Mother Nature threw a stunning reminder of what summer is all about today, just a week into Autumn.
After riding home from work in sunshine that was still spreading its warmth, I gathered up my boys, (one by two legged, one by four legged), my wife (also two legged!) and headed on down to the beach.
The water was cool on my legs after their workout, Hercules got to go for a swim, but loved just soaking up his time on the sand. Lucas got carried about in a sleepy bliss by my wife, who was happy to just be amongst the sun, sand and water.
Autumn afternoons, loving that last reminder of summer..
Hope you got to enjoy it too!
With a bit of spare time this week, I had the chance to get some lights out again, and Lucas was in a great mood, happily playing on his back, and seemingly loving his “Tummy-Time”
Week 6: Stare-Bear
Quadra in deep octa to camera right, quadra in reflector on background.
February 27, 2011 – 9:46 am
A few weeks ago prior to heading to Newcastle, I had the pleasure of meeting Nicholas and was immediately drawn in by his deep eyes. When we got up to Newcastle, we got to spend some more time with him and his proud and loving parents Hayley and Christian.
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February 19, 2011 – 10:11 am
Wow.
Time just doesnt seem to be there anymore. Now that I’ve gone back to work, every moment im not at work seems to evaporate as I come home and try to relieve the workload my wife has with our son. Its meaning that I dont get so much time to get photos ready to post, or to write blog posts. It’s almost an effort to make enough time to grab the camera out to sneak a few shots some days. A lot of that depends on Lucas’ mood. Don’t fear though, I’m still committed to grabbing images every week. Its become apparent however that they will often appear up here in bursts.
Week 4: The Window
Lucas has grown enough to fit into his Baby Bjorn bouncer, and loves to stare out the windows at the light that streams through them. At first he wouldn’t keep himself entertained for too long, but he is slowly getting more used to it. Natural light.
Week 5: The Gun Show
Natural light.
You might also have noticed some changes slowly happen to our website. We now have a Facebook page, which will be used in conjunction with this one as a way of sharing news, events and images.
I have also created a new gallery link, at this stage titled “Client Access“. From now on, pretty much everything we shoot will go in here. Gallery sizes become unrestricted, and can be added to and modified far more easily than the old flash based galleries. At the moment only a few of the older galleries have been moved across but eventually all of them should end up at the client site.
More changes will be made, primarily to the back-end however, and this will take time and I’ve already explained how much of that I have at the moment.
Cheers,
Ash
February 2, 2011 – 1:29 pm
In case you hadn’t noticed, it seems I’ve been on quite a “Black & White” bender over the last month or two. Of course not every image converts well, but it really seems to take it to another level with images that do convert well. As if stripping the photo of colour is allowing the emotion or the moment to shine through.
This photo was taken in our loungeroom, lit using an Elinchrom Quadra in a Deep Octa softbox. Special thanks to my wife for pulling the trigger on this one.
Week 3: Father and Son
Quadra to camera right.
Cheers
Ash
January 31, 2011 – 6:53 am
The idea has been bouncing around in my head for a little while now, and I think I have finally been pushed convinced to attempt a “Project 52″ – commit to a photo a week for the next year. The tougher option is the ’365′ – one for every day of the year, but I think that will be too much of a stretch with my current going-ons. Of course I could just pull out my phone and snap away (and some images may just be that), but the aim will be to get something solid, to perhaps push my limits, try something new, get creative, process differently, make the mundane imaginative, capture an interesting angle, to create an image that at a minimum, lives up to something resembling my undefined standards.
Of course I have a brand new subject who has just arrived, and will be far less oppositional to having his photo taken every week than just about anyone else I can get such easy access to. A massive plus to all this is that at the end of the project, I should have a wonderful gallery of images that can really capture the first year of Lucas’ life. The moments, the emotions, the changes, the wins and losses. The side benefit for all of you is that I’ll now be forced (and held accountable!) to post here far more regularly, ie weekly, as I first intended.
In order to catch up, I’d best present the first few weeks of the project.
Week 1: Pride
Lucas’ Great-Grandmother doesn’t get the motivation to get out of her house to go visiting too often. Natural light.
Week 2: Blue Steel
I want to play around some more with this lighting, but here is Lucas Zoolander, with showing off his latest look, Blue Steel. Quadras.
January 26, 2011 – 9:24 am
Jim and Lauren introduced me to their gorgeous daughter Ava and instantly she turned on her charm. Giggling babbling endlessly in a language only babies can, she sprung her smile on us and blinked her eyes and we were sold!
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January 22, 2011 – 4:34 pm
11.1.11 is a day and a date I will remember for the rest of my life. My wife gave birth to our first child – Lucas James.
He was a few days early, but it was funny. About 6 months earlier we had joked with the obstetrician about being induced on the 11th just to have my child’s birthday as 11.1.11. I didn’t really talk about it with my wife, but our way of thinking was to let nature run its course rather than to go down the induction path he had talked about. As time passed however, the date played more and more on my mind. By the time the 9th or 10th of January came about, I had resigned myself to the fact that we would miss the date, and I was shocked at how disappointed I was. All of a sudden everything changed Monday evening when I got a phone call “You better leave now, my waters have broken”.
The next 24 hours were long, but finally, at the end, I somehow uttered, sighed and exclaimed all at the same time “Its a boy”. The 24 hours after the birth were some of the longest, most fulfilling, life-saturated hours that I can ever recall. Sometime around lunch on the following day I realised my son was not even 24 hours old, and yet I felt I had lived and learnt so much in that short time. The days following that have flown by, as if days were hours and hours were minutes.
Whilst still at the hospital, my wife commented at how restrained I was with the camera, but I felt that it was as important to be living and creating the memories and emotions as it was to be capturing them. Besides I couldn’t leave all the nursing and tending to her, and she wanted a little privacy also (some of the time my restraint was killing me though!)
I did obviously take the camera out for short periods, having it inside the operating theatre and then taking advantage of the large open window at one end of our room at Peninsula Private.
So here is a few of the barrage of photo’s of our newborn son. More than likely this is only the tip of the iceberg and there will be a lot more him – but you figured that anyway didn’t you 
. The rest of the photos can be found here, or by clicking on any of the images.
Cheers
Ash
December 25, 2010 – 6:14 am
Merry Christmas Everyone!
With a busy 2010 drawing to a close, this is also a perfect time to extend our thanks everyone for their support throughout the year. Its been a good one, and we are anxiously looking forward to next year, and don’t see it getting any less hectic.
Please make sure you all have a fantastic and safe Festive Season, and a wish you a wonderfully exciting and adventurous 2011.
Cheers!
December 1, 2010 – 10:15 am
I was clicking through the vastness of the internet the other day and found some images that inspired me and reminded me of how lucky we are to be living bayside in Melbourne. I’ve mentioned it before, but I rarely get enough time to appreciate the area to its fullest.
Whilst out and about on Monday evening, I was babbling on to the wife about how nice the light was. A few minutes later there were some stunning colours throughout the sky, soft blues and pinks, vibrant oranges and it was all interspersed with an array of clouds. Sure enough she was staring out the window, turning left and right to get a better view as we kept driving.
Fast forward to Tuesday night, and I was thinking I should head down to the beach and see what could be found. The light wasn’t as inspirational as it was on Monday, and the threat of a storm meant the clouds left me feeling a little flatter about the outing than the day before. I went down anyways, got my feet covered in sand and found some of these.
