an explanation.

I am a childrens portrait photographer because I believe in capturing those subtle moments. They are so fleeting. Our children grow so fast. It was only yesterday that my little girl (ok...so she is in high school next year, perhaps not so little) was staring up at me with her stunning blue eyes, just entered the world not a moment before. Now she is her own person. She needs me less and less.
I want parents and families to have a way to truly remember the growing personalities of their little ones, as they watch them grow into big people. I wish someone had of given me that when I had her. I have forgotten many of those sweet, innocent and funny split seconds in time.
I am so grateful to have discovered my path by the time I had my other 2 children. It means I now have a physical reminder of how they have grown.
I have been given this gift and i cherish the ability to share it with families every day. I am so lucky to do what i adore and have people support me.
I believe it is so easy to be caught up in this worlds craziness, the "busy" and clutter can sometimes take over. I want to hold the hands of the mums and dads I work with and step away from it for a moment.Take just a moment to capture a childs smile, a glint in their eye or even a vulnerable tear down their cheek.
I want to introduce the adults to their childrens imagination. I want to let a child explore their creativity in my shoots because I believe these moments are works of art, not just snapshots. I want a childs soul, spirit and heart to shine through in each and every frame.
This is why  I am a photographer.
This is what i <3 and i hope you do too

xxKrystle

And 2012 goes out with a BANG!

I love late afternoon shoots in early summer. You really get transported when looking through images taken in this way.
Last weekend was my last formal shoot for 2012 and it ended perfectly! I had a beautiful mini cowgirl as my model. She showed me her farm, her horses and her little brother. It was perfectly warm and hazy and she knew just how to work the camera.
She had the most adorable pink boots that I swear I could have squeezed into had I been given the chance kehe!! (sadly i am serious.... I have ridiculously small feet).....!
So although it is sad to say googbye to another year, it is so inspiring to know another is just around the corner and hopefully I will get to continue meeting mini cowgirls (and boys) and attempt to steal their boots!

                               

Such a grand Weekend

What a grand weekend just passed. Not only was it hot enough for me to enter the water (trust me that means it was REALLY hot) there was enough time to get into our jungle of a garden, spend afternoons with friends, watch my youngest daughter perform in her first dance concert AND go to a family portrait shoot.
I love family shoots. I really do. I always feel so privileged to be asked to spend a few hours with a family, watching how they interact with each other and becoming a small part of that.
This family was no exception. They were fun and ready for a bit of silliness  I don't know how I manage it but many of my shoots end with someone getting wet! This session we had planned for the water fight though, and who could blame us all? When it is a temperature in the high thirties it is the only way to keep the kids interested!
The 3 children were amazing. Just the way the older brother treated his younger siblings and the way he looked at them or helped them out when they needed it was just beautiful. You could tell all these kids adored one another, and that is why I love my job. It makes the whole process just relaxing and easy.
So enough jibber jabber from me, why dont I just show you instead of telling you??

    

Arent they just gorgeous children? 

 <3 Krystle xx

Letter to the world....

I wake up each morning in our new life here and I smile. It's everything I have ever wanted. My amazing fiance, my children and myself all huddled in our small cottage over looking the hills and cows and water. It is perfect. 

Every now and then though a shadow from the past tries to burst our perfect, happy bubble.

It shouldn't bother me, i know. That shadow no longer holds us down, no longer has any control but it is so hard. 

To those of you who have met me or know "of" me will know i am not mainstream. I am odd. I don't wear "normal" clothing, i have tattoos and piercings. My hair colour changes in a visual rainbow cacophony from blues to pinks to green and red. I have, in the past, tried to be like everyone else but i cant. It just isn't me. And since being here I have learnt that being ME is OK. 

I was born and raised by guilt. Guilt about who i am and who i am not. What i should have done and what I actually did. I still live with the anxieties formed in my youth and although I am slowly learning that i can get rid of the guilt i am sure much of it will stay with me until my end days.

I have always been very conscious of empathy. It has completely consumed me at times. I cry for those suffering and I will stand and fight- no matter what lies before me- for these souls. I do not eat meat as every bite is like eating my own children. I stand up for my friends and my family. I don't care what is said about me when i am defending those i care for. It is strange though as I don't do this for myself.

Time and time again i let myself be hurt, used, abused and destroyed. I have been torn down and told I am worthless. I have stood in place and let this happen time and time again. I should know better of it by now, at 29 i should know that their words don't matter. I guess I feel that, due to looking the way i do, due to the fact that I am different, i am worthy of this hate. 

