So, the other day, via Facebook, a friend of mine said to me “Oh, my, I am loving seeing the world through your unique perspective with all of the things you have been posting on Pinterest!”. I know, the irony, talking through one Social Media about what is going on on another! lol.
But, it got me to thinking. Just how *do* I see the world? Is it *really* any different from anyone else? I mean, we all have our own perspectives and perceptions, but I guess, as a photographer, our eyes are “trained” to notice the small things that everyday people take for granted or just rush by.
The very next day, I was honored to complete the newborn session for George and Jessica and baby Oliver, that you can find HERE. During this session, Jessica’s lovely mum asked me if she could snap some pics of me “in action”. I replied that of course I didn’t mind, it is interesting to see how others perceive the goings on at a shoot!
She sent the images through today and I was amazed to see how they looked! I mean, any photographer will tell you that what you see in an image is often a big illusion to the reality that was actually there when it was captured. You are (obviously) witnessing only a very small snippet of a scene when viewing the finished image. You are looking at a perfectly finished, lit, composed scene that the photographer has manufactured in their creative brain. You don’t get to be witness to the light stands, cables, makeup tables, screaming toddlers running around, spilled coffee, up-turned furniture, propped up reflectors, brollies blowing over in the wind, birds pooping in my hair (yes, it has happened, multiple times!) etc.
One of my favourite clients often teases me about my shoots, wishing she was a “fly on the wall” and knowing that quite often, I will have at least one of my own five kids “assisting” me in the background. I am not ashamed to admit that I *have* been known to shoot product images with a 2 year old literally climbing on my back, camera in one hand and trying to maintain a phone call in the other! But, what my clients receive is still a professionally finished product, that was somehow manufactured in my creative brain at one stage, and which I have somehow (and sometimes surprisingly!), managed to capture in camera too.
So, enough of my prattling, time for some pictures! This collection is pretty self explanatory, so without further ado, here is *my* world, both as you would see it if you were a “fly on the wall”, and then the same scene, but this time, through *my* eyes…
This is beautiful Alice, photographed for Eco Peko. The top images by my good friend Shannon who has a lovely blog right HERE:
All the “behind the scenes” shots here were beautifully captured by baby Oliver’s “Omy” – Roswitha:
This is little Ziggy, being photographed for the “Nursery Rhymes” feature that I completed Little ONE Baby magazine. The behind the scenes shot captured by my friend Shannon, again.
This is Georgette, daughter of my client-turned-friend, Katie (who is pictured), as she models for Seedling Baby. Both images captured by me.
One of my favourite little models, Flynn, strutting his stuff for Cushie Tushies, whilst my own boys “entertain” him (and hold reflectors, they are multi-taskers from way back!). Both images by me. Oh, and those concerned about safety, with Flynn being on the table, please note that his Mummy was just out of frame to the left and there was always somebody within arms reach at all times.
Again for the gorgeous label, Cushie Tushies. You would never know from the final image that there were mums sitting on benches, and in front of lights etc. Nor that these little ones were cleverly “contained” in this narrow kitchen to avoid too much mess from the chocolate cake mix… Both images by yours truly.
At the amazing wedding of Ann-Marie and Craig, in November of 2011. Behind the scenes images captured by the groom’s sister and bridesmaid, Emma.
Is this different to what you would expect? How did you think things happened “behind the scenes”? Would love to hear your thoughts!
So, once in a while we, as humans, get to cross paths with truly remarkable people. You know the ones that leave you all warm and fuzzy inside upon parting ways? In my job as a photographer, I think that it happens to me more often than most simply due to the fact that in my endeavour to create gorgeous images and to illustrate beauty from within, it means that I *really* connect with the people that I meet. Sometimes, at first, it is just out of politeness and courtesy, however, I find that I come away from most of my sessions these days having been witness to that thing that makes each and everyone of us beautiful.
I was contacted late last year by Jess & George who were expecting their first baby. She is a crazy arty farty type, and he a little bit more reserved and runs in the corporate world. They may seem like an odd couple, but I don’t think there has ever been a more perfect match. Lucky for me, they took each of my ideas with a grain of salt and completely trusted me to provide them with a somewhat eclectic but extremely unique collection for their memories.
