Recent Stories:

This week, in amongst all the slothing around as described in an earlier post, Miss Estella participated in a Junior Sailing course at the Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club. On the last day they sailed to Blairgowrie and back, and they were pretty as a picture coming in in their little stripey-sailed boats.

PS. Images above are taken with a Canon 5DII. Images are shot as raw files, with post production.

I’d like to subtitle this post: Hamburgers.

This scruffy collection of photos will one day tell me more about my family at this time than any of the other supposedly more perfect images I captured today. And so after I had a little internal argument, ‘beautifully real’ won out over  ‘beautiful’.

Tonight for dinner we had home made hamburgers. Kind of ordinary.

Daddy held everyone enthralled while he proudly constructed what he called a ‘Scooby Burger’ (ah yes, readers who remember the 80s, I know you are smiling knowingly), which made no sense to the children because in modern day Scooby Doo remakes Shaggy does not make Scooby Burgers. Anyway.

Archie, who currently hangs on every word uttered by daddy, was then desperate to impress him by getting as much of that Scooby Snack into his (luckily, enormous for a 3 year old) mouth as possible.

Mattea got busy eating as much of that rare (in our house) white bread roll as possible, whilst energetically avoiding the consumption of anything green, red, or even hamburger-brown.

Rupert circled the table like an adorable little sharkling, begging food, and not at all averse to stealing it when the opportunity arose.

Estella…ate her burger. And all her salad. And laughed good humouredly at the rest of us.

An ordinary night, and all kinds of amazing.

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

I love the surprising quality of the images this project leads me to capture.  I find myself starting the day with a vague idea of what i might like to make an image of, but then the day unfolds and each time hands me something different.

Yesterday, I wander about in the ocean with Mattea, and capture some gorgeous backlit, sealit,  celebrations of her beauty, and the enviable peaceful way she has of just meandering. And then I realise that I have forgotten my memory card, the images are on the camera hard drive, and I don’t have the necessary connective wires here to transfer them.

So later on I take the camera out to dinner with us. 2 frazzled parents, with four youngish children.  Arguments over drawing books and who put a snail on whose favourite page. A baby under the table, hitting his head and howling. Elmo singing “La  la la la, lalalala, Elmos world” intermittently. Sharing going on from everyone’s plate. Pasta, calamari and ice cream everywhere. To all the pretty young things around us, it probably looks like a living nightmare. I think it is a (champagne-assisted) bliss. I photograph Rupe eating textas, the girls bent over their ‘Find-a-word’, Archie talking talking talking, in his little-big white linen shirt.

As dessert arrives, I run outside to capture a photograph of all this Napoli-sauce-covered insanity from the other side of the lovely sandstone balcony of the old pub. The camera battery is dead.

We come home, and I immediately plug the battery into recharge. Get Rupert his bottle, change him, put him in bed. Hear Archie in Rupe’s room, making him laugh with his hilarious antics (which usually involve the word ‘boof’ and some exploding noises).. He asks to be put into Rupert’s cot, and as I walk back in to help him in, I see all Rupert, Archie and their 6 foot 3 inch daddy sitting in the cot. The fragile, rickety, second hand on ebay cot.

These are my boys and I love them all so dearly.

Image above  taken with Fuji X100 . All images are shot as jpg files, and this one did need just a little exposure bump and some colour popping (she says sheepishly).

For my little family, the month of January is the most precious month of the year.

There are no commitments, deadlines, appointments, schedules, or other requirements on our time and attention. No work (or very little) for me, and at least 2 weeks leave for my husband.

Each day, we get up (sooner or later), eat, play outside, eat some more, play some more, and go to bed, roughly in that order (but not always). It sounds vacuous and empty when I lay it out like that, but in reality these slow days are the richest and most fulfilling I have known. We are re-charging worn out batteries, and forging and strengthening the most precious relationships of our lives.

Free of constraints, the children experience a childhood just a little more like it was even one generation ago. They run around barefoot, swim in the ocean, build cubby houses, jump for hours on a trampoline, swing, run, kick balls, and invent delightfully complex games.

They fight, argue, laugh and negotiate their way back around to forgiveness and, always, love. And they are always together, even when they are apart.

Image above was taken with a Fuji X100. All images are shot as jpg files, with no, or limited, post production.

Firstly, let me start by explaining that Archer, our third child, is most definitely a BOY.

Despite the fact that his favourite colour is purple, he has a gorgeous head of soft, fair hair (that it would be a crime to cut off just to please some stereotypical and antiquated idea of how boys should look), he loves rainbows, and, as of yesterday, is apparently quite partial to a little at-home pedicure session.

The glorious exploding noises that he makes every times he jumps/hops/gets down from a chair/enters the room attest to the fact that he really is a boy, and the furious belting he gives the nearest toy/chair/person every time his will is crossed tell us that the testosterone is well and truly building, and so if from time to time we can soften that ball of fire with a little foot massage, then hallelujah, I say.

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

Happy New Year.

May your year be as filled with giggles and wonder, as even the most ordinary moments in the life of a 16-month-old boy (in this instance, peek-a-boo under a face washer).

Xxx Sarah

PS. Images above are compliments of my new Fuji X100 (thanks Santa). All images are shot as jpg files, with no post production.

Cherish, Love, Grow, Celebrate; little words, you carry the hopes of the world on your shoulders.

I was honoured recently to be asked by the beautiful Gray to capture the love and energy of  her precious family, and I really wish she also had a little stone for ‘Laugh’, because that would really round out the set for this amazing little group of people.

Xxx

My family.

Archie running with his tongue out; Rupert with that crazy hair, points his toes when his hands are busy; Estella must find a pet, which might be named Bob, or Lamoustina; and always Mattea wandering about with her eyes closed, and the thumb.

These little memories are only grains of sand that I hold in my palm, but they are making of my life the most dazzling sandcastle.

…To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.
~Lewis Carroll, “Solitude”
I recently met this gorgeous family in a favoured location, and we spent a a few hours together enjoying a surprising little burst of summer on an early spring morning. We had such a busy time, and these beautiful siblings had such fun and energy, and love for each other, but I do especially love the photos with mum and dad, as we took refuge from the sunshine under the trees. There is so much love and comfort in the arms of our parents, and that is such a precious gift that we take out of childhood into the rest of our lives.

Thankyou, B family!

In only 6 short weeks, baby Indica has totally won the hearts of her big brother and sister. What a lucky little girl, to be held so safely, so carefully, and so lovingly by these beautiful young people.