Meet the fabulous Rachel Marie. She is an aspiring lifestyle blogger and this is a sneak peek of our first shoot together. Needless to say the camera and her are a great pair and we had a whole lot of fun shooting. There is something magical that happens when two creatives get together to create images, content, and experiments! So excited about this collaboration and about this girl and her dreams!
Sophie, Sophie, Sophie. This beauty is my most faithful model. Cabin fever seems to hit both of us at the same time around here, which works fantastic for quick photo walks around our neighbourhood. Redding is finally starting to look like fall and we're working on getting it to feel like fall. The temperatures have been stubbornly sitting in the high 20s (celsius) but just today the scarves and sweaters are out. It'll probably be short-lived but we're on our way there.
This morning I got to do a very fun shoot with some wonderful ladies here at a medical practice in Redding. Yesterday I was in a brainstorming meeting for a creative project I am a photographer for. As we were throwing around concepts, our discussions spanning from composition and Cereal magazine to efficiency and systems, I found myself thinking about how much I love photographing people. The ability of a portrait to tell a person's story is powerful, the depth of beauty captured in eyes, the subtle difference between a smile and a I-just-remembered-a-camera's-there smile.
Today all of this came crashing together in a moment that I'm pretty sure will become a story my children and grandchildren will hear about. This morning I showed a lady the photo I had just taken of her. She had previously been nervous about the shoot as she didn't enjoy having her photo taken I watched in wonder as she caught her breath and tears welled up in her eyes as she saw herself and realised for the first time just how beautiful she is.
This is why I do what I do.
And finally. There's been a long hiatus here and I'd like to put that down to moving back across the world to California and school starting. The last six weeks of being back in Redding have been some of the best and most important of my life. I plan to be doing heaps more fun shoots with friends here and set a schedule to be posting up here to keep this baby alive!
Now that's done, Shi Ern and Jason. I met Shi Ern on my very first day of school. She lived up the road and was introduced to me as 'the Singaporean neighbour you'll go to school with'. There are many stories to tell about the five years that followed thanks to all the time spent together at our high school's Christian group (way cooler than it sounds) and choir rehearsals. This girl is a beautiful musician, vocalist, youth leader, daughter, and a steady, solid friend. I could go on and on.
Fast forward a number of years and here we have this amazing girl engaged and ready to get hitched to her dynamic man, Jason. He loves her so well. I could not be more excited for these two. I guarantee they will be a prime example of what it looks like when two incredible people coming together exponentially explodes into something world-changing. Cheesy, but seriously.
We grabbed a couple of hours three days before I left New Zealand, driving to the tune of Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud. The wind was perfect and we had so much fun - these two are naturals. I may have mentioned that modelling was a definite back-up career option. I mean, look at them.
About three weeks ago, a scrumptious English tea party was thrown in honour of a wonderful friend, essentially big sister, of mine. A perfect fit for a regal, powerful woman. As you can imagine, there were scones galore, clotted cream flown in from England, and an endless flow of tea served in perfectly mismatched tea sets. I don't think too many photos from the party will end up here but oh, it was lovely.
Sorry for the hiatus here! It's been a busy last few weeks and now I'm back in Redding, CA ready to start another life-changing adventure-year at BSSM. A couple of days before I left, I got the absolute privilege of doing an engagement session with my friend of 11 years, Shi Ern, and her fiancé Jason. Here's a sneak peek! So excited about this session. Also, how gorgeous is Shi Ern? Seriously.
On Saturday evening, close to 400 people from all over Auckland gathered at the Baptist Tabernacle for Love This City, an event which sent us out into various parts of the central city to do random acts of kindness, have meals and spend time with the homeless, thank security guards and bus drivers for doing what they do, and just love on our city with zero agenda. It was one of the best nights ever!
Two moments totally blew me away. First, I was almost reduced to tears when I was on the upper level of the Baptist Tabernacle photographing the crowd below. It blew my mind to see so many people come from so many different places without 'church agendas', without any labels, but simply just to do this one thing together. Secondly, it is pretty hard to beat the squeals of total strangers who three minutes prior were just going about their night and were now showered with gifts completely out of nowhere.
I am so grateful for people like Tim and Jenna who are prime examples of what it looks like to dream for a city and to lead well.
Saturdays are usually busy around here with counselling sessions, meetings, band practices happening - all the things the weekdays have no space for. So it was a rare and welcome treat for five out of six of us living in this house to make it out for a quick lunch treat. My taste buds were singing thanks to these perfectly poached eggs. I quickly discovered in America that poached eggs on the menu really mean poorly boiled eggs. So these last four weeks here in Auckland, I remain eternally grateful for the reliable, tasty cafe scene and poached eggs that are really poached eggs.
