The land of sand and sky

Walking till the end of West Sands beach, where the Eden river meets the sea, is a nice week-end activity. When the tide is low, you are rewarded with endless vista of sand and sky.
 

Piú letti

3 reasons to have your family photos in Villa Giulia park

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Villa Giulia is a park in historic center of Palermo. It has its origins in 18th century and is remarkable for its perfect square shape with diagonal alleys dividing the park in different sections. Marble statues and fountains, a sundial, shady alleys and open spaces, and wide variety of trees and shrubbery make it a popular spot both with locals and tourists.  If you'd like your family photos to have lush green background with a touch of special Sicilian atmosphere, this park definitely should be considered. It ticks all the boxes - plenty of space, nice surroundings, easy access, lots of options for things to do during your photo shoot to get natural and emotional images (anyway we don't do posed photos on the benches or next to flowering shrubs!).  Here are my top 3 reasons why villa Giulia is a great location for family photo sessions. Reason 1  Lots of space and diversity. The park has an alley with Ficus trees, a little bamboo forest, a hill with cacti and succulen...
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Sunset

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I realized that it is my first post in 2016. With holidays, travels, settling back, school and all the daily routine there was no time, or no energy, or not enough coffee (and never enough excuses :-) I am reconsidering my photo editing process, which is part of the reason too why I've been reluctant to process the whole sessions I was photographing, and post them. Once they are posted, it is done and I am still not happy and still searching for some little something to improve my editing. On the other hand, till something is out - it is like not yet finished and blocks me from doing something new. Instagram is easier in this regard, as it goes one photo at a time. I am posting more regularly there - @yuliapagano , should you be curious :-) Some sunset races and football, taken during a walk to the beach shortly after we came back home. Matteo became a fan of silhouette photos, so we might produce more :-)
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Beautiful days

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Bright and sunny, with blue sky and blue sea and puffy white clouds. It's like they were specially made for the beach, splashing around and digging in the sand. We love our under the rain walks, but we also love our beach adventures on sunny days, even if they result in someone walking back home wrapped in my sweater instead of his own clothes. Some days we hop on the bicycles and go to West Sands. It's always windy, perfect for flying kites. Maya loves the soft sand there, she's content to dig around or just roll in it and watch how it flows through her fingers. Then there are football games, with shoes often serving as impromptu gates. Or hide and seek in the dunes, if we manage it to the very end of the beach. For swimming it's East Sands for us - we live quite close, so it's easier to carry all the towels, clothes, snacks, picnic lunch, water, toys, goggles, sun cream, book for myself... The list of things they want to take and do can be quite long, so it certai...
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Sand castles on East Sands

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First barefoot beach day (we do not really count those short runs on the sand in February, right :-) Really and seriously, with feet dipping and running on the water - this one is the first. First sand castle of the season. First sand fight of the season and first hand full of sand - this, and sand in the pockets, will stay with us well till November. And I truly do not mind, I love my barefoot beach days as much as these two. Matteo is building a bunker - tunnel covered with sticks and sea-weed, then with sand. Good camouflage, it was hardly different from the rest of the surface around the castle. He tested it after completing the construction - the structure resisted his weight and survived. One very proud engineer. We tried to build the moat too - it did not really work, water was too far. So it was abandoned after a short while. Maya was collecting small rocks and shells to decorate the walls and the big tower. They both carried big rocks to reinforce the wall...
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Photo a day - January

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Published on 13th of February 2024 This January has been... different. It should've been great, we had a trip planned for New Year, my brother was expected to visit with his family, Mara and Matteo have their birthdays in January too. It turned out not quite what we planned and expected. The trip to Sila had to be cut short because everyone got ill, which turned out to be Covid, which as a consequence affected also Mara's birthday and made the time with my brother and his family a bit less fun too. On the other hand, it felt like my body and my mind needed this slow time after busy and stressful December, there was a lot to reflect about, a lot of rest and quiet. It's ironic that Covid became the answer to this, oh well. The January photos reflect this slow time too - we stayed at home or visited grandma's garden to collect oranges and to play, we baked and built pillow forts, planted bulbs for spring, read books and baked some more. Cookies and muffins are usually what...
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Photo a day - February

