Lisa Jay | Sydney lifestyle photographer » Sydney Photographer

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Jul 16 2012

someone

Someone keeps leaving hand drawn pictures on my desk where I work at home. I suspect there are two artists at work here because there are two distinct styles of drawing. One of the mystery artists uses coloured pencils and fills the page with rainbows, flowers & girls wearing skirts. The other artists works with ink creating people with huge eyes, eyelashes you can’t miss and arms that extend from their heads.

Someone took a bite out of a pear & then returned it to the fruit basket.

Someone keeps removing letters from my words on the wall, so that the sentence is never complete.

Someone leaves out shopping lists of the things they think we need to stock up on.

Someone scatters the pile of library books that I keep straightening so that we keep them all together.

Someone keeps making me smile.

Posted in Personal, Uncategorized
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Trish - July 17, 2012 - 10:04 am

Such a gorgeous post – made me smile too !

Hotly Spiced - July 18, 2012 - 10:51 pm

The drawings are gorgeous. I love how they are engaging in your world and reminding you of their presence. And a shopping list is very helpful – I wish someone would do one for me! xx

Jessica - July 29, 2012 - 4:04 pm

I love these pictures. Someone does the same things at our place also.

Jul 11 2012

fly me to the moon | Sydney family photographer

Behind every photo session there is a love story of one kind or another. Each one different. At the heart of each story that brings a couple, or a family,  or a mother & her child to a photo session, there is someone who loves someone more than anything else in the world. I’ve learned that having pictures taken with the ones we love can give us more than just the photographs themselves. The session itself is a chance to celebrate who you love & what you love about life together right now. That is what I want to give people with their photo sessions. A page of their own unfolding story.  A record of what is beautiful & real to them at this point in time. A chance to stop & see what it is you really have in the people you love.

Phil & Vanessa welcomed us into their home to take some pictures of them & their baby girl Olivia. We never know where each session will end up. My priority when photographing a baby is that the baby feeds and sleeps when it needs to and the photo session revolves around the baby (not the other way round).  Olivia was awake for parts of the session, drinking a bottle for parts, sleeping on her daddy’s shoulder for parts…… and I photographed all of it because I know how precious the memory of their little sleeping face on your shoulder becomes when they no longer fit into your arms.

This is the first session where I have stayed on location long enough to see the moon rise. I am a natural light photographer, so once the sun has gone down, I pack away the camera. But for some reason not this time. We stayed on the beach & even though I had lost my light, I kept my camera out. The water was warm. The sky was turning pink. I think it was the beauty keeping us all there. What we didn’t know as the moon was about to rise, was that it happened to be the night the earth was closest to the moon this year. None of us knew it was the night of the super moon until we all saw it on the news when we got home, which explained why it was so mesmerising. Across the water the moon was rising above a castle-like building in the distance and as we watched, Vanessa told me that building was where her & Phil got married. There was a stream of light across the water from the place they were married to where they were standing with their baby girl.

Here are pictures and a slide show of our time with a completely gorgeous little family…


Slide show will end on its own. To play again refresh your screen.
Music: ‘Bella’ by ‘Angus & Julia Stone’ available on itunes

Posted in babies, families
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Jo Gamble - July 12, 2012 - 8:46 am

Lovely photos Lisa! Such a beautiful little girl!

Donna Emery - July 12, 2012 - 6:52 pm

Absolutely breathtaking! Fabulous memories and such a gorgeous family :0)

Sidd Rishi - July 16, 2012 - 7:35 am

Some great pics in this set. Nicely done.

Jun 30 2012

Xavier

My blog posts haven’t had much attention this month. That’s because we’ve been busy taking lots of pictures of people & I’ve been editing, editing, editing!! If you are a client waiting for your pictures I promise they are coming! Plenty to share on this blog in the next little while. For tonight here is a peek at baby Xaviers session. I shared pictures of his chocolate loving expecting mum and dad  here:  http://www.bylisajay.com/olivia-michael-sydney-lifestyle-photographer/.

Even though little Xavier was under 2 weeks old for his session, he didn’t seem to know he was a newborn! Look at him holding his head up on his mums shoulder!
Stay tuned for more pictures of this little family…

Posted in babies
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Olivia - June 30, 2012 - 6:28 pm

I’ve got tears running down my cheeks as I look at these. They are so beautiful.

