3 chicks 4 cameras 2 wineries and a whole lotta fun!

Back in May this year my bestie Sandy from Memory Bank Photography and I had an exciting adventure to my home away from home…Sydney! We had booked in to do the Audrey Woulard workshop and it was there we met the beautiful Clare from Your Life Through a Lens.  We all hit if off straight away! Clare’s super vivacious personality, contagious smile and laugh had Sandy and I drawn like bee’s to honey. Our friendships started here.

A few months down the track, sharing glasses of wine over looooong interstate phone calls and numerous emails we were excited to hear Clare was coming to Radelaide to see us! I was so excited I went straight into planning mode and organised a road trip to the stunning McLaren Vale. Adelaides very proud of our wine regions (don’t forget the Barossa!!!) so what better place to take a fellow  wino  photographer to have a weekend of girly fun🙂

With a picnic basket full of delicious goodies, three ladies all dressed up and an intention to buy half of McLaren Vale out of their stocks of wine…we were off! Of course we all had our beloved cameras and I took along a new companion to test out, my new Fuji X100. So the first seven photos you see here are taken with the Fuji…it’s a little beauty!  We had an A.W.E.S.O.M.E day, our friendships bonded all that little bit more, some very funny memories were made and as you can see…our own mini photoshoot in someones vineyard where we pulled over at the last minute while we still had that glorious sunshine hehe

Love you Sandy and Clare, can’t wait to do it again!
Sim xoxo

Imogen and Lawrence

Friendship and Love

This beautiful couple reminds me of a saying that I read many years ago. These words hit a bullseye straight to my heart and I wrote in it my journal to remember.

“To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world!”

 

 

On this very beautiful sunny day at the Rising Sun Hotel in Adelaide, Saturday the 7th May I was privileged to be guest number 5 at Imogen and Lawrence’s secret wedding! There was Micah and Fleur their friends and witnesses and Bronwyn their lovely celebrant. Oh! and the cool barman who was kind enough to give me a friendly wave for one of the photos!! haha. I don’t know the details behind why they kept it a secret but all I can say is it was one of the sweetest and most relaxed weddings I have ever been to. What I do know is that these two are cute and quirky, with a fantastic sense of humour and they like to have fun! He calls her “Mirror Girl” for her love of having photos taken and frequent glances towards her reflection and her favourite saying is “Jesus loves you, but I’m his favourite” haha (you will understand when you see Lawrence – might be something to do with the resemblance of the hair do!!) Every time I’ve heard from Imo she cracks me up with some hilarious comment🙂 They’re both from England, she lives in country Victoria and he works in Broome WA. After their wedding the four of them went on Imo and Lawrence’s adventure Honeymoon, and even more exciting news….they’ve just announced they’re expecting a baby!! Yay! so I know it’s been a while since their wedding day and I’ve taken some time to get their photos on here, but today in Adelaide it’s a beautiful sunshiny day just like the one when they tied the knot and I thought what a most perfect time to feature this happy, fun-loving couples special day.

Imogen and Lawrence, thank you so so much for allowing me to photograph your wedding day. I had so much fun with you all, and I felt so lucky to be a part of it. I hope married life is bliss and congratulations on your baby news🙂 I’m thrilled for you both

♥ Sim xx

My funny Ajay ♥

People might start thinking I only have one child or favour this one?!😉 but I have three beautiful boys and must make an effort to get more photos of my other two, the eldest in particular! but this is my youngest, crazy Ajay! He’s a bright, funny and kind hearted kid that has brought a lot of joy to our life…thought I’d share these funny photos of him that capture his personality perfectly ♥  Sim x

The Treasure Hunt

Well this certainly beats staying at home on a cold and wet wintery day in Adelaide! Yesterday I went on a “treasure hunt” with some of my fellow photog friends, and gee did we have fun. There’s nothing better than some retail therapy and coffee catch up with wonderful friends to beat off the winter blues🙂 we sure can talk each others ears off!! It was wonderful seeing you lovely ladies and I really look forward to our next outing. Sim xx

Today I was on the hunt for creative inspiration of some ideas I have been planning. An exciting project that I can’t wait to share with you when it’s ready…hehehe

It’s time to start dropping some hints, planting the seed, breaching secrecy! you get the drift😉 I’ve been working on this for a little while now and have kept mum about it, and with some heartfelt encouragement from my trusted confidants I’m being brave and have decided to go with my super idea, believe in myself and make it happen… soooooo stay tuned for more info secrets!!

