Adventures of Maya and the Bear

What to say. This was our morning today, in all its diversity and glory.



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It's that time of the year - family photographer in St Andrews

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It's that time of the year - bright spots of colour are appearing on the trees, morning school runs call for warmer scarves and jackets, and shops start taking out their Christmas goodies. Soon our walks will include making crowns of leaves and collecting the biggest and brightest ones for the flower press. This season is the sunset of the year, time to reflect on how it was and what's happened and what you want to take with you in the future. A worthy moment to document with beautiful photographs in the bright colourful framework of autumn. Photographs that celebrate you, your family, your love and connection. Photographs showing you relaxed, playing or walking outside, laughing together. That focus on you and your story, and make it shine because of their simplicity and intimacy. A piece of you with those you love, and something to remember about this moment in your life. These lovely photographs and albums deserve to be kept as biggest surprise till Christmas to be ...
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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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The magic of reading during your family photo shoot

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5 reasons to include books and reading in your family photos If you are reading this, you are probably considering a family photo shoot. I know all the different concerns that my clients have before their session. And one of them is - what do we do, how do we get those images with genuine moments and real emotions? During my 7 years doing family photography I've discovered one activity that always works - it's reading books with your kids. There are so many good reasons why integrating books and reading into your lifestyle family photoshoot can bring a touch of magic, warmth, and togetherness, while capturing beautiful and candid moments along the way. Below I'll let you know the top 5.  Let's get started! 1. Reading with your kids is great for those who might feel uncomfortable in front of the camera Because you do what you usually do - you sit down, take a book and read. You don't need to worry what to do with your hands - they are holding a book, or both the boo...
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100 moments of summer

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Farewell spring! Our photography adventure for spring, the 20 stories, has come to its end as well.  Here's what our 20 stories were about. We made walks - to the Botanical Gardens, Lade Braes and East Sands beach . We baked cakes . Produced art in paintings and sculpture . Played with lego , dinosaurs , rabbits and all the stripy creatures . Tidied up the garden and tried on the summer dresses . We made music and theater . Read books and made picnics . Did gymnastics and ran races , with real medals to win. We also had lazy mornings and healthy naps . Some stories did not work, some just did not happen. Some are being postponed. Some just happened to be random snapshots - hence the mosaics above. It was interesting. Definitely creative and differently creative. Mostly enjoyable, sometimes frustrating (who's to blame for closed eyes, full memory card, not running fast enough or squinting against the sun :-) So, the summer photo challenge is on - 100 mo...
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Outdoor baby photo session in St Andrews | East Sands and St Andrews Cathedral

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Preparation As both parents are history lovers and always try to visit and explore historic places when travelling, St Andrews Cathedral seemed to be an obvious location choice, followed by a quick trip to East Sands beach and the pier, so that we had more diversity in the scenery. We spoke on the phone to sort out all the details to plan the session so that it's also enjoyable for them and manageable with their little baby girl. I was a bit worried to have an outdoor photo session in winter with such a young baby (she was about 2 months old when we did the photos), but she did so well! She liked our time on the beach much more than the Cathedral ruins, probably because we walked more there and she could sleep cuddled in her mommy's or daddy's arms. The weather's been a gift too, we had a lovely warm day which did not feel like winter at all and beautiful golden sunlight. The photoshoot We started with a little walk around the Cathedral ruins, followed by a short nursin...
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The force is strong with this one

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This project has been brewing since a while. We even wanted to write down the ideas, cause Matteo had more of them than fingers on one hand :-) Finally the combination of sunset, being at the right location at the right time, plus the mood was all in place. So yeah, the force is strong with this one. We were rewarded with golden light and pretty sky. The playground nearby destroyed our plans for more silhouette photos. So more might come, if Matteo wants to implement his ideas. For now, this is what we have, plus lots of pretty sky, and sea, and golden cowlick :-)
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Tentsmuir forest, continued

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This is second part of our adventures in Tentsmuir fores t. I do not have much to say, I loved it and pictures tell it all much better than words :-) I thought that I've included about half of the photos in the first post. How wrong I was! This one is interesting, because it shows the face Masha makes, when she does not want to be photographed. This time I did it though. With Grandpa. This boy, making faces and running away. Then coming back :-) This girl, with messy bun. She is a modern version of Little Red Riding Hood, in red converse instead of the hat. It was good. We should come back.
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Fife Coastal Path

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Our first walk of the year. Stomping through the mud, and lots of it. Some of us did even manage a bit of mud sliding. The sea had this surreal turquoise color, along with grey moody sky it was beautiful. Lots of dry grass, sticks and bushes, thorns. We did not go down to the beaches, it was too muddy and slippery for it. Next time.
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