A lot of preparation went into our initial pregnancy shoot. We decided on some classic studio images, some fun ones involving lots of messy paint, and an avant garde edgy style in a run down and dilapidated house not far from me. What began as one shoot, with 3 separate looks, evolved into a much more “extensive” relationship than we had anticipated.
The morning of our shoot, it was overcast, allowing us to capture some dreamy natural light studio shots, and the fun paint scenario we had planned:
Then, we packed up, changed outfits and headed over to the other location for our desolate house shots. Now, what happened over there is a whole blog post in itself, and I will retell the whole story in detail another time, but lets just say that our “avant garde/edgy” shoot was hijacked by an unhappy neighbour, a torrent of rain, and a visit from the police (for our own protection!), and we rescheduled. ? I also decided to ditch the styling I had selected for that shoot and went trawling through Spotlight one afternoon to find *the* perfect fabrics for what I had in mind. A couple of late nights in front of the sewing machine and I was all ready to go!
Then, I went on a mission to find another location, of a similar feel, and something that was completely different to your standard pregnancy type thing. I traipsed all over Brisbane until I found it in the form of a graffiti filled drain, and we went down there early one night for a wee adventure. *Somebody* forgot to pack their lightstands into the car and believe me, holding a softbox with one hand whilst shooting with the other, sure makes for some interesting times! But we persevered, and had a blast doing so, ending up with a great, quirky collection of images such as these:
Soooo, after all of this, one would probably think that Jess and George would be a wee bit sick of me by now! But noooooo! Last week, I received a call from them, asking me to photograph their brand new little man, Oliver. Their little family had had a bit of a rough start to the first few weeks of parenting, and so, Oliver was about 21 days old when we got to do his newborn shoot. A little older than our “normal” age for newborns, and he certainly made us work for our images that day. However, after a MAMMOTH (think 6 hours!) newborn shoot, some yummy sandwiches a couple of cups of tea and of course yummy lamington cake, I returned home with what is possibly my most favourite collection of newborn images EVER.
Of course, with a beautiful Grandma in the house helping out, we had to capture a moment with her too. Here is Oliver with his lovely “Omy”…
I do believe that this just *may* be Oliver’s first ever smile to be captured in a photograph as he blissfully gazes at his Mummy…
Daddy is placing bets as to what colour his eyes will be…
And a beautiful “before” and “after”… In the after shot, Jess, just as most new mums usually do, looks a little bit less “glam”, and I love her for it!
I have been so honoured to be a part of Jess and George’s journey. They are both nervous about what lays ahead for them as parents but I feel confident that they are totally up for the task! They love each other and their little boy to bits, and that will get them through any obstacles that they may have to face. As Elizabeth Stone once said “Making a decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”. I think that Jess and George now understand this completely. xx
Annie Gelhaar -Sensational set of images Tanya … Jess, You are beautiful pregnant and more beautiful as a mum. George … you look awesome and Oliver …. you are just so beautiful. Words simply are not enough. Beautiful family <3<3<3ReplyCancel
Soooo, I now that I only rebranded back in July last year, however, since all of the goings on at the conclusion of last year and the loss of my artwork on my now defunct HDD, as well as the complete wiping of my website (thanks so much for that Chinese Hackers!), I feel that it is a great time to take along hard look at what Love Bytes is about.
I have decided this year to accept some of the wedding enquiries that I have been receiving and am looking forward to the 7 weddings that I already have booked for this 2012. 🙂
As a result, guys and gals, I have something exciting to share with you today! You may remember the beautiful love heart shaped leaf that I posted an image of on Facebook the other day? It is here, just in case you missed it:
Some of you may also remember me having some discussions about rebranding Love Bytes on account of expanding to encompass wedding work this year?
Well, the deal is done! I have designed another logo to go along with my gorgeous new website and to take Love Bytes into the direction that my photography has been evolving. In short, Love Bytes has grown up a little. The love heart leaf represents a lot of things about me personally, my name being “love”, my hopes and dreams for our planet, and respect for Mother Nature, and general feeling of “earthiness” that is a part of my personality. It is also quite precious as my kids have really taken to the “theme” and have been bringing me every leaf that remotely looks like a loveheart over previous weeks! 🙂
I have chosen to stay with my black, white and red theme, and a clean, modern look, but softened it a little to include the loveheart leaf, and a gentler, handwritten font. I think that the new look works well for both my children/families and weddings combined. It is still fun and fresh, but a little more refined.
