Our lockdown life



Here's a little update about our lockdown life.

I'm still here, still love photography, and try to keep creative in these tough times. There've been days when nothing made sense and I did not pick up the camera for a while, but there were also good days, and I am developing my skills, experimenting, and learning new things so that I can do more when life comes back to normal.

It's been... different, this living in our own bubble. Boring and fun, creative, and confusing. We read books and watched movies, tried new crafts and did some DIY, baked cakes and built Legos, spent too much time in front of computers, jumped and shouted, went for walks, found fossils and new sticks.

Stay well, and stay safe x




















More personal updates

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Piú letti

Mondello

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 Another throwback to our Sicilian holidays for Christmas. We went to Mondello to take family photos. And photos we took. Well, I was taking photos. The others were playing with the ball, digging sand, walking along the sea, talking, having clothes malfunction and doing other fun things. I am convinced that the easiest way to photograph more than two children together is to pile them one on top of the other. Cause this way they cannot escape :-) As you can see, the family photo session was quite productive. The sunset also did not disappoint.
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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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Beach fun / Family photographer in St-Andrews

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Beach is fun all year around. And we had the cutest little explorer. We went to Maiden rock beach for this family session, just a short walk from East Sands. And we had lots of rocks to explore, shells to collect and sand to play, and driftwood tree to climb. This girl and her flyaway hair!  Here are some more of my favourites from this session. Her face says it all, it was a good fun!   Photographs are copyright of Julia Pagano Photography. Julia Pagano specializes in candid natural light photography of babies, toddlers, children and families, as well as children portraiture in St Andrews and Fife, as well as Dundee.
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Clothes, colours, choices / Family photographer in St Andrews

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Clothes are.. .well, clothes. They are a daily necessity, they reflect our personality. And clothes are crucial for the photos to turn out great - imagine the two children above wearing say stripy leggins and pink Peppa Pig dress and orange skirt with pink polka dot shorts. Won't be exactly the same, right? I've put together some tips and ideas here to make it easier for you to decide on your wardrobe for the photo session. Choose colours that you like looking at, because they will remain on the photos for a long time. Pick up to 4 main colours which coordinate. Everybody should not wear same colours, but the colours should look good together. Colours should not be bright - it is distracting in the photos, we want the focus to be you and your beautiful smiles! Try to pick clothes which are smart and look classic, again because the photos will make a memory for a long time. Avoid too many patterns, big patterns, characters and printed logos on t-shi...
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A new beginning

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It's spring, everything is coming back to life. It's time of new beginnings. So it will be also a new beginning for this blog. I will be posting my favourites from my customers' sessions, and also some of my personal work. So you can get a better idea what a family, or baby, or newborn session with me would be like. And our families will appreciate me posting more pictures of our children too, win-win! 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, Fife , and around.
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Bluebells in Lade Braes / Family Photographer in St.Andrews

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Fast forward from snow to blooms. Its bluebells time now, and Lade Braes is gorgeous. This beautiful family is one of the first ones who trusted me to take family photos for them. This is actually from last year, when things felt shaky and unsure, and I felt shaky and unsure about this whole photography adventure. I am endlessly grateful for this trust and experience, for their sincerity, for sharing their love and mischievous smiles. And now I let the photos do the talking. 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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Frozen

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This blog is on hold now. I stopped liking the format of photo stories which I have posted here, and did not come up with anything else. I also started using Instagram and Facebook to share my work, and just repeating things did not seem right. Please check my Instagram for my personal work featuring my three children. And my Facebook photography page , which is a mix between personal and clients' work.
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Splash

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It was the first official summer splash, starting with the innocent "I just want to try the water" and ending with full-body jump-dive. For some of us more used to warmer climates and seas, it was quite questionable pleasure. Still not to be denied. Rolling in the sand to warm up resulted in kilograms of sand stuck in all the clothes. The game was called cotoletta, for similarity of prepping method of the dish. Kids liked it. The sand we brought home.
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A bit of portraits, and a bit of personal

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I've been exploring fine art portraiture. I am glad I have a model who can be made easily available. Or convinced. Or bribed. With frappuccino in Starbucks, for all that matters.  I have more portraits, still unedited, and something stops me there. The perks of being perfectionist and trying to fix something that you cannot even grasp, you just feel that its wrong or not yet ready. This is part of my creative journey. And I want to leave these words here, that I read recently and they struck a cord. "Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled. So wildflowers will come up where you are. You have been stony for too many years. Surrender". There is a lesson here that I am still learning, the light I am still searching. 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 D...
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9 essential tips for taking great photos of your kids on the beach

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A lot of Sicilian summer is about the sea - it's a place to escape the heat, to relax and have fun on the beach with your kids, be it splashing, swimming, collecting shells or digging in the sand, reading or even napping! As parents, we often find ourselves reaching for our cameras or smartphones, eager to capture these moments and memories of the summer.  However, there are quite some challenges when it comes to getting beautiful photos on the beach - the biggest are strong sunlight, crowded space, kids moving all the time. During my 7+ years as a family photographer, I took hundreds of photos of clients and my own kids on the beaches in both Scotland and in Sicily. I've learnt and discovered a lot, what to do, and what not to do, to get beautiful kids' photos on the beach. Here are my top 9 tips and tricks, that will help you to elevate your beach snapshots to beautiful photographs. It's about essentials, nothing technical, and will work both for your phone and camera...
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