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Published on 25th of March 2024 This February did not feel like February at all. We were hoping to find some snow and were treated to spring-like temperatures and lots of sunny days instead, slow weekends spent outside collecting oranges or playing hide and seek in a giant blooming rosemary shrub, climbing trees, collecting rocks and even some splashing in the sea. Yes it was warm. We went to Scotland to take care of some personal matters, came back with a new cough, as if recent Covid and other cough and ear infections etc etc was not enough. I made a sweater for Mara and realized I've miscalculated the size, what I hoped would last also for autumn is just right for now. She is growing so fast, which makes me both sad and proud. Still loving her dinosaurs and playing hide and seek (the laundry basket is apparently an excellent hiding spot!), discovering 'big kids' Lego and liking it a bit too much, and trying to keep up with her big siblings.   Like what I do? Get in t...
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7 reasons for having your family photoshoot outdoors

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Sometimes my kids pull out family albums, and I hear their happy chatter, remembering what happened in that photo, what kind of adventure they were having, who did the most silly thing - splashing each other in the sea, Maya putting sand on her brother's head, jumping on hay bales, having picnic on a hill watching sunset. I love hearing this, because I loved those moments. And as a family photographer, this is the kind of photos I want to take for you. Just imagine. Instead of dressing everyone nicely, driving to a studio and sitting still for 15-30 minutes while lights and reflectors are adjusted, posing is corrected and photos are taken, you are going outside to play, explore and have fun. You will share this experience as a family, and you will have natural and unique photos as a result. In all my years as a family photographer in Scotland and here in Sicily I've done dozens and dozens of shoots outdoors, parents and kids both love them, and here's why. 1. Photo sessions...
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Photo a day - March

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Published on 11th of April 2023   Smell of hyacinths, rain drops on the window, slow lazy mornings basking in spring sunshine outside on the terrace - me with coffee, Mara with watering can which she often turns into a puddle on the floor. Tiny purple bursts of crocuses I planted as bulbs in the pot with an olive tree. Blankets, seasonal bugs, messy curls I am still learning how to tame. Picking last oranges in grandma's garden, finishing her sweater - she was very good with tangling the yarn, multiple times. Rare week-end trips - because, the weather, or the bugs - and missing it dearly, cabin fever is the thing here. These are snippets of March. One place we did manage to visit during these rare week-end outdoor moments, is Bosco dell'amicizia on Monte Pellegrino. We discovered it by accident, it's just a turn from the regular path up to the sanctuary. It's an easy trip as Monte Pellegrinno is close to our home, so in just 15 minutes you have fresh air and nature arou...
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Photo a day - July

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Published on 8th of August 2023 This monthly update is a bit different, usually I post 1-2 photos from every day, but this time there are 3 series of images along with individual ones. Two series were just too funny and too good, I could not stick with one. The other one is different and special for me, so I start with these photos. I took them at the beginning of July and I keep coming back to them, there's something special here that touches me deeply. Summer evening in the garden, the girls were playing and just messing around. But, I remember it was a bad day and the evening in the garden was not planned, it was a bit of an escape from reality. We just left home, did not cook dinner and grabbed a pizza instead. Looking at these photos, I don't remember what was so bad about that day. It surely must've been something big to warrant running away for the evening. Maybe bad things at work, bad news from the war in Ukraine, or kids fighting with each other and pulling in 25...
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Cairnie fruit farm - fun day out

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Kids went straight to the playground - there is so much to do here, so many options. Go karts, different slides and rides, swings, trampolines and giant bouncy pillow. While they had their fun, I went to wander in raspberry and bramble patches to see what fruit we can come to pick later - that was planned for the afternoon. We all took turns on go karts - always good fun. It's well worth taking a book and just enjoying it in the sun while kids run and jump and ride. The corn maze - another favourite. It's shaped like a sea turtle this year. We never manage to wander strategically and find all points with clues in the maze, kids want to be wild and take some shortcuts and just run around. We did some circles, picked some corn, found some clues (not all) and decided it's time for raspberries and strawberries :-) Raspberry and strawberry patches. Simple joy of seeing how things grow, showing the kids how to find the ones ready to pick, a bit of ta...
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