The fact is, I’ve been busy.  Like, I know I say that a lot, but its true!  Since I last posted, I entered and attended the AIPP QPPAs (AIPP Qld Professional Photography Awards), photographed 4 weddings, 20 or so Family Portrait sessions, flew to Mackay to photograph a whole lotta beautiful families up there, ran one workshop, completed my first ever underwater shoot, attended two Cross Country races, played Easter Bunny,  and Tooth Fairy, spent about 60 hours at the gym, had a mini break at Bribie Island (at this awesome place here: AVON LODGE, baked two birthday cakes and a gazillion cookies and muffins, watched 4 baby budgies hatch and thrive in our little aviary, spent eleventy-billion hours in Photoshop, AND photographed, edited, printed and posted my entries for the upcoming APPAs (Australian Professional Photography Awards).  PHEW!

So, whilst I did proclaim, and fully intend to pay this very blog a great deal of attention and fill it with lots of lovely (useful!) content that isn’t just “client sneak peeks”, I am the first to admit that I have been a little distracted and it hasn’t quite happened… YET! (promises, promises!).

But, I do have some awesome news to share with you all.  Ok, so its more than a bit belated, but, here goes anyways!  So, on March 25th, (of this year – 2012!), after sitting through a weekend of nail biting, humbling and downright scary judging, I was awarded as the 2012 AIPP Qld Professional Family Photographer of the Year – Runner Up.  Beaten by only 1 point by the incredibly talented and beautiful Kelly Brown!  The AIPP Awards are something quite new to me, having only begun entering for the first time last year.  However, I have very quickly caught “the bug”!  It is a game for sure, and one that must be “played” with deliberate consideration for the judging process and the categories that you are entering.  I am still learning the ropes, and had a few hit and misses at Qld, but now that my APPA entries have been sent off ready to be judged, I can share with you some of the prints that I entered into QPPA.

(I should add that with the State Awards being prior to the National Awards, most of us who enter prefer to keep our images under wraps to avoid them being seen by judges prior to judging.  Hence my decision to only show my QPPA entries now as I know that these won’t be being judged at APPA.)

I am going to share with you, both my prints that did achieve awards, and those that didn’t, as whilst those that didn’t score so well, they are still dear to me and to my clients who are in them and I am proud to share them.

So, I entered the Wedding Category for the first time ever!  I was actually quite chuffed with the results here because I hadn’t shot a wedding in over 6 years when I capture the images from the two weddings that I entered!  The result was one silver award, and one silver distinction, which I was rather pleased with!

This first shot was a “happy accident”.  When I captured it, I had no idea that there was seemingly a knife in her back! (It was actually sticking out of the wedding cake that was behind her), or that those expressions matched up so perfectly with the “story” of the knife!  I entered it as a bit of fun. It scored a respectable 75 points, which is considered “above standard professional practice” but not quite Award standard.

This one attracted a very healthy amount of discussion, but didn’t *quite* get there.  It ended up with a 79, which is considered to be a “Bronze” or “Certificate of Attainment”:

This next one, I like to call “Dopplegangers”.   It features both a groomsmen, and a guest at the same wedding and their “lookalikes”.  Scored an 84 – A nice “Strong” Silver Award!

My final entry in the Wedding Category, and one of my favourite wedding images ever, was this lovely family portrait of Heidi, Richard and Archer.  It scored an 85 – Silver Award with distinction!

Next, I will share my Portrait Category Entries.  NONE of which received Awards (we, in the industry, like to say that they “all bombed”! Bwahaha!).  The first was the very beautiful and serene Erin, who scored a 76:

Next, was an image of aspiring model, Casey, in the image I titled “Hanging By A Thread”.  It received a 75, which I was disappointed with as the same image had received a Silver Award at the International Loupe Awards late in 2011 *and* came 2nd place at the Toowoomba Carnival Of Flowers Shutterbug Awards in 2011 too:

This was an image that I captured for Cushie Tushies last year, and one that always makes me smile.  It scored a 78.

My final entry for the Portrait category was little Oliver.  It scored low at 72.   But, Portrait isn’t the most suitable category for a newborn image, so I expected that really.

