If you are a photographer and aren’t a fan of the Propaholics Facebook page yet, now is a good time to do it!

Propaholics are having a give away!!

They have just released their new line of newborn girl head jewellery “Bebé Jewels”, they are simply divine and add a little bit of magic and extra beauty to the shot without taking away from the newborn.

So far they have the tear drop pearl design, the vintage range, a golden diamontes design and a crystal Bebé Jewel design to swoon over, but they are about to release a new and exciting one and YOU have the chance to WIN it!

All you have to do is ‘like’ the Propaholics Facebook page then come back here and comment on this post with what you think the new release will be? It’s that simple!
The first person who answers correctly and is a fan of the page will win it!

Now head on over to Propaholics on Facebook to check out the range and see if you can guess what the new one will be!

If nobody can guess in a few days we will give a clue… Put your thinking caps on!

I have had this bag a little while now, so it has stood quite a test with me thus far and I can only say ‘WOW!’

This bag is not only stylish and pretty to look at, it fits all my expensive equipment in securely and everything is so easy to access, LOADED with pockets for everything you can think of and being made from Genuine Leather, it is so durable and tough! Now, I work A LOT! This bag has come on family sessions, weddings and personal adventures with me for months and it still looks brand new! No scuff marks, no holes, no tears, no worries!

I have a pocket for my phone, a pocket for my contracts, a pocket for my business cards, a pocket for my keys, a pocket for my purse, a pocket to store some filters, a pocket for my wireless flash remotes and removable barriers to pack my camera body and lenses depending on what I am taking with me on the day. The shoulder strap is comfortable and I sometimes even chuck the handles over my shoulder if I have overloaded the bag to make it even more comfortable to carry.


I LOVE IT! It’s functional, it’s stylish, the colour goes with everything and now even comes in a range of colours… including PURPLE! It is the perfect bag for any chic photographer to tote along to sessions, extremely well made, I can’t fault it! I’m super excited to see what comes out next from Shutter Bag, being a Aussie company, it ticks all boxes for me and is a company I will definitely keep an eye on for new products!

http://www.wordsarenotenough.com.au

My name is Ethan! I am almost 3 years old and I am on the Autism Spectrum.
I look just you, but the way I think is different. My brain is wired different to yours. Big crowds and loud noises frighten me. You might think I am misbehaving because the only way I know how to react is by screaming, flapping my hands and crying, but really, I just don’t know how to handle such an overwhelming sensation.
My senses go into overdrive with smells, sounds and feelings, sometimes it gets a bit too much for me and I need to get away.
I don’t relate well to kids my own age, so I may come across as being shy. I won’t look people in the eye unless I know them very well, so you might think I am ignorant or rude. Sometimes kids might tease me because I don’t know how to play or they just won’t play with me, so I often play alone.
Most kids love parties, but I don’t like them at all. I will cling to my Daddy and won’t let go until most of the guests have gone. When people sing happy birthday to me I get scared and cry.
I don’t sleep very well, I never have. I often wake with night terrors and cry or scream.
I don’t like textures of certain foods. My favorite foods are things like, baby chips (french fries), baby toast (3 fingers of toast with Vegemite), pasta, rice, cheese, bread and sometimes apples. My Mummy and Daddy have been working very hard to make me interested in food, so I have recently started to eat bacon and might sometimes try a vegetable, but I won’t eat meat.
I have long hair because I don’t like having my hair cut, I scream and move around a lot making it too dangerous to have scissors around, so we have long waits between visits to the hairdresser.
I have an obsession with transport vehicles, I have a collection of cars that I love! I can take a backpack of 50+ cars out with me and if I leave one behind, I will know exactly which one and I won’t know how to handle the situation! I will be very upset!
I have severe separation anxiety, I don’t stay over night anywhere much because of this. I still cry everyday I go to day care, even though I do love going and have fun there and have been going for two years now.
I need routine to follow. Everything has to be a certain way, I need to drink from a certain cup and use a particular spoon. I line things up in order of colour, it’s usually my car collection, but sometimes I do it with my fruit salad instead of eating it. If we start going a different route to day care I get so overwhelmed and panic. This can make life a little difficult for my family sometimes, but they do what they can to make it easier for me.
I have 3 brothers who love me so much! But sometimes we can’t do fun things they like to do because of how it affects me. They love swimming at the beach in summer, but I am afraid of water and cry the entire time.
I am scared of the bath. Bath time has been such a challenge, but my Mummy kept trying and now I am starting to get use to it and I enjoy having a bath with my baby brother now…. sometimes…
I don’t understand emotions and feelings. Sometimes my Mummy gets mad at me and I laugh, which makes her more mad and makes me laugh more and I don’t know why she is mad? If someone is crying, it frightens me because I don’t like the noise. My reaction is to hit them to make them stop and sometimes I cry myself because I’m so confused. I have no empathy.
At day care we have been learning about feelings, so I am trying to understand. One day I will get there, but I need to work hard to learn the things that come naturally to everyone else.
Some other people like me can’t talk, but fortunately I can. Even though I can talk I still have trouble communicating sometimes, which can become very frustrating. I am learning lots of new words all the time and sometimes they get muddled, my family think it’s cute, but I get annoyed when they don’t understand me. Sometimes I break things because I can’t stop all these feelings I feel, but I don’t mean to.
I am very active! Sometimes too active, I have bouts of energy that I can’t control and I run and jump and scream. You might think I’m just a naughty kid, but really I’m just overstimulated and I don’t know how to calm myself down or process all the information that my brain learned in that day. It’s exhausting for my family.

