2012 has been a busy year.  I headed back to teaching full time and although I love teaching and absolutely adore my beautiful year five class, I’ve neglected the blog somewhat and feel a little bad about that.

There’s been a few photography jobs  throughout the year but to say, I wasn’t missing it would be a lie.   I love families.  I love the interactions … the finer moments a camera remembers when living in the moment, one might miss …  or be so overwhelmed with love they forget the happiness in a smile or the size of a child’s hand or the way a brother looks at their sister.

I’m looking forward to school holidays, where I can create with the camera once more to capture family moments that will keep forever.   All the while, missing my beautiful class.

Here’s a family shoot I did a little while back.  The love and energy of these beautiful people is inspirational.  Meet the Brown family.  They’re from the Sunshine Coast and they’re fabulous.

If you’re in the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast or Brisbane areas and are interested in getting family photos taken or photos of your children taken for Christmas (or just for keepsake), let me know.  I’m keen.

Cx

Recognise these kids.

‘F’ in now at school while ‘L’ continues to grow up at a rate of knots .. she’s just turned 4.

Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt. These two siblings are just the most fun ever. And cute to boot.

;

Obviously they get it from their parents.

Cx

There’s a crazy about of fun been happening in Brisbane town hence my slackness in posting on the blog.   Life has been filled with new weekly traditions and living life at a much faster pace than we would ever imagine living at Tully Heads.   This crazy two.thousand.and.eleven is coming to a close and our family is counting down the days to when we can finally say it’s over.   We’re exhausted!!

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to blog about our new life and the fun we’ve been having living in Brisbane but for now I’m more excited about sharing in some photography work I’ve been up to in Brisbane … Introducing the beautiful B family.   We met Michele when she was just a young single teacher.   We’d all been posted to a quiet little school in Laidley and we quickly became fond of her gorgeous smile and warm ways.   Facebook has kept us in touch in more recent years and we’ve been able to follow her dream of getting married and raising two of the most adorable little men you could ever possibly meet.

The other morning we met at Newstead House  and Newstead Park and wondered and played and chatting and laughed and did a bit of this and that … a little like this

Until next time, enjoy.

Cx

This weekend it’s carnival time in our neighbourhood.   Coming from living in small, rural areas, we haven’t ever really experienced carnival time before.   The biggest carnival we ever really had was the cake stall at the front of the school on election day or maybe the odd car boot sale.   I remember the buzz around cent sales.   They had a bit of a carnival atmosphere I suppose.

Sunday is Carnival day at Hilder Road State School.   There’s a buzz of activities, busyness, organisation and excitement at the school.   There’s been months of preparation from families and businesses far and wide.  On this Friday morning, it’s all coming together in the community hub that is our school.   Everyone is smiling.   There’s a spring in the steps of kiddies and parents.  The conversations begin and end with ‘C’.

This year, I had the opportunity to donate a prize for the major raffle.   Winners have the opportunity to win

- 7 night family holiday at Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island at Beachies.   Valued at $1350.

- A family lifestyle portraiture package with ME valued at $1000.

- A microsoft software package valued at $1110.

- A Compaq 610 Notebook with Microsoft Office and Business 2010.  Valued at $1180.

I have 10 tickets to purchase so I’ve decided to put down random names of my friends and fans of Carolyn B Fine Art Photography page on facebook.  Just saying.   Just incase you get a random phone call about winning a raffle prize.

I can’t wait to meet who wins my prize and give them beautiful images of their family for their home.   To me, that’s exciting.

To my boys however, the excitement is all about their all day ride passes.

Until next time … enjoy.

Cx

There’s something sweet about return clients .. especially when I get to watch the family grow.

A couple of years ago, I photographed Carrie and Mark’s engagement and then wedding.   I remember when we shoot the engagement shoot, we just instantly clicked.   Their wedding day was so much fun in the rain and the wind and yet such a perfect day.   Well now, Carrie and Mark have  a new addition to their family .. Meet little ‘L’.

The sweetness of Carrie’s and Mark’s lovestory continues.   To see them as such beautiful parents to their absolute bundle of joy, made my heart sing.   Since their wedding, they have built a fantastic house on their farm block and live there with gorgeous plump cows, sweet baby love and the peaceful sounds of birds chirping.  I could have stayed their forever.   Maybe I am a farm girl at heart.

Congratulations Carrie and Mark on the gorgeous addition in your family.  Let your forever contagious love continue.

Can’t wait to watch baby L grow.

Until next time .. enjoy.

Cx

Until next time … enjoy.

Cx

There’s something to say about living on the farm and participating in some wholesome outdoor fun.

I had a great time catching up with Casey and her gorgeous little family recently.   Their farm is sensational and the boys … just as adorable as they were here.    I love it when clients return for more each year.  I get to develop a relationship with the children and each time, the children get more and more used to a person (not usually in their everyday lives), take their photos.   Each time, they become braver, more natural, more fun, more themselves.   They learn to know, in their eyes I’m more about getting them to have fun with the added bonus, they get to keep their memory in print form.   They become to trust the experience will be enjoyable, sometimes silly and always affectionate and safe.   They learn to love photographs and keeping them as little snippets of life’s treasured moments.

