Melanie Birt Photography

Happy New Year, I’m so excited to be starting a New Year, full of energy and new ideas… JB and I had a lot of fun creating this image just now…. I’ll have to post the out takes some time… v. funny!

I have a lovely friend who also happened to be my first official client in 2009, and she sent me this lovely text tonight…

“Remember, life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile. Happy New Year!”

Must dash, there’s a particularly rockin’ fireworks display I want to catch…

xox

We had a great Christmas this year… I truly hope you did as well!

Each year we buy the kids a tree decoration to add to their collection, so that one day when they have a tree of their own, they’ll have decorations to put on it. This year they chose their own, and they loved having responsibility for trimming the tree. It was interesting to watch the 3 year old hang decoration after decoration on the same poor little branch, and – as a friend remarked the other day – the difference a year makes, as the 4 year old was definitely getting the hang of spreading the decorations about to complete the tree.

We have family all over the world, and this year we were privileged to have some of our family from the UK {and Queensland} over to join us. Each year is different and this year we all shared in the preparation of the food. Everyone was responsible for part of the meal, and since I love giving surprises, no-one knew the full menu until the day… they were chuffed to see their names and dishes alongside everyone elses and there was a keen sense of participation and giving. It worked so well, I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing it again next year.

Our kids were so patient… it wasn’t planned but the gift giving became an incidental part of the day rather than the main focus. During an interval in our very late lunch, we shared gifts with our family. The part I look forward to most is the giving and receiving of Christmas cards. It’s our chance to reflect on the past year each person has had and express our hope for the year ahead (yep, we’re a soppy bunch, but it’s cool). And the gifts. Nothing big, amazing or over the top – oh, except for my Mum who was ever so spoilt by Dad – just a gesture. And it was the perfect way to show our children that Christmas has far more meaning than Santa and presents. It’s one of the few days of the year when we can stop what we’re doing and come together as family and share a meal and each other’s company. It was the best!

The Christmas pageant at the local preschool was a pretty spectacular event that really impressed everyone who came along.

With performances by each class, including some classic Michael Jackson moves and some Jackson Five grooves, there was laughter mixed with joyful tears from all the parents and families present. Overwhelmed with parental pride we watched on as these little youngsters moonwalked, cartwheeled and sang through their numbers.

And then the littlies came out, all dressed in white… camouflaging their cheekiness with angel wings and halo’s and for a little while, they were our cherubs… so cute in their outfits and mis-timed maneuvers, beaming with pride as they tried to catch Daddy’s eye.

But that wasn’t the end of the excitement, oh no! For on the roof, with some jingling bells one could hear the Ho! Ho! Ho! of a jolly red suited man, and with eager anticipation the children waited for him to descend. And one little angel made very sure he stuck to him like glue… and despite the halo and wings, he reverted to general cheekiness and began drilling the big guy until it his name was called out….

And not content with just one gift the little “angel” keenly observed, to be sure that there wasn’t one more in the sack reserved for him. Hmmm…

There could be no mistaking the sibling resemblance, big sister realised that Santa was there just for the children of the preschool…. sadly no presents for her, however her attention was soon turned toward the tables at the back, fully laden will all manner of party food, and her frown turned around…

And then the little angel re-appeared and the pure joy experienced by children in the smallest little thing was there for all to see.

The sweet, little Christmas Angel

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of my clients, vendors and new photographer friends for their wonderful support in what has been an amazing start up year for me. The business is now 10 months old and I so grateful to you all.

I’ll be taking a break from the end of this week and will re-open on 16th January, although I will be about for gift vouchers and newborn sessions during this time. Sessions are filling up in Jan, though there are some spots available so shoot me a message if you need to confirm your session dates.

During the break I will continue to blog some of my favourites from this year, including some new stuff, and some images that haven’t yet been posted. I’ll also be working on some new portfolio shots, and updating my galleries. I’m also really looking forward to working on some books and albums that I’ve been aching to get started on.

I hope this year has been really good to you and wish you all the very best for the Holiday season and 2010. Stay safe and stay in touch,

Mel xox

When my friend Jodie and I started chatting about doing her pregnancy shoot a couple of things ran through my head. Firstly, I was complimented, as Jodie had just won an award for a pregnancy image she’d taken and I love that image. I guess the image below is a kind of tribute to that style.

Secondly she wanted something different, something with a little more… water! Now I’ve owned my fair share of camera’s over the years, including some underwater stuff from our stint as scuba diving enthusiasts (something I hope to revisit when the kids are older), and I love underwater photography so I was immediately hooked {so to speak:)}.

Finally, I was impatient… we started talking about this ages ago, and she was barely showing! I had to wait…. months! For those of you who know me I’m fairly impatient, so this part was agony. But it has given us a lot of time to think about what we’d like to achieve. The following images are a preview of our first foray into underwater pregnancy sessions, and they won’t be the last. We were testing the concept, the kit… everything,  and we’ve come away wanting more. Stay tuned for more sessions we have planned, and if you are interested in including an underwater component to your pregnancy photography session then by all means let’s chat. My only dilemma at the moment is deciding whether I prefer Black & White or Colour.