This morning i opened my emails to be confronted with yet another attack on my character. It deeply affected me. I spend all my time trying to show people I am a generous, kind person. I want so desperately for people to see the true me, not the outer "strangeness". I care so much about my morals and my empathy that when my character is attacked- either through my parenting skills or my appearance or my past decisions or just complete lies and rumours- it tears my insides and makes me feel physically sick for days. 

I always hold these words said by others deep inside. They churn around day in and day out. I wish i could expel them and move on but the truth is on some level i believe they have reason to be true. 

So I close all my curtains and my front door. lock everything and sit and ponder. Ponder who i am and should i really be here? what am i offering?

Then photography finds me again and pulls me back from the guilt. It has formed a mutual trust- something i find very hard to feel- something i only possess for a handful of people. It makes me realise I do have something to offer, something that makes people smile, something that I can connect emotionally to and something that draws others in also.

I know this isn't your usual blog post and i am sorry for that. I just needed to try and expel some of this hurt. 

Tomorrow I will photograph my perfect world again and be happy but until then i shall sit with my curtains closed and ponder.

Krystle <3

Yesterday was an interesting photography day for me.
My beautiful partner of 9 years recently proposed to me and as a photographer I wanted to capture us together to remember how in love we are with each other. The only problem? I am so used to being behind the camera, being able to slightly tweak exposure, angle, position of the subject...but it was a challenge I thought would be a bit of fun.
So Yesterday was the day. We had spent all of yesterday in the garden working hard but come 4:30pm we were off for our shoot. It was a major challenge from the get go. I have recently purchased a new camera and my remote shutter is not compatible....although i didn't check this until we were on location. That's another thing i find when you try to shoot your own family....your professionalism goes out the window!!
Anyway...  so all my images were of me setting up my partner in frame, forcing him to "hold my hand" even when I wasn't there. Once the shutter button was pressed I had a whole 10 sec to get to him and pose appropriately then do it all over again. Very exhausting! There is nothing more tragic than jumping over fences, quickly positioning yourself and then hearing the shutter close just as you are pulling an ugly "did I make it???" face.

Although it was a challenge, it was one I thoroughly enjoyed. It taught me a lot about my photography skills. It taught me that perseverance does pay off. :) <3 k.

Mothers Melbourne Cup

It is Melbourne Cup morning and to be honest I dont know how that makes me feel. I am a strong animal rights activist but I am also human and crave the "get rich quick" ideal. So the jury is out as to whether i will place a bet or sign a petition....
Melbourne Cup day also means I have all 3 kids home with me. Once again I am not sure how I feel about this. Good in theory but once the screaming, arguing and mess begins I start to realise why I send them away to school each day. I mean I love them but when Miss 11 refuses to make me a cup of tea I start to wonder why I thought it would be a good idea to have so many of them. Seriously.
Could be worse I suppose. I could have to drive a Minivan.
So maybe to pass the day away and keep the children amused I will dress them in bright colours and take bets on who will win the "I want that texta" fight then double or nothing on the "Stop looking at me" argument. Who knows. I might win a nice cup of tea....

Welcome

So the ominous first post. This bare page staring back at me is very intimidating!

So where to start? Perhaps I will introduce myself to you all.

I am currently 29...and may I say pushing through what I believe to be a mid life crisis.

I am a mother. I have 3 amazing children, 2 daughters and 1 son, born in that order. I have a Fiance whom I adore completely, who raises me up and keeps me grounded. He is my stars and yet my gravity and he has been mine for 9 years now.

I am also a Photographer. Photography would be my greatest <3 outside my family. It allows me to be whatever I want on any given day, and it seems to make other people smile.

Photography is a passion which found me, found me in some of my bleakest moments. We have all had them in our lives and somehow something always comes walking through the mist to help lead us out of it. I loved the way emotion can be perceived and changed and almost dictated to you in an image. You can take the same shot and with different lighting or colours or even angle you can create a completely different scene.

So I start this blog as I am taking the advice of a friend. I cannot promise it will always be photography related or that I will maintain it on a weekly basis but I DO promise to be real and honest with my posts. I promise to let you in on what life is like as a stay at home mother with way too many furbabies and 3 human ones, trying to share equal amounts of time between all who reside in this humble cottage of mine and the strong pull of my Photography business. 

So with that Welcome. I appreciate you dropping by. I would <3 to hear from you too.

:) k.