My recent work / Children photographer in St Andrews

Every now and then I get frustrated with my photos. It does not look right. The colours are all wrong, the skin tone is all wrong, the contrasts are too strong, brights are too bright, greens are not properly green ...

This is when I start to experiment. And this is when I usually learn something new, a trick or a technique I was not aware of earlier or was not using properly or to its full capacity. My editing philosophy remains the same - I am not doing any major alterations to the images. I am not changing smiles, adding or removing objects, painting snow or rainbows or sunsets. What you see is what was there - a documented moment.

Here's some of my recent work, with some new editing tricks used.







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.

Piú letti

Photo a day - May

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Published on 15th of June 2023     It's June, school's over, and summer is finally here. It's a bit late this year, but I am not complaining, heat is not my thing. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike summer! I am looking forward to spend days (and evenings, because - sunset!) on the beach swimming and splashing and digging in the sand, and all the fruit and summer salads, ice-cream and long evenings on the terrace. It's the heat that I have problem with, my brain just switches off and all I want is to find a cool corner under air conditioning and hide there with the book.  We've finally started our photo wall. The project was complicated - we wanted a photo and art wall that tells about us, that reminds of Scotland, and has each of the kids equally represented (they checked!). For now it has some framed art, artistic map of St Andrews, photos in vintage frames we had in our home in Scotland, and new photos too. I'm already thinking what else to print, an...
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Perfect portrait

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To make a perfect portrait, you need following for starters: a model and a frame. Some color also helps to achieve a nice result. Accessories are important too. You can be creative and use everything at hand. Make sure nothing gets wasted! Emotion and nice facial expression are also crucial. Ok, got it all together. Let's see what happens! Next we try to make a perfect pie. Oh my :-)
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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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Socks special

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What to say. They always fly around, these baby socks. Yet they can never be found when they are needed. They are played with, eaten, hidden... and sometimes worn too.
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Adventures of Maya and the Bear, in pink

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She picked her dress today. And some of the toys to play with. So the poor Bear (which has no name and had indefinite gender so far), had to keep up with pink, necklaces and other girly stuff. There was even mirror, a hairbrush and lipstick involved (fortunately a wooden one :-) So the party got started! Then the Bear was abandoned for the blankie, keeping up with the pink theme of the day. And peekaboo we played.
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In search of snow / Family Photographer in St.Andrews

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We did not have much snow this winter. We usually do not get much snow here at all, which may be surprising considering how far up north we are. But the truth is, winters in St Andrews are mild. We wanted some snow adventure and real winter experience, even as a short break. This desire took us to Glenshee. It was beginning of March, but we were lucky to find some snow patches, good enough for sledges. And small snowman. And snowballs. And of course snow lollipops. Result - some hours of driving and a bit getting lost, even with navigator - or despite :-) Couple of children who got car sick. Fair amount of fighting over how three children share two sledges. Couple hours of fun on the slopes. Five pairs of soaked shoes and socks. And this true sportswoman, who bravely pulled sledge up the slope for the next ride. All on her own. Photographs are copyright of Julia Pagano Photography. Julia Pagano specializes in candid natural light photography of babies, toddlers ...
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Colours of summer - blooms and nature details

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These photos were taken during several walks in St Andrews and Craigtoun park, something I do as a treat for myself when kids are busy with other things, when I feel like I need some quiet time to just be creative and make something beautiful. I love finding little details, like water droplets or patterns and textures in foliage - little things that make beautiful even more beautiful. It's almost like they call me and draw the eye, and my camera. There are so many colours and textures in late spring and beginning of summer, so many treats for the eye after long and brown winter. Tips for photographing nature and nature details. Pay attention to light and shadow if photographing on a sunny day. We often have very bright sunshine with strong shadows in the summer - you can get beautiful results if you play with it and use shadows for your advantage. Or take photos on a cloudy day - most of the ones below were. Some I also took when it was raining - just be careful that you...
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Summer garden - photoshoot with a little girl | Palermo, Sicily

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Adventures of a little girl in summer garden. Palermo, Sicily. There is a story behind this photograph. It happened almost completely accidentally. Bianca was playing with her friend and having fun, till her friend left. She was disappointed. She walked away and sat alone just to show us how upset she was. But it only lasted a few short seconds before she went back to play. And I noticed something in her expression. It was a bit lonely and a bit sad, very personal. There was something really catching in it. The type of expression that lets you know everything about a person in a single glance. When her mom saw it, she could not stop commenting on this one photo because she was so excited. The picture shows the character, the special face of this little girl. And in certain sense you could say it was luck, I had no idea it was going to happen. But the magic of pictures is just that - when you capture something so spontaneous that you could never imagine it and it all comes down...
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Grey sea, blue sea

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When you live 10 minutes away from the sea, you may end up there more often than not. Especially as there is added attraction of a playground on the beach :-) Sometimes we go for the playground, sometimes for the walk, or a bit of both. This walk was grey as the sky, Masha overcame all her records of falling in the mud, Matteo had freezing cold hands, and Maya was crying just for sake of company and maintaining general mood :-) The sea was grey and stormy, as the sky. Then there was another walk, and sunny day. Still freezing cold. We have lots of spring blooms already, but it is too early to dream of warm days yet.
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