Portrait of my children in 2017 - Six

For the 6th portrait together session, we  took pictures in those familiar and loved places of  where we live. Before we leave it. But to make it a little more fun, we found the coolest prop! I'm not sure what they are called but the kids surely had fun with them:First part is the little terrace in front of our house where we had lunches during the summer and is a good place to play as soon as the weather allows. We of course then had to go to the garden to take some pictures too. Because we had so much fun in it over the months and the seasons. This might no show here, but this garden is so lush and full of treasures.Do you like butter (I mean glitter)? I think you do!ok we might need to cut the grass a little but otherwise, what's the fun in it? And now it's time to take those two out to our favourite beach:The one we spent many hours at after school in August and September.We are so going to miss that proximity with the sea!And last but not least, we took just one picture in the forest. Lidingö has some pretty nice ones. And it can really have magical light in there just like when I took the woodland fairy tale pics: Oh yes. One last of the beach. Just because.Eliott has gotten an idea for the next portrait session and I can't wait to start shooting that too! It's good to be able to look forward :)   

Portrait of my children in 2017 - Five

We did a little experimentation for this 5th portraits together once a month session. With lights and darkness. The result isn't what I expected but as far as experiments go, I can still be pretty happy. Once again, it was too cold and you can probably see that on Eliott's face or body language. But still, it was fun:“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and SpeechesSo we had the lights. Now here is to hope that there is love too between those two ;)I tried to experiment with light after my findings with the coach I saw and talked about in Woodland reveries, the third portrait of them this year. I love to try to seek a bit of magic in photography and in life and light is the best way to do it. I'm always compelled to pictures that have some interesting, amazing,  beautiful lights. And I hope that wherever they go, whatever they do, they'll have love and light to guide them throughYou can see the heart shape right? This session didn't run out like I had imagined when I started saving pictures on my pinterest. But it was still an interesting step forward, what do you think?I hope you enjoyed it. Till the next portrait! Meanwhile,  let me know what you think. 

Easter in the Morvan - part 2 (Portrait of my children in 2017- four)

Second part of the Easter in the Morvan series. There will be a third! It is also the fourth "Portrait together" of the year. This one is all about the egg hunts in the garden.  So for once it's a a little mix of them together and the chocolate frenzy part too. I have had little inspiration lately as my mind was focused somewhere else. But now I'm back and hopefully, I'll have great ideas for the portrait series. But first, chocolate. First the hunt:She looks unhappy but actually, they had quite good catches I would say:What do you say? I think there was a bit of a chocolate overload but it didn't show too much in their behaviour this time. Growing up? Yes. And way too fast!And so that leads to a bit more of the portrait series:This was more posed than usual. They were too excited about eating all the treasures from the hunt:And for something completely different: we did the same as last year with egg natural dyes and flowers. We used blueberries, red cabbage, red onions, turmeric and beetroots. The best were the blues. The recipes I used are in the blog post from last year. I just pre-cooked everything this time and let the eggs soak over night but if you want to have different shades, just leave them at different time rates. I used tights to stick the flowers. If you wet them a little first, it will then be easier to put the tight over.  The blueberries and red cabbage ones are always the best I find:(Spotted: Lily painted one of those eggs in black and glitter)      

Woodland reveries (Portrait of my children in 2017- three)

I have to find where to take my photography. I have always loved looking for the light and I am always eager to learn more. When the ordinary becomes magic in a picture, it makes my heart skip a little. Robert Schumann said : “The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart” and I'm hoping to reach that stage at some point.In the meantime, taking baby steps, I was suggested by an amazing coach to take my children into a fairy tale story. Because, yes, I love fairy tales (Im making my coming out here). They take you to places, they make you see the world in a different way, they bring the light and the magic. Also, they tell you about how the world and our lives actually are. You learn a lot with them. But in a beautiful way. Just like photography.So why not doing the 3rd monthly portrait project as a fairy tale? Creatures of the woods, half real, half magic. Seeking each other, transforming into fairies, ice queens or animals. Something about Narnia. And my kids just said yes.He was a prince, but then also a wolf. She was an ice queen but then also a woodland fairy. Let your imagination wander. There is always a moment in the story when things get scary. But there is so much magic in the woods...And the reverie starts again, the fairies fill the place:The prince disappeared into the forest to reappear again as a wolf in our garden, but the little fairy snow princess wasn't afraid. On the contrary, she wanted to play.I dont think she realised that there was an angry wolf behind her. Probably because he isn't that angry. And also, she can manage. She believes in magic!They are always cute when they sleep.But also when they smile. Friends in dreamland."Some day you will be old enough to read fairy tales again" C.S. Lewis. It's time!Maybe one day I'll photograph your kids and make some magic too. What do you say?                   

Portraits of my children in 2017- two

Second portraits series for the year. I did the first one in January and as I promised, it's once a month instead of once a week. It's more posed this time, but it was equally fun. . We will go with the flow.They are proposing too which makes it quite fun. There might be less posing and more colours. If you want to see them in some ways or another, make proposals, we are all ears! (outtakes (many) below of course)All the poses are actually their idea. I only just slightly direct them about the light. Just so you know. We also tried something else. But it was less good:We liked it less, so they came back to the original idea:Eliott had to place a Dab, stopped ultimately by his sister:And sometimes they might (but only ever so slightly) want to shoot the photographer too:As a little bonus, portraits taken during the month of February that have nothing to do with this session:

Portraits of my children in 2017- one

This year, I'll be taking portraits of them together. Probably once a month or maybe more. I'll try to make them all in black and white. Or not. There should be outtakes too!