Finally, was the judging of the Family Category.  I had huge hopes for this category, and had the biggest butterflies when it came around!  The anticipation is intense! Despite my excitement, I didn’t quite achieve the scoring I had hoped, and have regrouped and redone some images for our National Awards this month.  The main image that I had my highest hopes for, did do the best of all, but was only awarded a Silver Award at 83.     However, I still have great faith in the image and have decided to enter it into APPA this month, so cannot share it with you now. (Sorry!)

Next up was this one.  It took a whole lot of planning and a HUGE amount of sewing on my behalf, and I really loved the results.  I was going for a bit of an Frederick McCubbin feel.  I don’t think the judges “got” it though. It barely missed an award, and scored 79 points.

Next, came the mummy of little Oliver, above.  The very beautiful, and glowing Jessica.  This image scored a 77, not quite an award print:

I was sitting with bated breath as my final image was up for judging.  I knew that for a chance to win the category, I needed a score of at least 81 for this print. (You need a total of at least 320 points from your 4 prints to be eligible to win).  Would you believe, it? That’s just what it scored! An 81! In hindsight now, I wish I had “wished” for an 82, as it would have been a draw!  I am still really happy with Runner Up though, and very humbled to have the amazingly talented Kelly Brown in front of me!

And so that wraps it up, as far as the 2012 QPPAs go.  Now, we are on the home straight to APPA, with just over 2 weeks to go!  I have butterflies already, and can’t wait to share the results, and the images with you all!

tan.x.

…there was a beautiful little princess named Annabelle.

Princess Annabelle loved her Grandma soooo much!

One day whilst playing, she had a wonderful idea and ran to ask her Mummy…

“Mummy, mummy, can we PUHLEASE go to visit Grandma today?” she asked excitedly.

But, her Mummy’s response was “Oh, I am so sorry Sweetie, but Mummy is much too busy today to go visit Grandma.  Maybe tomorrow ok?”

Princess Annabelle became sad.  She wanted SO much to visit her Grandma…

But then, she had a fabulous idea!  “I know!  I will go there myself!” And with that, she set about collecting the things that she would need for her trip.

…a sign to tell people where she is going,

…her special red wagon to carry all of the treats that Grandma will give her,

…and her favourite Teddy Bear to keep her company.

Finally, Princess Annabelle was ready!  She began her journey…

…but, she didn’t get very far when she realised that she had forgotten something very important!

“Oh how could I forget my little brother?!” Princess Annabelle exclaimed.

She ran back, and using all of her strongest muscles, she scooped up her baby brother Harrison, and placed him gently into the wagon.

Princess Annabelle leaned down and gave him a little kiss.  “Now Harry,” she said “you hold on tight, we wouldn’t want you to fall out!”

And then she set off again…

And so, Princess Annabelle pulled on that wagon with all her might.  “Oh my gosh, Harry, what did you have for breakfast this morning?!” she giggled.

Suddenly, Princess Annabelle grew worried, and she pulled on the wagon a little harder…

But it just wouldn’t budge.  Again, Princess Annabelle grew sad.  She just knew that she wouldn’t be able to go and visit Grandma all by herself afterall.

She sat down, feeling defeated.

But just as she was about to lose all hope, Princess Annabelle heard a voice in the distance calling her name.  She looked up…

And she became excited again!  “Harry, please stay here for a moment, I’ll be back…” she told her little brother.

And she hopped out of the wagon…

The voice drew nearer, “Where’s my Princess Annabelle?” it called.

And Annabelle began to run towards the voice…

Princess Annabelle was more than excited!  She knew that they had been saved!  I wonder who her Knight In Shining Armour could be?

Why, it was her Daddy of course, and he was there to take them to visit Grandma!

Note: The gorgeous red wagon used in this shoot is from our friends over at Hip Kids, can be found right HERE.

But, it got me to thinking.  Just how *do* I see the world?  Is it *really* any different from anyone else?  I mean, we all have our own perspectives and perceptions, but I guess, as a photographer, our eyes are “trained” to notice the small things that everyday people take for granted or just rush by.

The very next day, I was honored to complete the newborn session for George and Jessica and baby Oliver, that you can find HERE.  During this session, Jessica’s lovely mum asked me if she could snap some pics of me “in action”.  I replied that of course I didn’t mind, it is interesting to see how others perceive the goings on at a shoot!

