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Just like that 2018 has come an gone, the years definaly don’t go any slower but this year as a family we did make more time for slow, something I am grateful for.
It was also a year for growth for us all as a family in our own individual ways. For me this included gaining a mentor, online courses and lots of BTS working on my photography and myself. Changing my studio based business to a much more relaxed and natural style, somthing more “me”. My work, and my values have always been natural and minimal, admiring the simple and prefect imprefection we are surrounded by.  I am one for quality over quantity, embracing what I love about photography and art and sharing it more freely has been a wonderfully forfilling experience. I have dug into my depths and am sharing it with you, creating space for presence, connection and truth.
Being wholehearted with myself and with you, it’s been a wonderfully forfilling gift. I can’t wait to meet all the wonderful people and families in 2019, to share in joy and togetherness uplifting spirits and practicing gratitude living lives that are filled with love and impact on those we love. Let me tell your story, show you your love and make memories that will last a lifetime.

 

Images by Sarah Black Photography (https://www.sarahblackphotography.com.au), from our session earlier this year.

 

I invited this beautiful soul to be a part of my women’s series almost a year ago, we had set a date but needed to postpone due to weather and time got away from both of us. I touched base again recently and 2 weeks later we climbed the Cathedral Ranges in country Victoria. I have known Sian for many years, growing up with her little brother. It was a really wonderful way to dig a little deeper and to see her in her element. Outdoors, is her place of peace, where she feels most at home and alive.  

In preparation for this session she asked me what to wear, I said simply “come as you”. Yes this is my project and I will be displaying my work, but the point of these sessions are for you to be yourself, to let your guard down and to open up and own your story. It’s an opportunity for me to show you and help you see how much you have achieved, to be proud of who you are. Comfortable enough to share, and be photographed, completely open minded about the process. As I share your stories from my perspective. It is truly a joy for me to combine connection and photography, to dig deep with people, to look past the facade. So when we arrived and she said I thought of packing another outfit but who climbs a mountain in nice clothes … off we went.

Sian is a person I find such ease in talking too, no matter the topic. She has seen many places in this wide world, travelling alone and with friends. She has created a niche in her career finding a place to create positive change and influence for our future generations working within the education system and gives all who come in contact with her a feeling of warmth and comfort. There is an unexplainable ease about her, which until this day climbing a mountain I thought was largely her natural state. Although a lot of it is, just how she is and how being in her energy makes you feel. She is one to comfort and please, to support and lift up, she naturally puts others before herself, without question.

In recent years life is teaching her to ask for more, to push boundaries within and ask of others what they ask of her. To expand goals and tell comfort, ‘thanks for being here but I have so much more to offer.’ To some this comes naturally, others not so much. It takes strength to find what you want and courage to ask for it.

Sian has been dependable to others who need her, a word of wisdom in moments of uncertainty without hesitation or judgement. Life presented Sian with questions of her own she was not sure she could ask out loud, but internally searched for the answers. It’s often those things that are unspoken that shape us the most, trying to find answers without context, untold stories and confusion as the outer world tells us one thing, our personal experiences another and a little voice inside seeking the truth.

It also takes courage to seemingly stand alone; we are constantly surrounded by social norms, even though our hearts and eyes know better, we still have this tug to conform. Having all aspects of lives advertised to us constantly through social media, shopping outlets and unintentionally, the people we are surrounded by.

Being a female in your thirties, there is still a societal expectation you will settle down, have children, marry, find comfort in another whom you will share your life with. These social ideals are still strongly present in our lives. Even though we encourage others to ‘be you, follow your own path, and normal is boring…’ blah blah.  

Do we really believe it, in our core? It is truly part of our values to accept everyone for who they are and appreciate that life has a different plan for us all?

As friends and family move in together, marry, have children and follow their own path, prompt questions like ‘when will you find someone?, are you looking?, what are your plans for a family?’  and so on. It shines a light on the fact that we still think these things are a part of growing up, that we need to set goals for relationship statuses, not for happiness and space to find our passions and values as we navigate this time here. No two paths are exactly alike, finding the whole within is still a new concept. Some learn it young, but most don’t and we find ourselves looking to others to fill spaces and create light. While creating a self that is whole should really be a priority. Accepting that we can and will change several times within this life, and asking someone to come along for the ride, is truly a commitment to the unknown.