I’m sitting here watching my now 13 week old unwrap himself and play with his hands in his cradle instead of sleep. He is so big he needs to be moved to his cot but I still see him as my little newborn.

The photo shoot was challenging for me. As a new mum I was still recovering from the birth and felt nowhere where ‘normal’, let alone presentable for a camera. I was tired, my baby didn’t sleep and our house is in the middle of renovations. I didn’t know how other mums managed to look so glamorous for the newborn shots, and I kept worrying that our bed linen wasn’t nice enough!

But you and Pete came and again, took your time with us. You were both respectful and patient as we worked with baby and looking back, I am remembering this as a very special time. Thank you for capturing it for us.

Love you both very much. Xx

Jun 01 2012

for a time

It was the apple that finally did it. She had a loose tooth that had needed to fall out for weeks. We picked Ava up from school last Friday & decided to go somewhere filled with Autumn leaves to enjoy the end of the season together. It was there that the apple caused her tooth to finally fall out. She was happy. The privilege of being a parent is that you witness every step of a person growing. We marveled when she was unborn & a pregnancy book informed us of the actual week she was growing her eyelashes. We marveled when each & every one of her teeth grew. Now we share her excitement as her baby teeth fall out, reminding us that each stage of life is a season that we can’t hold on to. We can hold on as long as it allows, but then, it evolves. We are born into a world of seasons & cycles.

I remember. The park down the street. I was six. The leaves had fallen. The children were piling them up into one big heap. I remember my mother. Only 26 at the time. She began helping to pile the leaves. Then the boy with a BMX bike, he rode through the middle of the leaves, almost getting lost in the middle. One after the other we jumped and rode our bikes through the leaves and then piled them up again. I can’t remember the other children’s faces. I remember we were having a lot of fun. I wondered why we had never done this before. I didn’t know that the leaves were not always there. Only once a year. Once is all we get. Although we may be fortunate enough to get many Summers, Winters, Springs and Autumns in one lifetime. We only get one for each age. That was the only Autumn I would be six.

Lifes seasons are a gift. With each new season comes new challenges and new a perspective of beauty. Sometimes we don’t see the beauty until we are somewhere else looking back.  What I want though, is to see it now. While it’s here. For a time.

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Lisa - June 1, 2012 - 6:46 pm

While I always admire your photography skills, it’s such a joy to read your stories. You can see pictures from your words just by the way you articulate a moment, a memory, a thought. Just beautiful

Kirsten - June 1, 2012 - 6:54 pm

Lisa you have made me get my A into G. Ive been trying to sort out a weekend to do this very thing with the family and am running out of time….. Before long the last leaf will fall and it will be too late!! Thank you for posting this, its beautiful!

michelle - June 1, 2012 - 10:31 pm

wow again lisa. what park is this? i always need to work out what it is that is so awesome, the photos? the models? the location??????? maybe a bit of it all. We so need to do this on the weekend.

Jo - June 2, 2012 - 11:00 am

Such a great blog post on enjoying the seasons. Did you catch any of the Ecclesiastes series in Hub just gone? Ecc 3 in particular was about seasons and how transient they are. Thank God for beautiful seasons like these!! PS- love the Autumn light with Autumn leaves!!

Peggy Saas - June 7, 2012 - 11:25 pm

Just beautiful Lisa. Your words are so delightful, I discover that over and over again as I come to treat my eyes to the visual delights that are your photographs. Just beautiful. xo

Baby Photographer Sydney - June 17, 2012 - 6:09 pm

Continue the wonderful good article, I just read couple of articles about this web page.

Kirsten E - June 27, 2012 - 2:12 pm

Hey Lisa, what a beautiful post, a great reminder to try and see the beauty in the moment as you’re right, it goes SO quickly! The photos are gorgeous, as always. I love those 3 of you w the girls and the beautiful autumn light. Hope to see you in the holidays.

Picture Hanging Systems - June 29, 2012 - 10:33 am

You take such great pictures that in every shot i can really feel the joy and happiness within.. Keep posting i love your shots!

Abosede aworetan - September 4, 2012 - 11:29 pm

A word to back up the saying”life is a season”

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