The joys of being a photographer is that sometimes you get to do photo shoots with your own kids.
Kaka was very blessed with lot of gifts for her birthday this year... with her turning the big 5.. she got to have her first party.
So I thought that I shoot with her new dress, new boots, new saddle cloth and new bridle was a must!
One of my favourites!!
Another favourite.
Poor Gman, I was so envisioned on kaka's outfit that I didn't even think get him a bit more dressed up, or at least give his horse a wash lol.
I never really valued horses so much as I value this pair of kids ponies. I am so grateful for them.
Love this one too!
Baby Blue was shying at my bike here.
This was another favourite.
And this one!
and this one too!
Missy was totally over it by now, but the light was lovely. I peaked a bit early. Next time I will have to do it in the winter or just a bit later in the day.
G was happy to pose for me.
Life has been a bit hectic lately, which is the reason for missing yet another month. But that's just how it goes sometimes.
The last weekend of the school holidays, we did the Eidsvold Youth Camp. Which is a bit hard to believe that, that was 5 whole weeks ago!
As Justin had to go to a bull sale, I drove the truck with swags and a tent and he came the following day with the rest of our camping gear. I have only just go my truck license this year and I've done, one trip to town since. The night before, Justin was talking to me about the range at Monto that I would have to go through and said that I should handle it alright.
Anyhow, I packed up all the gear including dogs as we had no caretaker, so 3 horses, and 10 dogs and 2 kids into the truck and off we go. Leaving Rocky, I put Eidsvold into my google, as I had never been there before. Anyhow, driving out of rocky and it told me to turn into Bouldercombe.... and I'm thinking to myself, ''pretty sure, there's no way through here, other than through the range..... nah, must be another way.. she'll be right''! So now G man is navigating for me, which meant telling me every turn like I'm a race car driver, not just the actual turn offs. Which when you're in a truck and not 100% where you're going, isn't the best.
Aaaaanyhow..... we're now going up the Razorback and I'm going, "shit, shit, shit..... I remember this now, shit, shit, shit...." I'm dropping down and down the gears, I've got two cars behind me.... I'm envisioning being on the front page of the morning bulletin.... ."Shit, shit shit..... please can you be quiet now kids... shit"...... Clenching my butt together and willing us forward, we juuuust manage to come up over the crest of the hill!!
Just after I get through, there's a 'T' section, so I pull over and let the other two cars go past me, one of them beeps... I'm not sure if he was saying 'thanks mate' or if he was going 'wholey shit you made it'!!
Pull up for a toilet stop a bit later and talk to the big fella and he goes, "I'm not surprised.... Monto will be a piece of piss now!" lol oh well I definitely need a cup of tea after that.
I was the designated photographer for the event, which was really cool! But I was a little bit unprepared. I took 3700 photos for the weekend!! Ran out of room on my SD cards, my workhorse lens died on me at the start of the second day, leaving me with only my macro lens to get by and I was amazed at what it was capable of. I even did that massive big group photo with my macro, it was 19 images stitched together.
Probably not my greatest idea, but I wanted a photo of the kids cantering towards me, which they took as a cue for a race, poor Jase had been trying to slow them down all weekend and I just threw a bit of "yaah" at them. Oh well.
G man got the encouragement award.
As did Kaka.
This other young lady in the photo is called Danika. Gosh she was an inspirational young woman. In their groups, they all got to do a challenge at the end of the weekend, kaka was the youngest one riding and jumping, was by far her most favourite part of all of it. Anyhow, they could only choose two out of the group to do the jumping and they actually chose kaka. I was so happy for her, and she was talking to Danika here about how worried she was that she didn't know where to go on the jumping course, so Danika led her through it.
This was after she had finished. Look at the look on her face! She was stoked!
They were only supposed to be doing it with one hand, but Kaka decided she wanted to do "no hands"....
So her, and the other girl that did it, had to do push ups.... so the whole group decided they would do push ups!
Everyone loved Vince, even the little kids thought he was really cool!
G man has the best facials!
Peas in a pod!
She actually looks like a deadly jumper here.
Having your tongue out must really help.
This one is my favourite!
I loved taking all these photos of the jumping at this time of day! They were so awesome!
This tree was so gorgeous! I'd love to hear the stories it could tell.
Someone was a bit tired.
I ended up narrowing the photos down to about 1700. Was a big job, but I really enjoyed it. Was such a wonderful weekend, but I was totally exhausted afterwards.
The morning that we had to pack up and leave it was raining. So we had to bundle everything up in the wet and drive (with wet feet) all the way home. I stopped over in Rocky to spend a day doing all the washing and resupplying while the big fella continued home in the truck.