She sent the images through today and I was amazed to see how they looked!  I mean, any photographer will tell you that what you see in an image is often a big illusion to the reality that was actually there when it was captured.  You are (obviously) witnessing only a very small snippet of a scene when viewing the finished image.  You are looking at a perfectly finished, lit, composed scene that the photographer has manufactured in their creative brain.  You don’t get to be witness to the light stands, cables, makeup tables, screaming toddlers running around, spilled coffee, up-turned furniture, propped up reflectors, brollies blowing over in the wind, birds pooping in my hair (yes, it has happened, multiple times!) etc.

One of my favourite clients often teases me about my shoots, wishing she was a “fly on the wall” and knowing that quite often, I will have at least one of my own five kids “assisting” me in the background.  I am not ashamed to admit that I *have* been known to shoot product images with a 2 year old literally climbing on my back, camera in one hand and trying to maintain a phone call in the other!  But, what my clients receive is still a professionally finished product, that was somehow manufactured in my creative brain at one stage, and which I have somehow (and sometimes surprisingly!), managed to capture in camera too.

So, enough of my prattling, time for some pictures!  This collection is pretty self explanatory, so without further ado,  here is *my* world, both as you would see it if you were a “fly on the wall”, and then the same scene, but this time, through *my* eyes…

This is beautiful Alice, photographed for Eco Peko.  The top images by my good friend Shannon who has a lovely blog right HERE:

All the “behind the scenes” shots here were beautifully captured by baby Oliver’s “Omy” – Roswitha:

This is little Ziggy, being photographed for the “Nursery Rhymes” feature that I completed Little ONE Baby magazine.  The behind the scenes shot captured by my friend Shannon, again.

This is Georgette, daughter of my client-turned-friend, Katie (who is pictured), as she models for Seedling Baby. Both images captured by me.

One of my favourite little models, Flynn, strutting his stuff for Cushie Tushies, whilst my own boys “entertain” him (and hold reflectors, they are multi-taskers from way back!).  Both images by me.  Oh, and those concerned about safety, with Flynn being on the table, please note that his Mummy was just out of frame to the left and there was always somebody within arms reach at all times.

Again for the gorgeous label, Cushie Tushies.  You would never know from the final image that there were mums sitting on benches, and in front of lights etc.  Nor that these little ones were cleverly “contained” in this narrow kitchen to avoid too much mess from the chocolate cake mix… Both images by yours truly.

At the amazing wedding of Ann-Marie and Craig, in November of 2011.  Behind the scenes images captured by the groom’s sister and bridesmaid, Emma.

Is this different to what you would expect?  How did you think things happened “behind the scenes”?  Would love to hear your thoughts!

tan..x.

… there was a sweet little girl named Bianca, who dreamed of being a magical wood nymph.  She loved to lay with her Daddy and look up into the clouds and imagine what it would be like to live in a in a secret enchanted forest, playing all day with the beautiful little fairies that lived there.

One day, whilst exploring her imaginery enchanted forest, she came upon  a beautiful little nook full of pretty little stars and an amazing sparkling mirror.   It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen!  She was certain that it must have magical powers.

She edged towards the mirror gingerly, and peeked into it.   What she saw looking back at her made her smile from ear to ear!  It was a beautiful little girl who looked like a forest princess!  She was the prettiest little girl she had ever seen!  And she realized that it was her!  It made her heart sing with joy and she danced and twirled in her beautiful new fluffy gown.

All of a sudden, she heard a little voice calling her name – “Bee Bee, where are you?!”  She turned and there was her little sister, holding the enchanted mirror between her hands.  Imogen looked more beautiful then she had ever seen her!  She too, had been transformed into a beautiful forest sprite, decked out from head to toe in billowing pink.  Her hair had been transformed into gossamer ringlets that sparkled when she moved in the sunlight.

“I am here Immy!” she called and ran to her sister.  They sat together for a moment unable to speak with their surprise at what had happened and then Bianca leaned ever so gently towards Imogen and whispered “Immy, I think we are magical fairies!”

Imogen looked down at the mirror again, and then thought for a moment.  She couldn’t believe her eyes!

Just then, there was a sound in the woods. It was the crunching of footsteps.  The girls looked in its direction, a little worried about what might be there.

