Solomon

My friend Barb had a baby just recently. His name is Solomon, and he is so soft and snuggly. I'm glad I have friends with babies, so I can get my baby fix! You've got to agree though, he is highly adorable.

Sisters

This is a new favourite of mine. Can you hear the giggle?

Baby Storm

It was great to catch up with Chris and Penny again after photographing their wedding a year and a half ago. Their new baby Storm needed portraits, and I was thrilled to be able to step in. Storm is such a cutie!







Chris wanted some portraits in his workshed - a very cool idea, I thought.

Mummy show-off time

Last year I took my first good portrait ever of my four boys. It only took me five years to get. I decided it wouldn't be another five years until the next portrait.

It was our family holiday. Apart from one boy needed a trip to the emergency department at the hospital, another boy getting a bee sting (his hand blew up like a balloon), and it raining/pelting down much of the time, we actually had a marvellous time. Although it meant we had to extend the trip by a day, I made sure we had time for a portrait session, even if it was cut way short by the sun going down. Here are a few photos from the session. I have other favourites too, but don't want to swamp you with proud mummy pictures.

Feedback

Thank you, Julie and Stuart, for this lovely letter.

hi Jane
Just wanted to thank you again for the amazing and beautiful photos. We've been having fun looking through them over and over. We have so many favourites I fear we will have huge amounts on our wall; there will be no wall left!
The children are just adorable the way you have taken them, capturing the essence of their inocence and the fun they had. The photos of my parents are so precious I haven't had any like these in a very long time, if any at all. You truly have gift from God and we hope you continue in your work.
Thank you for capturing the finer details that go unnoticed and are so hard to remember without the photos - now I can. Thank you for making our special day so memorable. We hope to see you in the
future.
with our best wishes and God Bless you
Julie and Stuart Reid.

Jenny and Neil

When I first met Jen two years ago while photographing her boys, I told her I'd love to photograph her wedding, as she was so gorgeous and bubbly. I'm happy to say I recently had the pleasure of doing so.
Here's a little sneak peek of your photos, Jen. I look forward to sharing the rest with you next week!

Julie and Stuart

Julie and Stuart's wedding was such a pleasure to photograph, with a plethora of gorgeous children, warm and caring family and friends, and a laidback and totally in-love couple.















Thank you, Julie and Stuart, for inviting me to be a part of your wedding day!

30% OFF Canvas Sale!

I have had so much interest in my canvas prints lately that I thought I would treat my clients with a very special 30% discount on all canvas prints purchased in August.

Can you remember when you first saw your portraits and thought that you would love to have one or more of them big on your wall as a canvas print?

I will never regret choosing to have a gorgeous 30x40 inch canvas made of my four sons. It is very special to me, and will still be special when my boys are fully grown. It is a piece of our family history now!

All GLP canvas prints are made with premium quality canvas, have a protective lacquer, and are stretched and ready to hang.

Canvas prints may be ordered from any GLP portrait session or wedding that was held between January 2004 and July 2007.

Orders must be placed and paid for by August 31st 2007 to receive the 30% OFF discount.

CANVAS PRINTS (sizes in inches)
12x18" -- usually $330 -- for August only $230 -- save $100
16x24" -- usually $440 -- for August only $310 -- save $130
20x30" -- usually $660 -- for August only $460 -- save $200
30x40" -- usually $990 -- for August only $690 -- save $300
40x60" -- usually $1300 -- for August only $910 -- save $390

I will be happy to help you with your order. You can contact me by email at jane@goldenlight.bur.st or by phone on 0428 381 712. I look forward to talking to you again soon!

Come to the Cafe

I am pleased to announce a new display of my canvas prints at Cafe 7 (Landsdale Forum, 127 The Broadview, Landsdale). It's a lovely family friendly cafe, with truly scrum-diddly-umptious food. I can thoroughly reccomend it!

Like taking candy from a baby

This portrait session was fantastic - the family was so much fun and wonderfully easy going. I can't wait to show them the full set of portraits!

Sweetness

I'm getting a little tired of using the same words all the time to describe my young clients - adorable, sweet, gorgeous, beautiful, delightful... it's all a bit sugary after a while. What I need is clients I can describe as grumpy, uncooperative, ugly or downright unpleasant, just for a change.
Unfortunately these two children were not in that category. If I commented on them I'm afraid I'd have to drag out the sugary words again. I hope I don't give anyone toothache!