That’s one of the many lovely parts of being a professional photographer.   Just like life itself … it’s all about building relationships.

Until next time … enjoy.

Cx

I have know Peace and Katy for sometime now. Firstly through Flickr and a joint love of photography and more recently through their company,  Connect2Mums.   A few weeks ago, Katy was nominated for Cairns Women’s  Business Club Young Entrepreneur of the Year.   I was invited to be a guest at her table by the beautiful Jill from Simply Hampers, Peace, Katy and their mum.   It was a fabulous night and to top it off Katy won her category and is now the 2011 Cairns Women’s Business Club Young Entrepreneur of the Year … YAY for Katy and YAY for Connect 2 Mums.   Katy and her amazing sister, Peace run Connect 2 Mums, a fabulous network of mums around Australia and New Zealand.   It’s such a supportive and engaging network of women, all helping out others to be the best woman .. mum .. wife .. sister .. daughter .. friend .. business person they can be.  Peace and Katy make the perfect hosts and leaders of this organisation.  They are caring and compassionate and inspirational and amazing.   Success to them is being the happiest person you can be, doing what you want to do in life.  I get that!!

Well the night of the awards was fabulous, filled with lots of laughs, amazing food,  frocks and high heels, stories of success, champagne and lost bags.  Then night turned into morning when the lost bag was found and the laughs continued, the high heels were replaced with flat get about flip flaps and the dinner turned into a late buffet breakfast.   The idea for this photoshoot was born.   It was to be a photoshoot celebrating their success in business and success in parenting.   A couple of weeks later, this was the result … two sisters, three mothers, five children, many friends, complete families, special love and amazing lives lived.   Katy and Peace are amazing business women but more importantly, they’re incredible mums with the perfect amount success in their lives.   Enough success to encourage and foster success in the lives of many others.

Until next time .. enjoy.

Cx

We’ve spent two weeks in Brisbane now and seen many different things.  We’ve done things we would not usually do and embellished in luxuries we’d not know existed living in the far north.   Rugby Finals.  Eloquent shopping with themed cafés all under the same roof.  Weekend sleep-overs at ‘The Cousins’.  Lunchdates with girlfriends at more than one different restaurant.  Hot chocolates in large shopping domes just up the road from where we live.  Walks to and from school.   Visiting family.   A quick trip up the road to get ANYTHING we need.  Riding trains at night.  Science Centre.  Movies in the city within a 10 minute drive.  Catching buses.  Hilly walks everyday.  Branded uniforms with matching school bags.  Catching up with school mates.   Seeing best friends from uni every other day.  Regular visits to see grandparents.

We’ve spend two weeks in Brisbane now and missed so many different things.   Like, friends at work and friends at soccer and friends at the shops and friends in the neighbourhood.   Driving through cane fields.  Or banana plantations.   Walking with girlfriends in the early morning.   Watching the warm glow of the sun rise over the calm ocean.  The sound of the lapping tide.   The smell of the sugar mill.  Laughing with school mums.  Idol chit chat about children and their messy ways at the bus stop.  Sharing cups of tea with neighbours.  Neighbourhood gangs.  Dinner parties and sharing wines by the beach.  Soccer families.  Wearing bare feet to school.  Seeing familiar faces everywhere we go … this family …

It won’t be long and I’ll be photographing Brisbane familes and children.   I wonder if they’ll be just like the families in the far north.   Fun.  Relaxed.  Precious.  Delicious.

Until next time .. enjoy.

Cx

Sometimes cuteness strikes you down like lightening.

Sometimes an unexpected beauty takes your breath away.

Sometimes the people you meet are way too gorgeous for words.

Yesterday was one of those ‘sometimes’ for me.   I met up with a gorgeous mumma and her two beautiful children.   J was filled with bubble and squeak with his cheeky grin and his playful boyish ways.  L was delightfully girly in the way she moved .. she watched .. she laughed .. she created .. she held his hand and whispered sweet sibling ways in J’s ear.  Sometimes cuteness strikes me down like lightening.

Finding a place in devastated Tully Heads wasn’t hard.  I searched my favourite haunts where light is perfect and the scenery peaceful.   But recent crocodile sightings were present and trees were a little too broken.   I looked a little more and there it was, perfect beauty right at our doorstep.   The park was less grassy.  The trees were less there.   The park outside our broken house had become an extended beach, prettier than I’d ever seen it before.   It was unexpectedly more beautiful.   Unexpectedly perfect.   The sand so light and fresh .. the water with whitewater attitude.  The coconut trees sparse and the rocks so clean.   Sometimes an unexpected beauty takes my breath away.

Melissa, you are too gorgeous for words.  Thanks so much for taking me back to my most favourite place in the world with your stunning children.  Tully Heads is a winterwonderland but more so with J and L bringing it to life.

When you put them all together .. the gorgeous people .. the cuteness and unexpected beauty ..  there’s beyond perfection.

Until next time …

Enjoy.  Cx