Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there. Especially to Nick, you are an amazing husband and father to our two girls and we all love you so much. xx
Letter to My Daughters ~ June
Wow – 3 months to catch up on and what a lot has happened!
Emily, my beautiful, big girl. Your confidence keeps growing, your curiosity is never ending and your smile fills my heart. The past three months have been action packed. We took you on your first ride on a train – this is now called “a big adventure” and you loved spotting things out the window and telling us all about what you could see. Many trips to the zoo where you can now find your way around as well as we can, trips to the park and lots of walks.
You adore seeing all of your grandparents and ask about them regularly. You are getting more comfortable around them and are a lot more quick to give cuddles and hold hands every time you see them. You have made lots of friends at day care and when we pick you up we get to hear who your “best friend” was that day. Usually Ashley, Hayley or Ethan seem to pop up the most, although some days it’s an emphatic “no one”! You started doing a dance class at day care once a week this term and you love it so much. Thursday is one of your favourite days because of it.
You continue to eat nearly everything, although you are getting more opinionated about your food. The only thing you really refuse is “green trees”, although most dinners which you usually scoff down are initially described as “disgusting!” at the moment. You are sleeping well most nights and have barely been sick, although I think the winter bugs are starting up as you are just over your first bout of tonsillitis. In May, you had a large patch of hair fall out. A quick trip to the gp to make sure it wasn’t fungal/contagious for daycare and then off to a dermatologist confirmed that you appear to have alopecia areata. Luckily your hair has already started growing back, but we don’t know what to expect from it in the future.
You are our clever, creative and curious little girl and are growing up very quickly.
Sophie! What a big three months for you as well. Twenty months now and you are passing milestones like crazy, and there are some big ones in there. You have ditched the high chair and demanded to sit in a big girls seat like your sister does. The past few months have also seen you getting better and better at feeding yourself to the point we barely need to help you any more and the mess being made is definitely decreasing.
You are also walking a lot further, to the point we can walk up to the local shops and leave the pram at home – fantastic! At first your little legs would get tired on the way home, but now you make it all the way with no problems and then still want to continue on to the park. At the park, you are also increasingly independent. Climbing up the big slide on your own, confidently making your way down either slide and also being more aware of the edges, so while we still have to keep a very close eye on you we no longer have to climb up with you to make sure you are safe.
You are still loving daycare and have made some great friends there. Some days you are having so much fun that when I arrive to pick you up, you run off to another area and just keep on playing with your friends instead of coming over for cuddles and dragging me to the door.
You are loving exploring your world as you become more and more aware of everything around you. Gumnuts are a big favourite to find on our walks and you proudly share them with us. You are also talking a lot and your vocabulary increases almost every day, although we know you are getting frustrated at not being able to tell us everything you want to – we’d better look out once you can! Like Emily, you have been pretty healthy lately, a few runny noses and then first bad winter bug right at the end of June. Your 18 month check up and immunisations were done with minimal fuss. You are still our bigger than the average girl (trying to catch up to your sister?) sitting at 90th percentile or higher on both height and weight.
You are our cheeky, happy, cuddly little girl.
Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxoxo
Emily and Sophie, you are the best of friends and adore each other. It is amazing to watch you play together and take care of each other. I hope you will always have this xx
Cheeky Miss Lilly | Family Photography | North Sydney
It’s always so special to photograph a newborn and Miss Lilly was no exception. Those first few weeks with your first baby are so unique as you develop a bond and a love like nothing else. Lilly was wide awake when I arrived, so I took the opportunity to capture some images of her with her mummy as they chatted and gazed at each other. We also took a few more as Lilly became tired, there’s something so peaceful and beautiful seeing a just sleepy newborn cuddled into its mother’s arms.
In between these photos, Lilly was wide awake and paying close attention to everything going on in her world. She has such beautiful wide, blue eyes. And there’s just a little bit of cheekiness already showing!
