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“Seize the day, for the world is fleeting. In the eyes of the wise, the moment is better than the whole world”    Isfahan, Sixteenth Century

I’ve been thinking rather a lot lately about what it means to live a more fully present life.

As someone who tends to over-reach and over-schedule, both in my day-to-day, and in life overall, I am acutely aware of trying to squish as many things into my life experience as I possibly can. It’s also probably no coincidence that I am a photographer; an explorer and preserver of moments and memories.

This is a key reason why I love so much to photograph young families. Children, it seems, can only ever be present. They are exactly who they are right now, without compromise. They can be intensely emotional, and are capable of expressing that emotion without artifice, embarrassment or defensiveness. Children are explorers of everything. They are beautiful, pure, endlessly energetic. They are divine, but also the best and most precious of humankind.

Meet Lucy and Finn, and the people they love.

Is it cold in Melbourne lately? I hadn’t noticed

It’s that certain something, the je ne sais quoi that sets some people out on their own ahead of the crowd.

Z and K, I can’t wait to see big things unfold for your beautiful, funny, charming and talented girls, and feel very privileged to have captured a half-day in your world.

Xxx Sarah

Post Script: I am working very hard behind the scenes to catch up after a very busy wedding season over here, and two weeks of holidays to Tassie and the Grampians. I appreciate everyone’s patience! Lots more gorgeous sessions to blog once I am all caught up on galleries and orders! Please note that at this stage I am not accepting any more bookings for the June/July weekends, however I will happily make mid week in-home visits for newborn and baby photography.

Ten sweet little toes.

A brand new belly button.

The softest kiss from a brother.

Your first trip to the beach.

A late summer afternoon, of sunshine and laughter, tickling, hiding, running. There was beautiful light, a breeze, and so.much.love.

This photo is a little cheat. It was taken on the 19th, not the 20th. On the 20th I photographed a wedding, which did not leave terribly much time for anything else.

Since I am cheating, I chose something special to cheat with. No headswapping, no pleading to look and smile at the camera. Just four perfect children, who really do love each other this much.

Day 19: A Boy Went Walking

It’s a little shaky, it’s a little awkward, but just like that, my baby has turned into a toddler.

Congratulations my darling.

Day 18: Fish and Chips…

…on the beach, just before sunset.

A calm, beautiful evening. They chase each other in and out of the dunes, and jump and sing and dance, and later with full tummies they sit agreeably in the grass and snuggle, so that I may capture it with my camera. Do they love each other more than other siblings, or am I just blinded by love?

Day 17: India

Estella loves animals. She has a pet bunny, named India, and two little guinea pigs. She would desperately love a dog. Or a cat. And most especially, a pony. She sometimes goes horse-riding, and asks afterwards “Mum, can we buy **insert current favourite pony name here**”. Um, no?

She regularly catches all sorts of insects and little skinks, and feeds and inspects and loves them for a little while before we gently suggest letting them be free again. And she understands that too.

Day 16: Changing

We have had a change table in constant use now for 9.25 years. This morning I looked over, bleary eyed, watched the little legs kicking, and the little arms reaching up for Daddy, and realised that it won’t be too long now ’til that phase of our lives is over. When it happens, I know that for a while the the room will seem a little empty, but I’m not ready to think too much more about that, yet.

Day 15: Cake.

I only took two photographs today, one of which is this slightly blurry photo of a magnificent Halva Torte concocted by our friend Megan. I guess it’s a pretty lazy photo, and I was tempted to substitute in something a little more exciting from a previous day. I took it because Megan wanted a photo of her creation. But in all honesty, one of the features of our Januarys is the consumption of a great deal of exceptionally delicious food. Last night’s group menu included, among other things, slow cooked pork ribs, a quinoa and nectarine salad, a prawn and herb salad (from a recipe by Melbourne’s Longrain) prepared by our friend Renee, and two kinds of ice cream (made in my new ice-cream machine).  The decoration alone on this cake includes a chocolate ganache, lime encrusted pistachios, edible rose petals and pomegranate seeds. Seriously, it is gluttony over here, and it should be stopped. I have no pants that fit.

Images above taken with a Fuji X100. All images are shot as jpg files, with no post production

We just went for a little walk.

Images above taken with a Fuji X100. All images are shot as jpg files, with no post production

Day 13: “Push in the Shoe Basket”

Here we have Naughty, and Naughtier (am unsure which is which), playing a game of their own invention (as all the best games are). The title of the game is exactly as described above. In this game, they place the basket (which is used to store all our shoes) in the middle of a room, and take turns to push each other swiftly in. Now and again they mix it up to leap in simultaneously. Nothing in this photograph is staged (as you maybe can tell, very few photos in this summer series are staged),  this is actually how they look at each other, with all that love pouring from one set of eyes into another, right before it all ends in a giant shrieking punch up.

Day 12: The Pony Cave

Sorrento, where we spend January, is below Melbourne at the southern tip of the Mornington Peninsula. A pretty seaside town, it aspires to better weather than it actually has. It’s not unlike an English summer resort, except that we at least have a beach made of lovely soft sand in place of rocks. Anyway, particularly over the last few cooler summers, we have devised many ways to pass a weekend while waiting for the sun to stay out long enough for us to actually swim at the beach. The pony cave, which is its official moniker as given by my girls, is a cluster of tea-tree (or moonah, I am not crash hot at telling the difference) located right next to The Baths cafe/restaurant on the Sorrento Bay foreshore, (in case you go looking for it and have a grander vision in mind, possibly one involving real ponies). The girls can spend hours in there pretending they have ponies, or are ponies, and then that game morphs into other games of make-believe scenarios all of which allow my husband and I to sip our take away coffee in relative P.E.A.C.E.

Day 11: What did you say they call this thing?  Mango?

Self explanatory.

Day 10: Happy Birthday.

Today, miracle girl turned 7 (you can read her pre-birth story here). Thankyou, my sweet angel, for sharing 7 wonderful years with us.

Day 9: Just like Wet’n'Wild….

Only cheaper, and much easier to get to.

Our backyard waterslide has the added benefit of comprising both an afternoon activity, and a bath. We just squirt washing liquid down it, and hey presto! Everyone’s clean! You guys all do that too, right?

Day 8: More calamari and chips, anyone?

Soooo, from February to December 23rd, I am a painful food nazi. There; I’ve said it. I know my friends and family all roll their eyes when they think I am not looking. Generally, I think wheat is a weapon of mass destruction, I like all the food groups to be represented at dinnertime, I don’t think plain pasta with no sauce or salad constitutes a meal, I don’t feed my kids oven fries/nuggets/fish, or anything else from the supermarket freezer section, and we absolutely don’t eat frankfurts, skin on or off.

But in January, I conveniently forget all of the above. This year the pub/restaurant/cafe food of choice is calamari and chips. I sometimes supervise long enough to make sure everyone has a squeeze of lemon. You know, just to keep scurvy at bay. In summer, we often hang out in large gangs with other families, catching up with friends that we sometimes haven’t seen all year. To the many squid and potatoes of Australia who facilitate all this, I say thank you.

Day 7: Midnight Trampolining.

Whenever we have guests over, which is reasonably frequently in summer, the kids all inevitably end up jumping on the trampoline in the dark. They put a lantern under or next to the in-ground tramp, just to add a little drama and safety to the arrangement. And then, breaking only to eat massive quantities of dinner and dessert, they jump. Until around midnight (or whenever the wine runs out).

This tradition will absolutely be one of their, and our, fondest memories of our little beach house.

Image above  taken with a Canon 5DII. Image shot as raw file, with post production.