Lil reader


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?


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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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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Peter Pan, catch your shadow

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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.
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Her. And my personal photo challenge for 2017.

This was our special photo project for 2017, hers and mine. We were supposed to do a portrait a week. It was interesting, useful and a challenge in more than one way. Some weeks we did more, than we had weeks of doing nothing. Sometimes we both were excited, later we both hated it -  each of us for different reasons. Yet we are proud with results. Here are my favourites, and some of them I am getting printed. Quite large :-) Photographs are copyright of Julia Pagano Photography. Julia Pagano specializes in candid natural light photography of babies, toddlers and families, as well as children portraiture in St Andrews and Fife, as well as Dundee.
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Family portraits on West Sands, St Andrews

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Always windy and always beautiful West Sands. Especially with moody dramatic sky as we had on this summer evening when we met for family photos with Carolanne and her kids. I suggest evening time for photo-sessions so that we have the best light - strong midday sunshine is not good for portraits. As always on nice days, there were some people around - walking dogs and jumping in the water and playing. West Sands is huge, so we easily have found a spot for ourselves. The family is moving away from St Andrews, so they wanted some nice professional photos to remember their time here, and West Sands is one of their favourite places. It was beautiful warm summer day - perfect combination. Outdoor family photo session is never about posing - it's about doing things you like in your favourite place. So many options and enough space or all of it - walking on the beach, collecting shells, playing in the shallow waves and splashing, playing with sand and making sand clou...
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A bit of sunshine

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Let's blame Instagram for this one. I was invited to participate to a photo challenge dedicated to the theme of sun flare on one of the communities I follow there. Parallel to it I was trying to bribe, torture, blackmail etc everybody and anybody (read Maya and Masha :-) to do something with the light shining on their back, so that I could experiment with shooting counter light. So it kind of came together. It is an experiment. I am still not quite sure I like it. We'll see at the end of the year, if I include these pics in the photobook. Or what happens with the Instagram challenge :-) And here's my Instagram , that is to blame :-)
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Our trip to Favignana

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Some impressions from our week on Favignana, a little island west of Sicily. Beach, lunch, nap and more beach, watching sunset by the sea. These are the days. In the mix are also books, some games, football, random ice-cream trips. We are going around the island checking out different swimming places and exploring best rocks for jumping. Our favourite spots so far are Cala Rotonda and Grotta Perciata. On one of the days we skipped afternoon sea and visited the museum in the Tonnara.  Here are more from our island life - mostly beach - adventures. More personal updates More beach photography ...
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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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