“Ssssh” said Bianca, “it might be a big scary wolf that likes to eat little forest princesses”. “Bee Bee, I’m scared!” whispered Imogen.  And with that, Bianca cuddled her sister tight as they could hear the sound drawing nearer.

“I know Bee Bee! Maybe if I fill the forest up with sparkling bubbles, it will wrap is in a magical force field to keep us safe!”.  So Bianca went to work, blowing bubbles.

She blew more bubbles….

And even more…

Until the girls were surrounded by them and could feel them touching and tingling on their skin.  They relaxed for a moment.

But then, “CRUNCH!”.  Oh, now, the footsteps were back, and they were coming closer!  Startled, Imogen hopped up and began to run away!  “Immy, come back!” Bianca called to her.

Her sister’s voice reminded her that she wasn’t alone and she stopped.

Even so, Imogen leaned down and picked up a big stick that she had been spying on, just in case she had to fight off any big bad wolves.

But, when she looked up, she saw that Bianca was smiling from ear to ear!

She looked toward the forest where the footsteps were coming from, and saw what was making the sound!  It was their Mummy! Bianca ran at once toward her and gave her a big hug.  She was so relieved and excited to see her!

Her mummy said “I just had to come and see my beautiful girls when they had been transformed by the magical mirror!  The wood nymphs visited me to tell me how pretty you both looked, but now, I’m going to go again and let you play some more, I have some Mummy jobs that I have to get done”.

Imogen waved goodbye…

The girls sat for a moment together thinking about what a wonderful day it had been.

Just then, Bianca opened her eyes and remembered that she had been laying on the blanket looking at the clouds with her Daddy! She must have fallen asleep!  She opened her eyes and there they all were, her Mummy, Daddy, little sister Imogen, and everyone was back to normal!

Bianca was a little sad that she wasn’t a magical wood nymph after all, but so happy to be with all of her family again.

nb This session was a complimentary one given as a prize for our hilarious “The Shame Game” competition that we ran late in 2011.  Brisbane families be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more great giveaways through-out 2012.  If you were a winner of one of our gorgeous “Little Personalities” family portraiture sessions, how would you like to see your family photographed?  I’d love to hear your ideas!  Be sure to post them in our comments section below, if something strikes a chord with me I may just award a freebie for the fun of it!

tan.x.  (aka “author of fairytales about enchanted mirrors”).

I was contacted late last year by Jess & George who were expecting their first baby.  She is a crazy arty farty type, and he a little bit more reserved and runs in the corporate world.  They may seem like an odd couple, but I don’t think there has ever been a more perfect match. Lucky for me, they took each of my ideas with a grain of salt and completely trusted me to provide them with a somewhat eclectic but extremely unique collection for their memories.

A lot of preparation went into our initial pregnancy shoot.  We decided on some classic studio images, some fun ones involving lots of messy paint, and an avant garde edgy style in a run down and dilapidated house not far from me.  What began as one shoot, with 3 separate looks, evolved into a much more “extensive” relationship than we had anticipated.

The morning of our shoot, it was overcast, allowing us to capture some dreamy natural light studio shots, and the fun paint scenario we had planned:

Then, we packed up, changed outfits and headed over to the other location for our desolate house shots.  Now, what happened over there is a whole blog post in itself, and I will retell the whole story in detail another time, but lets just say that our “avant garde/edgy” shoot was hijacked by an unhappy neighbour, a torrent of rain, and a visit from  the police (for our own protection!), and we rescheduled.   I also decided to ditch the styling I had selected for that shoot and went trawling through Spotlight one afternoon to find *the* perfect fabrics for what I had in mind.  A couple of late nights in front of the sewing machine and I was all ready to go!

Then, I went on a mission to find another location, of a similar feel, and something that was completely different to your standard pregnancy type thing.  I traipsed all over Brisbane until I found it in the form of a graffiti filled drain, and we went down there early one night for a wee adventure.  *Somebody* forgot to pack their lightstands into the car and believe me, holding a softbox with one hand whilst shooting with the other, sure makes for some interesting times!  But we persevered, and had a blast doing so, ending up with a great, quirky collection of images such as these:

Soooo, after all of this, one would probably think that Jess and George would be a wee bit sick of me by now!  But noooooo!  Last week, I received a call from them, asking me to photograph their brand new little man, Oliver.  Their little family had had a bit of a rough start to the first few weeks of parenting, and so, Oliver was about 21 days old when we got to do his newborn shoot.  A little older than our “normal” age for newborns, and he certainly made us work for our images that day.  However, after a MAMMOTH (think 6 hours!) newborn shoot, some yummy sandwiches a couple of cups of tea and of course yummy lamington cake, I returned home with what is possibly my most favourite collection of newborn images EVER.