My Mummy and Daddy have always known there was something different about me, but they couldn’t quite put their finger on it. When I was just an hour old my Mummy got a text message on her phone and the beeping noise frightened me so much, it took a bit to calm me down, my Mummy has kept her phone on silent mode ever since because it affected me so bad. They wondered why I would hardly sleep and I get sick all the time. Even the doctors didn’t know.
We only just started our journey down the Autism road 6 months ago and since my Mummy and Daddy have found out they have been able to help me. Day care have been working very hard with me too. All of this extra help with understanding feelings and learning about friends and how to play with other kids has helped me to grow, I have even started to tell my Mummy and Daddy I love them, something I would never do before. I am very smart, so I am picking it up quickly and will one day grow up to be seen just like you are, but I need 25-40 hours per week of therapy to help me get there. There is no cure for what I have. Discipline doesn’t fix my behaviour. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. My treatments cost a LOT of money. My Mummy says I am her million dollar child, as it will cost so much to help me to be more like my brothers, but with the right help I will grow up well, I will have friends, I will finish school and get a job. I will one day be just like you, but with a few little quirks that I will learn to control.

Other than that I am just a normal kid! I love cars, books, puzzles, drawing and singing. Just like other boys my age.

There are thousands of people on the Autism Spectrum, all wanting to be understood and needing to learn basic emotions and how to control them to make life easier for them and their families, but so many don’t get the help they need. It DOES make a difference! We need more Autism centres in each state so we can all thrive, but it all costs so much money and the public system has a very long waiting list, some people wait for years! Early intervention is the key! Many miss the early intervention so they have to work harder, but I am lucky, my parents picked it up early and had me tested straight away and it made all the difference.

Chances are, in your life time you will come across one or more children and adults who are on the spectrum. Some you may not even know it. Before judging someone’s parenting or labelling a child as ‘naughty’ think first… They might be on the Autism Spectrum and needing extra care.

Awareness is what will help us to integrate into society, the more people who understand how we are feeling and the less people who judge us, the easier our lives will be. We don’t want sympathy, only understanding and compassion so we feel that we fit in. So please share my story and spread the word wide for me and everyone like me!

If you have services to help Autism families, please feel free to leave your website in the comments below to help these families find you

If you would love to learn more about newborn photography and how to run a newborn photography business then this workshop is for you!

Our Newborn Photography Workshops are now available to photographers Australia wide who are looking to fine tune their posing techniques
or who aim to narrow their business towards newborns and babies under the age of one.

It is an intensive two day workshop covering the following;

Using natural light
Studio set up
Newborn safety
Newborn posing – including the hanging sling pose, the heads-up pose and posing with parents/siblings
Set changes and session flow
Session styling
Baby posing 6-12mths
Camera technique – how to get it right in camera
Marketing – how to attract clients and how to keep them coming back
Our preferred suppliers – you will have the opportunity to see and touch our range of products available to our clients
Business strategies – including accounting programs, online proofing galleries and contracts
Business etiquette – what to say to your clients and what not to do
Pricing – how to price yourself to run a successful business
Post processing with Photoshop and Lightroom – including creamy baby skin and composites for baby safe poses
The in depth post-processing part of the course will be run by Carly of Bedrock Photography.

Manual shooting knowledge is assumed and basic photoshop knowledge would be beneficial.
Workshops are held in our natural light studio in Adelaide, but we are accepting photographers Australia wide.
Each student will have the opportunity to photograph our baby models, take notes and ask questions.
Lunch is provided on both days and all students are invited to a dinner on the first night with us, where we can further discuss what was learned
on the first day and troubleshoot scenarios you have been faced with in the past.
So if you are ready to take the next step to becoming a Fine Art Newborn Photographer, please contact us to register!