Fly

As we all know, if you hold a balloon and you aren't careful, you might just float away. Right?

Only a large canvas will do

I seem to get all the clients with adorable children. Ella was no exception. I will have to have a canvas printed for my office when I have one printed for Ella's Mum and Dad, as this portrait is too perfect to pass by.


Here are some more from Ella's session:

Feedback

It's a pleasure and an honour for me to photograph such a special occasion as a wedding. It's an added bonus when I recieve emails like this. Thank you for your feedback, Grace!

Jane,
your photos are amazing. Amazing. We had so many good ones to pick from, hardly any that we could consider duds. So we had to select the best from the a great selection, and so far the best is over half the pictures! We have to go through them again to fit the so called 'best' into an album.
I want to extoll your virtues for a moment. The creativity and the way you have applied your eye to framing of each shot, shows that you are an artist, not just a person who takes pictures. I have many artist and artistic friends, all of whom have been so positive about the pictures. One friend whom I met up with recently immediately asked who my photographer was and asked for your card - which I will be passing on to her the next time I see her. (one picture reminded her of a ManRay picture!)

I can only praise God for how our wedding turned out. I think Clay was sweating it abit that we didn't have a photographer till so late in the piece. I waited because I would have rather had someone I knew, whose creativity I could trust, rather than a standard wedding photographer. It was disappointing that there is a lot photographers out there but few that really could express the heart of creativity that I desire in a photograph. When the friend of a friend I had hoped would take it (she does photography out of love, but isn't full time in it) said she couldn't do it, God provided someone even better. I was not surprised in the end to find that you are a sister in Christ! Thankyou for having compassion on us and fitting us into your holidays and into friday, your usual non work day. We are so happy with your work, and are happy to recommend you to all of our friends.

God Bless you and your family.
I just wanted to know how joyous I am when I look at the pictures.

Grace Buckley

Baby baby baby

I enjoy the cuddles as much as the photography during baby sessions. I was happy to help this little bundle get to sleep when she got tired during her session. I don't think I'll ever lose that automatic baby rocking motion!




I look forward to seeing you again when you have learnt to sit, Stella! It's a pleasure to watch you grow.

Tony and Cynthia

Tony and Cynthia were so much fun! A happy couple with a great family, tears flowed freely and hugs were readily available. The dj didn't need to work at getting the guests dancing, and Tony and the boys showed they could really move! I know brides are always lovely, but Cynthia made such a pretty bride - she never stopped smiling.

A few important details from the day -
Dress: Lisa Ho
Ceremony: Queens Gardens
Reception: Bells
Laughs: Tony and his mates

I've been gone

In March I went to the United States on a professional development trip. This is my excuse for not updating this blog (and I'm sticking to it!). The trip was a whirlwind tour of Atlanta, Boston, Milwaukee, Chicago, Peoria (Illinois), Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and Phoenix (Arizona). I stayed with photographers in each place, learning, sharing, and photographing. Each place was so different and fascinating. North, south, east, west, city, country, warm, cold - so much variety. Here are a very few random photos from along the way. I will add more as I get a chance to look through them.

Georgia - the pretty and the not so pretty:



Boston treated me to a snow storm, which was highly exciting, as I'd never experienced so much as a flake before.




Nevada and Arizona were wide, open, prickly, rocky and very very beautiful.

The Winners!

It is time to announce the winners of GLP's 2006 Portrait of the Year Competition, but first I'd like to say thank you to all the people who voted. It was an exciting competition, with the number of votes being very close all the way to the end.

And now, congratulations to the winners!

In third place, receiving a $100 GLP gift voucher, is baby Stella -- portrait #1.


In second place, receiving a 12x18 inch print (worth $150) and a free portrait session for a friend, are Immie and Xavie -- portrait #9.


In first place, receiving a 16x24 inch canvas print (worth $440) and a free portrait session for a friend, is Tekani -- portrait #8.


Congratulations again to the winners!

If you have booked a portrait session this year make sure to look out for one of your portraits in GLP's 2007 Portrait of the Year Competition in 11 months time. :)

2006 Portrait of the Year Competition

Cast your vote!

