Julia Pagano Photography

Did you wrap your gifts already? Mine is done.  Gift-wrapping is a hard job. As is decorating. This Xmas tree for instance is the naughtiest thing ever. Just took all the decorations off, and left. Merry Xmas!

I know, it is Xmas time, so autumn photos are somewhat out of date. But I have some nice ones to share, and I had creative break to experiment with my photo editing, and work on some other photography projects. So I am sharing them now :). I had some ideas, the individuals involved had others. Sometimes I get carried away with my own ideas, which they did not want to do. I still need to remind myself to let go and let it be. I get nice stuff this way too, not what I wanted, but full of real emotions and laughter. These were made on one of the last warm autumn days, when rolling on the grass was still OK and leaves were down, but nice and dry and crunchy. Not dripping wet as we were hit by a rain season. So rolling in the leaves and grass we did. We have started in the park, where all the shouting, grass rolling, leaves throwing and laughing took place. Then we continued to the harbour, where we wanted to do some silhouette shots with Matteo. We piled up l

I was not planning to decorate this year for Xmas. We are going away, as we always do. But some people had other plans. So we did decorate, we also made some of the decorations ourselves. Some rocks from the beach, and paint - and voila, we have Xmas trees, snowflakes, Xmas comets, candy canes, gifts, and even Santa's been painted.  Some art pieces we could not keep. Like the one below. Pity.

Matteo wrote a letter. To Santa. It took some concentration, signature tongue sticking out, some rubbing off when things went too much wrong, some space issues to fit everything in. When you are just four, you need a lot of space for a word :-) Let's hope Santa treats his post seriously.

For a while already. Too many days, takes too many coffees to wake up. And no, we cannot go for a walk, buddy.

We had a week of rain and fog. So a walk through our urban forest, Lade Braes, was a must. It was also the week of Bonfire night, which ended up being a week of Bonfire nights :-) As 5th of November fell on a Thursday, it was a good excuse to continue on Friday and Saturday too. So we heard lots of fireworks, but did ours just once. On the beach. Under the rain. And it was nice :-) The week of fog and rain continued to a rainy week-end. And slowly moved into another week of rain. Oh well :-) We planned to take some pictures with the kids outside on Sunday, but the rain-free morning finished too soon and chased us inside. This is the only one we managed to get, and I love it.

The sun sits low on the sky, creating gorgeous long shadows. Which I like. A lot. So here we are on a warm October evening. Playing rock-paper-scissors, carrying around first golden leaves, stumbling but still running in the sun patches, and having some serious sister-brother conversations.

This had to be done. An official portrait to document appearance of another two teeth :-) It is a very serious thing (you see obviously :-)) I tickle her, and she giggles. And makes faces. Any caption ideas?

and all the golden leaves. I definitely like putting things in her hair, or at least around. Autumn provides so many wonderful accessories for photos. It is also the time when I feel like making portraits. So enjoy :-)

We do not roam the woods oft enough. We like beaches, true - all year around. We live 10 min walk away from one. Still it's not an excuse enough to ignore the woods, something to work on. We finally made it to Tentsmuir on a crisp October day. We roamed the dunes, ended up on the beach (again :-), and made our way back to the trees. It was full of autumn smells, yellow leaves, mushrooms, golden trees and the quiet.   It was full of tree climbing, treasure hunting, stick collecting and stick walking, mushroom watching, path running, log walking and all the fun.  To be continued - for I made too many nice photos to squeeze in one post :-)

We made it. The book-eating stage is gone, and all the gorgeous printed products are now safe from the person with just two teeth, still able to wreck lots of havoc. Well, almost safe :-) Books are for knowledge, for fun, to understand more, to see better. Further maybe. Like what's behind the chair maybe?

St Andrews has a harbor, and there is even a lighthouse. Not a large and fancy-looking one, it is more like a large torch, but it is there. We continued to East Sands beach and with its playground and nice green area for running and rolling in the grass. We found a dandelion, the poor thing has missed its season. Matteo had its way with it :-)

October is full of these gorgeous days, when the sky is clear blue and the world is full of autumn wonder. On such a day, being in the forest is like being showered in leaves and sunshine. Enjoy it while it's here, it rarely goes long without raining in Scotland :-)

We went to Lade Braes, our urban forest, to enjoy autumn colors and bits of sunset through the trees, throw leaves and sticks in the river, and forage for forest treasures.

The shadow we've got, in a girly way with a wee bit of pink :-) The sun, sitting low in Scottish sky, invites for all sorts of shadow plays. We already had this , and this a while back. And will have some more probably, with a new twist.

The fall, with its crispy mornings, golden trees and leaves rustling under your feet, is here. We also have some boys' faces of autumn, with more colors and boyish mood. Coming soon.

Summer, lush green grasses and endless days, flowers and bumblebees and sand between your toes. It's over, even in our extended and twisted calendar. The world is full of reds and yellows already, apples and bright leaves on the grass, and we are working on Halloween costumes and anticipating lots of horror, short days, fresh Scottish winds and rains. My summer photo project is over too. Check #100momentsofsummer   to see it all. Summer meets Autumn, is being polite and says hello.  Autumn brings gifts, of crispy apples and orange pumpkins, red and yellow leaves, short days and long shadows, rains and bare trees... I love autumn, it brings special brand of tranquility to the world. You shed the leaves of past summer and see the world clearer. Harvesting the fruits of my summer photo project, time to start the next one. Or pack the camera, lenses, and take a break :-) The next photo project will run for the next 5 months, till spring. It will be about our life, food