Thank you Miss Lilly for being such a gorgeous little girl. I enjoyed every minute I spent with you xx
Put Yourself in the Frame this Mothers Day | Family Photography | North Sydney
This year will be my third Mothers Day. For my first Mothers Day, when my husband asked me what I wanted, I thought I was keeping it pretty simple and said that all I wanted was a nice photo of my daughter and I together. It is now what I want every Mothers Day – I missed out last year unfortunately, I did get a lovely dressing gown, but no photo. This year I’m determined to get a photo of myself with BOTH my daughters!
Far too often as a mum, we are the ones always taking the photos and never being in them. Mostly we just want to make sure we capture all those gorgeous moments from our day to day life that happen with our little ones, using whatever is to hand – from a slr camera, point and shoot or, more often now, our phones. Sometimes it’s a great way to avoid being in front of the camera too, post pregnancy bodies and less time to take care of ourselves often have us feeling a lot more self conscious of our appearance than pre-kids.
This Mothers Day, I want to encourage you to get in front of the camera. So hand that camera (or phone) over to your partner, family member or friend and get them to take a few shots of you with your kids. Over the coming week I will share a few simple tips to help you get some great shots of you with your kids!
Stunning Mum | Glamour Photography | Sydney
Stunning eyes and a gorgeous smile made for some beautiful photographs of Julie when we did her glamour shoot.
Mum to one very busy little boy as well as being a teacher means Julie is always on the go, so taking some time out that was all about making her feel beautiful was a real luxury. Like most people I photograph, Julie wasn’t sure what to wear and what would look good for photos, so we picked several different outfits, all with very different looks. I think she looks absolutely stunning in all of them!
Julie, it was a pleasure to photograph you and I had so much fun!
If you would like to experience a glamour photo shoot of your own, contact me now to discuss your session with me. PS Did you see my Mothers Day special over on Facebook? Ask me about it today.
Letter to My Daughters ~ February / March
Dear Sophie, the last two months started off hard and finished amazingly. The first 5-6 weeks of daycare were a non-stop run of illnesses – colds, ear infection, rashes and more colds. You came out of that initial blast still smiling and bar the odd runny nose and occasional cough you have been kicking up your heels ever since.
You absolutely adore going to daycare. After the initial uncertainty, you now let yourself into the room, grab a chair and sit waiting for a bite to eat. You are always happy to give a kiss and cuddle goodbye and a great big wave and smile as we leave you there. You’re just as happy to see us when we pick you up too after a big day of playing with your friends.
And Sophie, you are most definitely a “daddy’s girl”. You adore your daddy and will bypass me without a thought if you need a cuddle or want someone to read a book to you. This phase has lasted quite a while and it’s only been in the last week of March that you started coming to me as well.
Your walking has been improving out of sight, you are loving longer walks now and will happily run around the oval with your big sister chasing after a ball until everyone is worn out. You are also doing your best to talk to us – loads and loads of babble with a few words starting to come through. Your first truly clear word was, surprisingly, “mummy”. Screamed out in the middle of the night in panic. Not sure what the disaster was, but how could I resist going and giving you cuddles.
You are our ever bubbly, smiley, happy girl who is revelling in her increasing independence and abilities.
Dear Emily, the last couple of months have been hard on you in ways that they aren’t for Sophie. You love being at daycare with all your friends and all the activities you get to do there. But most days you ask if you can stay home and when we pick you up and ask if you had fun, more often than not you say “I didn’t” – you then go on to tell us what you did and get terribly excited about it all, so we know you did actually have a good day!
While you physically are coping with the long days at daycare better than Sophie, you do find it terribly draining as well and real revel in the weekends spending time with all of us together. It was lovely to walk into daycare one day and hear the carers talking about you and describe you as caring, sensitive and articulate (like she ate a dictionary over summer). You are a non-stop chatterbox and are always telling us when you see a bus, or a car if it’s orange, yellow or green (all of them are your favourite). I think we have heard you sing the alphabet song over a thousand times in the last couple of months, you’re very pleased with yourself about being able to do it, as well as being able to count to 10.