Omigosh, how GORGEOUS is this family?!?

Of course, with a beautiful Grandma in the house helping out, we had to capture a moment with her too.  Here is Oliver with his lovely “Omy”…

I do believe that this just *may* be Oliver’s first ever smile to be captured in a photograph as he blissfully gazes at his Mummy…

Daddy is placing bets as to what colour his eyes will be…

And a beautiful “before” and “after”…  In the after shot, Jess, just as most new mums usually do, looks a little bit less “glam”, and I love her for it!

I have been so honoured to be a part of Jess and George’s journey.  They are both nervous about what lays ahead for them as parents but I feel confident that they are totally up for the task!  They love each other and their little boy to bits, and that will get them through any obstacles that they may have to face.  As Elizabeth Stone once said  “Making a decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”.  I think that Jess and George now understand this completely. xx

I have decided this year to accept some of the wedding enquiries that I have been receiving and am looking forward to the 7 weddings that I already have booked for this 2012. 

As a result,  guys and gals, I have something exciting to share with you today! You may remember the beautiful love heart shaped leaf that I posted an image of on Facebook the other day? It is here, just in case you missed it:

Some of you may also remember me having some discussions about rebranding Love Bytes on account of expanding to encompass wedding work this year?

Well, the deal is done! I have designed another logo to go along with my gorgeous new website and to take Love Bytes into the direction that my photography has been evolving. In short, Love Bytes has grown up a little. The love heart leaf represents a lot of things about me personally, my name being “love”, my hopes and dreams for our planet, and respect for Mother Nature, and general feeling of “earthiness” that is a part of my personality. It is also quite precious as my kids have really taken to the “theme” and have been bringing me every leaf that remotely looks like a loveheart over previous weeks!

I have chosen to stay with my black, white and red theme, and a clean, modern look, but softened it a little to include the loveheart leaf, and a gentler, handwritten font. I think that the new look works well for both my children/families and weddings combined. It is still fun and fresh, but a little more refined.

What do you guys think?!

To kick things off, I am working on a brand new website, the beginnings of which you are viewing right now! Thanks to remorseless Chinese hacking bots that keep attacking this site, we have lost what was once known as the Love Bytes little corner of the web. All is not lost though, I have decided to “keep on truckin’” and onto bigger and better things. A new look for a new year! This site will be evolving over coming months as I add new content and tweaks and galleries and lots of fun bits and pieces, so stay tuned.   At the moment, I have managed to restore all of my old blog posts, but not the “uploads” folder containing the images, so things are looking a wee bit bare right now, but I will be plugging along and fixing what I can asap.

As well as this, I am taking a slightly different direction this year. I have finally decided to cave in to pressure (lol!), and accept a small number of wedding bookings this year. I say “cave in” as I once swore that I would never shoot a wedding again after suffering from severe burn-out back in the day of shooting and editing 3 weddings every week. Sure the money was nice but *I* was not a nice mummy/wife and promised my family that I would “never go back there”.

As such, I am going to be a bit of a diva. A select number of weddings, on my terms, my way. No stress, no ego, no hard sell, no wedding expos. Just me and my camera, some beautiful images and exquisite products and (hopefully) lots of yummy wedding cake!

Kinda appropriate now that I think about it that we are called “Love Bytes” these days, isn’t it?

Ok, so here’s a sampling from two weddings that I shot in November, and which reignited my passion for all things luuuurv…  These two weddings couldn’t have been more different, but both were absolutely wonderful!

Ann-Marie and Craig; chic, sassy and fun…

Heidi and Richard, eco vintage wonderland…

(…and btw, you can read more about the gorgeous family in the second set of images by visiting their lovely blog: There Were Three In The Bed.)

So what do you guys think? Would you want to share your most very special day and entrust your wedding memories to moi?

tan.x.

