The first from Olivia’s shoot in April.

A couple from Anneliese’s this week.

Anneliese, soon to be 5.

Olivia, 7.

One together before the fallout.

I can’t complain.

So here they are, hair and all  The tickling/wrestling game which looks super fun, but always ends in tears.

The we’re so cute pose.

One for mummy.

I’m not sure how I feel about it, but I do remember the day she arrived like it was yesterday.  This tiny little baby girl lay on my chest and amazed me by lifting her head and looking at me like she was so glad to be with us.   She’s a sentimental soul, just like her mamma and loves to hear stories of when she was a baby and the funny things she did.   She’s a big girl now, she has lots of friends, she can read, she loves to dress up, wants to wear makeup, loves knock-knock jokes and is still a nightmare to get to bed, but she’ll always be my baby and I think she likes that.  Love to my baby girl on her 6th birthday on the 22nd. 

I create a coffee table album for my each of my girls with images we’ve taken throughout the year, but on their birthday we do a special photo shoot to celebrate and I have lovely fancy albums printed to commemorate their special day.  Usually we get a little dressed up, but this year we went all out! 

My mind is always racing with differrent things and whilst I have no problems getting to sleep, I usually find that I come up with creative ideas just as I’m drifting off.  I wake up usually with some idea for a book or movie  (none obviously good enough to follow through on ) and a few months ago I had an idea to photograph my girls in a woodland setting on a rug and trying on a big jewellery box full of trinkets.  I really thought it was just another of those ideas that I probably wouldn’t follow through on, but for some reason I persisted. 

Anyway, I was wandering through DJ’s and came across this dress with a gold sequined top.  It wasn’t generally the style I would dress my girls in, but it spoke to me   However, my normally “anything if you’re happy” hubby saw the pricetag and wasn’t on the same page!   OK, it was time to take it back and then he saw Olivia’s face when she came home and found it.  Of course there was no question of it being returned.  So I based the style of our shoot around THE dress! 

OK, if you’ve stayed with me this long you deserve a medal and to check out the photos.  I had a good friend along to shoot with me and she added the table and chairs for the tea party and I’m so happy she did.  She also got some great shots and it’s going to be an album that will be hard to outdo in the future.

This first one is going to be a BIG canvas above my bed!

Thankfully she’s all better now and to celebrate we had a day out at the movies and some time at the grounds of the University of Western Australia where their daddy went to university some 20 years ago (eeek!). I thought it might be nice for some photos and it’s been a while since we had a mini-shoot. My girls are not the easiest subjects to photograph although my big girl (excitedly awaiting her 6th birthday in a few weeks) is getting so much better.

However, forget about the mini-one – only action shots of her running away from me or a grumpy hand on her chin with a “this is boring” comment – a saying she learnt from her big sister. So here’s one of them sort of together and the rest being of Olivia at her most accomodating. Boy she’s become such a beautiful girl and I love love the one freckle right in the middle of her nose.

A few things that have changed recently:

• I’m sticking with just my name for my business instead of “Fiona Colvin Photography”.  I feel like I’ve evolved over the years and using just my name to present my work feels right.

• I am now only working with pregnancy, newborn and baby clients in my studio (and sometimes on location).   I do still like to keep in contact with my old and loyal clients and will always find time for them and if we can’t make it work I have lots of great colleagues to recommend.

• I’m adding some prints and products to my pricing as well as my usual digital image packages.  It provides a well-rounded service to my clients and I have some great new products on offer, although I’m keeping it very simple and stylish.

• I have a new Facebook fan page (check out the More Info tab on the side) which is embarrassingly empty, but hopefully my faithful friends and clients will “friend” me.  I’ll share images of my clients work (when approval has been given), any updates or specials I may have.

• Finally I’m working on an offering where I can help new photographers review their websites before going live.  Basically I check for basic grammar problems, spelling errors and check the images to make sure they’re cohesive and flow well.  First impressions are critical to a prospective client and you want yours to be great.  If you want some further information please email me at fiona@mcolvin.com.au.

And what would be a post without an image or two?  I thought I’d share some recents of my gorgeous two young ladies Miss O who is counting down the days until her 6th birthday (30 more sleeps) and Miss A who is trying to keep up with her big sister at 3.5.