Taste of Christmas in the rain.

If you were to paint a picture of an Australian Christmas it would involve hot days, warm nights, swimming, barbecues and endless sunshine.

Come Saturday, or the day of the local Christmas pageant, and we were exposed to a very different Christmas scenario.

The magician who kept the young ones amused while waiting for the start.

Instead of applying sunscreen to squirming faces, umbrellas were spotted amongst the crowd as mummas, papas and grandparents alike tried their best to shield their children from the rain. But of course, come rain or shine, there is nothing that can keep the Christmas spirit from circulating the crowd when the carols start floating in the air. (Note: man standing in pouring rain, with a huge smile plastered on his face that could only be put there when Mariah Carey starts booming through the speakers with 'All i want for Christmas is you.')

Finding the perfect spot

The magic of Christmas to a child was more than noticeable on Saturday when every single parent or care giver was huddled under shelter, while their children were in the rain. They were sacrificing dry and warm clothes just for the opportunity to be that much closer to the festivities or that much more likely to score the lollies and candy off of the clowns passing by. Dedication i tell ya, dedication that only a child could have.

I have to admit though, Christmas is my absolute favourite time of the year. The atmosphere is always unbelievable, and despite the dreary weather on Saturday the atmosphere at the pageant did not disappoint. I stood holding everyone's jackets, and hats and water bottles and uneaten snacks, and in the process of doing so must have looked so apart of the 'mum and dad' crowd that a man walked right on up to me and offered me a flier which read: 'Mother's club: Christmas edition - helping mum's buy the perfect gifts.' I like to think I smiled politely and took it but in reality i probably gave the poor guy a 'dude, I am 17, I'm not their mother, I'm just the babysitter!' face.

The young boy who sat in the rain for the entirety of the pageant.

 

Little drummer girl.

So let me be honest. I think I enjoyed the taste of Christmas a whole lot more than some of the children on Saturday and I am fine with that. I found myself more than once waving at the floats, then realised I'm meant to be the adult here. I later also realised that most of the adults around me were doing the exact same thing. And later, we sang along to carols and clapped when the bands came past and it all felt pretty ideal.

Like someone once told me, 'never fail to find the good in your days.'

We found spirit and excitement in wet and dreary

Christmas is on it's way, and I couldn't be happier. Here's to carols, christmas lights and late night gift wrapping.

XX

Young Ones.

I wrote the following piece just under two years ago, and re-found it today:

What is youth? 

It is swinging from a leafless tree, whose life has been sucked from within it, but as you glide, feeling on top of the world?

It is leaping eagerly into nature’s soaked floor, free of cares and worries, dancing and floating about in the exquisiteness of the dirt and grime?

To be overcome briefly with Autumn’s problems which the Winter’s rain will so quickly wash away, almost as fast as the dark cloud arose.

Laughing with your head thrown back and eyes closed, enveloped in an endless bliss with no over hanging clock.

To see through eyes over flowing with purity, witnessing only the beauty in the night sky and the good in the evil.

A youthful soul is captured in a drift of innocence, colourful life and uncontrollably endless love weaving it’s way among you, until time eventually takes it’s unpredictable course (life itself.) In your existence, time will alter the colour of life, just as it reduces one’s ability to love wildly.

The beginning of that unpredictable course, provides an undying pleasure, but so it does shields ones eyes of the bitterness of the unripened fruit.

Insistent that you know the ways of the world, a heavy heart you will soon obtain, when you trust too many and ignore the wise.

Decisions that are given no thought and agreed to just too quickly, will land you on an undesired path.

But eventually it’s certain, you’ll somehow, almost certainly find your way back to home and heart.

To be youthful is a choice, made consciously by our inner child that unlike hope, never fades. It’s an escape from retched reality, a choice to see life through different eyes. It is to jump in mud puddles but dream of oceans, to be old on the outside but young at heart.

No matter how much you try to deny or conceal it, youth is a voice, waiting for you to revisit it, waiting for you to see the beauty again.

Youth can last forever, it hides in the crevice of your heart, awaiting your call.

But it’s an altered youth.

The beauty remains but the new youth is graced with scars.

Some deep and some shallow, lessons learnt and love lost, but like diamonds youth can last forever.

Young people see the world so differently.

Hold onto youth fiercely as if it is your most valuable possession. It may even be so. 

Images from a shoot last week with Kate Cameron-Smith (aka Gemma Ward/Miranda Kerr/Dakota Fanning look a like) and the divine Patrick Fahey.

Special thanks to Amelia Fahey for the transportation to nowhere land and entertainment.

XX 

ps - More images found at the Facebook Page

Requiem on Water

Listen to this piece of love while you read if you wish. 

Sometimes when i edit, i listen to a particular song on repeat.

 

 

12 songs you should download:

1. Slow Dancing in A Burning Room (Live Version) - John Mayer

2. For Annabelle - Band of Horses

3. Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons

4. Madame Joy - Van Morrison

5. Turning Page - Sleeping At Last

6. Together - Tom Tuena

7. Circle In The Square - Marcus Foster

8. Stray Dog - Robert Pattinson

9. Requiem On Water - Imperial Mammoth

10. Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine 

11. Promise This (Cover) - Adele

12. Let It Be Me - Ray LaMontagne

As night falls after a day spent shooting, should you be in my house, you will find yourself subject to the repetitive loop of my 'photo editing playlist' coming from iTunes. I can sit for hours and bump up the exposure, or convert to black and white, or lessen the contrast or modify the colouring of images - in fact; it is sky high on the list of 'things i love to do.' Bumped just above spending a warm night by the pool, and just under going out for coffee, editing images has quickly become one of my favourite things to do.

More images from the shoot here.

Love,

XX

I am d-o-n-e.

It’s 9.21am and I can hear various elements of the neighbourhood pass me by. I hear a gardener, the soft hum of the mailman on his way to carry out his morning duties and several cars passing by my street, each and every one on their way to something different. Blue skies with smatterings of cloud. Normalcy. Perfect normalcy.
I, on the other hand, am sitting here…trying to tell you what I am feeling simply by what I can see. If i had to sum it up, it would involve something like running and dancing through a field to the tune of a mash up of both ‘the start of something new’ and ‘I’m walking on sunshine.’

There are really no words to eloquently put how it feels to finish school. After so many hours of reading theory, writing, marking, testing and re-doing it all again for exams, finishing it all is by far the sweetest strawberry in the punnet. And I’m savouring every bite. (Ha, cheeeee-eesy, but oh so true.)

And at this moment, I am still in the stage where every couple of hours or so, i will remember that I am finished with school and the exhilarating feeling courses through my body once again. The prospect of ‘No, sorry’ ‘I cant,’ ‘I will’ being replaced with ‘Yes, I can, I am’ is still settling into my confused self, and it feels good to say ‘Why yes, yes i can.’

Like yesterday. Just hours after my handing up my psychology exam, Isabel Wilson and I decided to celebrate with a shoot. It lasted 40 minutes on a rooftop car park. Cue the rain, and shoots over, folks. However, sometimes shoots like work out the best.
     
We drove home in the pouring rain, listening to Angus and Julia Stone while i came to that realization all over again that i can do this as much as i want now. Freedom. Quick to ignite and slow to burn. A feeling so strong that i wanted to leave my car at the intersection and lie in the rain like so:

You’ll be seeing this blog updated far more, i promise. However more updates are found at my Facebook Page. So head on over there to stay in touch.
Much love and thanks,
XX