January « 2009 « Heartstory: Canberra baby & child photography by Katie Kolenberg

Archive for January, 2009

January in Photos [part five]

January 30, 2009

29.01.2009

Another of our bedtime rituals (not usually observed by Mumma-with-Camera). Every night my husband reads Toby a story, and then I read him his special bedtime book (Time for Bed by Mem Fox–I’ve read that story to Toby every single night since he was about 5 months old! It’s been wonderful watching him change in his response to it as he’s gotten older, from learning how to turn the pages to pointing at the animals to making animal sounds and most recently kissing the little girl on the last page and waving goodnight).

My husband is reading Toby a book by author/illustrator Wendy Binks called ‘Stripey’, all about a family of emus. Toby loves it, especially the page with the kookaburras on it–he never fails to let rip with an ‘ooh ooh ah ah ah’ when he sees it.

I underexposed this on purpose and shot it at ISO1600, and even though it’s really grainy, I’m still really happy with the clarity and tone that came out. It perfectly captures the magical mood of bedtime stories in our house.

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January in photos [part four]

January 28, 2009

25.01.2009

We went to the Australia Day Live Concert at Parliament House this afternoon/evening. Didn’t stay for the whole thing, but enjoyed what we were there for. I reckon you can’t get more Aussie than this when you’re 19 months old: standing on an esky and waving a flag.

24.01.2009

Considering the heat, and the fact that our air conditioner broke yesterday and won’t be replaced until next Wednesday, we thought an al fresco bath would be a fitting way to cool Toby down this afternoon. Needless to say, there were no complaints from this little boy! He splashed and splashed and then poured water on himself from his little watering can over and over again, squealing every time. It was an absolute joy to watch.

Tags: black and white, canberra portrait photographer, family photography, january, photo-a-day, real life, storyboards, summer
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January in photos [part three]

January 23, 2009

22.01.2009

I have been trying to capture Toby’s amazing curls for so long now, and this is the closest I’ve come to making them look as luscious as they do in real life.

Neither my husband or I had curls like this when we were babies… our hair didn’t start to kink until we were adolescents. This hair is exactly like his Opa’s, and I LOVE it!

My aim today was actually to capture the crazy weather… it threatened to storm for hours this afternoon, and it finally broke at 8pm. Toby goes a little bit mental (in a good way) when it’s stormy, but unfortunately the barometric pressure changes also affect his middle ear, so we are probably in for a rough night tonight. I thought this was a fitting storyboard, after all, his hair is a bit wild, just like the weather.

20.01.2009

Another late night home for me, and shower time my only inspiration.

We bath Toby 2-3 nights a week, and the rest of the time he showers with one of us. We’ve been doing that since he was about five months old so he loves it just as much as the bath. Unfortunately, he was far too distracted by my presence tonight and kept wanting to get out of the shower to help me with my camera, lol. I had to use my speedlite (hence the distraction) because it was a very dark and stormy evening and our bathroom is on the eastern side of the house. And yes, my lens got wet. You can even see the drops in the second pic.

19.01.2009

I went back to work today and didn’t get home until 6pm, so the only real choice for today’s photo was bath time. Great! Toby loves bath time! Tonight he went particularly mental and managed to get water all over the bathroom floor as well as us, (but luckily not on my camera).

This kid just loves water, especially when it’s being poured over his head and face. He’s a complete nutcase and totally cracked me up tonight, both while I was taking these and when I downloaded them and saw some of his expressions. I wish I could include them all.

And yes, he does stand up in the bath a lot, and frequently slips over as well. And it doesn’t bother him one little bit! I’m sure he would stay in the bath all day if we let him.

17.01.2009

I have my dearest friends staying with us this weekend, and today we enjoyed a relaxing and glorious summer’s day together.

So this is Little Miss Cool, my sweet, seven month old ‘niece’. I took so many photos of her today that I knew I’d have to use one for my day seventeen.

Tags: babies, black and white, canberra portrait photographer, family, january, kids, photo-a-day, portraits, summer, toddlers
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January in photos [part two]

January 22, 2009

14.01.2009

It’s going to be 38 here today, so I thought we’d better get out of house in the morning, while it was still bearable, so the rest of the day can be spent inside with the aircon blasting.