♥ Sim x

nicole . jarrod . jaycob . noah

I love these guys! I had such a fantastic time with them all and how gorgeous are they?!! The day started off with me walking into their lovely home and a glass of wine waiting on the kitchen bench for me! I knew we were going to be in for a fun day!! haha. Nicole was pretty nervous and it’s so cute the way she fusses about, so I was pretty happy to share that wine with her (like I need to be forced into that!! haha) Their little guy, Noah is in the same class at school with my lil Ajay so Noah and I were already good buddies. He’s such a beautiful charismatic kid. I was meeting Jaycob and Jarrod for the first time, they were all so welcoming and friendly, I felt right at home with them. Thanks guys, you rock! xoxo

Nicole and Jarrod share a special place in their heart for the location they chose. We all headed off together in their car to the award-winning Bird in Hand winery for some fun Autumn photos! On the way there I enjoyed having a chance to chat with Jaycob and Noah (me sitting in the middle so we didn’t have any sibling rivalry haha) and getting to know a little more about them. With three boys of my own I’m pretty used to having my ears talked off! Noah is outgoing, funny and totally cheeky and Jaycob has a beautiful soul, his eyes are mesmerizing. He’s super handsome and cuddly too, I melted when watching the way he expressed his love to his mum, dad and little brother, you’ll see that in in the photos.  We had a beautiful Autumn day with warm sunny moments, yummy cheeses (thanks Nic xx) snacks and of course some fabulous wine from the amazing team at Bird in Hand. By the end of the day on our trip home with our trusty designated driver (thanks Jarrod xx)  we were singing tunes from my iPad, chatting like life long friends and planning a date for our families to have dinner together. It was a fantastic day, thank you so so much Nicole, Jarrod, beautiful Jaycob and mischievous Noah. I hope your photos will be a heart warming memoir of your sweet family having fun with one energetic photographer at your favourite winery.

♥ Sim xx

Coopers 9th Birthday

This is Day 25 of my personal “Blog” a day in the month of June, celebrating Coopers life. It was meant to be a photo a day haha..well that got totally blown out of proportion! but how could I only post one photo a day of this amazing child?!

Happy 9th Birthday Mr.Cooper!!!
The day started out calm, Cooper and Ajay were at Nanna Kerry’s😉 (Matt’s mum) so Matty, Ethan and I set out to get the PERFECT pressie for Cooper! Funny thing is he’s easy to please but so hard to buy for…does that make sense? He’s not your average 9 yr old. So we all pitched in and bought him a Nintendo DS with two Mario Bros games. Fingers crossed he can work this game??!!! Many thanks to all the other people for your lovely bday gifts to him, he’s very happy! With pressies sorted and kids picked up we were off to Bowling!!! the kids were SO excited. When we picked the kids up from Kerry’s, she and Ajay had handmade him Birthday messages with cut out numbers from magazines and pasted on, so cute. Cooper is crazy obsessed with counting numbers, so you could imagine his delight!! his “wonnnnn”, “hoo” “Huhweee” and “suxth” was going into overload! we heard this the whole trip down in the car.

Their excitement was totally AMPED the moment we arrived to this incredibly noisy Bowling Alley, eek! Once the shoes were sorted it was time for some serious..and some not so serious bowling haha. The kids actually did pretty well, Cooper and the youngest ones used these ramp things because the balls are too heavy for them. They loved it, picking different colour balls and then waiting for it’s return🙂 As for us big kids…well they all did great! not me though haha I’m lousy at bowling…I’ll stick to taking photos me thinks!!😉

My very talented Mum made Coopers birthday cake. Not only did it taste divine it looked amazing too! I’m not sure my photos will show you the true vision so please let me share with you just exactly what this cake means…some special words from my mum:

My interpretation of the cake for our beautiful boy

Of course the red hat because that’s just Cooper, the stripes and colours
because he is a little “out there” and a very colourful little person. The
spider represents the toy spider he used to play with all the time, the
calculator of course is for his love of numbers, the hands represent his
beautiful hands that are always reaching and touching us and so full of
expression and the feet are because his feet have done so much more than was
expected and there is just something about Coopy’s feet that just says “life is
fun and I will conquer it”.

