Salutation to the Dawn

I was given a copy of this poem for my birthday and I just love it. I did consider heading down to Dickey Beach at dawn to get a photo to go with this post but it's a rare day that sees me out of bed that early, especially in winter (the exceptions being to climb a mountain or if I'm getting paid).


LISTEN to the exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day! For it is Life, The very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the Verities And Realities of your Existence;
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendour of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And Tomorrow is only a Vision;
But Today well lived Makes every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn.

Kalidasa (Indian dramatist)

Trinity

I sometimes get embarrassed about my small shooting space but I'm never embarrassed about the results we can achieve. Just goes to show, it's not what you got, it's how you use it! And all done with natures light. Of course, the models were all very cooperative and did a great job, even baby Trinity!

Another year, another mountain

It's been too long since I've climbed a mountain so for my birthday I set my sights on Mt Cooroora at Pomona. A mountain I've had on my 'to do' list for a while now. I was disappointed to miss the opportunity when fog and drizzling rain at 9.30 am deemed it not a wise idea.

After filling in some time looking around nearby Cooroy, the sun made an appearance and I back-tracked to Pomona to achieve my birthday goal, setting off at midday up the very steep though not technically difficult mountain.














After much huffing and puffing and stopping to admire the view (aka catching my breath) I made it to the top, very red faced from the exertion (did I mention it was steep?). I tried not to think that folks run up this very same track in a ridiculously short time in the King of the Mountain competition held each a year. I think the record time for making it to the top is faster than I can tie my shoe laces. And then they run back down! I prefer to take my time and enjoy the view ;)
Happy Birthday to me!

18

I did it! I managed to keep both my children alive and well until they reached adulthood. I feel a great rush of relief and a sense of achievement. I'm so glad they didn't die of food poisoning, or eating a poisonous plant, or run onto a road while I wasn't looking and get hit by a car. Or drown or get electrocuted, or die of malnutrition or any of the other multitude of terrible things that I might not have been astute enough to keep them safe from. I remember reaching roughly the half way mark (age 10 and 8) and thinking that if I can just do the same for the next 10 years then we might nearly make it.

And we did.

My baby has just turned 18.

I'm so proud of her.

Sweet Baby James

What a character Baby James is. At 4 months he has such a cheeky, playful personality and the biggest grin. He pulls the most adorable faces and still manages to look cute while sucking his thumb. And he was just the perfect little model on the day.


What a difference a couple of months make! Here is James when he came for his newborn session at 2 weeks old.

Zara

We got lots of Baby Zara looking pretty as a petal amongst the Frangipani's and we were trying to add a sleeping pic to the collection. You can see she was getting close but she just didn't want to give in. So lot's of shots wide awake with big smiles and big eyes! Can't complain about that.