We just took a wander down the road–it’s not really a park, just an area of reserve adjacent to a network of bike paths. Toby had a lovely time picking dandelion flowers, eating rocks and poking things with sticks. Then we sang a song (top right) which somehow morphed into peek-a-boo. Then we were thirsty, so we went home.

11.01.2009

Here’s Toby in our backyard having a play before dinner this evening. It’s nothing exciting, but the expression and stance is just so him, I had to share it. He is such a joyful child, so in tune with his senses and so expressive: how I adore him!

10.01.2009

Over the past week and a bit I have harvested about 12kg of plums from our plum tree. I made four jars of jam last week, and another four today. So that’s 4kg of plums gone. *sigh*

I gave Toby a piece of toast with today’s freshly made jam for afternoon tea. He was not impressed, but had fun giving it a go, and I certainly had fun watching (and photographing) him giving it a go. Then I ate it, because he’d smeared it all over the table and wandered off, lol.

I couldn’t believe it when he stuck his foot on the table. I have trouble getting him to look at the camera, but… poser or what?!

09.01.2009

Today we went to the National Zoo & Aquarium.

It was Toby’s first time at the zoo and I hope I always remember the absolute delight on his face when he saw all those animals for the first time. He especially loved the aquarium, but it was too dark in there to take photos. We even came home with a new stuffed toy – Sheila the Emu – to whom he is already very attached. So cute.

Tags: black and white, boy, canberra portrait photographer, family, fun, holidays, january, national zoo & aquarium, photo-a-day, playing, plum jam, summer, toddler, zoo
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January in photos [part one]

January 20, 2009

I’ve been participating in a personal project this month: a photo every day throughout January. It’s been amazing; I have loved it. I’ve been posting my pics to flickr and facebook, but just hadn’t gotten around to blogging yet. About to change that now though! I’m not going to post every single one, just some of my favourites.

The beauty (and the challenge) of this project for me this year is capturing all those little things–firsts, habits, memorable events–the things that make our little family what it is right now. So here are some of them…

(they’re in reverse order so that as I add more posts, you can scroll down the page and see them in the correct sequence)

08.01.2009

Toby adores books. He will happily look at books in his room, by himself, for nearly an hour without wondering where I am.

When he woke from his nap this afternoon, he didn’t even stop for a cuddle, it was straight to his bookshelf. I had to shout really loudly to get him to look up for the one on the left (hence his slightly stunned expression) he was so engrossed.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is one of his current faves. He loves it so much that when I’ve finished reading it to him, he’ll take it straight to Dad to read it again. On the right, he’s reading Noisy Nora, which is a book that belonged to me when I was his age.

He usually pulls every single book off his bookshelf several times in the course of one day. I get so sick of picking them back up again and mending the tears, but I’m very happy he loves books so much!

06.01.2009

Toby’s favourite TV show is Thomas the Tank Engine. He can hear the music from the other end of the house and will be in front of the TV in a flash.

Our loungeroom doesn’t get much morning light, so I had to bump the ISO up to 800. Even on f1.8, and with all those shadows, it’s pretty grainy, but I still love it. It captures him perfectly; when he’s completely absorbed and oblivious to my presence. I wonder if he’ll ever stop sucking those two fingers…

05.01.2009

05.01.2009

We went out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve today to give Toby a good taste of the bush. He saw emus, kangaroos, kookaburras, pelicans, ducks, swans, ibises and cockatoos. We also saw a black snake, but we didn’t point that one out to him–don’t want him getting excited about something that could kill him!

He had an absolute ball, and so did we–watching him. It’s different going to places like that these days–before we had Toby we would have been picking the most challenging walk on the map and working up a sweat–but we still had a wonderful time looking at the world through his eyes.

He’s looking for kookaburras in the left shot (and learnt to do a kookaburra noise only last week, but this is the first time he’d seen a real one), and in the right he’s running towards a mob of kangaroos (most of them were gone before he got anywhere near them). We had lunch at that bench there and Toby eventually drove both the nearby mobs of kangaroos away with his excited squealing and running around. Just before we left he started to imitate them jumping–hilarious!

Brilliant day, really.

02.01.2009

This is Toby and his Opa. Toby’s Opa is an artist. Toby loves to draw. It’s a match made in heaven.

Tags: black and white, boy, canberra portrait photographer, family, fun, holidays, january, photo-a-day, summer, tidbinbilla, toddler
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