Ok, so it has been a looooong time since I posted! I know this, but there is a good reason. Well, a couple really.
1. This entire website was hacked, and vaporised a couple of months back. It took about 4 weeks of frustrating forehead-bashing-against-a-brickwall to and froing with my web host before they finally managed to restore it. It is only still *barely* here, lots of stuff is missing, but thankfully, all of my blog posts were saved, and this is the most important thing!
2. Following on from what will forever be known as “The Love Bytes Hacking Incident of 2011”, I began to build a new site. I have been reticent to post on the blog since as I wanted my next post to be a “big reveal” of the new site. But of course, as per my usual mantra, there aren’t enough hours in the day, and I STILL don’t have it ready to go, and at the risk of all of my lovely subscribers disappearing into oblivion, I thought it was about time that I at least came by and said Hi! And, I promise that yes, a new fancy, schmancy, hacker-proof (well, hopefully), site is on its way!
3. Reason number 3, my perpetual moan/whinge – there just isn’t enough of me to go around!
BUT, I have a STACK of editing that I am working on right now, and some gorgeous sneak peeks that will be going up on the blog in coming days, so I thought I’d better get my butt into gear and start posting again!
Following on from my last post about my direction, and evolving style as a photographer, I have been thinking more and more about this.
I have come to the following conclusion. Rather than labeling myself as having a definite “style” for capturing the children and families that I photograph, I think that my “style” is to shoot colour, form, composition, styling, lighting etc as dictated by the personalities of those I am photographing. My “style” is actually YOUR style. ?
There was a time when I heavily styled and themed all of my shoots, and I still love to do this and play “dress ups” when I can. However, I no longer feel that I need a gimmick to produce my collections. Instead, within moments of physically meeting a family, I can usually tell what their expectations are from a shoot that we do together and the kind of images that they would like to have in their collection. If I style or theme shoots these days it is for a good reason – because of a request from the family, or because the chosen theme has an important meaning to the family/child that I am photographing.
Rather than thinking of the final “look” of the images, I find myself more and more, wanting to do the family/child justice by showing who they “really” are – their spirit, their personality, their loves, their vulnerabilities click here for info. I want to show them as they are at that particular point in time so that when the parents look back on our session together they can say “oh, yes, remember how she used to love doing that”, or “I remember that sad face he used to give me”.
This is also the reason that I am starting to, more and more, incorporate video and fusion into my shoots. More on this in coming months as I perfect the product that I am getting very excited to offer!
As such, and in light of the fact that I now have a quirky new studio that I am about to go public with, I have decided to do a spot of re-branding for Love Bytes. I have redesigned the logo, to reflect my stronger identity and cleaner way of thinking and shooting. I am keeping the infamous polka dots (to come out on “special occasions” ? ), but throwing away the lollies which I have outgrown and which I think are a bit too gimmicky for what I want Love Bytes to be about. Of course, all of my orders will still come with lollies, that is my trade mark, and besides, I’d get hungry without a huge stash next to me as I work. ?
I have made some some changes to the website and will tweak it more as I go along, to reflect the new branding and the look/feel of our new studio too. And so, without further ado, I’d like to unveil the new Love Bytes logo, drum roll please….
So, it is cleaner, but it is still bold, and vibrant, and in keeping with the quirkiness that is Love Bytes. It is still red, black and white, and I will add/use polka dots when/where ever I see fit (hehe!), but, the most important thing to me about the new logo is that it is less ME, and more YOU.
As I mentioned in my last post, it is my ability to connect with you and your kids that I think is my “talent” (if any!), and it is this that I am going to work to capture as my top priority for all of my clients from now on in. It is for this reason that I have now added my very special little tag line to the bottom of our new logo, and I would love for you all to think about it for a few moments. It truly encompasses everything that Love Bytes and me, as a photographer is about at this point in time…
….because a child’s true beauty can only be seen with the heart.