Achievements come in many forms and are different for us all, receiving acelade for sport, education, workplaces etc are wonderful and commendable, but to achieve comfort and happiness to seek to give, share and be a person of integrity and courage in this world I believe may be the most understated achievement of all. We can only give what we have and I as many others am grateful to receive her unique perspective.

Here I shared a story, with many many different facets of a woman who has received traditional accolades in many areas, but who’s life differs from the majority. One that’s really only beginning with trust to lean into the hard, as great things never come from comfort zones. Trust yourself innately. If nature is where you need to be then go, sit, recharge and take on the world tomorrow as life has a plan beyond us, but some plans are made to be broken.

 

Honest Magic.. What is it?

It’s you and it’s me, it’s Honest and it’s seeing that being authernically you, you are Magic.
It is creating space for life, as you want it to be. Filled with honesty, with moments created in presence and love. Finding the things that make you, you and celebrating. For it truly is magic.

We live in a fast pased world, it’s busy and competitive. We watch others highlight reels daily on social media and set goals to do, be, feel like someone else. I am about switching off, looking within and being grateful for all you have and all you are. Seeing that each freckle on you skin was drawn on by a day in the sun, each scar is a momento of a lesson learned, every stray hair a piece of your soul reaching out and forging it’s own path.

Honest Magic is what I want to create with you and your most precious things. Where you let your hair down, hug like you don’t know when you’ll see them again, whisper your dreams, laugh til it hurts and end the session knowing you filled your own cup and the cups of those around you.

Honest Magic is you and it’s me, it’s what my sessions are all about and you will be able to soak up each time you look at your photographs.

 

 

 

In the current day, we live so much of our lives online. Wether it be sharing our space, kids, lifestyle or just glancing at those who do. As well as art and poetry and small local brands. Social media can be a wonderful place, it has provided me with words of encouragement, friendships, a way of communicating with and sharing my work to you all.

However it also comes with a pressure of perfection including having the perfect home. One filled with bespoke items, or artworks from a certain shop, rugs, homewares, the latest furniture the list goes on. But in reality we don’t need these things and some we don’t even want,  it just seems like the thing to do. This pressure for perfection, the comparison game has us closing our doors to people, evaluating our finances to find money for new things and feeling less, when really the space you live in is special and unique because it’s yours it has your things, your memories across the walls. Each room has a story of you to tell, each corner holds a memory of a moment, that’s uniquely yours.

I recently photographed a beautiful family as they welcomed their new little boy, in their home. Unfinished walls,  bare and some unpainted. But these are the walls they call home. The space their children wake to each morning, and sleep within each night. It may be a work in progress but it’s their space, changing as they and their children do. On this day it, their home as it was when they brought their newest edition home, as he grows and changes the house no doubt will too. As do all our houses, renovations or not.

The point is that your space does not have to be perfect to be special. It does not have to resemble the images you scroll past daily, or even how you wish it to look when it’s finished. It doesn’t have to be  “Instagram” prefect, it just has to be your home, where you feel most relaxed and where your memories are made. The images created in the space are about you, your love and your life. Not your home, and as you can see here, it really doesn’t matter.

 

Sandy toes, salty hair, the sea breeze touching your skin, these things make me feel alive.

To know we are apart of something so much bigger than ourselves.

A few weeks ago I met this beautiful family in their favourite spot. It was such a treat for the soul, to make tangible memories, creating space for play, for togetherness and a to soak up each other.

Toward the end of this beautiful evening Kate spoke to me about how before they had arrived they were tense, the morning hadn’t gone as planned (in my family life they rarely do). They were all feeling it, excited and nervous, rushed and not sure what to expect from our time together. After 15 just minutes with no where else to be but together on the beach, they relaxed.

Playing games of soccer, running, jumping, fun with dog Scout and splashing in the shallows. This for me is a HUGE part of what I love about my sessions. Yes photos are definitely my thing, my house is filled with art that is us, but there is something special about setting aside time to just be. To hug your kids and tell them they are special and why. To really gaze into your partners eyes and realise all you have achieved together and the things that brought you here. Being fully present in the moment with nowhere and nothing on your mind. The pure joy this family and I felt in these few hours, in their happy place made the whole day one for the memory books. One looked back on now with so much more love as sadly dog Scout past shortly after our session.

These precious memories, capturing this season in their lives, to look back on for years to come and remember how soul enriching it was to have one another and be together.