 

Thank you so much Mum, your love for Cooper shone through his cake today, so much thought put into it. I know he doesn’t have the words to tell you what he thought of his cake but I can tell you that he just hasn’t stopped talking about it, the hat with his name on it, the calculator (which he thinks is a phone haha) oh how he loves the numbers and YOU! He tells me about Nanna and the cake…”num  num num” It was very special, we love you ♥

Please do go and see her Cake collection here at Geraldine Checkers cakes, decorations and edible gifts and say “hi!”🙂
ps. she has wedding cakes too!!

At the end of a very exciting day…bowling, presents, cake, NOISE!!! I turn around from our group to see little Coopy has got himself down the steps to sit on the lounge on his own, just taking it all in. Looked to me like he was having hs own moment, reflecting on his super dooper Cooper birthday. Happy Birthday our very amazing boy, we love you to the moon and back ♥ ♥ ♥…and many many more hearts xx

Cooper | Day Twentythree

Hi lovely people🙂
Some of you may already be following my June Project?! but if not then just a quick explanation…
I was inspired by a beautiful friend of mine, to capture a photo a day of the birth month of each of my kids! I have three! but this project kind of ended up being a “blog” a day with numerous photos, so I really hope you like my photos and ramblings?! haha
What made this particular project so special is my subject for this month…my middle son Cooper. He’s a super special boy who turns 9 this sat the 25th of June and each day we have him here with us we celebrate the gift of life! Cooper was born with a life threatening liver disease and by the very young age of 10mths young he had endured many surgeries, including two Liver Transplants! 73 days in ICU with many challenges and hurdles, he battled for his life! A life changing experience. Determined to stay here with us, he won! and I’m so happy he did.

Because this ICI blog is more for my professional projects, I decided to use another blog site to host this personal project but this particular blog [day 23] is dear to my heart…Cooper and his gorgeous little friends at school! I just had to share this with you all, because I am so so proud of my son and how far he has come. The lovely little friends he shares his laughter and smiles with.

If you would like to follow the entire month you may do so here…
Life Behind The Lens – Cooper

♥ Sim x

Karen + Simon and two princesses

After my recent visit to Sydney for the Audrey Woulard  workshop, I was super excited to get home and try some of her clever techniques on my own clients family portraits. I love the fact that Audrey utilises the surroundings around her, to create unique photos. Being winter and the weather isn’t always great outside, especially for little kidlets, I can offer to come to your home to do the photos and it’s FUN! Kids particularly are more comfortable in thier own home, they love to show you all their favourite toys and I love getting to know them🙂

Meet Karen, Simon and their two little girls. So so cute, and I got to have my “pink fix” seeing as though I am out numbered at home with rapidly growing noisy boys! We had a fun day hanging out, getting to know each other and I really enjoyed taking photos of this lovely family just being themselves. It was quite cool outside this day, so we decided to stay put! I was excited to put into practice some of the things I learned from Audrey, fun and fresh! 

Sim x 

martine + stuart and two lil cherubs

Now that my wedding season has ended, it was time to get fit chasing kids for some family portraits!
I was so happy to do photos of this lovely family, and a little birdy told me how super dooper cute their lil munchkins were…and that birdy was right!! Baby T is just scrumptious and big sister A was a bit dubious of me but I managed to capture some of those beautiful smiles she had locked away😉 A sweet family and a fun day ♥

Ajay’s School Excursion

Well, I did it! I volunteered to help out on my youngests (5) class excursion! At first it sounded like a good idea…then the day began! haha! four classes consisting of reception and year 1-2 kids into the heart of the City of Adelaide is INSANE!!! but we did have fun🙂 We caught the train from Blackwood into the city and walked to SA Water in Victoria Square for their educational learning program. The kids were given a little pep talk outside first then we were taken inside to watch Rock Chick and Science Geek and they were GREAT! Singing rock songs while teaching science! The kids loved it. The kids thought the bubbles and splashing water about was fun…then they brought out the exploding liquid nitrogen!! No JOKES! Was very safe though. Then, off to the Central Markets, one of my FAV places to visit. Packed with beautiful locally grown food, interesting people and Photoco Camera House!! hahaha didn’t get to visit there this though. Next was a Tram trip back to the Train Station to get back to Blackwood! The kids were pretty tired but you know how kids go hyperactive when they’re over tired?! well the boys anyhow…ok not ALL of them😉 But I did get a photo of Noah trying to climb the station walls!! haha SO as you can imagine the ONLY place I could possibly think of visiting after a looooong day with 5 and 6 year olds is “The Bottle Shop!” Indeed, Mr. Sauv Blanc payed a visit that night and all slept well in the Hanby household. THE END