The weekend after the youth camp was Kaka's big birthday party, but I didn't get my good camera out (I think my cousin took some, which I'm sure she will get around to sending me), I only have a few off my phone. Between editing the all the images from the youth camp, the photo shoot that I did for the kids and the handful that I took below, of my cousins wedding, I feel like I've not done much else.
My cousin Trent married the gorgeous Lizzy a couple of weekends ago. It had been raining everywhere all week and the day of their wedding, it bucketed down 50mm straight up in the morning. Poor Lizzy was a bit worried, but by the afternoon, it was an absolutely beautiful day. We all came prepared in gum boot none the less. How cute does mum look in her little pink boots!
It wasn't actually all that bad and the sky was beautiful for them the afternoon of the wedding.
As their photographer didn't cover the reception, I took a handful of photos.
How she managed to keep that dress so clean all day is simply beyond me! She was so stunning! And Trent was obviously stoked!
From My Phone
As usual, my phone photos often tell a better story about what has really been going on in our world. In reverse order as usual!
Missy taking photos on my phone.
Mum came to babysit for us, for a few days so that we could shift some cattle around.
The gravel pit is now at the end of it's lifespan and looking to be rehabilitated soon.
We did a bit of a lengthy journey with our cattle, 10km out with baby calves and then muster some heifers and brought them 10km back. So by the last 3km on the home run, hot day and into the sun, the kids were knocking up! A quick text to grandma at home base and she came to the rescue with some zooper doopers! Was enough just to get us all home. The couti-outi team also came to help us out and it was lovely to spend time together with the two families, even if we were working.
Auntie Bonni.
The mustering team!
The pit crew which followed with supplies of food, water and a calf crate, in case we needed to put baby calves in it. Fortunately we drafted out 30 of the bubby ones the day before and the rest all just managed to get there.
Missy was a bit exhausted though.
Molly thought she was so cool, sleeping in the bed with grandma.
Most of our afternoons, after school are spent out riding.
Been getting a few rides into my brumby and he's going really well! I'm constantly surprised at how quiet he is.
Here's a video of the brumby! He's progressed a fair bit since then, I guess I'm due for another video!
On our way home from the photo shoot, but she was over it by then!
As we had been absolutely flat out, we took a day out to go to town to the movies, but dad is a bit preoccupied and a bit hard to get off the phone lately. Now that all the cattle are a bit sorted, hopefully things can settle a bit.
Posing in her new birthday shirt.
Saw this audio book and I'm not sure why it appealed to me so much!
Just a few videos from the past month or so.
OMG.... I almost forgot!!!! WE have a BABY!!! This is "Fascinate"... being that she has a feather on her face which I reckon could be the feather out of D'artanian's hat, and I'm pretty certain that D'artanian is the father.
Absolutely loves a butt scratch and attention!!
As I said, the weekend after the youth camp, first weekend after we had been back at school was Missy's birthday party. We did not get much school done that week, in preparation for all the visitors. Baking and cleaning and baking and cleaning and unpacking from youth camp and washing and washing and baking.
Kaka was so damn cute, she had been asking me for a fairy cake. Anyhow I would say, "oh I dunno darlin', I don't know if I'm that clever".. anyhow, as I'm bringing the cake out to her she yells, "YOU DID IT MUM!!! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!! I TOLD YOU".... so damn cute! Lucky someone has faith in me because I certainly didn't.
Cutest dress ever!
Pass the parcel. This was pretty funny, cause the prize was the first clue to the treasure hunt. This sent them running down one side of the hill... then back over the other side of the hill... and then back over the hill again... They were pretty knocked up by the end of it. The prize being a big bubble machine and I think some of the older kids were thinking 'wtf'. Occupied them for a while though.
Such a beautiful bunch of people. I'm so blessed to have such a great group of friends. Some that camped and some that just came for the day, was definitely a full house.
My two cute little mummies!
Kaka's actual birthday was a few days before the party. So we HAD to have two cakes!
Cake didn't really look much like the picture, but I think with the horse on top she didn't much care lol.
One that I wasn't allowed to share from the youth camp! She's the best fun!
You know, I'm just gonna say it, foals are just a bit ugly aren't they! They have really swollen looking heads. I mean they're cute, but kinda ugly cute!
These pair are a bit cute but!
I have no idea why, but in the first few days, it couldn't seem to work out how to keep its tongue inside its head!
More mustering.
Born on the 18th September.
And that's where I will leave you... with a pram full of puppies (not our puppies thank goodness!).
We very sadly said goodbye to Justin's best mare, Helga yesterday. She didn't survive a bout of colic and had to be put down. It's difficult to explain the sadness over losing an animal that you have such bond with, they definitely leave a hole in your heart. At least she's not hurting anymore, unfortunately and as much as I hate the cliche, it's just part of living in the bush.
Rest easy ol girl, you've left some big shoes to fill!
Take care everyone
With Love.
