Family portrait: history captured on paper

I've been in Sydney for nearly three weeks now. I visit occasionally because my family lives here. This visit was extra special though as my sister had another baby! A beautiful baby boy named Joseph. He is such a precious little bundle and his sisters love him to bits!

I'm staying at my Mum's house and she has bags of old photos and shelves full of albums. Every time I visit I find myself going through them as if seeing them for the first time. Even though I've gone through them a hundred times before, as I get older I see them differently. I understand more of the circumstances behind each photograph. I'm filled with joy at the memories and then a kind of sadness sets in. I can't really explain it. Nostalgia? Maybe I realise how old I'm getting and how far removed I am from my own childhood. I look at photos of my mother and she was such a beauty in her youth (still is!) and realise we are now the same age.

Maybe, more and more I'm seeing things for what they really are/were through the eyes of an adult; gone is the veil of youthful naivete. In some photos where we all look so happy and carefree, little did I know that this person was homeless, that person was sick, this person was abused, etc. I have photos with childhood friends and we're doing the kid thing, you know, jumping on trampolines, riding bikes, swimming at the beach, visiting the zoo. Some are married now with children of their own. Others have been in prison or fallen to substance abuse. Others who are successful and happy, or so I hope. It really gets me thinking and wondering and all sad. I can't really articulate why.

I was going through a few of them this evening with a friend. She was laughing at the gap I used to have between my two front teeth. Then she said that her family had about fifty photos total of her family. Fifty. And here I am with two full bags at my feet while I type. It reminded me how important photographs are. They capture a moment in time that will never happen again. I'll never again be that seven year old girl with a gap between her teeth. I'll probably never see some of those kids I used to play with. I'll never see certain relatives again as they've passed away.

1991 - Me (age 7) and my little brother (age 5)

With the neighbours' kids

So I come back to little baby Joseph. I have been hinting and hinting at my sister to have a family portrait done before I go back to Melbourne because Joseph is already getting bigger! I want to capture him now, with his doting teenage sisters by his side, before it's too late. Before we know it, he'll be the teenager and his sister's will have left home and we'll be saying "gee, if only we'd gotten that family portrait done all those years ago."

Bianca

(Read Bianca's thoughts on her photoshoot here.)

The last time I saw Bianca was nearly two years ago on the other side of the world. We were having coffee in one of London's largest shopping centres before I was to leave for a new job in Barcelona.

We met in 2009 at a school where we were both teachers, and when things didn't quite go to plan with our jobs, we decided to leave it all behind and give working overseas a try.

We shared a small apartment in a town east of London called Grays - a must see destination if you're ever in the area ;) I loved every minute of life in that quaint little town.

From London to the small seaside town of Portarlington, here we were catching up, in the middle of nowhere really, nearly two years later, having a laugh and reminiscing a life so long past and discussing the endless possibilities for the future (which hopefully involve going back to London!)

Bianca is a stunning young woman. She is of Indian and Irish descent and got the best of both worlds: a year round tan and amazing blue eyes. "I want to look and feel like a woman" she said to me, which confused me at first. How can you not look and feel like a woman? And I realised there was more to it than that. It was about being grown up.

I guess people everywhere, everyday, hide behind a veil of sorts. We create barriers to protect ourselves, or hide our true selves away. We do it for fear of judgement, amongst other things. (I am just as guilty of this, ask anyone!) So when I understood what Bianca was asking for, I thought yes! I am going to take photographs of who you really are, behind the funny faces etc. I'm going to capture the essence of you and who you are: a beautiful, young, grown up woman.

Here is just a small selection of my favourite images from our session. Zero fun was had that day, can you tell? ;)

Click to enlarge

Miss T

Towards the end of last year I was inspired to create my own boudoir photography studio. I envisioned dark images with soft light to accentuate the curves of the female form. The inspiration came from a studio I contacted in London (www.fyeoportraits.com) when I was interested in having a shoot done myself. Their work is great and what I loved most about them is that they welcome women of all shapes, sizes and ages - and they look amazing. So I thought I'd give it a go! But when the time came to make a booking I decided to spend the money on travel instead.

Anyway as I've mentioned before I am loving natural light at the moment. I'm also loving faces (as opposed to boobs and bums). I've been focussing a lot on portraiture, particularly the connection in the eyes, facial expressions, big hair and makeup. It's creating an experience for women where they leave looking and feeling amazing. 

So last week I had the opportunity to practise some natural light boudoir with Miss T. I hadn't tried it yet (in natural light) and thought this would be a good way to see whether it's something I continue doing or not.

She arrived to the studio with a vast array of lingerie and corsets. We only shot the one outfit though as we also had a portrait session beforehand (see!?) and ran out of time. Here are some of my favourite images from the session. I envisioned 'Vogue' meets boudoir - I wanted to keep it classy (as always!) I am loving the bright backlit image.