Emma’s Christening
We got Emma’s early in order to catch her getting ready for her big day. Mum was being tended to by the hairdresser and makeup artist, Dad was busy getting handsome, so we got to play with, and of course photograph Emma before she got dressed up.
Of course, it didn’t take long for her to get all dressed up and ready for her Christening, cute as a button!
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!
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
Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to head back out to Lancefield for the 4th and final stage of the Northern Combine’s 3 Day Tour. I have however, gone through what I did capture from the sign on, and all the action of the 3rd stage. There is now 4 seperate galleries from the race that can be found here
The first gallery is a selection of images around the sign-on hall. Riders gathering, embelishing stories of the morning’s time trial, refuelling on coffee, checking out stage and GC results, signing on, trying to stay warm. The area was a hive of activity with riders coming and going. Officials, volunteers, marshalls all preparing the circuit, vehicles and themselves for the stage. Supporters, family members and friends busying themselves on getting up to date results, ensuring sons/daughters/friends are ready for the afternoons stage.
I’ve uploaded a few older galleries, under People and Celebrations. This was part of a session with Alec just before his Christening.
He is full of so much energy and loves being in front of the camera! Congratulations to proud parents Mina & John Paul and new God-parents, Cristina and Matty.
Another busy week.
My mate Phil was was participating in his second triathlon, and had been putting in a lot of work with his training. We had installed some new clip-on aerobars, he had a new position and was ready to try it all out. I decided to head down for my first triathlon – purely in a support/spectator role.
Mt Dandenong is a regular hunting ground for a lot of cyclists in Melbourne. Con and I went for a mid-week cruise up to through there since we both had the day off. We ended up getting away later than we had planned, and with our cruisy pace, it felt as though we caught the full brunt of summer on the way home. Even on the way out the humidty was high and moisture hung heavy in the warm morning. I pretty much went with the idea of a lazy leg stretcher, getting used to carrying (and using!) the camera whilst riding.
