wattle flowers. Or the leaves and petals from the trees arranging themselves into humanoid forms as they do in Narnia. I could imagine a magic hat whooshing past and finding itself to be a perfect fit on a nearby toad, or Alice running after a white rabbit in a waistcoat.

Once I felt my fingers were about to freeze off, I walked back up the paddock, climbed through a fence and stomped back up the steps knowing I had a wool blanket and Tess of the d'Urbervilles waiting for me. I truly can't think of a better start to the day.

Photo shoots of Ireland.

Once again, it's been too long since I've posted. But I have some excuses up my sleeve: Internet problems, the winter light (which isn't so great for photos), lack of sleep, a good book (always a really good excuse), stressful family matters, the royal baby (only kidding), people visiting, etcetera. 

So this post was sort of hurried just to squeeze in a post for July, as well as to add some of the recent photos I've taken of my sister, Ireland. 

In the shoot above she's wearing a vintage army coat (I don't know where she got it from), my seventies boots, a pair of blue stockings I found at a charity shop (still in their original, unopened package), and a sixties corduroy mini dress "borrowed" from one of the many huge piles of vintage and charity shopped clothes my mum has collected over the years. Most of the photos are edited as the light wasn't so great that afternoon.

Ireland's wearing a vintage underskirt, a silk scarf worn as a sash, a vintage cotton camisole, vintage faux pearls, and vintage gloves all found at various charity shops. On her hip is a bit of chicken wire fencing with flowers zip-tied onto it. I'm really happy with the black and white portraits I took of her in this shoot, aren't her eyes gorgeous? And her smile just incredible? 

Some photos taken much less recently, in March. Ireland's wearing a fifties nightgown from a charity shop.

Update, Photos, Flickr & Bloglovin

All photos taken by me.

On the 1st of July, Google reader is shutting down, so if you would like to keep up to date with my posts, you can follow me on Bloglovin. 

I also now have a Flickr account, where I'll be posting some of the photos seen on my blog, extra photos from shoots, some of my nature photography, etc. You can find my account here. 

While I'm introducing my Flickr account, it felt apt to add some of the images that you will see in my photostream (I also just needed some images to post on my blog, I will hopefully do a shoot soon). I'm sorry it's been a while since I've posted, I've been a bit of a neglectful blogger (again!) I will try to post more in July.

As it's winter now I've been spending a lot of time curled up in a mohair blanket with either a book, a hot drink or both. I'm loving taking out my tights, warm socks and layers of cashmere, wool and angora for winter. While some of the days have been bloody freezing and slightly unpleasant, I still love it (but am also appreciating the days of sunshine when we get them.) One thing I don't like about winter is that the light isn't always too great, but hopefully I'll still get some good photos in the winter shoots I have planned. Anyway, I'm off to go catch up on the blogs I follow.

Sydney, Part 2 - People Watching

All images were taken by me and are un-edited.

When I went to Sydney earlier in the month (you can see part 1 here) my absolute favourite thing about my visit was the people and their street style. People of so many various interests, cultures, origins, ethnicities, languages and accents with such different and unique style.

I love people watching and Sydney was the perfect place for it. People were fearless in what they wore, I could've donned a top hat, zebra print shirt and a rainbow bubble skirt belted with a curtain tie and I would have fit right in. Although this ensemble would be with the addition of warm tights, fluffy socks and a big jacket -which would all be as equally outrageous - as it was freezing. I wish I could have gotten some shots of the people that wore get-ups like this, but unfortunately the people I managed to snap were wearing rather casual clothes. Most of the people were pretty much on a mission, so if I wanted to take a photo of them, I'd have to act fast. By the time I'd debated  in my head whether or not to chase after them or had taken my  camera from its' case, they were out of sight.

Although one very stylish person I managed to photograph was my mum's fabulous friend Robyn Catchlove (yes, that's her real name) who was mentioned in my previous post as our guide around Newtown and can be seen in the last image. She's posing for me inside a bar, positioned in front of a big glass window chosen especially so we could watch the people pass by. Although the image is in black and white, she's very vibrantly dressed: in an oversized electric blue jumper, a rainbow scarf and necklace, black leggings with red snakeskin shoes and her usual red lipstick and orange hair. But her personality is even more fun and exciting than her wonderful outfits.

As my mum, Robyn and I watched the people walk past the window we were sitting at, we spotted a rather brilliant looking man in a big leopard print coat. He was just the first of the people I am wishing I photographed. The clothes were as vibrant and as unique as the people that wore them, who were seen in flashes of colour wherever I went and were almost always smiling.
During my visit I saw a girl with galaxy tights, blue hair and a tardis dress and a man with so much curly black hair it hung over him like an umbrella. My mum and I spotted a guy who looked just like Viktor Krum from Harry Potter and the goblet of fire when we were enjoying Sushi Train one night, and another time we watched a woman in a full length cloak and elf ears as she crossed the street. One day we saw a lovely old man pushing a trolley and selling flowers (who I kind of wanted to be) and a girl wearing a summery fifties dress on a vintage bike, complete with a sixties picnic basket on the one day it was sunny.

Despite my wishing that I could have taken photos of all the lovely people I saw, I'm still happy with the images above. The first one is my favourite, I took my camera out after my mum and I came across an area where almost everyone was smoking. The photos I took weren't that great until this lady sat down and lit her cigarette. I was clicking away and managed to capture the smoke quite nicely I think, she gave me a smile and my mum and I continued walking. The second was taken not long after that and the others were snapped on different days.

I could go on forever about all the beautiful and interesting people I spotted and the clothes they wore. How liberating it was to wear whatever I wanted, putting on my stripy tights or my faux fur jacket and zipping up my seventies boots so haphazardly. Living where I do, pretty much anything other than sneakers, a plain shirt and jeans would be considered overdressed, so it was nice not to care about what I was wearing. After my experience in Sydney I will endeavour to be a little more fearless in what I wear.