We are putting together some very special Christmas magic for our lucky Brisbane clients!  2 days of beautifully styled shoots, guaranteed to result in beautiful images, awesome gift ideas and a fun experience for your kids too!

The beautiful styling of each shoot will have a Christmas theme, but not in a traditional sense.  The resulting images will be suitable for display and gift-giving all year round!  Tanya has gone all out this year, and you will be impressed!

Two days of shoots are available – one at a North Brisbane location, and one at a South Brisbane location for your convenience.  Full details of location and times available will be emailed to you after booking.

*Please note that we will do our best to accommodate specifically requested booking times, but it will be a case of first come first served as spots are limited to only 8 each day.

Book (and pay for) your 2011 Christmas Mini Shoots HERE:

(all prices on this page are in Australian dollars and payment is via Paypal only).

Please note that we are happy to offer payment plans to make it a little easier to manage the fee for your session. If you wish to take advantage of this, please select the red, “BOOK NOW” link when you are booking your workshop to pay only the $50 deposit that is required to secure your place. The remaining balance ($145) will be payable by cash only on the day or via direct deposit into our bank account prior to your shoot.  We will contact you to reserve a time suitable for your family for the date you have chosen…

Brisbane NORTHSIDE location -  Saturday 19th November 2011:

Date: Saturday, 19th November 2011.

Times available: from 10am-5pm, every hour.  Maximum of only 8 spots available!

Fee: aud$195.00

Venue: tba upon confirmation of booking.

Inclusions:
- 30-45 minute session fully styled with a gorgeous Christmas theme.
- Images provided as 10-15 beautifully photographed/edited HIGH RESOLUTION files with full usage rights, allowing you to have them printed wherever you like, and delivered as a password protected digital download directly from my client proofing website.
- Session is for one child or set of siblings only, and inclusion of additional family members will need to be requested.
- All images will be delivered in plenty of time for Christmas and Christmas gifts.

- Additional print products, Christmas cards etc available at extra cost upon request.

Please click the “book now” button below, to book your NORTHSIDE session and pay aud$50 non-refundable deposit to secure it. We will contact you to arrange payment of the remaining balance.

OR

Please click the “purchase now” button below, to book your NORTHSIDE session and to PAY IN FULL (aud$195):

Brisbane SOUTHSIDE location – Sunday 20th November 2011:

Date: Sunday,  20th November 2011.

Times available: from 10am-5.30pm, every hour. Maximum of only 8 spots available!

Fee: aud$195.00

Venue: tba upon confirmation of booking.

Inclusions:
- 30-45 minute session fully styled with a gorgeous Christmas theme.
- Images provided as 10-15 beautifully photographed/edited HIGH RESOLUTION files with full usage rights, allowing you to have them printed wherever you like, and delivered as a password protected digital download directly from my client proofing website.
- Session is for one child or set of siblings only, and inclusion of additional family members will need to be requested.
- All images will be delivered in plenty of time for Christmas and Christmas gifts.

- Additional print products, Christmas cards etc available at extra cost upon request.

Please click the “book now” button below, to book your SOUTHSIDE session and pay aud$50 non-refundable deposit to secure it. We will contact you to arrange payment of the remaining balance.

OR

Please click the “purchase now” button below, to book your SOUTHSIDE session and to PAY IN FULL (aud$195):

SPECIAL OFFER!!

To compliment your Christmas Mini session, we are offering our gorgeous, bespoke “Life Mosaic”, 20×30 inch canvases at the drastically reduced price of $299.  They are usually $599 dollars, so you will save $300!

We will select up to 6 of the most beautiful images from your session, and custom design a beautiful montage incorporating these images, text, overlays, textures and other graphical elements to give you a beautiful piece of art that will proudly grace your walls for many years to come.

Our canvases are premium, fine art quality canvases beautifully printed on 430gsm Premium Cotton canvas, hand-stretched on ECO-FRIENDLY 42mm deep kiln-dried and finger-jointed Qld regrowth timber stretcher bars, and then finished with two coats of Aquathane spray laminate with UV inhibiting and anti-fungal qualities in a gorgeous Satin finish.

