Our little secret

 I've been keeping a little secret, which is not so little anymore :).





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Our lockdown life

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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 Like what I do? Get in touch, let's chat about photos of your family! ...
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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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Photo a day - September and October

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Published on 17th of October 2022     This one is a bit strange mix of photos. As I opted to make separate posts about the sea and our travels in Scotland, this is what remained, mostly from home, a lot about food - water melon, plums, grapes, apples, figs, pears, yoghurt, pasta. Ice-cream is missing, I should work on that. I have quite a collection of her eating, probably deserves a separate post at this point. Mara is all about food, tasting new things, asking to share, trying to eat on her own. Fork is easy for her, spoon less so, and depending on food. Both easily result in lots of mess - part of the story though. These past weeks have been slow - settling into the new routine of back to school and weekends after long summer break is always a challenge. Waiting for the change of season, for autumn that forgot it's already October and we are still in t-shirts and flipflops here with occasional dip in the sea. This lack of seasons is probably one of the harder things to get ...
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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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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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How much do family photos cost?

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How much does it cost, you are wondering? This is one of the most frequently asked questions, when it comes to family photography. Let's face it, when you're booking any service – be it photography or something else – you want to know what it's going to cost you upfront. Nobody likes those surprise price tags at the end, you feel cheated and upset. In this post, I will explain how family photographers charge for their services, what kind of service you can get, why the prices can be all over the place and what kind of prices you may expect to pay for your family photos. How photographers charge for their services First, let's take a look at this. You’ll come across two main models - a fixed price deal where everything is included, you pay one fee for the shoot itself and all digital images on USB or as download. Alternative is session fee and products model . At first you only pay for the session and preparation of your images. After the shoot, when your photographs ar...
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Photo a day - October. Olives and pumpkins.

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Published on 5th of November 2023     We have a joke in our family that it's still August. In fact, today it would be August 97th. We are still in flip flops, shorts and t-shirts. Air conditioning is finally off, there's that, at least. You can enjoy outdoors and walk outside without feeling cooked.  These past weeks have been about pumpkins, and olives. Pumpkins because of Halloween, olives because we've been harvesting and making oil. Halloween first - we started celebrating it while living in Scotland, and grew to love this colorful and fun autumn festivity. Tiny pumpkins were Maya's favourite seasonal toy, and now Mara is picking up this habit. They are very versatile - can be packed in a basket, then unpacked. Some can be rolled as a ball. They are handy when playing with the little mice. They can be used as construction block too. Then come the big ones - we got some to eat, and some to carve. The best pumpkin patch in Palermo turned out to be ... Lidl supermarke...
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Christmas Family Photo Hunt

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Christmas family photo hunt! I've prepared a little game that you can play with your kids and the whole family over Christmas break, and share results with friends and family who you cannot see in person. You can take photos together, your kids can take some of the photos too. No camera or special equipment needed - you can do it all with your phone camera. The list of ideas included in the photo hunt is also open to your interpretation - for instance cookies you can make or eat, can be just cookies or your child dipping them in milk! Have fun and let me know how it goes! Merry Christmas!  
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Afternoon on East Sands beach - family photoshoot

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This family shoot took place on a sunny November afternoon on East Sands, the beach that's basically a backyard playground for this family as they live close by and visit it very often. We picked low tide time so that we have more space on the beach - it does get quite small at high tide. The idea was to get some natural photos of all of them together, and some photos of kids running and playing and being themselves. Boys climbed the pier, played with sticks and ran after the ball with their father. Despite being sunny it was quite fresh, so active games helped to stay warm. We discussed the weather and clothes during the preparation, and came to conclusion that it's better to have more layers and stay in sweaters rather than wearing bulky jackets. Bulky winter coats seldom look good in photos. And it worked, all the running certainly helped! Plus we had beautiful light and reflections on the beach.  Sunshine is great for photos of activities, and it's a huge part of beach ...
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