You have loved seeing all of your grandparents more regularly than usual and it’s a frequently heard question when we get in the car “we go see grandma grandpa?”. I think your favourite person of all though is Sophie. You are a wonderful big sister and now that Sophie can play with you, the rough interaction has decreased dramatically and you will more often be trying to hold her hand, play ring-a-rosie or ask her for a cuddle.
While you definitely have more fluctuating moods than your sister, and can be such a dictator (as only a toddler can do!), you are also utterly delightful and it’s beautiful to watch you learn and grow.
You are our busy, clever, gorgeous girl.
Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxo
Busy Mum | Glamour Photography | Sydney
Jen is the busy mum to two very active boys and spends a lot of her time running around looking after them, along with work and many other demands on her time. Like many of us, once everything else is done, Jen doesn’t end up getting to spend too much time for herself. So it was a pleasure to sit her down and give her a full makeover and make these gorgeous photographs showing her just how beautiful she is.
Jen, as your family and friends know, you are a beautiful woman both inside and out. I am glad that I could do these photographs with you and show you just how gorgeous you are!
Want to do something different for your mum this Mothers Day? Put her in front of the camera for a change! Let us make her over, dress her up and capture her feeling as beautiful as you know she is. Get in touch with me now to line up a special shoot for your mum!
Photographing a Photographer | Glamour Portraits | Sydney
I posted last week on Facebook that I was having my hair and makeup done and meeting up with another photographer. The plan was to let her have a play around, try out a few new things and test some other things she had been wanting to do. Towards the end of the day, we turned the tables and Jane let me put her in front of my camera and have a play at her studio. I only had a short time and we stuck to a single set up, but I love what I got out of her in the time we had.
Jane is an animal lover and passionate animal activist. She is an experienced photographer and does beautiful portraiture, her photos really shine when she photographs pets – with and without their owners. If you want to take a look at some of her pet work you can see it over on her website.
If you have always wanted some gorgeous photographs of yourself, on your own or with your family, then give me a buzz now on 0409 914 894, drop me an email to kim@kimeales.com or head on over to my contact page to drop me a line. I would love to hear from you and start planning your session!
Would rather be rock climbing | Sydney Glamour Photography
Yep, doing a glamour photography shoot was definitely waaaay out of Rachel’s comfort zone. This mum would rather be rock climbing, at the beach or playing with her adventurous 3 year old daughter, but she came along and sat in front of the camera for me. There was some nervous laughter at first and then she settled right into the poses like a natural!
Rachel is a gorgeous woman inside and out and we had so much fun on her shoot. We warped her into yoga poses perched on a table, we managed to knock my light fittings off while moving backdrops around and the pose above on the right – Rachel gave that one a nickname, but I will leave it to her to share that!
This bottom shot is one of my favourites from the whole day, the hair and makeup is stunning (thank you Melony) and Rachel looks happy and relaxed. Such a pleasure to make these images for you Rachel!
If you are interested in having a glamour shoot like Rachel, I would love to hear from you, so drop me a line or pop on over to my portfolio to see more gorgeous women.
Casual or glamorous – why not both? | Sydney Beauty Photography
Did you see Kate’s before and after photo on my Facebook page? When Kate had her hair and makeup done and we were ready to start shooting, my makeup artist sent her through with a funky hat. It worked so well with what she had worn to get ready in that we quickly took some relaxed and natural shots with her still in that outfit. It was a great way to get Kate relaxed in front of the camera, getting some beautiful natural smiles – I love how they turned out, both with and without the hat!
We worked our way through a few different outfits after this, Kate has some really lovely dresses, but for me the standout was this gorgeous little black number. It fits Kate perfectly and her bright lipstick adds some gorgeous colour. We went for a few different angles and expressions here and I loved so many of them, but I think these two are my favourites!
Kate is another busy mum, married with a young son and a multitude of interests focused on healthy and sustainable living, her schedule never seems to stop. I loved catching up with her so she could take some time out and feel beautiful for herself. Her husband was very impressed with the hair and makeup when she got home too!
Give me a call or drop me an email and we can have a chat about how you would like to be photographed.