2011 in photos

Here we are at the very end of the year. Time to reflect on the year that's been. What a year! I'm looking forward to a brilliant year in 2012, but before I do I've selected a photo from each month of this year as a reflection of the year we've had.

january

We took advantage of the beautiful summer holidays by exploring much more of our city. I was introduced to the blueberry farm in Upper Hutt where we picked buckets of blueberries for pancakes and all sorts of genereal consumption.

february

February was a big month for my beautiful sister Lee. She graduated and she got married. As the best oldest sister in the world I spent a lot of time supporting her to plan the wonderful wedding. Meanwhile I took photos of her graduating - isn't she gorgeous!

march

In March I went to Australia for long-overdue holiday. It was here that I took a lot of photos, but my favourite is this one of the kids walking along to the beach.

april

I adore these pregnancy photos, there's something so serene about it. This photo shoot prompted me to do more potraits and hassle more pregnant ladies to pose for me.

may

In May Lulu turned 10 and I was honoured to attend her party as official party photographer. They went to the local indoor rock climbing place and didn't slow down once. This photo was what started my love of movement shots. I love that it shows the energy and spirit of the day.

june

In the winter I went for a mini-break to visit Mum in Australia. Her moving boxes had just arrived and the little girls loved playing inside of them. I titled this one 'My Jessie likes to hide in boxes'.

july

July saw the arrival of my new favourite person - my nephew Dorian. I was honoured to be at the hospital the day he was born and I got a cuddle when he was just half an hour old. As one of the only family members in Wellington I'm getting lots of Dorian time and I love it. He's so cute and clever and totally awesome.

august

SNOW! August was the freak snow-storm that completely blanketed the city for 3 days. I was at home sitting in front of the fire when the first snow hit. We spent the rest of the afternoon outside in our gumboots marvelling in the beauty of the snow. In all my 30 years I have never seen snow at my house like that. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

september

During the later half of the year I spent more time with my camera. I developed a new rule "always have your camera ready when you garden" and in following this rule I managed to photograph this little guy before he flew away.

october

The country was gripped with Rugby World Cup fever and we were in the finals. Just moments before the final game started I set up the camera for timed photo of all our friends gathered around the lounge in anticipation. This photo is possibly my favourite of the year. Not artistically, but for the pure sentiment of it and that it's a great photo of almost all my special friends. And in case you didn't watch - we won!

november

In November I read a tutorial on Self Potraits on another photographers blog. Not one take photos of myself I was rather fascinated and decided to give it a go. I just went with the flow and one of my faves is this one. I might challenge myself to do more self-potraits in 2012 to really work on my photography skills.

december

December has been a whirlwind month with lots of parties and work and gatherings and christmas and holidays. I really feel like doing carwheels along the beach just to express how relaxed and happy I am with the way things are shaping up for 2012, but I just don't have the balance. So, instead I photographed Jessie cartwheeling down the beach. How happy does this photo make you feel?!

Cartwheeling at the Beach

Fireworks from the Beach

From the beach this evening we watched the Huskisson Carnival fireworks display. I'm not yet any good a night photography so I wasn't able to get any clear shots (I should have taken my tripod with me). However, I do love movement and light trail photos so I went with it and came home with these photos.

Meanwhile, on the beach two men were fishing. They had a bucket and a very bright light. I couldn't help but photograph them too. Just for fun, I inverted this photo during editing. It's a bit creepy, but I like it anyway.

Pelican Point

This morning we went on a ticky tour of the local natural sights in order to show Paul who has spent a few days with us while on a break from the ballet in Sydney that he's working on. (gosh that's a long sentence, but I can't be bothered fixing it.)

The last stop on the tour was Greenwell Point, which I call Pelican Point because it seems much more fitting. The place is a fishing dock and the boats unload their hauls. The pelicans congregrate here in order to benefit from anything the fisherman throw away. I congregrate here so I can take photos of pelicans.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I photographed them in March, but here are some more that I took today. The first two were on the wrong setting and way over exposed, but I kinda like them anyway.

A Holiday Snapshot

I'm happily spending two weeks in Australia with my Mum, the grand kiddies and glorious sun.

Of course I bought my camera with me and while I haven't taken a huge amount of photos (well, huge for me is much more than the average bear, so I've probably still taken more than you or the smelly person sitting next to you). However the last few times that I was here I taught the kids how to use my camera and they have been rather taken with the notion of being able to use it and take their own photos. Here's a selection from the few they've taken so far:

These are some of the best ones they took that I've edited only slightly. With a little guidance they could really get good at this photography thing!

And here is a selection of photos I've taken so far along this holiday. Enjoy! (just don't tell me if you like the kids photos better, I'll be heartbroken, or proud that I taught them well, I'm not sure which).