Our next workshop will be held on the 9th and 10th July 2012. If you are interested to find out more, please contact us by email and register.
Our classes are limited to 5 students to ensure all students receive adequate attention and all questions are answered,
we have already had a huge response so seats won’t last!

We are also seeking vendors who would like to feature in our workshops.

Please email info@newbornphotographyworkshop.com.au to express your interest.

www.wordsarenotenough.com.au
www.newbornphotographyworkshop.com.au

“Love is like a friendship caught on fire: In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love become as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.” ~ Bruce Lee

The more weddings I do, the more I love them! All so unique and individual, each reflecting the couple starring in it and their love for each other….

Such a beautiful day with a wonderful couple. So much detail and effort went into making this day perfect and I was fortunate enough to be a part of it! From the little vintage touches to the delicious food, it was fantastic! And what a great bunch of people involved!

Thank you both so much Pete and Sopharl for letting Carly and I be involved, we had a wonderful time! I hope you enjoy your images and your new journey in life together as a married family!

He couldn’t take his eyes off her…

Lovely Ladies….

www.wordsarenotenough.com.au

Well my babies have been sick for over a week, so I am a little behind in my P52, but I am trying to catch up in between edits of my past few sessions.

This image made me smile when I uploaded it. It is so true to my little boy, exactly what he is like and who he is. Cheeky, fun and shy. He just loves it when the delivery man rings our door bell. He races to the door each time, though today he knew the parcel was for him! He got quite upset that the last one was for me, so I let him pick a toy online so that he would get the next one
He tore it open and yelled with delight “MY FWOGGY IS HERE, MY FWOGGY IS HERE!!! I LOVE MY FWOG!”
So I thought I would share in his excitement with a photo! I love these memories

www.wordsarenotenough.com.au

From your little fuzz head, to your gummy grin,
To your curious fingers and baby soft skin,
Your chubby legs and infectious giggle,
The way you bounce, jump and wriggle,
The cute noises you make and your smell so sweet,
To your cute little toes at the ends of your feet,
I love everything about you and all that you do,
I am so lucky, my baby is you!

~ Danielle

Baby Cruz 8mths – Testing out the new studio

More and more often amateur photographers are attempting unsafe poses with newborns without training. Please if you want to do newborn photography, start off sticking to safe poses in a firm beanbag, with a spotter, until you can be trained by a professional in how to do poses safely and you know how to use Photoshop effectively. These images are not as they seem. Unfortunately, it seems a newborn has to die or be seriously injured before something will be done about this.
I know I have done several posts on this and many other trained photographers have also, but with the cost of DSLR cameras lowering, so many people are jumping on the photography bandwagon with no training. While photography is fun and a great hobby, having a photography business is something else entirely! It’s more than clicking a button on a camera and using fancy props. You need to have the business sense, people skills and training in your field! One injured baby at the hands of a photographer is too many and this practice should be stopped.
If you are interested in being a newborn photographer it is best you seek out a newborn photography workshop such as ours, that covers the poses you want to achieve in the style you want for yourself.
It is important to educate Mum’s and Dad’s also, so they can tell when their baby is not being handled by a professional. Parents put so much trust in us when we photograph their greatest possessions, sometimes they may not feel the right to speak up, but parents have more right than the photographer in what is done with their child!
The cost of a Professional Newborn Photographer may be higher, but the safety of your new baby is worth it!

As you can see in the top image here, baby Charlie is fully supported the entire time, only lifted slightly over a full sized bean bag and the sling is tied in a knot around Dad’s hand as he grips on to it. Babies should never be left to hang, especially not above a hard surface or from a tree and please ensure the head is supported. A extra few minutes in Photoshop keeps the baby safe! Please share, this message needs to get out.

On a side note: If you happen to come across an image on Facebook or a blog etc, with a newborn image that looks unsafe, kindly email the photographer and express your concern in a nice manner and point them to posts such as this one that will educate them for the future. Bashing on their page isn’t necessary, we can still get the message out without being nasty.

Let’s get the message out to prevent any injuries of newborns and babies.

For more information on our Newborn Photography Workshops please visit www.newbornphotographyworkshop.com.au or email info@newbornphotographyworkshop.com.au

www.wordsarenotenough.com.au

Bath times with our two year old has always been a challenge, so I have resorted to bathing our two babies in our laundry tub every night…
Fortunately our youngest LOVES the bath, always splashing around and squealing about! This is him enjoying the water… bubbles out the nose and all hehe