This week I am late to link up! Sorry folks, better late than never tho eh?

I have re-discovered flickr lately. It used to be my stomping ground and i joined a ton of groups and sharing platforms and spent hours looking at incredible images and getting inspired. It isnt that i fell out of love with it or anything I just got too busy and other things took its place..instagram, twitter..wherever people are sharing images.

But there is something a bit different about Flickr. The images are detailed, technical and referenced…and i like that. Good to know what people are using to capture their images, the settings and the lenses used. It satisfies the geek in me 😉

I am hoping to re-vive my flickr photostream and i will be on there checking out others…I have some plans, with a friend of mine, to set up a cool little project on flickr. We are working on it and i think its going to be cool!

Anyway back to my reflection. I used to store and show my images on flickr and a lot of the very first images i shot for other people are there and its funny looking at them, remembering the families and marvelling at why i had a bit of a fascination with a very vampire ish looking black and white conversion? But we all change and move on. What is popular changes as well…and photographer have ‘fashionable’ trends as much as the fashion world itself. I think there was far less of the dreamy ‘backlit’ style image back when i started out. Now that style is everywhere!

Anyway i discovered this image on flickr. This was the very first newborn shoot i did. I was terrified and felt sick all the way there. Those were the days when i stuck all my stuff in the back of a car and headed off to a client’s house having no idea what sort of lighting was waiting me..and how much furniture i was going to have to politely ask them to move!

This was a special baby. A much wanted and desired IVF success after a gruelling ten years of failed attempts. Listening to their story as we waited for the baby to settle was so humbling. Two parents so desperately in love with this little gift they had been given. They had worked hard for this moment, they had earned their cute snuggles with their baby. They glowed with love despite the hollowness of fatigue that can settle on you with a newborn. This couple, knew how lucky they were to be sitting with their little naked baby pee’ing all over their clothes.

It was a moment that I was honoured to be a tiny part of documenting. Capturing the first beginnings of the birth of a family.

Doing this type of photography just made so much sense to me.

I knew something was starting!

Valentine’s Day falls into one of those holidays that I always like the idea of and then when it gets near the pressure of it gets a bit too much. What should we get? How much to spend? where to go? Can you actually book a place to eat? There is no use leaving things to the last minute though, We have all seen those rows of men peering into barren rows in the card shop trying to find a decent enough card that just might do, settling for the most random card just because they dare not have nothing to give their loved one in the morning. Seems like a bit of planning is always good.

Valentines changes doesn’t it once you are in a relationship or past the age of 18. At school, valentines is a lot more about the unknown admirer and less about the gifts right? It was all who got cards and how many!! I didn’t really like valentines day at school. I went to an all girls school so the few boys that circulated around my small social circle must have felt immense pressure! It was all very stressful!

Nowadays it seems very PC to say that it doesn’t matter if you are in a relationship, you should be able to say ‘i love you’ and buy little gifts at any time of the year to show you appreciation for your partner and not just on one single day of the year!

hmmm…i agree with that… yes it should.

But, and maybe im old school, but i love a good card, be it a funny one or a good old inspirational quote, some flowers and maybe some chocolate or maybe even a chance to escape and unwind by creating a real pamper session at home with high quality body and foot care products

But then on the flip side of that and in all reality a good valentines day for me would be an evening that doesn’t culminate in falling asleep reading the kids stories!! 🙂

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