SALA

It's done. I've done it. It's finished. Finito. Done. Dusted.

The exhibition is hung, all the artworks fit (phew), the champagne has been ordered, the food is being selected, the invites are printed and delivered ... I would have liked a new outfit, but there just aren't enough hours in the day ...

I've opened a 'SALA' gallery on my site here (go to site> galleries>sala) for those who can't make it all the way down to Clayton (but that's really not the point - get down there! - Sails @ Clayton Bay, Island View Drive - see it! my fellow artists' work is fan-freaking-tastic! have a drink at the restuarant and a wander on the new 'beaches' ... hell, you might even find yourself a dead tortoise!)

So now I just wait until Sunday when I can feel totally out of place being in a (shared) spotlight for a few hours ... (eek) ... wish me luck ...

51% happy 49% sad

Our baby took her first steps today. Uncoordinated. Stumbling. Laughing. Damn cute.

She's so proud of herself. She can even stand up from sitting, and looks like the cat that got the cream! ...

But it is the beginning of the end of having a baby in the house. Soon there will be noone crawling, and there will be noone to take her place underfoot. Our last baby. Threes enough for us, but gosh, today, just a little bit of me dearly wishes there was another one on the way ...

So today, I swing from feeling a sad "I don't have a crawler anymore" to a happy "I don't have a crawler anymore!" ... I guess that will happen a lot as all our babies grow up. It is so lovely watching them grow and experiencing new things as a family as they get older ... like all of them sharing hot chips in the back of the car ... but their baby days will be missed. Their present is enjoyed. Their future is looked foward to. It has/is/will be a ride.

(at the beach today)

and Max, scrubbing out his name in the sand ...

and finding a very interesting rock ...

Sneak peek ...

It has been a little while since my last post - sorry - a husband home all week with the flu does not mix well with getting any work done!

I have had the honour of photographing this gorgeous family since Miss L (lj!)was just a bump in mum's tum ... again a pleasure guys ... your pics are on their way ... enjoy ...

Niamh makes headlines! ACOCP shoot ...

I can't actually remember whether I blogged about Niamh when I took her photographs back in February ... but sitting reading today's paper and what do I stumble across? A wonderful article in today's Sunday Mail ... This family is truly incredible, as is little Niamh (pronouced Neve) .. she was born at 23 weeks ... YES ... TWENTY THREE WEEKS! ... unreal ...

I was lucky enough to be called into Womens & Children's Hospital as part of the ACOCP ... she was just 2 weeks old here ...

Her amazing mum, Siobhan, has also kept up a daily blog since she was born. Have a read. Truly inspiring ! Not only because of Niamh, but because Sibohan managed to pretty much make a blog post EVERY DAY! ;) ...

Her Sunday Mail article and video can be found here ...

Congratulations Niamh ... You're a little trooper!

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On a not-so-positive note, I heard recently that little Dale, who I photographed at the beginning of June, is back in hospital with an infection ... we wish little Dale all the very best for a speedy recovery. Dale was born at 27 weeks and was doing well when I photographed him at 10 weeks old ...

Maternity & Newborn drought ...

So it's been a while. I currently know NO ONE who is pregnant or has just had a baby .. and all my bookings seem to be older bubs (not that there's anything wrong with that!) but I'm craving a few maternity and newborn shoots to update my portfolio and have some fun ... so if you are heading towards 34 weeks pregnant or more, or have a brandnew bubba (under 4 weeks - but preferably under 2 weeks) then I would love to hear from you!

I will be doing session fees at $100 off (so only $150, and with still $100 towards prints) PLUS I will give you 5 full res digital files for FREE. (gosh, what am I thinking lol!) ..

This offer is only open for bookings made in the next 3 weeks, so hurry!

To book a session either email me at headintheclouds@internode.on.net or give me a buzz on 0419 809 570 :)

It's raining exhibitions ...

Almost literally! SALA is on it's way!

Our little blurb is here. My little pic was also in the SALA guide distributed in the Advertiser last Saturday too ... So I have been looking at my images for way too long, umming and ahhing over this one, and that one ... printing invitations ... taking the odd urgent trip down to Clayton to shoot something that suddently becomes extremely important ... so to have a little fun and do something different, Morgan and I did a mini shoot ...

My ever willing photographic assistant! - one of these days I'll convince Max to actually look at the camera and stay still for more than a millisecond ... but until then, Morgan is doing a damn fine job of 'workin it baby' ...

Sneak peek ...

I hope you like them K and Little Miss J! It was so lovely to meet you guys and I had a heap of fun! - I hope you guys did too !

Kevin Rudd, A dead fish, and some CIA dudes ...

as luck would have it, PM Rudd was heading down to the lower lakes to check out the devisatation that the drought has caused to the lakes ... we had to get up at sparrows fart, and drag the kids out into the freeeeezing cold (the things we do!) but it was fun ... Milang had never seen so much action ... even a helicopter few in ... there were news crews and over dressed female reporters ... and after waiting around for an hour a whisper went through the crowd that he wasn't actually arriving in Milang central, but further out ... so everyone jumped back in their cars and headed a few kms down the road! It was quite funny ...

This is what part of the fuss is about. Irrigation. The farmers/grape growers who have taken their water from the Murray are now a little peeved that it is too saline to use on their crops.

The little swarm of media and interested people when for a wander to the waters edge (now receeded over 50 mtrs or more) ... so we stood back and watched ...

and what do you do when you can't get close to the PM, but want to take some piccies? Photograph his little CIA dudes!

These guys were so cool. He's holding his little microphone in his hand and has the little curly wire thing going into his ear ... and then there was the bulge in the back pocket too ...

And you'll just have to believe me when I say this is Kevin Rudd stepping over a dead carp ...

and what does a girl do when she's sneaked into the media only press conferency thingo and she's too short to get a good shot of the PM and his side kick? Get down low and shoot through the tripod legs! ... A nice 'up the nose' shot of our Mr Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong ...

So that was it. They did a little press gathering, patted each other on the back, the CIA dudes packed him up and off he went. All the frozen spectators went home to defrost and debate the pros and cons of the independant body managing Australia's biggest water source and because Mr Rudd took his sweet time getting there in the first place, we missed the get-together to clean the coral growths off the turtles before they die ...

Here's hoping my children will be able to see the Lake, river and Coorong retored to it's former glory. I'm not holding my breath.

Kids & Kite flying!

Being the cruel, cruel mother that I am, I purchased the kids some kites ages ago and hung them on their walls ... they were just cheapy plastic ones, but they brightened up their rooms .... much to the kids' disgust, they have not yet had a chance to play with them ...

So on Friday we headed down to Clayton and played with them on the oval ... lots of trantrums about the lack of wind, but we still had fun!

I caught this momontary lack of sibling rivalry ...

I'm live

finally ... a big sigh of relief, a wipe of the brow and I'm done.

check it out: headinthecloudsphotography.com.au

Let me know what you think :) Still a little bit of fine tuning to go and a few more images to upload, but at least it is 'out there' now ...