I have selected my top ten favourite portraits from sessions during the past year. (They are numbered below in this post - just scroll down.) It's now up to you to select the best image of 2006 by casting your vote. There will be prizes for the families represented in the top three portraits:

FIRST PRIZE: 16x24 inch canvas print (worth $440), plus
a free portrait session for a friend

SECOND PRIZE: 12x18 inch print (worth $150), plus
a free portrait session for a friend

THIRD PRIZE: $100 GLP gift voucher

Cast your vote by sending an email to jane@goldenlight.bur.st with VOTE and the number of your favourite portrait in the subject line. Only one vote per email address will be accepted, so tell your family and friends to come and vote too!

All voters will recieve a complimentary 8x12 inch print from sessions held between February 18th and April 30th.

Voting closes 11:59pm Wednesday 14th February. Winners will be announced Friday 16th February, 2007.

Rules and Regulations:
-- Only one vote per email address will be counted.
-- Prizes will be awarded to the portraits with the most votes respectively.
-- Free sessions must be held between February 18th and July 31st 2007
-- GLP gift voucher may be used on session fee and/or prints.
-- Prizes cannot be redeemed for cash or alternate goods. All prizes are transferrable.
-- The "free portrait session for a friend" must be used by someone other than the family represented in the winning portrait.
-- Prizes must be redeemed by 31st July 2007.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Happy voting, and remember - invite all your family and friends to come and vote, and have all your votes in by Wednesday 14th February!

Oscar

Oscar is special to me. I was there when he was born.



I was there for his first portraits.



And now Oscar is one. He has grown so quickly! I hope to meet up with you again soon, Oscar!

Three little girls

I'm not sure if I've said it before, but I love photographing girls. Having four boys myself, it's such a novelty to be able to play girly games and think pink. These three girls were a delight, and I look forward to watching them grow.

Clay and Grace

Clay and Grace chose gorgeous Shelley beach in Dunsborough as the location for their wedding. It was a real pleasure to join them there.










The mellow vocals of Jazz/Funk singer Jono McNeil (from Perth band "The Roast") set the tone for the reception.



The catering at Wise Vineyard restaurant looked fantastic. I hope you were able to sit and enjoy your meal, Grace and Clay!



Grace emailed me yesterday to say:
"...we had a wonderful day. Thank you for being so wonderful, accomodating and passionate about capturing the day. You certainly went above and beyond anything we could have expected.
Thankyou so much. We are excited about the prospect of seeing our pictures.
God Bless you
Grace"

Thank you Grace for the kind words, and I look forward to presenting you with your photos soon!

Gorgeous curves

Really, what is more lovely than the pregnant female form?

New Year's Resolutions

It's the first of January. It's unavoidable - I can't help but think about those resolutions. I have a few, although I hate to call them resolutions, as they tend to fall by the wayside if they get a label like that.

In 2007, I want to:
- Photograph my own children and family more, even if they are terrible snapshots.
- Exercise more (what sort of list would it be if it didn't have this point?).
- Treat my clients as I would want to be treated - with great service, reasonable prices and fantastic results.
- Spend more time with God, and be a friend to others.
- Update my blog more often!
- Worry less.
- Laugh lots.

For Christmas one of the things my husband and I gave our four boys were tickets to the Cat Empire concert on Dec the 28th. All six of us are big Cat Empire fans, so it was very exciting, especially as this was the first under age gig in ages (which meant the boys kept having to miss out). I took my camera, not so fussed about having photos of the band, but wanting dearly to document the boys enjoying their first rock concert. The security guards spotted me with my camera and told me to put it away or they'd confiscate it, as it was "a professional camera". I pleaded my case with them, saying I just wanted photos of my family, that I knew my boundries and wouldn't get photos of the band that were any good. They kindly turned a blind eye for the rest of the evening, and true to my resolution for this year, I got some terrible snapshots of my boys in the dim of the twilight, having a fantastic time dancing and singing to the music.





So how about you? Do you have big plans for 2007? Whatever you have in store, I wish you all the very best, full of life, love and adventure.

A delight

I make so many little friends in the course of my work. I would have liked to stay and play a lot longer with these two delightful children.