Another month has passed and here I am writing this instalment of my entry into the A Mother's Dream blog circle. However this, this is the first one I am writing from my new desk in my new studio. Woohooo! Exciting.
It's a quiet evening in early July. It's been a sunny day; warm and humid. The kids have just got themselves off to bed and where I would usually take this opportunity to drag myself up to my bedroom and chill out with my current box set, I have decided to get this little entry posted.
Here I sit, the air has cooled and the general hustle and bustle of our terraced neighbourhood is slowing down. I can hear a distant wind chime from a neighbouring yard and in my own yard, an intermittent soft clucking from my four hens whose run is about 8 metres from the new farmhouse chair where I'm perched. I bought it today for my new desk in my new studio. *squeee*
No 'make this studio work' pressure being felt here! Honest! It's up and running now and I've been concentrating on further developing my portrait craft. I love a good portrait. I've been lucky enough to receive a huge amount of support with this slightly new direction. For that I am truly grateful. I am grateful to all my friends who have offered their time, ideas and kids up to help me out. It means the world guys, it really does. But my biggest thanks of all must go to my family - especially my husband who has let me throw so much caution to an unknown wind at this and also my 3 amazing kids. They know no different than to be in front of my camera. The day will come when they will moan, I'm sure. But for now they're sort of ok with me clicking away at them.
Over the last month I have dragged my kids in the studio plenty to help me out and I've got myself really fired up for this new venture. I've found a greater respect for portrait photography and for the patience and time it can take to get more than just a snapshot of a face. See, I have always had this little mantra when it comes to a lot of my work involving people: "You being you". And I don't really want that to change too much with my portrait work. In fact I don't want it to change at all. If you come to my studio for a session I want the portraits you leave with to be authentically you. I know on occasion I will want some conceptual arty farty stuff going on and that's fine - it's playing - and we learn through play. But right now I would love for you to look at your portraits, or your kid's portraits or your sister's, brother's, grandparent's and think - yep - that's them. If you can look at a portrait and recognise the person's playful side, their happiness at that moment or thoughtful expression, or mischievous grin - my job is done.
So now that I've rambled for a while it brings me neatly to the portraits I tried to capture on a whim a week or so ago of my 3 kids. We had just visited our local cinema in New Brighton on a Sunday morning, as the forecast the day before when we booked the tickets had been fairly dismal. We watched our film and exited to a lovely amount of sunshine. Looking down to the beach we see that the tide is out and so decide to take a little walk on the sand. I haven't been taking my camera out with me as often as I would like, but I did on that day.
As we walked I asked the kids to help me out with some photos. They were all happy to. Although I did find myself getting agitated with my youngest. He's a ball of fiery energy and the standing still for more than 10 seconds was quite clearly getting to him. But do you know what? It didn't matter. I came away thinking "Oh well, at least I'm happy with the girls' photos." It was only as I uploaded the files the following day that I laughed and laughed at all the images of my little fella. Every photo was HIM. His mischievousness, his distain, his boredom, his glee... How could I not be happy with this? It's exactly who he is, all rolled up into portraits. And I'll be grateful for that.
Thanks for reading peeps. Have a wonderful morning/afternoon/evening.
Fleur x ~ https://fleurdavies.wixsite.com/fleurdaviesphoto
Once you've had a look-see at the 9 portraits attached you can head on over to the next
A Mother's Dream blog entry by Emily Frances - which can be found: BY CLICKING HERE.
(As always, click into the images to see them at full resolution. Cheers loves!)
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