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.

Trips to the beach

Photos taken by me. Ireland is wearing a dress from a shop called 'Destiny Boutique'.

The water was just a bit cold.

Photos by Ireland. I'm wearing Supré shorts, and the silk top is second hand 'Bluejuice'.

Photos by me. I'm not sure about where the shawl Ireland's wearing is from.

All the photos are un-edited (except for the third photo which I changed to black and white.) 

 My weather update for the past couple of months is: mostly sunny, and very hot. The temperature makes me want to slap the back of my hand to my forehead and fall down dramatically, saying: "Oh, the heat!" Imitating Keira Knightly in a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean (the movie that gave my sister and I our wonderful stick-fighting techniques). While it's not yet Summer, it feels like is has been since Spring. It really gives the temptation to go and live in the freezer when it's 34 degrees Celsius. So regular trips to the beach are necessary - although sometimes the weather decides it wants to be cold and windy as soon as you arrive at the beach. On the bright side, I enjoyed running after the 'beach tumble-weed', something that became a game between my sister and I - which I won (my beach towel made an excellent winner's toga.)
All the shoots above were taken on various trips, the last one wasn't pre-meditated but I had my camera and my willing model, and could not resist that glorious light.

Along with the beach trips, I'm trying to go on walks regularly, as well as doing yoga. I recently finished doing a yoga thing for teenagers which was about an hour and a half of yoga every Monday afternoon for four weeks - it was amazing how much better my back felt afterwards. I think the yoga's definitely helping my back, along with Bowen therapy (my Bowen therapist did some kind of respiratory move and my ribcage  is now significantly less twisty.) It was also great being able to visit the charity shops before yoga started, I picked up some great things including: a silk Yves Saint Laurent dress with a rayon bodice for four dollars (which I am eager to feature after the size is adjusted for me), an apricot silk button-up shirt for two dollars, a completely new Yves Saint Laurent scarf for one dollar, and my sister found a silk Stella McCartney top for three dollars (although it's kind of strange, and has wings of some sort.)

Well, I hope everyone's great, and that the weather for you is much better than the weather here.

Beautiful Beach

The marks on the sand beneath me show that I jumped quite a few times to get this shot - I'm so happy with it!

The photos above were taken by my sister on a spontaneous trip to the beach one afternoon. The cream silk scarf is vintage, and I'm wearing a silk dress from a vintage market stall (I don't think it's actually vintage though) the brand is 'bluejuice.' 

I noticed the jumping photo was the only photo in which I'm not looking down - I might need to work on some new poses!

 This morning my dad and I went on what we call our "dawn runs." We got up (hesitantly) at about 4:30 AM, put on warm clothes, made some coffee, and went to the beach (the same beach in the photos above). It's about a half an hour trip and when we get there it's just lovely - a previous time it was overcast and the water looked like milk - lilac milk, it was gorgeous! This time the sunrise made the trees look like black cut-out shapes, I gulped my coffee (can't help it - it's too good) while looking at the orange and pink sky. Then we swapped seats and I drove along the beach - I never knew driving was so fun! I started lessons with my dad a couple of months ago and I love it.
 After the beach we did some exploring and the scenery changed from waves, pelicans and seagulls to tall red grass and purple, yellow and pink wild flowers.

The places were beautiful, everywhere we went I kept thinking this would be great for a photoshoot and I'm pretty sure some of the time my dad was thinking this would be great for trials motorbike riding.  Every detail became a note in my head, though to write it all down afterwards would be challenging, I seriously need to bring a notebook and pen with me everywhere I go (like I do with my much loved camera.) And of course, I got lots of educational lessons and quizzes from my dad about the wildlife, parks, water turbidity, etc. I loved it!

Also, I previously talked about World Vision's 40 hour famine, well I just wanted to say that my sister and I have managed to (thanks to the wonderful people who donated) raise two hundred and seventy dollars now - which makes me feel so good!

A photo from this morning's "dawn run."

And...a previous dawn run.