10 sentiments shared

Tuesday Loves.

Some beautiful new music, sent to me from Jennifer.

So, I listened and I fell in love and I wanted to share it with all of you. I thought I best ask first and wondered if the gorgeous voice would be just as sweet over email and guess what? She really was.
Now I’m twice as in love with Elle Graham.
I hope you are too.
xx

Tucked Away Under // Pretty Pretty Things

10 sentiments shared

Natasha and Andrew and Briar and Naima

The first email I got from Natasha was in the form of a session enquiry but rather quickly, it turned into a chat about kids fashion.  A chat that’s continued for three years now :)  Along the way, we’ve discussed many a new season frock, swooned over the latest Room Seven linen and shared tales about a must have French iron bed.  I had no doubt that when the perfect time arrived to capture her family, we’d have no problems in the wardrobe  department.   The perfect time did come up, but the perfect location was yet to be sorted when Natasha mentioned they’d be away in Byron Bay around the time we planned for the shoot.  Byron?  As in take-your-shoes-off, put-your-sari-on, eat-fantastic-sushi Byron?  Not.A.Problem.

A few weeks later, Fran and I packed up our chattels and checked ourselves out for the weekend, bound for the border.  It would be the longest post ever to describe all the things I loved about our time in Bryon so let me just say it really was magical.   We waited for gorgeous skies, we found the perfect forest, we played games and sang songs and Tash and I talked of things much more important than small people’s clothing.  Just how I love my time with clients..happy, relaxed, easy..with a camera in hand.

If there’s something else I love about photography, it’s the way in which you get to know a family so much more as you work with their images.  Yes, the time spent alongside them lets you gain a sense of their bond but it’s not until you sit down with their photos, when you sift them one by one..absorbing their expressions and their connections..the stillness and the moments..that’s when you really get to see them.   When I sat alone with these images, they spoke so loudly to me of all things that family should be full of.  Happiness and  laughter and encouragement and pride and more than anything, wrapped around it all, just so much love.

Here’s Part One of our time spent with a truly beautiful family in a truly breath-taking location.   Thank you Tash and Andrew, for letting me see you.

xx

Tucked Away Under // Photography

9 sentiments shared

See You At Byron.

Issue at hand:  Arranging date and location for photoshoot with client.
Minor point:    Client unavailable for one week while on vacation in unbelievably gorgeous location.
Best Solution:  Meet them there.

Natasha’s beautiful family coming up next!

xx

Tucked Away Under // Photography

22 sentiments shared

Simple.

I know, I’m always going on about being too busy and wanting simple but that’s because it’s always on my mind. But it’s not just me. We all strive for it, don’t we? In a World where a bigger house, better car and finer jewels are well dangled carrots, fundamentally, we all just really yearn for simple happiness.

As we’re getting ready to leave for a family vacation to California in two weeks, I’m thinking about just what it is I’m most looking forward to.  Of course there’s all the usual suspects that make us love our time in the US but truth be told, I’m really happy to just feel excited about going.   I’m embarrassed to admit there have been other vacations planned where the stress of abandoning the ‘to do’ list has had me declaring to the family that they should leave without me. With all seriousness, I believed it best for the rest of the Rosemeyers to take care of this family holiday business while I be left at home to get on with clearly more important things.  In my manic state of  mayhem, that seemed perfectly reasonable.  Luckily, my darling hauled my protesting, illogical butt onto that thirteen hour flight and I soon forgot the stupid list.  And you know, it wasn’t because of trips to shiny shopping malls or the endless varieties of ice cream.. It was the laying awake at night, all of us together in one room, sharing what we loved best about that day. It was the simple that made me love that holiday so very much and makes me so looking forward to going back.

While I’m grateful to just be feeling pre-vacation anticipation,  what I want, what I’m really striving for right now, is to create that simple contentment in the every day.   For a long while after losing Ava, it was impossible not to see the simple beauty in everything.  Everywhere. I didn’t have to try, it sat before all else and mattered most but it takes work to hold on to that.   It’s not realistic to completely forget about the list when there’s a business (or three) to run and chores to get done but  with or without grief in control, I never want to forget that these days, these very busy days, are also what my children will recall as their childhood.  When they sit with their partners, and their children, I want them to describe great holidays in California, but wonderful days back home too..filled with simple nothings.

So, this weekend.  We made blue playdoh with green glitter.  We cooked flour-less chocolate cake.  And salmon quiche.  We cut bunnies out of paper and stuck them on walls.  We took off our shoes and we jumped in puddles and we picked wild flowers for our hair.    All the while, we made mess and we didn’t rush and we laughed.      The most simple of days full of nothing and full of everything.   I figure I probably can’t get rid of the list but I can keep that at the top of it, right?

Beautiful weekend to you.

Sheye x

Tucked Away Under // Family, Simple Nothings

13 sentiments shared

Lea. Byron Bay.

In February, my long time friend Lea came to stay with me.  From Sydney, she arrived without her suitcase (lost in transit) and with her kindness (found in friendship).  Yes, she is kind.  And sweet and gentle and warm and genuine.  Gorgeous and funny and humble too.

We went road-tripping, interstate..eventually finding ourselves in Byron Bay.  Great sushi, gorgeous beaches, cute shops.  Annnnd,  nowhere to stay.  It was Valentines weekend and it turns out that young lovers in love took all the rooms before we got there.  So, we formed a new plan that really just said..’when all else fails, pop on a nightie and stand in a field.  Wait for some falling light and pull out a camera’.  Well, really what more do you need? (Other than a return road trip back home in the dark.)

Thank you, gorgeous girl.  You make my World brighter.  (So much so that I’ll overlook the fact that you look like that in my nightie, three children later).

xx

Tucked Away Under // Family