This very special offer for all of our Christmas Mini Shoot clients!  This offer is ONLY available from this page here, and must be prepaid/pre-ordered before your session.  Orders for this special will not be accepted on the shoot day or afterwards.  You can order at the time of booking your session or anytime BEFORE your session, by returning to this page.  You may order as many as you wish, but all orders must be placed (and paid in full) by clicking the green “purchase now” button below, prior to Saturday 19th November, 2011.

1. This entire website was hacked, and vaporised a couple of months back. It took about 4 weeks of frustrating forehead-bashing-against-a-brickwall to and froing with my web host before they finally managed to restore it. It is only still *barely* here, lots of stuff is missing, but thankfully, all of my blog posts were saved, and this is the most important thing!  

2. Following on from what will forever be known as “The Love Bytes Hacking Incident of 2011″, I began to build a new site. I have been reticent to post on the blog since as I wanted my next post to be a “big reveal” of the new site. But of course, as per my usual mantra, there aren’t enough hours in the day, and I STILL don’t have it ready to go, and at the risk of all of my lovely subscribers disappearing into oblivion, I thought it was about time that I at least came by and said Hi! And, I promise that yes, a new fancy, schmancy, hacker-proof (well, hopefully), site is on its way!  

3. Reason number 3, my perpetual moan/whinge – there just isn’t enough of me to go around!  

BUT, I have a STACK of editing that I am working on right now, and some gorgeous sneak peeks that will be going up on the blog in coming days, so I thought I’d better get my butt into gear and start posting again!  

Christmas is creeping up, yet again, and I have some special mini-shoots planned for my SEQ clients that I will post about shortly too, but until then, here is a beautiful little family that I photographed a couple of weeks ago and who I will be sharing more of in coming days…  

I have come to the following conclusion. Rather than labeling myself as having a definite “style” for capturing the children and families that I photograph, I think that my “style” is to shoot colour, form, composition, styling, lighting etc as dictated by the personalities of those I am photographing.  My “style” is actually YOUR style.

There was a time when I heavily styled and themed all of my shoots, and I still love to do this and play “dress ups” when I can. However, I no longer feel that I need a gimmick to produce my collections. Instead, within moments of physically meeting a family, I can usually tell what their expectations are from a shoot that we do together and the kind of images that they would like to have in their collection.  If I style or theme shoots these days it is for a good reason – because of a request from the family, or because the chosen theme has an important meaning to the family/child that I am photographing.

Rather than thinking of the final “look” of the images, I find myself more and more, wanting to do the family/child justice by showing who they “really” are – their spirit, their personality, their loves, their vulnerabilities. I want to show them as they are at that particular point in time so that when the parents look back on our session together they can say “oh, yes, remember how she used to love doing that”, or “I remember that sad face he used to give me”.

This is also the reason that I am starting to, more and more, incorporate video and fusion into my shoots. More on this in coming months as I perfect the product that I am getting very excited to offer!

As such, and in light of the fact that I now have a quirky new studio that I am about to go public with, I have decided to do a spot of re-branding for Love Bytes. I have redesigned the logo, to reflect my stronger identity and cleaner way of thinking and shooting.  I am keeping the infamous polka dots (to come out on “special occasions” ), but throwing away the lollies which I have outgrown and which I think are a bit too gimmicky for what I want Love Bytes to be about.  Of course, all of my orders will still come with lollies, that is my trade mark, and besides, I’d get hungry without a huge stash next to me as I work.

I have made some some changes to the website and will tweak it more as I go along, to reflect the new branding and the look/feel of our new studio too. And so, without further ado, I’d like to unveil the new Love Bytes logo, drum roll please….

So, it is cleaner, but it is still bold, and vibrant, and in keeping with the quirkiness that is Love Bytes.  It is still red, black and white, and I will add/use polka dots when/where ever I see fit (hehe!), but, the most important thing to me about the new logo is that it is less ME, and more YOU.

As I mentioned in my last post, it is my ability to connect with you and your kids that I think is my “talent” (if any!), and it is this that I am going to work to capture as my top priority for all of my clients from now on in.  It is for this reason that I have now added my very special little tag line to the bottom of our new logo, and I would love for you all to think about it for a few moments.  It truly encompasses everything that Love Bytes and me, as a photographer is about at this point in time…

….because a child’s true beauty can only be seen with the heart.

What do you guys all think?

tan.x.